Kindred Spirits: The Importance of Friendship in these Dark Days!
In these dark days, we really do need each other
Things Fall Apart
In the 1919 poem The Second Coming by Irish poet William Butler Yeats, we find these memorable lines:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
That sure sounds like where we find ourselves today. And when things are falling apart all around us, we so much need to find and hang around with kindred spirits.
A Kindred Spirit
A kindred spirit is simply someone with similar interests or concerns.
In these ever-darkening days where political, social, moral and spiritual divisions are ramping up, more than ever we need to make sure we spend time with others who are on the same page as us, who share our values and concerns, and who are marching in the same direction.
This is certainly crucial today as we are in a time of war: cultural, spiritual and moral war. The need to align ourselves with others who share our beliefs and hopes is imperative.
Keep Fighting the Good Fight!
It is far too easy to become discouraged and want to surrender in these dark times. We need others to cheer us on, encourage us, and remind us that what we believe and what we do is correct.
Thus, we must stick together. It is too easy to be picked off when we march alone — it is much harder to be immobilised and discouraged when we march together.
Separation: a Deadly Enemy
This is all the more the case with the COVID hysteria and paranoia. Things like lockdowns and border closures (some of the worst of which are occurring right here in Australia and New Zealand) can separate us and cause us to get dispirited.
We can be tempted to think we are alone and no one else thinks or feels the way we do. We can feel overwhelmed, isolated, and out of sync with everyone else. Of course for a Christian this is always the case: we are always a remnant.
Division and Groupthink
For conservatives, this too is the case, with the leftist narratives driving everything, and with all the institutions of power and influence arrayed against us and our values. Add to this the COVID panic porn and you have a culture running on fear and groupthink. Anyone who dares to think differently is regarded as the enemy.
And the idea of ‘divide and conquer’ plays a role here. In the internet and social media age, keeping people apart by denying them a presence on these Big Tech platforms is a good way to do this. When I was booted off Fakebook, in an instant I lost 4500 friends and contacts.
Sure, a tiny fraction of them I can now keep in touch with by other means, including smaller alternative social media sites. But that is one way to demoralise us: break us apart and keep us from one another. Couple that with the lockdown and border insanity, and you have literally isolated and imprisoned people.
Made for Relationships
We are social creatures and we are made for relationships. No wonder mental health problems, self-harm, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicides are all spiking right now. These draconian measures by repressive governments are taking their toll — especially on our young people.
Helplines for children have never been busier, as have hospitalisations for children with massive mental health concerns. We are killing our kids, and the cure is worse than the disease. The shadow pandemic is more harmful and increasingly more deadly than the virus.
Feeling Alone…
And adults are feeling all this as well. There is hardly a day that goes by when I do not hear from someone telling me they are almost at breaking point. They cannot handle this. And the worse part is their sense of feeling all alone – that everyone else is against them.
I often hear from folks who say their friends and even family members are against them – be it because of their Christianity, their conservatism, or their unwillingness to buy the ‘Rona narrative. They are even being attacked and hated on by other “Christians”. They are crying out for help and wondering if anyone else out there thinks as they do.
You are Not Alone!
As but one example, I just had one gal contact me and say this:
‘I feel as though I have been in a spiritual wilderness for so much time — it’s been only God who has been able to encourage me through this period. I have not found a single church speaking out about these things. It brings tears to my eyes as I have felt so alone. God bless you for the work you do Bill.’
And there are so many others just like her. Well, I am here to tell these folks that they are NOT alone, and there do exist many others who are in the same camp. Yes, we are all being isolated in various ways and, yes, it gets to be so hard, but all the more reason to use whatever means available to keep in touch with others, to talk to others, and to pray with others.
Isolation and Loneliness: What the Enemy Wants!
The enemy — spiritual and political — wants to wear us down and get us so discouraged in our loneliness and isolation that we just give up. All dictators seek to work this way. So we need to avail ourselves of whatever means we can to stay with kindred spirits.
Our power-drunk tyrants here in Australia are even telling us NOT to talk to friends and neighbours. That is absolutely mind-boggling! Well, forget their diabolical advice. Share with others as best you can. And use social media as well. If you have been booted off Fascistbook, use MeWe or Gab or Parler or Minds or Rumble — I am on all five of these.
The Importance of Kindred Spirits
Now, more than ever, we must stay in touch with each other. We need to walk with those who are going in the same direction as we are. We need to stay close to kindred spirits. American Jewish conservative commentator Dennis Prager often speaks about the importance of kindred spirits, as in this 8-minute video:
Political tyrants are trying to break us down by isolating us and getting us to feel utterly alone. Our spiritual foe Satan works in exactly the same way. In the political and spiritual realms, such policies are very effective indeed. Our enemies always work this way.
A Historical Example
As but one illustration of all this, I just happened to see about 60 seconds of a film on television last night as I flicked channels. It was about the National Socialist occupation of Paris during the Second World War. Imagine living in enemy-occupied territory, where you are basically locked down and kept from other like-minded souls.
I could not help but think of things here today. In Melbourne for example we are now in our 211th day of house arrest! Even the long-suffering folks in London spent just 207 days locked down. Melbourne is leading the world here. This is insane.
Fear and Paranoia
We are afraid to go anywhere or do anything. Many people have not worked for months. We are living in fear and paranoia. We wonder which neighbour will snitch on us if we do the “wrong” thing. Our leaders tell us what we can do and cannot do. Our most basic human rights and liberties have been stolen away from us. And it looks like they will never be fully returned to us.
No wonder seeing just one minute of that film about occupied Paris last night instantly made me think of what is happening here. Sure, some Parisians happily went along with the Nazis. We know about Vichy France, the Nazi-dominated French state that ran from July 1940 to September 1944.
The Resistance
But of course, many Frenchmen resisted. Many joined the underground to fight the Nazis. And many ordinary Parisians and others just endured day after day, wondering if and when this would all come to an end. Would they ever be liberated? Would outside help ever come? Would this nightmare ever come to an end?
I and countless others feel pretty much the same way about the madness that is going on all around us today. These diabolical lockdowns and heavy-handed government responses are causing far more harm than good — and they look to become a permanent part of life down under.
So, too, a two-tiered system where those who dare to think differently will become a new underclass – the new group of COVID untouchables. A medical caste system is now upon us.
Our Fightback!
In this regard, it is very encouraging that the new Ezekiel Declaration that I wrote about just yesterday is going viral. When I first wrote about it, several hundred church leaders and perhaps a thousand church folk had signed it.
Looking at it just now, I see it has been signed by over 1,400 church leaders and over 9,500 others. Wow! Please read it and sign it. (Editor’s note: as of editing, the Declaration had been signed by over 2,700 leaders and 20,000 others.)
And see my article about it here.
Dark Times Indeed
We are living in very dark times indeed. One of the best things we can do is not allow ourselves to be separated and isolated from one another.
In whatever way you can, please find and spend time with kindred spirits — even if just by phone or online. We have always needed one another. But today this need is absolutely essential if we are to get through all this.
___
Originally published at CultureWatch.
Picture by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash.
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