Nations founded on God.
Readership: All
Theme: Glory
Author’s Note: This essay was submitted by Oscar on 2023/3/5. Of note, the font he used in the original document was Liberation Serif. Edited with section titles and images added by Jack.
Length: 800 words
Reading Time: 4 minutes + 2 videos totaling ~12 minutes
El Agujero del Infierno
El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America. It’s smaller than New Jersey. Its population is only 6.8 million people, which is substantially smaller than that of New York City. Its GDP is smaller than that of Rhode Island. El Salvador is the least significant country in one of the least significant regions of the world. And yet, El Salvador has been all over the news all over the world lately. Why?
In one category, El Salvador has punched far, far above her weight for decades – crime. El Salvador (The Savior in Spanish) used to be known as the murder capital of the world.
The country suffered a devastating civil war from 1979-1992 in which the Soviet Union supported Communist insurgents, and the United States supported the Salvadorian government. From InfoGalactic:
“The full-fledged civil war lasted for more than 12 years and saw extreme violence from both sides. It also included the deliberate terrorizing and targeting of civilians by death squads, the recruitment of child soldiers, and other violations of human rights, mostly by the military. An unknown number of people “disappeared” during the conflict, and the UN reports that more than 75,000 were killed.”
That is an extremely mild description. The civil war gave rise to brutal criminal gangs of which MS-13 is now the most famous, although they were formed in Los Angeles by Salvadoreños escaping the effects of the civil war, then returned to El Salvador. The gangs gave rise to vigilante groups like Sombra Negra (Black Shadow in Spanish), which in some ways were even more brutal than the gangs themselves.
In short, El Salvador became a murderous hellhole. Think of the worst neighborhoods in Baltimore, only poorer.
La Expiación
Until recently.
In 2015, El Salvador’s homicide rate was 103 homicides / 100,000 residents. In just 7 years, this figure dropped through the cellar floor to 7.8 homicides / 100,000 residents in 2022. That’s comparable to the USA with just over 6 homicides / 100,000 residents in 2022.
Many credit (or blame, depending on whom you ask) El Salvador’s current president, Nayib Bukele. As a staunchly conservative populist, he has been criticized for governing in an authoritarian manner. For example, on 2020/2/9, President Bukele sent forty soldiers from the Salvadoran Army into the Legislative Assembly building in an effort to coerce politicians to approve a loan request of $109 million from the United States to be used for Bukele’s security plan for the country. This event is now being called The 2020 Salvadoran Political Crisis, commonly referred to as 9F or 9-F.
In this news clip, Tucker Carlson gets Bukele’s view of the Salvadoran immigration crisis.
Note that President Bukele says (at 1:38),
“Our country has failed to provide security and economic opportunity, so people leave.”
He’s saying this about his own regime on international news! But that’s NOT an admission of failure. That’s a man looking at the situation with both eyes wide open and being willing to take action. That’s a president with agency and responsibility!
That’s significant, because Latin American politicians invariably blame the USA for all their countries’ problems, essentially denying agency and playing the victim card on a national level. Now, there is some truth to that. American meddling in Latin America has in fact damaged Latin America. However, it’s also true that Latin Americans have been their own worst enemies since they gained independence from Spain. Nothing will change until Latin Americans take responsibility for their own corruption.
El Salvador
President Bukele has been heavily criticized for the draconian measures he’s employed against MS-13 and other Salvadorian gangs, but it’s hard to argue with the results. Ordinary Salvadoreños can finally live normal lives after 40 years of atrocious violence.
Whom does President Bukele credit for these changes? He gives the glory to God! (Bukele’s speech begins around 1:00.)
I don’t know how much credit President Bukele deserves — the homicide rate in El Salvador was already in steep decline before he took office — but I do know that he’s right. A nation that glorifies God can’t help but rise, and a nation that abandons God can’t help but fail.
La Revolución
In a previous comment thread a few of us discussed how nations go through this cycle.
Tyranny → Faith → Liberty → Prosperity → Decadence (disguised as Liberty) → Chaos → Tyranny
Jack pointed out that Tyranny is necessary to restore order after a time of chaos.
This turn of the cycle is exactly what we are witnessing now in El Salvador. This country has suffered four decades of chaos, and now seems to be going through the Tyranny (reestablishing order) and Faith stages simultaneously.
May El Salvador continue to glorify God, and may others learn from their rise from chaos.
Conexo
- Σ Frame: Moon Day Review – The Escalation of Anarchy (2019/7/8)
- Σ Frame: Is the Pendulum Effect caused by Western Individualism? (2020/10/9)
- Σ Frame: You have to leave Murika to get the Real News (2020/11/3)
- The Real News Network: In the U.S. and Beyond, Christian Nationalism is on the Rise (2022/2/7)
- Vox Popoli: The War for the Future of Man (2022/6/30)
- Σ Frame: Pandora’s Pendulum (2022/7/8)
- Aljazeera: Photos: Inside El Salvador’s new ‘mega prison’ for gang members (2023/2/27)
- Aaron Renn: Be Careful Overly Praising Nayib Bukele (2023/3/22)
- Okrahead: The Death of Liberty (2023/3/23)
Σ Frame 
This is our national failure, and the greatest threat to our liberty. Our government, and most especially our courts, have reduced the ideal of liberty to nothing more than a cloak for vice.
— The First Amendment, we are told, protects pornographers and blasphemers, but not the prayers of a school teacher.
— The Constitution, we are told, protects the right of sodomites to engage in pseudo-marriages, but not the natural rights of fathers.
— Due process, we are told, applies to the worst of murderers and pedophiles, but not to political enemies of the ruling class.
— The right to assemble, we are told, protects looters and rioters, but not assembling as the church to sing hymns.
Our liberty is a great blessing given by God. When the people forget God, and use His blessings against His will it is only a matter of time until God removes those blessings. In His grace God may allow time for us to repent, but eventually judgement must come to those who insist on defying His will.
Our leaders have sown the whirlwind, and now pray for a crop failure.
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Liberty is not from God. Hence 800 years of Monarchs, Kings, The Church starving, murdering its own people. Wars over said faith about what way was correct to give God all the glory. Liberty was secured by property rights, something The Church didn’t like people having. The founding fathers were not big letter C “christians”. I never heard or read any of them mentioning “Jesus Christ” as their Lord and Savior.
Christians in the early years were indeed PERSECUTED and they didn’t care. Today, if Mr. and Mrs. suburban christian get stuck in traffic on the way to church, it’s somehow now a blight on their rights…..
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In 1569, the Roman Catholic Church arrested and imprisoned Dutchman Anabaptist Dirk Willems for rejecting infant baptism and baptizing other believers. He escaped his confinement, but a guard noticed and gave chase.
Willems crossed the ice of a frozen pond, but the guard chasing him fell in. The guard struggled in the icy water, crying out for help. Willems could not leave the man to die, so he returned and saved him.
Willems was recaptured. Shortly thereafter he was condemned and burned at the stake. During his execution, the wind was blowing so hard that Willems was not quickly consumed, prolonging his suffering. So great was his suffering that the bailiff instructed the executioner to dispatch him immediately.
Willems would not trade another’s life or liberty to save his own. Not even persecution, torture, and death could change this.
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Wanna bet?
You don’t know what liberty is.
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Neither do you. Liberty to most Christians is a concept of praising and worshipping God. The freedom to do so, cause if you don’t, you’re going to hell for eternity. Not individual liberty.
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Gentlemen, let us be mindful not to confuse sociopolitical liberties with spiritual liberties. They are not the same and are somewhat opposed.
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Ha! Thanks for the hilariously failed attempt at mind reading! That’s just precious!
Right! So every Christian who died via persecution went to hell for eternity, which is the exact opposite of what Jesus said.
You have no clue what liberty is, nor the slightest clue what Christians think it is.
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Worth watching:
Western “Human Rights” groups all coddle criminals but bear no sympathy towards their victims.
This is also why I would support the death penalty for all who belong to Gangs like MS-13.
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Longer version of the interview
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I always viewed Lee as a breath of fresh air, so far as leaders of nations are concerned.
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Our CIA will have him killed soon enough, or overthrown.
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If you are referring to Lee Kuan Lew, it’s too late. Lee Kuan Yew, Former Prime Minister of Singapore, died on March 23, 2015. The video is of an old interview.
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Regarding El Salvador, the USA regardless of which party always loves to keep Central and South America “unstable” or in “crisis” or sanctioned.
Plenty of South American leaders over the decades have built prisons and have actually brought crime and criminals under control…. But we know the CIA and other covert American agencies cannot have that! It’s happened in Chile, Argentina, Peru……. If the CIA doesn’t like who is in power, then they’ll work to overthrow them and put in people like Pinochet.
Even Danny in Nicaragua, who we hated back in the 1980’s, is now some sort of friend to us, despite his abysmal human rights record….. It goes on.
We need arms sales, instability, and crony capitalism running the resources and the like in that part of the world.
As much as I am indeed happy for the people of El Salvador, and this guy actually has some good sense about him, our CIA will make him an enemy sooner than later.
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Lee Kuan Yew did actually deal with the CIA:
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Today in many of our major metropolises, including New York City, in the name of liberty rulers allow thieves to run rampant, despoiling honest storekeepers and businesses without fear of any temporal consequences. The result is a society devouring itself, where a few hundred criminals have cowed a city of millions and are ripping the social fabric to shreds. Liberty for the lawless makes all the world a prison.
Today in many of our schools, including even many posh private institution, children are taught that liberty entails debasing themselves through obscene abuses of their bodies. The pedagogy of perverse pedophiles seems the order of the day, and any who oppose it risk career and physical attack. When all the world is a brothel, even children are forced into whoredom.
Today in much of our popular culture, including especially what passes for music, crimes that were unthinkable a generation ago are celebrated as expressions of liberty. Liberty for the libertines makes all society an opium den.
Our society has used, and continues to use, liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. The false prophets of this filth would have been better off dragged to the depths of the sea with a cement necktie.
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The left and the right have entirely different views of liberty.
To the right, liberty means private property rights, lack of interference in commerce, firearm ownership, freedom of worship, and small government.
To the left, liberty means unlimited access to abortion, government imposed income redistribution, no drug or immigration laws, the ability to fornicate with anything or anybody whenever one wishes without being shamed or judged for it, along with an obtrusive government to abuse those who observe the right’s version of liberty.
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Thus the cycle.
Tyranny → Faith → Liberty → Prosperity → Decadence (disguised as Liberty) → Chaos → Tyranny
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BTW, good post, Oscar. It seems as if we’re well into the faux-liberty decadence phase, and the societal breakdowns associated with chaos are all around us. Every where I look, as a consumer, as a businessman, the execution of tasks, delivery of products/services, which were once considered reliable are now routinely effed up. Incompetence and apathy is becoming the norm. Work ethic amongst the young is pathetic. I feel as if I must hand-hold every transaction I’m involved in from start to finish to make sure things happen like they’re supposed to. I can no longer take many things for granted as I once did.
Of course, saying these things out loud marks you as an old fogey.
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Thanks, brother. I believe you’re right in that we’re at least neck deep in the decadence phase. These things aren’t clearcut, but I think we may determine in the future that we crossed over into the chaos phase in 2020.
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This right here. I can’t even get a crappy burger and fries at a chain fast food joint without waiting forever for it, then have to put up with rude, surly kids acting like giving me my change back is a f-ing chore.
STFU. You’re doing a job that requires next to no skill or training; but act like YOU are doing ME a favor by doing what you’re being paid ridiculous amounts of money to do. No. You’re being paid to get me my food, so do it. Do it competently, do it now, and don’t be rude while you do it.
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That’s why people love Chick-fil-A.
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And, right on cue, my greek salad at a local diner was just placed in front of me without the grilled chicken I had asked for. Shocked.
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I’m sorry, brother, but that salad story gave me a chuckle!
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It’s also the structure and incentive, Farmlegend
For example, when I was a janitor, the directives and how much work had to be done in so much time was “dictated” by someone who didn’t swing a mop, and never did, or they had “that kind of job for a few months when they were 19 to get some extra money” (the “I’m better than you” mentality). So, all the studies show a person should be able to get X amount done in so much time. Forgetting emergencies (“Clean up on aisle 3” type of thing), making do with limited supplies at times because “the studies show from the experts” you can do the job with less. A fear of approaching your boss because you are indeed expendable. “You’re just a janitor!”
I have noticed with the large group of custodial workers that are under my whole team, it isn’t about the pay. It isnt “medicare for all” or forming a Union. It’s a general respect for what they do, and to be listened to about serious concerns in that respected area, or no fear of approaching their boss, or talking to me when I arrive on a property to see how things are going.
But if you take any initiative away, or you dictate how it will be done, or put metrics on how fast the job should be done, or say they are “lazy” if they don’t do one thing right….. Then you will GET that kind of attitude.
The service industry is full of this today. All incentives to perform better have been removed by “management” and “the experts” and “the studies”.
Both republicans and democrats will cheer this on as, “See, we’re under budget! Staying competitive!!!!”, while service, actual pride, and incentive get pushed aside.
Starbucks once had this kind of working environment, but it has been gone since the 1990’s. Chick-Fil-A too will go this same way when accountants take over the company (they always do). Even “In-N-Out” here in California (which I never thought was that good anyway) is now having this issue.
Accountants, “policies”, “protocols”, and studies implemented only to increase profit at the cost of service is the norm. I fight it daily in my job. It’s really hard…. especially when policies are backed by your performance rating as a manager: Numbers. Financials. Profits.
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I am not worried about younger generations being lazy. I think older generations greatly exaggerated their work ethic. Lazy people don’t get anywhere. I run into honest good working highschool kids all the time. They are not a pile of duds. Who’s maintaining nearly all of the functional American world? It’s mostly Millennials, Gen Z, and some Gen X. Most of the grunt jobs are done by the younger ones and they are getting done.
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Some are locust. More than I thought at one time.
When you fall into a bubble at times all you see is all you want to see. There was that classic case in 1972.
Nixon won by a very comfortable landslide in the elction. This columnist for the New York Times the next day was convinced the election was “fixed” and made a big ta’ doo’ about it because… “He didnt know anybody who voted for Nixon”
GenX, I remember when we were called “slackers” and my dad had the classic, “Your age group just knows how to shop and complain” back in the late 1980’s.
A good, large swath of Gen X has actually proven to be very dutiful workers. I have worked with many a Millennial in my office. Many are driven and meet expectations…….. though I personally don’t like some of the entitlement complex, that is just a generational difference that I will never get over.
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farmlegend,
Complaints about the young are nothing new.
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Lastmod,
Not necessarily true. Unlike Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A is privately owned by the Truett family and its shares are not traded on any stock exchange. An initial public offering would likely mean changes to the company that would go against the values held by the current owners, such as closing on Sundays. As long as the company remains private, it’s not under the eyes of Wall St and pressure regarding profits.
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When has a Republican championed “smaller” government? Spending still went up under Reagan. Borrowing still exploded at that time. Trump had (un-constitutional) spending bills and many red states can’t seem to run a budget either.
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Republicans and Democrats are the same party. Republicans are just the designated villain and lower party.
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Controlled opposition
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Joe,
…and so was GAP, owned by the Fischer family. Many Chick-Fil-A locations here in LA are indeed open on Sunday. I am sure exceptions have been made because “The store will not be able to turn profit, pay taxes, buy and pay taxes on said property, and everything else that a business has to do to survive in California.”
Also, there is a small chicken place on Lake Avenue here in Pasadena. Independent. Small business. Busy. Mobbed on Sundays. Line half a block down the street sometimes. Chick-Fil-A bought the plot next door which had a parking lot that the owners allowed the small, family run chicken place’s customers to use. Chick-Fil-A is building a shop there. Chick-Fil-A will not let customers for the other place park there and it will eventually force this small place to close. They are just as ruthless as any other company in these matters.
I had a combo meal at Chick-Fil-A a few months back. Yes, it was good. I didn’t find the service any better or worse than most fast food. My thing is: Is the order correct? Is it at least fresh tasting? My standards are not too high. I’m a cynic so I don’t expect much today.
However, the cost for the sandwich, those fries, and the drink was about $15.00! It was decent, but worth $15.00? No. I was never a huge fast-food eater, but at that cost it’s just a treat now.
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Oscar,
You stated that the homicide rate was already in a steep decline before he took office. Were there any circumstances that changed which caused the steep decline? What were they? Why did they change?
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I don’t know. Sorry.
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In his speech to the troops, he seems to be suggesting that things turned around due to a spontaneous nation-wide spiritual awakening. It’s pretty subtle but that’s the impression I got. If he’s right about that, then it is unstoppable.
The odds are that he is just another dictator consolidating power using whatever means necessary and the results will be predictable. Or, he may be motivated by the right things but will be eventually overwhelmed by the current world order of libertine-trans-consumerism, “Who are you to judge me?” — “Give me more of other people’s stuff” –ism.
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Even if Bukele turns out to be another dictator, that may not be a bad thing. He could turn out to be another Pinochet.
Pinochet prevented Chile from going Communist, set the country up for success, then abdicated and died in self-imposed exile in Spain. Thanks to Pinochet, Chile was the most peaceful, most prosperous, most free country in Latin America for decades.
Sadly, the Chilean people recently voted in a Socialist government, which indicates that Chile has entered a decadent phase, which is kind of ironic given what’s going on in El Salvador.
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Pinochet jailed and tortured political opponents. That just isn’t some UN Report, or Amnesty International. He was gently forced out by our nation and our CIA because in fact he was making life better there for many, and he dared to tell the USA “no” on many occasions. You NEVER disobey the USA in this part of the world. They will back coups. They will back people who are against national interest and sanction violence and instability, and back political leaders who are the opposite of what we supposedly stand for.
Look at Ukraine to see this process in current time. We didn’t like who they elected in 2014, gently backed a coup and threw that guy out and then got this current dictatorial political party into power, which immediately began a proxy war against its own people who spoke Russian in the eastern territories. 40,000 Russian speaking people in that part of Ukraine have been killed since 2014. Russia finally had enough after warning the USA and the EU and when the Ukrainians elected a “former comedian” as its president (cough, dictator), he jailed the opposition, shut down all opposing political parties, and now is hailed as a man who stands for “democracy and freedom”.
Very Orwellian, and the USA was behind the whole thing. This is what we do. Hence why most of the developing world hates us, and why Latin America has hated the USA for a very long time now.
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No kidding. Once again…
Tyranny → Faith → Liberty → Prosperity → Decadence (disguised as Liberty) → Chaos → Tyranny
Pinochet was the Tyranny phase. He did what tyrants do. However, he also reestablished order and set Chile up for success. As far as tyrants go, Pinochet is the best case scenario.
The USA is probably somewhere between the decadence and chaos phases. We might want to think about what our tyranny phase is going to look like.
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Aaron Renn weighed in on Nayib Bukele.
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Lee Kuan Yew swept criminals away in the same way. But don’t fit his description:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-known-gangs-or-triads-in-Singapore-and-Malaysia
So there must be something to him that tyrants don’t actually have.
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Singapore under his Authoritarian leadership has been well run to his death as well as effectively suppressing crime.
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People forget… Singapore was an opium den, gangs, a rough far east trading port. A cross cultural mix of Chinese, the Muslim faith, ethnic Malays, and Indonesians. It also was under colonial rule for a very long time by Britain. Singapore was destroyed during WW II.
It had to start at the bottom and begin again. When Yew declared a “city state” and separated from the Malay federation in 1965. He had some daunting tasks. First he knew the people wanted change, and second he knew a strongarm leadership would be the “only way” to unite this very diverse population.
In 1966 the world was shocked when he held public beatings for people who were caught urinating in elevators. We all remember the “caning” of that American teen in the mid 1990’s who was caught tagging cars or causing mayhem over there. His punishment for drugs was EQUALLY pushed on all groups. Not just one over the other. Trust had to be established that he was “fair and just” to all. Combine this with a cultural east asian work ethic and there was still family structure there, and you had a success. He also delivered on a rising standard of living. Not just “bankrolled” projects / improvements that he could not repay. By 1989 the GDP of Singapore was higher than most of the Eastern Block of communist Europe combined.
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May I also mention in Singapore:
You already had an established merchant class…. people who understood trade, commerce. No, not on the international banking level… but an established base. Yew also had a literate civil servant class (from the era of British colonial rule) that knew law, knew compliances, and “how” to administer. As an established trading port since the days of Sinbad the Sailor, the potentials for growth were limitless when he took control. So it wasn’t an illiterate people with subsistence farming and fishing skills. A base of sorts was already there. He had to figure out how to polish the rough diamond and make it grow.
I would like to thank my undergrad Asian history professor Dr. Dotson for his very detailed, vibrant class on this part of the world. It wasn’t my major (history) but going to a Liberal Arts college I was required to take many classes outside my major.
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@Lastmod
I suspect Detroit and Baltimore will benefit from Lee Kuan Yew and apparatus leadership.
The 3rd world needs his kind of Leadership to function.
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Yes, but we in the USA also have “rights’ and protections and the like.
It can be done here, but it will take that special kind of leader who has a “gift” or way of leadership that can get things done, and unite some very diverse factions.
People have told me, “San Francisco just needs to elect a republican mayor and it will get better.”
No. San Francisco needs to elect a mayor who can actually apply that poem by Rudyard Kipling “if” and stick by it, identify the main problems and then have a solution and action and the will to get them done. Just telling the police to “arrest people” won’t fix it. Just spending more money on housing won’t fix “the homeless problem”. These are deep systemic problems that can’t be cured with a stroke of a pen or new “rule” or “law” or “policy”.
Guiliani in New York City is probably one of the better examples we have in recent memory. He was a leader, but he also knew how to talk to the other side, not just in rhetoric or political speeches…. but he could actually do it.
Riordan in Los Angeles in the 1990’s also had this skill. Criminals leave, get arrested, or change their ways when the sheriff actually lays down justice and applies it justly. Even for those he may have favortism with or likes more.
People also want results. Immediately. Today. But it doesn’t work like that. In 1965 in Singapore, results didn’t really start to show until the mid 1970’s economically and I read somewhere one of the last kabashes of gangs in Singapore wasn’t busted up, executed, or jailed until around that time as well.
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I posit the difference about Bukele is his decision to glorify God as he conducts his war against MS-13 and their ilk.
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At the root of this is the attitude — and it infects ALL of American business — that labor is overhead rather than a capital asset that produces the business’s goods or services and without which the enterprise can’t function at all.
This is why most businesses invest nothing (or as little as they can get away with) in employee development (i.e., training), and also why they prefer to poach talent away from competitors rather than cultivate and promote talent from within. Employees see this clearly, see the implications of it for their careers, and decide that putting time, money, and effort into their professional development is a losing investment (employers would rather hire and maintain minimally qualifed employees at low wages than hire or train skilled experts to whom they’ll have to pay higher wages commensurate with their greater skills and productivity).
This in large part explains the labor shortage, especially of skilled and motivated workers, and thus the precipitous deterioration in the quality of American goods and services. If excellence isn’t acknowledged or rewarded (or is even penalized), why would any self-respecting worker aspire to it?
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Exactly.
I worked at Gap / Banana Republic all through high school and my undergrad years (when I was home for summers). The GAP Corp. was big in the 1990’s. Huge! GAP had the reputation of snotty girls and catty boys working there…. and remember the “GAP Girls” sketch on SNL? (So true.) The guys and girls they hired were all tall, or seemed to be taller than average (to model the clothing while working).
In 1987 when I started there, the Fischer family was still running the company. When I was hired, minimum wage ($3.40) was my pay. I didn’t hit the show (floor) at GAP for my first month. It was training. Lots of training. It was customer service. It was stance. Poise. Games. Tests. Back then, GAP issued you three complete outfits to wear on the show (the floor) for each season. Everything you wore, down to the belt and socks, had to be GAP. (Imagine that! Today, they make the employees buy the outfits with a discount of 20% and it’s not enforced to wear GAP items.) Tattoos were allowed back then, but few people had them and they could not be offensive (blood, skulls, naked women). If you had tattoos like this, long sleeve dress shirts, polos, and tees were required — all GAP of course.
It was a fun place to work. Fischer modeled all this on Macy’s and Nordstrom’s sales strategies in the 1960’s, but wanted to revamp it for younger crowd.
When I landed at Banana Republic in 1991, a commission was offered. No, it wasn’t a great commission but it pushed an incentive to sell and “own” the show while working.
Today? I still buy white tees at GAP. I still like Banana Republic dress shirts…. But now the staff are sloppy looking. There are no women wearing hose. Instead, there are guys dressed in basketball sneakers and ill fitting jeans. Bad posture adds to the disheveled look. Once I asked an associate at Banana Republic, “What is that dress shirt you are wearing?” He replied in a lispy tone, “Oh, this is from Aberchrombie. I don’t like the clothing here.” It is clear why GAP used to train their employees for a month before putting them on the floor.
Now the mentality is: “It’s just retail…” There was a sort of pride to it years ago, back when I was there. It was an experience.
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That’s funny. I had a similar experience at Hooters. Several years ago, I went to a Hooters with friends to watch some game. When it came time to order I asked the waitress about the wings. She said, “I don’t eat the food here; I just work here.” What?
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Anyone who has ever worked in fast food will tell you that after working there for a time, they’d never eat the food there. They know what the food is made of, where it comes from, and what all happens to it before it gets to the customer.
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I remember working at a Best Buy in the mid-2000s. Blue shirt and khakis. But they didn’t give you the blue shirt, new hires had to wear a white one and you had to earn your blue shirt. Usually it was tied to a sales goal, so you either had to be excellent at sales or have the product knowledge. We always celebrated when someone got their shirt. It was great. They don’t do that now. Yes, online shopping and all that, but plenty of people would still go there in person if there were knowledgeable people on the floor.
Counterpoint: Lowe’s. They hire 20 people at time and throw you on the floor after a single day of training. In two weeks, five are left, and they do it again. That’s why you never find anyone there who knows anything. Lowe’s is only in business because of stonks and the Covid boom in the spring of 2020. Like the rest of America, management has strip-mined everything valuable, and morale has been in the toilet for decades.
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Pingback: The Death of Liberty | okrahead
I found the following Twitter thread after I submitted my essay to Jack.
The journalist asked, “What do you feel when watching these images?”
Here are some responses.
The responses go on and on like that.
Decent people thrive in order. Evil people thrive in chaos. Good governance promotes order and stamps out chaos. That’s part of the message of Romans 13.
Remember when woke pseudo-Christians used that scripture to shame Christians into submitting to Covidiocy? Government Covidiots got it exactly backwards. They punished lawful small business owners while rewarding rioters who looted and burned small businesses.
Contrary to the woke pseudo-Christians’ shaming, it was our Christian duty to peacefully oppose Covidiocy, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refusing to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s idol (Daniel 3), or Peter and John refusing to obey the Sanhedrin (Acts 5).
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Romans 13 details the duty of Government. Failure to enforce Justice is grounds for replacement.
The Mandate of Heaven was granted to Israelite Kings. But also revoked with all their sons being killed to destroy that Wicked Dynasty. And so on in the Book of Kings.
A new replacement King gets anointed to replace him.
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Imagine… by God’s grace, the socio-political conditions in El Salvador could be better than in Los Angeles in 20 to 30 years. A grand reverse immigration will ensue — unless the CIA gets busy soon.
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The United States and by extension Western Europe is ruled by evil. Hence they love wickedness and love Righteousness.
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That’s already true when you compare some places in the LA metro to El Salvador.
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Well, even in early 1940’s when the Bogart film “Casablanca” hit the screen. German Officer Major Strasse mentions to Bogart, “Can you picture us in London?”
Bogart (Cool AF) replies, “Ask me when you get there!”
And then the Major asks, “Can you picture us in New York?”
Bogart again coolly replies, “Now, wait, there are parts of New York I would recommend you not invade or go to…”
I see and hear about crime on the news every night here in L.A. (KTLA), though walking around Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, Malibu, or West LA, you would think, “Crime? Where?” Clean streets. No trash. No gunshots. No homeless.
Parts of Hollywood and down in Watts, in the large central L.A. area… vast, homeless encampments, crime, and of course the piles of trash and garbage everywhere.
We had a similar situation in Fresno. Crime / drugs / homelessness was allowed downtown, in southeast Fresno, and other areas…. while in many other areas. Not tolerated. Not allowed.
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Almost all of the murders in my state happen in 2 zip codes.
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@locustsplease
Hence the Death Penalty. Incapacitation works. The undeterred murderers die. Problem solved.
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Here’s an interesting development.
El Salvador was also the first country to accept Bitcoin (but not other crypto currencies) as legal tender. I don’t own any crypto, so I don’t have a dog in this fight, and I don’t know enough to form an opinion, but El Salvador seems to be making a lot of unconventional moves these days.
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Most likely he was approached by some companies (or he approached them) and his tax bill was the outcome of their discussions. I seriously doubt he is proposing his tax bill without first testing the waters.
He’s up for re-election in 2024 for a five year term. This could be a win situation for all involved – the country, the companies and his political future.
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I hope you’re right.
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Interesting post. I have family from Honduras, the most violent country in the world and neighbor to El Salvador. Nice people. You would never guess.
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Many places are like that. Weird, isn’t it?
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