For Evil to Prevail (audio: noxsoma.substack.com)

Good Moonday Lunatics. Welcome to another day above ground on Planet Abundance. How are we going to fight the power, dodge the chaos and manage the mayhem, this week?
There are a few “things” we dis-covered over the weekend.

First, we’ve come to a point on the Fibonacci trail, that human life spans, in old testament days were not truly as long as we’ve been led to believe through biblical texts. We’re not breaking ground here. In the spirit of, “do your own research, and arrive at your own conclusions, we’ve decided that there is no single accounting of “time” as these stories, (his stories) are collected, passed down, translated, re-translated, interpreted and committed to clay, stone, wood, leaves and eventually paper. Take Adam’s 970 “years” of life, as “lunar years,” and convert them to solar years, and he’s got an average human lifespan, of about 75 to 76 years. (Laps around the sun.)
The trouble starts when researchers want to believe that all peoples in all times used the same calculations to measure years. Sun and moon are likely just two of many measurements of a “year” or maybe a harvest season. It’s much easier, to keep track of 13 full moons than 365 suns, even if you do keep turtles around.
Second, the further we travel from 2020, the more we recognize the chasm between now and the “before times.” This may be because we were largely on the road, outside of the US from 2017 to 2020. So that could be it. However, it’s most likely the shift in the American Zeitgeist that raised DJT to political prominence. You can argue amongst yourselves whether Trump is the “virus” or a “symptom.” There has always been mayhem in America. Either the levels of mayhem have increased, because there are more players in the game, (unbacked currency and unproven tech), or thanks to citizen journalists and just as many citizen propagandists, there’s more mayhem thrown in our faces.
It’s daily. And there are patterns. I know it! I just haven’t paid enough attention to detect them yet. Humans cannot help but to behave in patterns.
Finally, there’s this line that the self-righteous like to post from time to time, ostensibly to signal some kind of virtue or awareness. The sentiment goes back to before our common era, but is probably most familiar in the following form.
“In order for evil to prevail, the good must stand by and do nothing.”
(Here’s the 1867 John Stuart Mill observation; "Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.")
Why is this so?
We suspect it has to do with incredulity. Let’s say, hypothetically, that there is such a thing as “good men.” What usually happens, at least as depicted in films and some history is, the baddies hit the general public with an incredible “shock!”
Let’s go to New York. Not the obvious example, but 1979’s movie, “The Warriors.” A shot rings out, and Cyrus, the leader of New York’s biggest and most powerful gang, is shot dead. All of the gangs in the city have sent representatives to this summit. A voice shouts out, “The Warriors did it! They killed Cyrus!” The saga begins. The Warriors must escape The Bronx and get back to Coney Island, with every gang in the City, plus the cops, out for blood.
This is how the bad guys operate.
Back to New York, September 11th, 2001.
“Osama Bin Laden did it! He shot Cyrus!” And the rest is the legacy we are still dealing with.
The quote, as many one-liners do, lacks, “nuance.” Let’s take a closer look at this word. “The word "nuance" comes from the Latin "nūbēs," meaning "cloud," which passed into Middle French as "nue" and evolved into "nuer," meaning "to shade." “Obfuscate” basically means the same thing.
It’s a tricky kind of mind game, where the righteous accuse the so-called, or self-styled “good” of perpetuating evil, because they do nothing to stop it. But what’s to be done? What has the speaker done aside from repackage an observation made before Christ was nailed to the cross. And “the good” did nothing.
Or did they?
Evil is always several, let’s say, “seven steps,” ahead of the herd, (because we play this 7 game). Why is that? Because evil always has an agenda, and the herd just wants to chill and be left alone, and not be devoured by chaos. Evil knows this. But so does the herd.
And then there’s the “righteous.” Either ignorant of feigning ignorance of the psychology of the herd. They rise to a level of influence, and in the name of “Good” rouse the herd out of its bliss and complacency with stimulating bleats, historical parallels and Utopian fantasies of the future. And what happens? Died suddenly. Mysteriously. Suicided. And all those goodies-goodies mourn their prophet, “awww, that’s too bad,” and they go back to grazing in the grass. Perhaps a muffled bleat of contempt for the system that took out the prophet that was going to lead them to greener pastures.
And they are eventually forgotten. A new generation emerges, born after the prophets were martyred, who can only worship the ghosts and quote the speeches of assassinated leaders, but can never become leaders in their own right, for their own generation, because the spirit of a bygone era has evaporated. The connection between 1965 and 2025 was severed, and all that’s left is, talk-talk, fantasies and selfies.
This is why we can’t have nice things. Your thoughts. Where am I wrong? What are you doing to make a better world? Is the world worth saving? Or just your world?
Stay safe, stay sane, stay strong, stay savvy, stay serene, stay sovereign, stay subscribed.
PEACE.