It’s not enough that you BELIEVE what you see…
You must also understand WHAT you see… ~ Da Vinci

Last year, around this time, I began writing a book I call the ‘American Apocalypse.’ The concept occurred to me while reading The Revelation to John. I realized there was much more in the texts than the end of civilization. It parallels our current times, as do many biblical texts and prophetic writings.

Could it possibly be, nothing really changes through the millennia, and that the problems facing our ancestors are the same, with different names…

They’re warnings.

My book nor this commentary are about biblical interpretations or insights, although I do use biblical references, it’s about my realization, my awakening to America’s situation and direction over the past 48 years.

My book, and this article, are my observations, and opinion based on what I see, test, and comprehend.

My title originates from the Greek word apokalypsis – meaning unveiling, revealing, and awakening. This Greek word is the origin of our modern misnomer of the Apocalypse or the End of the World. The original translation in Greek is The Revelation to John – in two separate books. The first warns the new churches in Asia, the second book is the results of not heeding the warnings.

I chose to use the word apocalypse as intended – unveiling or revealing, i.e. revelation, although the colloquial understanding is equally apropos to this article.

The word for the end of time is Armageddon, named for the city of Megiddo in Israel, where it’s supposed to take place. They are inextricably connected; ignorance has consequences.

We take everything for granted. We don’t even try to understand or research anything to comprehend it fully. We foolishly accept what we hear as truth. That’s what bothers me the most about current times. We’ve abandoned what’s exact for what’s expedient. We buy whatever snake-oil or magic elixir the hucksters are selling, then blame them for our decisions. They subsequently blame someone else, and the blame-game spirals until the truth is lost in minutia and obfuscation, and never seen again.

We refuse to accept responsibility for our choices. That is precisely why we’re approaching The End of the Line.

We’ve given up on what we should know about the bible or any righteous religious or foundational texts, believing any misinformation peddler and follow them blindly, unquestioningly, and securely ignorant of reality. We allow others to interpret the tenets of our existence for their benefit, not for ours – in this case ours means the republic. This extends to our Constitution and other pertinent documents that form the basis for our republic and its administration. We’ve heard the words but fail to comprehend or appreciate that there are stipulations and responsibilities implicit in citizenship; or even recognize that what we’re told deviates from these documents’ precepts.

We hire people to manage our affairs, to advise us, to educate us, yet we forego our accountability as citizens, students, and owners of this republic. We cede that duty to the people we hire as managers – The Congress – the opposite of progress, and the President. There are also managers at lower levels within the state, county, and city who also manage on our behalf. They are as important as those at the federal level.

Think of citizenship as an inverted pyramid with citizens as the focal point, the peak, the capstone. It all rests on us, not the other way around. We elect the people above us, trusting them to do their jobs, fulfill their promises, and to look after OUR interests, not just theirs.

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears… We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” ~ John F Kennedy

My premise is built on learning, testing, and understanding.

If you don’t know the teachings of Christ, how can you live a Christian life. If you’re indoctrinated as a Muslim, you believe in the teachings of Mohammed, a peaceful profit, but the Imam’s teach you to kill all non-Muslims by those intolerant of noncompliance. If you’re raised in the Shinto religion, your key concepts are purity, harmony, family respect, and subordination as an individual to the group. As a Christian you’re taught that God sent his Son to earth to save believers from the consequences of sin. As a Jew, you learn the Torah – first five books of the Bible and live by the laws God gave to Moses.

Believe what you will, but know why…

* “Faith without action is a delusion.”

* “Faith without personal responsibility is escapism.”

* “Faith without suffering is meaningless.”

* “Faith looks at a challenge, looks at the facts, then looks inside and follows divine energy.”

Christ said, ”Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”

Suffering in this case means to allow or tolerate willingly.

When you understand what you believe and why you believe it, it’s easier to live and embody it; otherwise, you’re only going through the motions; it’s all superficial… and THAT, folks, is what America has become!

You can imagine why most religions or governments for that matter, don’t want you to have access to information that may cause you to question their decisions, challenge their assertions, encourage you to learn, or make your own decisions.

Does this sound like freedom, or captivity.

Is it comfort and security, or oppression and slavery.

How inconceivable, that Americans have access to copious collated clues and comprehensive counsel, from competent, capable, conscientious consultants, yet fail to use them. We’re endowed with the intellect capable of critical thinking and reasoning but opt for the easy, advantageous, and attractive solution; because few have the desire to develop thinking and reasoning skills.

We can split the atom, yet we can’t reconcile simple ideological differences. We create organizations to serve humanity, then corrupt them for selfish purposes. We create vaccines to save humanity from disease, then engineer diseases to destroy humanity. We preach tolerance and forgiveness, yet we’re bigoted and argumentative.

The simple thread in all of this is avarice.

“What luck for rulers that men don’t think.” ~ Adolph Hitler

The title of this article is “The End of the Line,” subtext is “The American Apocalypse.”

The apocalypse is that America is in decline, and we are reaching the end of the line.

I’ve included introductory music by ‘The Traveling Wilburys’ to preface this piece. The lyrics provide a reference.

The meaning and purpose of their song is about life. It’s about choices. It implies questions but doesn’t respond – that’s up to the listener to address. It lyrically discusses how we ‘typically’ approach life. If you listen to the recording and follow along with the lyrics, you’ll understand. At least you might grasp my intent.

Every morning, I wake up to another opportunity to make a difference. I have the ultimate freedom to choose how I spend this gift called the present. It’s corny I know, but I’m exhausted by the ambivalence, apathy, and recrimination that I see everywhere in our republic. So, if a trite euphemism gets your attention, all the better, if not, I’ll keep trying.

As a patriot, I believe in America and the original concept – The Great Experiment!

* Experiment: “a test, trial, or tentative procedure; an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown or of testing a principle, supposition, etc.”

We ride along waiting for someone else to change our lives or fix our problems. We’ve learned subservience, not independence. Dependency is our choice; it’s not forced on us. If you’re willing to take what ‘life’ gives you; that is up to you. In America we have that privilege of choice; a gift we are quickly losing to those who chip away at it bit by bit, word by word, through seemingly insignificant incidents, rumors, and accidental occurrences.

It is all intentional!

“When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything. For proof, men give birth, they menstruate, they lactate, it’s fair to have biological men compete against biological women in women’s sports. These are true absurdities and an indication of a civilization in decline.” ~ Dennis Prager

America’s New Religion – Idiocracy!

Having abandoned the basic tenets of Judeo-Christian ethics and morals, we adopt the Dogma ‘du jure,’ as our ideology, culture, or philosophy, trusting that our ‘intellect and knowledge’ will carry us through our lives successfully. But what if that programmed knowledge was all conveniently and carefully contrived misinformation and lies, created by our chosen leaders. Without a source of truth or an opportunity to discover it, to measure against, compare, or test it, how can you discern the difference. If you’re taught to memorize and not question, or to think critically – you embrace the ‘program’ as truth.

When the ‘program’ is propaganda – intentionally biased toward a narrative and based on rearranging facts into misinformation and disinformation; designed to skew your thinking and thereby your actions to the programmer’s ideology, you have what we experience and endure today.

* Propaganda “is communication used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented.”

This insidious delivery process is through the government’s accomplices, the Corporate Media Complex (CMC). It’s Big Brothers primary distribution arm, and deeply rooted in governmental departments involved, especially the Department of Education who spread this brainwashing to our children in the primary and secondary education systems. The college level educational system is where the future teachers and managers receive ideological indoctrination and programming, enabling them to proselytize cultists, cultivate their successors, and advance the socialist cause. They call it Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE). It seeks to make everyone the same – national homogeneity, in two distinct camps: The Bicoastal Elite, and everyone else – those who rule, and those who follow.

Aggressively controlling the narrative and its delivery ensures the continued spread of the ignorance ideology – America’s New Religion, where ‘The State’ is god and all of its administrators are its priests. The sheeple are minions and the means to the State’s end.

These obscene lies and information perversions are inconsequential since “The End Justifies the Means.”

“Society has become so fake, that the truth actually bothers people.” ~ Selwyn Duke

I frequently reference George Orwell’s 1949 dystopic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and his descriptive invention of Big Brother as ‘Overlord.’ It’s as though Orwell, and other writers of that era, could see behind the curtain (reference: The Wizard of Oz 1930). There were many other authors in the first part of the twentieth century, who closely followed current events, had the foresight to address their concerns, and with this insight recorded their thoughts and warning, much like ‘John the Elder’ did with the book of Revelations. Their publications are excellent examples of observing, critical thinking, and theorizing using the available data – speculation… or “What if…?”

It appears that the curtain is now a steel door, obscuring any views, but there are a few insiders – “leakers or whistle-blowers” – who expose some information, but at great personal peril, often risking their livelihoods, and sometimes their lives, to bring us the truth. It should tell everyone that the data they divulge either exposes lies or Big Brother’s national insecurity.

We have the freedom to choose, but not to know.

Our government – the people we hire to manage this republic, decide what we can know, and what we cannot. It appears that election or elevation to a position of federal or state level management imbues the individual hired with omniscient and prodigious insight regarding relevant and pertinent information. An elected position does not change one’s capacity to think or reason, instead, it becomes a barrier to open and honest communication. I looked through the oath of office and fail to find the clause… “To lie my Ever-Lovin’ ass off.”

America is NOT a Christian country; it never has been.

Many of our concepts and ideals are based on moral and ethical principles included in the Bible, AND other religious, moral, ethical, and well-reasoned texts, but America is NOT a Christian country. It never has been… That’s part of the hype. Our Constitution promises religious freedom and the right to choose, and by insisting that Christianity is our foundation is unconstitutional. HOWEVER, without a fundamental belief in a higher power, America would founder – just like we are now…

“When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything. For proof, men give birth, they menstruate, they lactate, and it’s fair to have biological men compete against biological women in women’s sports. These are true absurdities and an indication of a civilization in decline.” ~ Dennis Prager

Here we are, nearing the end of the line, staring into our republic’s Armageddon – the destruction of our civilization because we fail to learn the simple lesson available to everyone with the ability to read and comprehend the message, but being the appallingly lazy sheople we are, we believe the words of the people paid to lie to us. Yes, I’m talking about the Corporate Media Complex.

They are the chosen and contracted information conduit of our republic and our hired managers. If you’re looking for absolution, talk to God or to whomever you serve, but the government, Big Brother in Orwell’s words, is not in that line of business. Their goal is control and subservience to Big Brother, and its perpetuation.

We’ve reached the end of the line…

Armageddon… Armageddon…

This is the last stop…

Armageddon…

Everyone please leave the coach…

Lines form to the Right and Left

Everyone… Please choose a side.

Red or Blue.

They’re color coded for easy recognition.

“If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent Him… ~ Voltaire

~ The Author ~

April 16, 2024 ~ Charles R. Dickens was born in 1951, is a veteran of the Vietnam war, for which he volunteered, and the great-great grandson of the noted author, whose name he shares.

He is a fiercely proud American, who still believes this is the greatest country on the planet, with which we’ve lost control and certainly our direction. He grew up in moderate financial surrounding; we’re not rich by any stretch, but didn’t go hungry – his incredibly hard working father saw to that. As most from that era, he learned about life from his father, whose story would take too long to tell, other than to say that, he is also a fiercely proud American; a WWII and Korean war, veteran Marine.

Charlie was educated in the parochial system which, demanded that you actually learn something, and have capability to retain it before you advance. He attended several universities in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, and chased the goose further to a master’s, and has retained some very definite ideas about education in this country.

In addition, Charlie is a retired blues guitar and vocalist – a musician. This was his therapy career. Nothing brings him as much joy as playing music, and he wishes that he could make a living at it… but alas… life goes on!