Preparation for Tyranny: Becoming Strong by Rejecting False Hope
The only hope we have under tyranny is fixing the mind and will upon what is right – and putting aside all misplaced hopes in escaping whatever the future holds. We can prepare for this today.
… If pow’rs divine
behold our human actions (as they do):
I doubt not then, but innocence shall make
false accusation blush, and tyranny tremble at patience.
– Hermione in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, 3.2.27
Is it possible – now – to prepare ourselves to survive a global tyranny’s house arrests, prisons, camps, and tortures?
The Situation
A few years ago, it seemed like the world was in eclipse, and that we had almost entered the stage known as “totality,” in which the whole sun is obscured. Darkness, in the form of global tyranny, seemed like it is about to cover the earth.
The Church has been in eclipse for these past sixty years, but in some sense it has taken longer for the world to suffer this fate. Until recently, we have largely been able to go about our business, living our lives and practising our religion with some normality.
But not long ago, we were looking at potential vaccine mandates across the world, with Australia even trialling camps for those who refused.
Much of this talk disappeared when Russia entered Ukraine, and many have been tempted to think that the COVID narrative was over.
While it might seem impossible for lockdowns and mandates to start again, we should know from experience that once the government-media propaganda machine starts anew, most of our fellow countrymen will fall in line.
In other words – we may soon find ourselves looking down the barrel of mandates and camps again.
The world has changed
The world is not as it was. The old order of due process, habeas corpus, complaints – these things still exist, even to a very large extent, but they are fading away. Regardless of whether the madness progresses further, we must realize now that, unless Almighty God decides to spare us, it seems that we are still on a trajectory towards a global totalitarian revolution. We must not expect those imposing it to act reasonably. They will not.
The time is late for preparing ourselves for the darkness. Let us draw comfort from Christ our Lord:
“I am the Light of the World,” said the Lord. “He that followeth me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
John 8.12
We must start and end with our Lord Jesus Christ, without whom we can do nothing. His grace is sufficient. But how do we try to dispose ourselves, naturally speaking, to this grace?
How can we prepare ourselves to adhere to the good, the true and the beautiful, above all things, even in the face of suffering, ignominy and death?