Why do the mighty enrich themselves and their own, never mind the suffering they inflict as defenders of "might makes right"? Why do self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" extol denying and prohibiting generosity and empathy towards sufferers? Why do howlers and roarers proclaim enforced conformity evidence of unity and this unity evidence of solidarity and this solidarity evidence of consent to be dominated? Why do the inheritors of eternal flames lionize abusers of power and abusers of trust and abusers of people?
Why are blueprints of dead and gone polities in our DNA still?
Tests of Faith that Aren't
The mighty love...
tests of faith
for you - not for them - because duh.
After all, tests of faith are how the mighty...
stress test loyalty
under 100-year-heat-storms that scorch hides like slabs of meat on spits, as tears threaten to leak loose from eyes stupefied by scars seared like railroad ties, knee-deep in receipts as unfathomable and leaden as anvils - not candy floss narratives spun for campaign pitches flung at voters like cheap carnival prizes - because come on.
*
You see...
tests of faith
ask you to feel what no one should feel, see what no one should see, experience what no one should experience -
notwithstanding to walk through lives so charmed as to not know what I mean by "tests of faith" is a kind of privilege that is not what I... know (iykyk) -
neither out of some kind of indifferent thoughtlessness because you don't matter nor out of some kind of sadistic carelessness that abandons you to misery;
for
tests of faith
challenge you to trust the hands that cradle you as you fight for survival under 100-year-floods of pitiless realities are neither neglectful nor cruel, but rather
the hands that reward the just, damn the wicked, and anoint believers with eternal grace and salvation.
*
Such that
I have to ask:
without self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" and howlers and roarers and inheritors of eternal flames to tell you that 100-year-heat-storms and 100-year-floods are tests of faith...
what are these putative "tests of faith"
if not evidence?
of (i) shamelessly grandiose ambition - not to humbly serve as servants of the people - but to unapologetically enrich, empower, and deify the mighty and "the meritorious"? (ii) never mind the capacious spigot of taxpayer funds - unrestricted and unregulated like a prodigious firehose - that gleefully serves unscrupulously personal, vain, and trifling "interests"? (iii) as if being elected and appointed and confirmed to serve as servants of the people is a "lawful" license to "might makes right" from coast to coast, pole to pole, ad mortem?
I mean, if such grievous abuses of power and trust and people are not plain proofs of acts of wrongdoing by the hands of wrongdoers,
what are they...?
Such that
I have to ask:
what if these putative "tests of faith" are invitations
genially extended to self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" and howlers and roarers and inheritors of eternal flames
to do nothing but trust that power does not corrupt?
for the mighty and "the meritorious" are "the faithful" and so are self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" and howlers and roarers and inheritors of eternal flames and everybody knows
"the faithful" are sinners and love the sinners and blah blah blah and so what anyways?
Such that
I have to ask:
do you see
how... an opportunity like that
does not go... to waste? I mean, an opportunity to get away with it, shall not go to waste... shall it? so long as shamelessly grandiose ambition, not to humbly serve as servants of the people, but to unapologetically enrich, empower, and deify the mighty and "the meritorious"... flowers like Babylonian blooms within the prosperous bosoms of the jubilantly sinful?
Such that
I have to ask:
do you see
how "the faithful"... let the mighty and "the meritorious" be
who they are?
without unflinching scrutiny? without cogent criticism? without fearlessly questioning whether fast and furious pressure to blindly obey, be uncompromisingly loyal, joyously believe without pause
is a moment seized to get away with a callous repudiation of the public good and its stewardship and its governance? in broad daylight? a vicious disavowal of a nation of many peoples and more laws? which is to say, a moment seized to get away with
murder?
*
The mighty wax rapturously
on putative "tests of faith",
because there's no bolder swing than the smug swagger that unrepentantly proclaims: evidence of grievous abuses of power and trust and people are not plain proofs of acts of wrongdoing by the hands of wrongdoers;
for
everybody knows
fighting for survival under 100-year-floods of pitiless realities is how "true believers" win their tests of faith that aren't
because "the faithful" never mind 100-year-heat-storms that scorch hides like slabs of meat on spits, as tears threaten to leak loose from eyes stupefied by scars seared like railroad ties, knee-deep in receipts as unfathomable and leaden as anvils - because amen.
More
When people tell you "to trust the process", that 100-year-heat-storms and 100-year-floods are "tests of faith", that "they know what they're doing" and "what they're doing" is "good for you and God and party and country", that "now is not the time to waver" because "this moment demands unprecedented loyalty",
I know "true believers" lean into belief and "the faithful" lean into faith -
but I?
I've felt what no one should feel, seen what no one should see, experienced what no one should experience, and I don't believe first and ask questions later -
because come on.
I ask:
why do the mighty enrich themselves and their own, never mind the suffering they inflict as defenders of "might makes right"? why do self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" extol denying and prohibiting generosity and empathy towards sufferers? why do howlers and roarers proclaim enforced conformity evidence of unity and this unity evidence of solidarity and this solidarity evidence of consent to be dominated? why do the inheritors of eternal flames lionize abusers of power and abusers of trust and abusers of people?
why are blueprints of dead and gone polities in our DNA still?
because their getting away with murder shall be as frictionless as let them?
I have to say
to wit:
if being "true believers" in belief and "the faithful" in faith means you do not know what I mean by putative "tests of faith" that aren't...
then when the hands that scorch and the hands that drown are the hands of the mighty and "the meritorious"... what are you?
I mean, is standing behind, with, and for the jubilantly sinful a kind of privilege that is not what I... know? because what I... know is the hands that anoint believers with eternal grace and salvation are not the hands that
not-see enrichers who never mind the suffering they unapologetically inflict; or not-hear extollers whose denials and prohibitions of generosity and empathy are indifferently thoughtless and sadistically careless; or not-speak as dominators promote falsehoods and disinformation as "truths" for you and "God" and "party" and "country"; or sanctify unconscionable apologetics of abuse and vile lionization of abusers as "the faithful" and "true believers".
Surely
you and I and everybody knows
blueprints of dead and gone polities, of their let them murder, were no more our predestined past than they are our preordained future - because duh
and amen.
M
So let me get this straight. The heat wave is a test. The flood is a test. The bill you can't pay is a test. And the guy who cut the program that would've helped you with all three? He's the proctor. Folks, that's not a test of faith. That's a group project where one kid does all the work and the other kid's dad owns the school.
ReplyDeleteAnd notice who never has to take the test. The people saying "this is God's plan" are watching the storm from a second home on a hill that somehow never floods. Weird how divine providence keeps zoning in their favor.
What you nailed here is the con inside the word "faith." Once suffering becomes spiritual, nobody has to file a report. You can't audit a miracle. You can't subpoena a blessing. It's the perfect accountability-free zone, and they know it.
Brilliant, infuriating, and I'm going to need a minute.
A TEST?! A test is a pop quiz in tenth grade, not a hundred-year flood floating my couch down the street! And who's grading it? The same people who've never sweated through anything but a tough tee time!
ReplyDeleteYou know what I'd like? Just once, I'd like the test to go the other way. Let's see the guys at the top get the hundred-year heat storm. Let's see them get the receipts "leaden as anvils." Oh wait, they don't get receipts. They get reimbursements!
And "trust the process"? I trusted the process once. It was a vending machine. It ate my dollar and gave me nothing, and at least the vending machine didn't tell me it was building my character!
I read this post and my blood pressure did a backflip. I'm going to go lie down in a dark room now and yell at the ceiling. The ceiling understands me.
Lemme tell you something, darlin'. When a politician starts talkin' about your faith, you best check your wallet, 'cause his hand's already in it. It's the oldest play in the book. Wrap the grab in a hymn and dare anybody to boo.
ReplyDeleteI've worked a lot of campaigns, and I'll tell you the secret nobody puts on a bumper sticker. Fear and faith are the two cheapest fuels in politics. You don't gotta deliver anything. You just gotta make folks scared of the other fella and holy about you. M sees right through it.
You laid it out like a closing argument. Every "I have to ask" is another witness on the stand. By the end, the jury's leanin' in.
I'll be honest, I came in ready to disagree, and I don't on the core point. Using faith to shield power from scrutiny is wrong no matter whose party is doing it. I've watched it happen up close, and I've watched good people get used by it.
ReplyDeleteWhere I'd push back is the broad brush. Plenty of "patriots" in my church pews are the first ones filling sandbags when the flood comes. They bring casseroles. They drive the elderly to shelters. They're not the problem. The problem is the people at the podium using their faith against them.
I'd also say this to my own side: if your leaders can't survive a hard question, they don't deserve your loyalty.
Conservatism used to mean distrust of concentrated power. Somewhere along the way some folks forgot that applies to our guys too.
What we’re watching isn't just opportunistic politics; it’s the resurrection of divine right theory wrapped in modern populist branding. Feudal lords used to claim God ordained their crowns so serfs wouldn't question the famine. Today’s oligarchs just replaced the crown with a bespoke suit and a press secretary, using the exact same metaphysical threat model to silence dissent and privatize the gains.
ReplyDeleteLook at how this plays out in institutional economics, too. When public goods are defunded under the guise of fiscal discipline or "tough choices" (the secular version of a test of faith), it’s never the elite feeling the pinch. They talk about shared sacrifice while carving out permanent tax loopholes for themselves. The genius of your post is showing how religious rhetoric and neoliberal deregulation use the exact same playbook: make suffering mandatory for the base and optional for the bosses.
DeleteLook at the marble columns of the capitol. Look at the polished mahogany in the committee rooms where men in custom suits lean back, cradling crystal tumblers, and explain to you why the water in your pipes has turned brown.
ReplyDeleteThey call it fiscal responsibility. They call it trimming the fat, tightening the belt, weathering the necessary storm. But let us strip away the bureaucratic euphemisms and call it what it actually is: an extraction ritual.
For decades, the architects of statecraft have mastered the conversion of public misery into private capital. When they slash funding for public hospitals, shutter community clinics, and hand massive tax write-offs to multinational conglomerates, they do not apologize. Instead, they wrap themselves in the flag and preach the Gospel of Austerity. They tell you that a crumbling bridge is a crucible for community resilience. They tell you that a shuttered schoolhouse is a test of your family’s moral fiber.
It is a remarkably convenient theology. If poverty is a spiritual trial rather than a policy failure, the powerful never have to audit their own balance sheets. They get to plunder the public treasury in broad daylight, secure in the knowledge that anyone who complains can simply be dismissed as lacking grit, faith, or patriotism.
The machinery of modern governance has been expertly retrofitted to protect this scam. Whenever a journalist uncovers missing funds or a community demands clean water, the machinery whirs into defensive action. The "guardians of liberty" take to the airwaves to declare that questioning the budget is equivalent to treason.
They blur the lines between civic duty and unthinking obedience, demanding that you stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the very people who picked your pocket.
We carry the old monarchical blueprints in our bones, the ancestral reflex to bow before the crown and accept the famine as the king’s divine will. But we are not serfs waiting for royal crumbs. The 100-year budget crises and engineered economic squeezes are not acts of God; they are choices made by men who know they will never have to drink from the brown tap or sleep on the municipal gym floor.
It is time to stop confusing cruelty with character. The hands that write the tax loopholes are not the hands that save us, and the system that demands our quiet suffering while it loots the storehouse is a system that deserves our unyielding skepticism. We do not need another lecture on resilience from people who have never missed a meal. We need accountability, transparency, and an end to the fiction that our exploitation is for our own good.
Let's call "tests of faith" what they are: a laundering scheme. They take a catastrophe the mighty manufactured and hand it to each of us alone, scrubbed clean of fingerprints - because of course they do.
ReplyDeleteA 100-year-flood is not an act of God. It's levees left to rot, warnings buried, relief funds funneled through the capacious spigot of taxpayer money into the pockets of the mighty and "the meritorious." A 100-year-heat-storm is not divine. It's cooling centers shuttered, power grids sold for parts, aid offices gutted by self-proclaimed "guardians of liberty" who call cruelty "efficiency" and call their own enrichment "freedom."
Public wrongs. Public wrongdoers. Names, signatures, and receipts as leaden as anvils.
But slap the word "faith" on it, and suddenly
you're the one on trial. your endurance. your soul.
and the question flips from who did this to us? to are you devout enough to deserve rescue?
because come on.
A test is taken alone. Nobody marches on a capitol over a test. Nobody subpoenas a test. Nobody votes out a test. You bow your head and bear it while the abusers of power and abusers of trust and abusers of people skip the exam entirely and cash the check. In broad daylight. Frictionless.
Again.
And you know who never bought it? The neighbors with johnboats. When the water rose, they didn't wait for the howlers and roarers to bless the flood as a trial. They launched into drowned streets and hauled strangers off rooftops, while the mighty posed for photos in dry boots and tweeted "resilience." Nobody in those boats asked whether the drowning had earned saving.
That's what the jubilantly sinful fear. Not doubt. Not sin. Witnesses. People who refuse to suffer alone, who look at the wreckage together and say: we see where the money went. We see who signed. We see who profited.
So I have to ask:
if the inheritors of eternal flames need you isolated, ashamed, and grateful for crumbs to keep getting away with murder
what happens when you stop kneeling alone
and start pointing together?
Then the "test of faith" finally lands where it always belonged - on the mighty.
And they fail it.
Every. Single. Time.
because duh.