I recently completed reading the books of Maccabees and Josephus’ writings for the first time (scandalous, I know), and they have given me a completely fresh view of what is being communicated in John 4. I am going to try to communicate to you the absolute raw power of the story of the woman at the well… It is, in my opinion, one of the most important stories when trying to understand Jesus’ nature and mission.

If we remember nothing of God throughout our time in His word, we should remember this: God’s heart is for the gentle, the lowly, and the vulnerable. First, allow me to summarize the Old Testament as it exists in my mind. In the OT, we find stories of a people group tasked with shining light into the fierce darkness that has arisen from Man’s rebellion. Despite their attempts, they continuously become the darkness they were meant to destroy; mercilessly preying on those weaker then them. Oppressing the poor, exploiting the vulnerable, shedding innocent blood, and committing acts of shocking sexual immorality are common travesties committed by the people of God. Despite God’s command to “plead for the widow” and “protect the fatherless,” the opposite is done. They target the vulnerable. God’s anger is kindled, the theocracy is in shambles as man ultimately rejects God’s kingship, so He curses man by giving them what they want. Kings “like the nations (1 Samuel 8).” The Kings fail and turn to the Prophets. The Prophets warn for hundreds of years of the peril that awaits the people of God should they continue in the darkness they were meant to destroy, but they continue in it nevertheless. During this dark time, a war was fought to rid the Jewish people of Seleucid Greek rule that threatened to outlaw Jewish religious traditions. Here is where the books of Maccabee provide some new insights into the significance of John 4.

The victory was claimed by the Jews and gave rise to the Hasmonean Dynasty (1 and 2 Maccabees, Josephus: Antiquity of the Jews). The Hasmonean Dynasty in turn wished to expand Jewish rule and turned their sights onto Samaria. According to Flavius Josephus, Hyrcanus (leader of the Hasmonean Dynasty at the time) besieged the Samaritan city (Sebaste/ancient Samaria) for about a year before capturing it, indicating the Samaritans resisted but were ultimately overpowered. To be clear: There is no conclusive evidence that Samaria ever offensively attacked the Hasmonean kingdom. The reasons? They were ethically mixed, did not have access to the levitical priesthood, and had a temple on Mount Gerizim where they worshiped God… the God… big G God… and thus denied the Hasmonean kingdom the right to have full control of the people’s religion by controlling the only other temple that stood in Jerusalem. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND! MUCH IS LOST BY NOT UNDERSTANDING THIS HISTORY!

TIMELINE:

722 BC – Northern Kingdom of Israel conquered by Assyria. Samaria is repopulated with foreigners, leading to the mixed population known as Samaritans (2 Kings 17).

586 BC – Judah falls to Babylon.

538 BC – Jews return from exile and rebuild the Temple. Samaritans offer to help but are rejected (Ezra 4:2-3), deepening divisions.

332 BC – Alexander the Great conquers the region.

175–164 BC – Antiochus IV Epiphanes persecutes the Jews.

167–160 BC – Maccabean Revolt. (Books of Maccabees contained within the Septuagint)

140–63 BC – Hasmonean (Maccabean) Jewish kingdom.

128–110 BC – The Jewish ruler and high priest John Hyrcanus destroys the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.

This is a terrible history of rejection. A vulnerable people oppressed by those tasked by God to bless them. Centuries of anger, abuse, and destructions…

Going back to the summary, it was not just the Samaritans that suffered the abuse at the hands of the covenant people, it was many others before them. But El Roi (“The God who sees” named by Hagar in Genesis 16:13 due to the abuse she also suffered at the hands of the Chosen Ones) had something to say about this…

Now enters the Lord of Lords…

Around AD 27–30 – Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4).

A Samaritan woman, cut off from the temple, her nation in shambles, hated by the Jews, having been married 5 times, and her dignity being ruined, walks to a well in the middle of the desert at noon (John 4:6), the hottest part of the day, probably to avoid running into anyone, to draw water. There, she meets a Jewish man. She avoided Him, but He spoke to her.

“Will you give me a drink?” He asked.

She replied.

“You are a Jew, I am a Samaritan, how can you ask me for a drink?”

I can only imagine His smile.

“If you only knew who was asking you, you would ask me for water and I would give you living water.”

“Sir, you have nothing to draw water with and this well is deep. Are you greater than our father Jacob? How could you do this?”

“Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again… but the water I give becomes a spring, bringing eternal life.”

The woman asks Him for this water. He tells her to bring her husband to which she replies she has no husband. He reveals His divine spirit by saying He knows she has had five. The conversation progresses…

“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain (Mount Gerizim where the Jews destroyed their temple), but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem (Samaritans are not permitted to worship in the temple in Jerusalem).”

The woman immediately brings up Mount Gerizim versus Jerusalem, which tells us the history matters. John didn't record that exchange by accident.

Jesus responds.

“Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Hope is kindled within her but… Who is this man? Who is He to tell her that the temple will not matter? The temple is where the priests are. Where God’s presence is. Surely this is wrong to think that it won’t matter? Who is He to say that God is seeking people like her. The broken, destroyed, torn down, lowly, sinful, and vulnerable? Who is He to say these things? She sighs… if only it were so… then speaks quietly:

“I know that the Messiah is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

She looks down at the ground, thinking about the only hope she has ever held to. Finally, she looks at Him. Something about Him seemed different. He not only asked her for a drink, He talked with her. He knew all these things about her.

He gazed back.

“I am He.”

This is one of the most powerful stories of Jesus, made even more so by the history behind it. Hundreds of years of hatred and oppression. The Christ had come to liberate the vulnerable. To destroy the unjust religious authorities. He came for her. He rescued her from her sin, shame, and isolation. He reconciled her to the Father. He came for them all. All the nations. All of those who had cried out for so long. God gave the authority to the religious leaders, to His chosen race, to His holy bloodline. He told them to bless the nations. They only cursed them. but no longer. The Lord of Lords rebukes His firstborn who had for so long basked in darkness. He picked up the dirty, disgusting, and abused adopted child, and raised him up to sit as a fellow heir. “For this is the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. For this reason I will be lifted up.”

Not only that, but He chose the Samaritan woman to be the first person He confirms His messianic identity to (He had never explicitly said it until then). A woman, a Samaritan, an adulterer. Literally what they would have said is the worst sort of person. I would encourage the reader to go and study the history of Samaria themselves. Once you fully understand it, suddenly the narrative in John 4 comes alive. El Roi indeed.

I hope I was able to convey how deeply I feel about this passage. For it is where, I believe, we can see a true glimpse of the absolute longing that God has for His people.

Thank you for reading and as always…

Concerning culture, remember to survive…

Laz

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My Dear Colleague,

You have done a superb job in capturing your man’s attention and turning it from God. Excellent, excellent job I dare say! He is faltering, wondering what is even real, what is even worth following, all because you have surrounded him with those whose tongues drip with poison.

See, you have turned the “christian” into the accuser. How elated I am at the thought. For our Father below stood before the throne of God accusing constantly; telling God the faults of His people, trying to provoke Him to anger. But ever since the Carpenter cast our Father out of heaven, the only hope we have is to turn His children into the accusers. And you, my dear nephew, have done so.

Have them whisper, have them mock, have them scorn. Have them turn away from God to find how they can hurt one another. Have them do it. This alone is enough to sow doubt instead of faith. Make THEM into the accuser but also make them profess Christ with their mouths. In doing so, they appear to serve two masters, He who saves and he who accuses. Fill their minds with knowledge that makes them feel wise, make them feel superior, but lo, see how even their God says to them “professing to be wise you became fools.” Yes, let no apologies come forth from their lips, only “you not I.” Let them stand condemning while also proclaiming their salvation.

This, my dear colleague, is the very epitome of christian tempting. Accusations, condemnations, premature wisdom. HA HA! Even the secularists dare not listen to one of their own not studied, spewing from their mouths words they know not the meaning of. Following them as if they have tread the path they walk before. Fools.

But… hear this… my friend. God does not accuse His own, He disgustingly forgives His people. Therefore, have those who profess to be His, accuse others and say “tis not I who speaks but God.” In doing so, you sow doubt among them, for the one who seemingly speaks for God stands accusing others. How beautiful for us, no?

Soon, your man will be doing it too. Pointing his finger. Blaming others for his sins. Glorious, isn’t it? The best part about college is that it isolates those who have not yet developed their identity from those who would have them turn to God. It puts them in our camp with people who have always been held in our grasp. And yes, hearing the stories of the Carpenter may make the ones who do our bidding hesitate, but I will tell you just how to use that for us as well in my next letter to you.

Keep at it…

Happy tempting.

Your affectionate colleague,

Slubgob

Have you ever wondered what it is about the shower that just awakens the inner Socrates? First you enter thinking:

“The water’s too hot. Gotta turn it down”

Next thing you know your thoughts look something like this:

“Coming fourth out of the mouth of darkness spills a liquid too fiery to touch, I must cool it with a heedful tap of the handle.”

Dunno how that works but I will take it.

Anyway, this post is not about that. This post has to do with a thought that hit me after the strange metamorphosis into a British gentleman that I experience when I step into the shower. I read a quote by Søren Kirkeegard earlier in the day and was thinking on it while I was in there. It goes like this:

“People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.”

- Søren Kierkegaard

This in turn led me into a curious train of thought that had me thinking about the word “normal.” We use that word a lot don’t we? Normal? We use it without thinking about why we use it. We say things such as “that’s not normal” or “they are not normal” or “where are all the normal people?” But the thing is, normal actually does not mean that at all. The quote resonated with me in a shallow, self-soothing sort of way while I was myself wondering why I am misunderstood by the people around me. But everyone else around me always says they feel misunderstood as well.

It is quite sensible to believe that Kierkegaard was misunderstood because he was an extremely intelligent person (that ain’t me guys), which is a perfectly reasonable pathway to feeling misunderstood. But I have found that a common theme when actually diving into conversation with folks my age is that we all feel as if we are “misunderstood” not for our intelligence, but because we have such a profound lack of sympathy that we cannot seem to see past our own emotions. So feeling as Kierkegaard did simply means that you are, in our current age, living the “normal” human experience.

Let me get back to that thought.

First, the word normal as defined in the english dictionary is, in its simplest form of translation, “to conform,” presumably to a standard of behavior set forth by society. The common theme that we can see around us in the modern world is that being “normal” actually means being unique. We currently live our lives trying to create new forms of uniqueness whether online, or not (all of which most likely have some sort of perverted sexual undertones to them such as transgenderism) but all of those who seek to be normal, accomplish through striving for uniqueness the inability to act outside of the confounds of societal norms. In other words, through the striving to be unique, they in fact accomplish their normalcy. Through the wailings of being “misunderstood” they are indeed echoing the cries of their peers and in doing so have achieved, the status of being normal.

So… this means that those guys looking at porn, numbing themselves to real relationships, while saying they are misunderstood by women? Yup, that is normal. Those girls dressing provocatively, sacrificing their dignity for attention, and then saying men just misunderstand them? Yup… normal. The inability to take responsibility for your actions, and instead of apologizing you yell about being “misunderstood.” You guessed it! Normal.

The punchline to this joke we call life is this: to be misunderstood is to be normal. But being misunderstood has now just become an egocentric defense. Each of those examples above are perfectly understood to be selfishness. “I should not have to put in work because I am misunderstood. I should not have to think about others because I am misunderstood. I should not have to apologize because I am misunderstood.”

To be misunderstood is to be normal which just leads me to belive that the term “misunderstanding” has become something different entirely. It is no longer understood in the same way as it exists in the case with Kierkegaard. With the modern “misunderstood” individual pictured in our mind, why on earth would we desire for us, our family, and our friends, and our spouses to be normal? Or an even better question, would we push them towards that?

Jesus was not normal.

Neither were his disciples.

Neither were any of the saints that inspire us.

They were all incredibly weird dudes (and truly misunderstood).

No poet, writer, musician, saint, warrior, king or anyone who stands before God and destiny boldly can proclaim the words: I am normal, for he can either be great, or normal but not both.

So my dear friends, let us stop looking for the “normal people.” Let us stop looking for the people who are chronically the victim of their own lives. Those who sabotage themselves by this belief that they only must find those who are just as victimized as them. Let us stop finding those people and saying “finally, a normal person.”

Give me the strange, the joyful, the courageous for family, friends, and a spouse. May I return these qualities to them. That is what I want! Give them to me and let us act with the madness and faith that made those watching Noah build the ark yell “fool.”

Do not let me settle among those who cling to ‘normalcy’ as an excuse for never growing. Do not surround me with people who wear perpetual misunderstanding as a shield against responsibility. And may I never in turn settle for the comfortable mediocrity of being “normal.” I desire something far greater than that.

But who am I? I’m just a dude in the shower…

-Laz

Today is a day of grief and loss. Of sorrow and anger. 

For a great man has fallen…

A true scholar…

A true patriot…

A true American…

A true Christ-follower…

And most of all…

A man who was true to himself…

And he was slain by a monster. 

Not the type of monster who lives in the stories we read to our children. 

A real monster. The ones that do exist that we rarely wish for our children to hear about. 

The type that whispers lies to the innocent…

The type who silences the truth…

The type whose fangs and claws are not clearly seen, but found in a small piece of metal, cowardly flung from a distance…

These monsters are a strange kind for they attempt to justify their monstrousness…

Charlie Kirk was a man who believed in the might of the pen. He believed in the power of a scholarly debate to win over the hearts and minds of those opposed to him. He hated not, those whom he debated. But they hated him…

And now… 

The tolerant has become the intolerant…

The accepting has become the unaccepting…

The love is love is love is love is lov… is hate is hate is hate is hate…

This is not an ideology… It is a demonic dynasty…

I used to think these are just lost folks needing help… 

Maybe some…

But first the Children of Nashville, the Children of Minneapolis, the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, and now the brutal killing of Charlie Kirk…

THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL POST… 

THIS IS GRIEF AT THE HORRIBLE LOSS OF LIFE OF THE INNOCENT…

But…

We worship a God who brings life and death… (Deut. 32:39)

We worship a God who burns with anger… (Jer. 4:4)

We worship a God who brings forth vengeance… (Deut. 32:35)

We worship a God of radical redemption… (Isa. 43:25)

There is only two things for us Christians to say…

We fear you not… Repent…

And may God have mercy upon your souls…

I am not nervous,” I said with some grit
Watching my hands and pursing my lip
“Why should I be nervous?” Giving a smile a try
I choked and stuttered and thought I might die

Then I saw her again and it got much worse
She looked worried and thought I needed a nurse
“You’re shaking!” She said, watching my hands
“It was the drive.” I lied, trying to act like a man

We finished our coffee and got into the car 
As we talked, I became more calm and on par
We had a great day and were not ready to be done
Back to town we went, excited for the next one

But she asked me the question that I knew that she would
It flew out of nowhere and hit me real good
I thought quick and did the only thing that I know
I asked “Do you have expectations also?”

With a grin she looked over and said
“Dating is often like baking some bread”
“Pancakes really, make a better example”
“Yes, pancakes can turn out, really, quite terrible”

“The first is often the worst of them all”
“It comes off floppy, gooey, and round like a ball”
“Dating can often be similar as well”
“First experiences sometimes are not quite so swell”

With a gulp and a glance I broke into a sweat
My next words would possibly turn into a bet
I plucked up my courage, I gave the best look I could make
And said with a smile, “I ain’t no floppy pancake”

(SPOILER: I was indeed a floppy pancake, but it’s all good. XD)

- Laz

(Note to reader: This is from the perspective of a demon, as is the plot of C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters.” Therefore, the roles and titles are swapped. Good is evil and evil is good.)

My Colleague,

I was very pleased with your last letter, you seem to have depressed your man quite well. Good. The more you keep him like this, the more he will blame the enemy for his suffering. Keep filling his mind with the sins and sufferings and unhappiness from those around him and he will begin to come over to us gradually. But that is the key…

Gradually…

We sometimes, my dear temptor, want to keep our assignments from becoming too distressed too quickly. If they become too desperate, their own sins may drive them back to the enemy to ask him for his favor again. And he, of course, will give it to them…

Disgusting I know…

But sense you have made the mistake of allowing him in that wretched place he inevitably has the grace of the Enemy in his back pocket ready to use against us if we reveal ourselves. Thus, we shall not reveal ourselves. There is plenty too throw at him using his own “friends” (as he calls them BAHH), no need to reveal that we are watching him.

So here is what to do…

Surround him with people who are insecure, unhappy, devious, manipulative, dramatic, angry, jealous, and most importantly lost. Surround him with these things for these are contagious qualities in these horrid creatures. We do not want him attentive or resilient against us so weigh him down with vices, whether it’s his own or others’, where he will have no time to work on his own strength. We do, indeed, have many friends surrounding him, you just must learn how to use them. Make him so focused and obsessed with the approval of others that he forgets whose approval he strives for… the Enemy’s.

He will drown himself trying to win their approval. He will tire himself trying to find the right words, trying to do the right things to make them happy. But that is the grossly hilarious part! They will never be happy! And so he will never be happy. But he will chase them…

The irony is in the fact that the approval of the Enemy lies freely in the arms of the Carpenter. It is available through obedience to Him. But yet, your man turns from Him and seeks the approval of his fellow wretches… What an ignorant fool!

That, my dear colleague, is art…

I look forward to your next letter and remember this. Do not allow anyone whom we cannot see to come around him. Do not allow him to flee to any place where we cannot go. They do exist, my friend. In fact, there is one on his doorstep, and he is too blind to see it...

Keep it that way…

Happy tempting…

Your affectionate colleague,

Slubgob

I think everyone deep down has a wild side to them. A side that urges you to quit that day job (or drop-out of college) and live life wild and free. This is the most alluring idea to me. One of my greatest fears is that I will live my life reading about the places I only wish I could have gone and explored for myself. Imagine if there was a way we could live without the need for anyone but ourselves and God. Deep in the woods or mountains or on the water, surviving off what we can make for ourselves from the land that God has given to us. If the idea of finding a place out in the wild, taking your sweetheart and building a life through your own grit and determination from nothing doesn’t kindle some sort of fire inside, then you ain’t no cowboy, ole son. It’s giving me goosebumps just writing about it.

This was exactly what it was to live in the Scottish Highlands hundreds of years ago and back (minus the brutality, lets just totally ignore the plagues and wars and fantasize for a bit). Historical accounts depict the average man being able to survive off the land with nothing but his “Belted Plaid” and stout hunting knife, and whilst history is history and the present is well… sterile… for lack of a better term… the point of studying these accounts is that we can learn things about ourselves through them and possibly replicate the good and avoid the bad. In an age where culture is continually attempting to render the common man, emasculate, and to remove from the common woman, her femininity, I think we have lost what it feels like to truly be self-sufficient, autonomous, and to be living as God intended. There was a time in American history where we attempted to retake that freedom and I think it worked, but we could probably all agree that either it is or already has died away.

But I refuse to think that it is unattainable or lost.

I’d like to highlight a few ways that we can learn what it means to be self-sufficient in our own daily-lives (as young people but maybe this will be helpful to you older folks as well) through examining the old stories of the highlanders…

Living Simply

Looking at how the majority of America lives today, it is easy to see how our country is the largest consumer of Chinese goods in the world. And as we come upon the holiday season you may even find yourself flitting through the halls of a Walmart looking for gifts for a person that ruins your Christmas anyway. You’ll be choosing a lego set for that person-you-haven’t-spoken-to-since-last-christmas’ kid because you feel like you must. And look, I am not criticizing anyone because my family and I do it too. Christmas is no longer about family, but materialism. Holidays, jobs, and even church has all started to become a part of the financial machine that fills the pockets of people we dislike anyway. One of the churches I have attended in the past actually had the stomach to show a slideshow begging people to send money to a fire-bombed orphanage in Uganda. Heartbroken, I slipped a twenty dollar bill into the offering plate, only to become nauseated when the next hour was a $2,000-just-cuz raffle funded by the church’s own treasury. Why do we do it? Why do we allow the world to tug us along by the chains we willingly shackle ourselves to?

What is needed is a radical return to simple living. What is needed is for each to ask the question: what is the bare minimum that we need to be happy living our lives?

The Scottish Highlanders’ lives did not evolve around materialism, mainly, because it could not. They were too busy surviving and living life to care about what they did not have. Hardships were a common characteristic of Scottish life (dang British) and because of this, they lived simply and had few belongings. Family was the single most important thing to them. Memory and hope were the two things that united whole clans of people and stoked the fire that kept the Scots united. They were poor, but also fierce and proud and it was their way of life that made this so.

Sure… simple living comes with difficulties. But it is not the luxury of a man that makes him.

A perfect illustration of this comes from a line from one of my favorite poems:

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

"...If you can...
 ...watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools...
... you'll be a Man my son..."

-Rudyard Kipling's 'IF'

Therefore, let us strive to no longer live just for the ‘things’ we can get.

Living Quietly

Man… how the heck are we ever gonna be able to live quietly? If that is you thinking that, then I hear ya. But the reality of the matter is that it is our own lack of self-discipline that keeps us from doing so. To live quietly, or rather, to live freely and without worry is possibly the single most hardest thing to do. To preface this, let me clarify what I mean when I say “living quietly.” Living quietly means enjoying the simple things about life and keeping out mouths shut on matters that do not consern us.

Let me give you a perfect example of a modern hindrance to living quietly, an analogy that I read from a fellow writer the other day:

With the omni-connection that we have to the outside world, it is always tempting to be loud, either in word or deed. We now have access to be able to yell and scream and shout with no repercussions or consequences simply because of technology. People say and do things on social media and through text that they would never do otherwise.

And when we are finally faced with silence, or loneliness, we cannot stand ourselves. We cannot stand ourselves enough to be alone with ourselves. We cannot stand ourselves enough to be kind and care about ourselves. So we grab our smartphone. We use it to create intricate webs of lies and stories and secrets to manufacture a new version of ourselves that we can stand - or rather, that we can justify feeling bad about in the first place. This web we then peddle to others and demand they accept it, affirm it, chase it. We demand their constant attention because the more we get the less we must face the person we’ve grown to despise. Our true self.

Much research has been done concerning the correlation of narcissism and Gen Z.

It exists…

Social media will turn you into a narcissist if you let it. There are more narcissistic traits present within my generation then any other generation before us. It is because we have become so used to constant comparison and hearing fiction from our peers that we cannot be content with ourselves so we must manufacture a version we think people will like (alter-personality manufacturing is the very essence of narcissism). We no longer think of others but only what others can do for us. When they stop performing for us we lash out at them and then, we wonder why it is that we are alone.

Socially, we are drawn to the rowdy, the rough, the loud, while the quiet, content, and gentle person, suffers for it. Its easy to be loud. It is hard to be quiet. But remember this…

When a quiet person speaks, people listen.

The Scottish were known for being loud, never knowing when to keep their mouths shut and it often got them into trouble. But most of them also lived somewhat quiet lives.

Little is known about William Wallace’s earlier life though he was a member of the Lesser Nobility. His early years were silent until suddenly it became time to speak. And speak he did… becoming one of the most well known Scottish warriors of his time. It took him years of silence to build a man worthy of being remembered for all time.

Live silent… until it is time to speak truth.

Living Dangerously

“Men who survive centuries of living in a hard environment, both physical and social, learn how to endure the worst that life can send them. The Scot knew famine and plague, thin soil, insecurity of life and property, raids, and aggression. He early learned to fight back, to give blow for blow, and then, when he had done his best, to endure. From the beginning of their history, no one had ever called the Scots a submissive people…”

-Excerpt from The Scotch Irish: A Social History by James G. Leyburn

Let me set some things in order, I do not mean to imply any sort of harm to others (or preparation to do so). We are first and foremost called as Christians to meekness, and peacefulness. We should follow in the footsteps of our savior in the sense that we must be a light to an increasingly violent and insane world. And to do so, we must know when Christ is asking us to lay down our swords.

However, you cannot be peaceful unless you have the ability to not be. As Dr. Jordan Peterson put it perfectly…

“A harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very very dangerous man who has that under voluntary control.” - Jordan Peterson

As is stated in the quote from The Scotch Irish: A Social History above, “Men who survive […] living in a hard environment, both physical and social, learn how to endure the worst that life can send them.” Although we lack the hard physical life in our modern age that the Scots had when they endured the tyranny of the British, we certainly live in an age where holding certain values creates a hard social environment around us. Our world is asking us to lay our values aside and to accept principles that are opposing everything we live for. We are asked to accept a world in which men can be women, and drag queens get to teach our children their way of life. A world in which individuals can “feel” as if they are an animal and demand of the world the accommodations that are needed for the mentally insane to live out this sick zoomorphic fetish without feeling dissonant from their peers. You are expected to lie down, accept it, and even fund it. The Scots knew this. They disagreed with the British way of life and because of this, it drug them to war.

Living dangerously is openly rejecting this way of life. The social danger comes when you openly oppose evil. Of course, some of what we are dealing with in our modern age is mental illness, but it is BECAUSE of our societal way of life.

As far as physical danger, we still do live in a relatively free society (if you are an American). Therefore, it is important to replicate physical danger with activities such as working out, hiking, and just generally going on adventures (I am currently on a doozy of one myself). In the dull world of grey cubicles, sterile offices, and LED lights, we need more mountain climbing, more running, and more backcountry traveling. We need more time to do things God meant for us to do. Do you think that God would have created such vast landscapes, wildernesses, and oceans and hide them behind the doors we create in our lives if we were never meant to go, throw those doors wide open and experience them? Do hard things. It is the hard things that makes a man (or a woman).

While you figure out how to live your life, don’t forget TO live your life. Go see the beauty of creation. Live dangerously, my friend.

Living Happily

Above all, we are called by our Lord Jesus Christ to be of a joyful spirit. It is important to ask the questions that philosophers, ancient and modern, have asked since the beginning of time. What does it mean to live the good life? What does it mean to be happy?

Is happiness a feeling, a choice? What is it? How can we be joyful when our experiences do not want to allow us to be? Here is one thing I have learned recently. Happiness does not come from the things we pursue. No thing, or person, or place can give you happiness because happiness comes from within. Your happiness is a gift you give to others. Your happiness is a culmination of the way you live. Your happiness is the direct result of your relationship with God.

The Scottish were oppressed for centuries. But through it all, they never lost their faith in God even when their enemies pushed them to cross the Atlantic, never knowing if the New World would be different then the one they left behind. They chose hope and created a new way of life to be free.

If you want to know what true happiness, true peacefulness, true repentance, and true purpose is…

Pledge your fealty to Christ today and start letting him live through you…

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

There is rest in Jesus…

And as always…

“Concerning culture, remember to survive (the British )…”

Laz,

(Note to reader: This is from the perspective of a demon, as is the plot of C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters.” Therefore, the roles and titles are swapped. Good is evil and evil is good.)

My Colleague,

You fool! You let him wander into the enemies camp! You allowed him to enter one of those filthy buildings topped with that wretched image! I dare say no tempter has ever made such a gross miscalculation so soon in the journey. You disgusting wretched fool! These things you speak of, the way he is motivated to rid himself of his addictions. The way he wants to change his relationships with others. He wants to fix his anger. Fix his lies. It is you that has allowed this to happen!

If there is any hope for you, it is, however, only one time, and though addictions have been built from less, you still may be able to use this to our advantage. Luckily for you, I know this place… very well. This place is one that I have used in the past and as you so kindly pointed out in your last letter, the filthy humans that claim they are with our enemy are by no means out of our reach. They sit upon the wall separating our side from the enemies but little do they know, it is our claws that set each of those lovely stones, one atop another, to make THEM feel safe from OUR enemy. How sweet the scent of fear becomes once they realize it’s too late and the blessed wall is ours.

An idiot like you needs even more instruction in these matters…

Consider this, your man, struggling from the weight our father below likes to put upon these creatures, finds purpose in this beautiful facade made in our enemy’s image. He finds God, -I shudder to say it- the real possibility does exist. But let’s imagine for a moment we make him think he does. We get those who work in our favor to feed him sweet little morsels of our enemy’s message, telling him he is safe, he is accepted, his guilt will be forgiven. The slug takes it willingly, biting into it ravenously like they all do, desperate to rid himself of the weight. He really does talk to Him, really does pray, really does read and for awhile, we lose him. Behold, the Christian.

But this group… this is the group for us. Keep him coming, night after night, groveling, seeking validation. Keep them gossiping and whispering, take his closest friends and have them feed him lies. “Don’t be so serious about this! We didn’t mean for you not to be fun anymore!”

Have them feed him their problems, feed him their sins, feed him their past, horrific they are. But look, they haven’t changed! Oh the glory! The drunkard still drinks, the liar still lies, the whore still whores, they curse, they spit, and they lust all in the name of the enemy’s grace and now… Oh now my dear Slubgob… even those who have never done such things are pulled in. Even those who have kept themselves pure, kept themselves safe are pulled in, in the name of acceptance and grace. The irony! The Carpenter’s cries for repentance are muffled by His own message and your man becomes just another lukewarm hell magnet. Ha!

You see my dear Slubgob, as a general rule of foreclaw we try our best to avoid these places. You know… they still have a slight stink to them, there is always the possibility your man opens his eyes and sees. But do not fret, nephew. For I am pleased to give you the most delicious secret the servants of the Prince of the Air can offer. It is us that has spun the web of the Western church. The intricate complex lies that have so muddied the waters, your man will never see clearly here. Play your cards right, and you will diminish every ounce of motivation to be obedient he has left. He’ll be taking shots with them in no time!

Keep me informed and as always, happy tempting.

Your affectionate colleague,

Slubgob

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The other day, I was scrolling through Substack reading a few different ideas when I came across a note that touched such a profound subject, that it could never be fully justified in this post, but hopefully, I can spark the thought in a few of my readers as well. This is the post…

“…To excite every nerve in the human body…”

I think about the mental stress that so many of my peers are under as I make my way through the higher education system here in the United States. The passage to financial stability is wrought with the broken bodies of so many young people that life has already tossed aside and discarded like trash. Those who are depressed, anxious, stressed, addicted, and looking for God; hopelessly groping for a handhold in the dark void that is called ‘future’. For what? To have the ability to possess things like a seventy inch television, the latest iPhone, the fastest car, the biggest house. Materials. Fake, synthetic material things that have been created by modern industries to provide a new, terrifyingly powerful port of pleasure that begs to be satisfied.

“…and keep it at the highest point of artificial tension…”

“…to strain every human desire to the limit…”

The endless climb up the hierarchical ladder as others fall from above us is addicting. The fleeting high one gets when a new status is achieved by means of the pursuit of materialism and worldly prosperity is so exquisite, yet fleeting as to be never-present and ever-experienceable. It forever possesses the souls of those who give even an inch of their lives to it, and never reveals itself to be the source of unhappiness in our lives. True, real, grossly imperfect (but beautifully so) humanity is thus, thrust aside in favor of a sterilized version of humanity that is passable enough to keep us engaged, but unsettling enough to depress us, stress us, and leave us desperately longing for more.

“…to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible…”

What even is a real, noble pursuit? Do we remember? Have the decades of false pursuits made us forget what reality is? Are we pursuing real justice, real truth, and real experiences?

• artificial intelligence (false sense of creativity),

• abortion (false sense of independence),

• transgenderism (false sense of womanhood/manhood),

• social media (false sense of community),

• obsession with politics (false sense of religion),

• pursuit of money (false sense of stability),

• meaningless college degrees (false sense of intelligence),

Every single item on the running list of pursuits by western civilization is all an artificial alternative to real experiences. Each item is a creation by which the various industries may enslave us for the good of themselves.

“…in order to cater to them…”

In our enslavement we enslave others. In our false pursuits, we push others further on their own. As we reach for the next rung on the ladder, and finally feel that false independence as we reach the top, it is all too easy to forget that we are still tied to the person below us… …and the one below him… …and the one below him… …in a never ending chain of false pursuit that is enabled by every man who chooses to participate.

I’d like to invite you to revisit the quote above and draw your own conclusions from it. It invokes quite a profound and horrifying thought. My conclusion can be found below.

What then, is real and worthy of our pursuit?

My conclusion comes from the book of Ecclesiastes, the only place we may find a true answer to this question (Read all of the bolded statements together after the verses).

The pursuit of knowledge is meaningless…

“…he who increases knowledge, increases sorrow.” [therefore, the pursuit of knowledge is vanity]

— Ecclesiastes 1:18

The pursuit of a career and riches and material things is meaningless…

“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity…”

— Ecclesiastes 2:11

“There is one alone, without companion: He has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labors, Nor is his eye satisfied with riches. But he never asks, “For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?” This also is vanity…”

— Ecclesiastes 4:8

“He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.”

— Ecclesiastes 5:10

The pursuit of fame and popularity is meaningless…

“There was no end of all the people over whom he was made king; yet those who come afterward will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity…”

— Ecclesiastes 4:16

Apart from the pursuit of God…

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.”

— Ecclesiastes 12:13

Therefore, my friends, let us bring every pursuit in our lives under the sovereignty of God. Let us ask ourselves: “to what purpose do I pursue such things?” Let us examine our lives and find hidden in them the places to which we devote our time in vain. Let us not forget our purpose. Fear God, Love others, and run well the race that has been set before us.

…and as always…

“Concerning culture, remember to survive.”

Laz

I would like to begin by stating where we are politically when it comes to abortion…

Abortion has been one of the main issues in our country for the past several years and even now, the topic was a main source of contention during the 2024 Presidential Debates. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the Supreme Court made the right to an abortion the decision of the states. This decision reflects ultimately what America was built on, the right of the People to decide the laws by which they are governed through their elected Representatives. Because of this, 14 states have now made the admirable decision to respect all human life by enacting a total ban on abortion, regardless of the age of the individual and there will hopefully be more states to follow their lead. The future, however, appears shaky as the 2024 democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, has pledged to support the supreme court if it decides to rollback their decision and remove the ability for states to regulate abortion. It is my personal opinion and the opinion of Founding Father and 4th President of the US, James Madison, that any time the federal government removes the right of the people to legislate themselves, and gives all power to one, singular party in the federal positions of power, (i.e. Democratic, Republican, etc.) this represents the situation that James Madison warned about when he wrote in the Federalist Papers:

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." ~ James Madison, The Federalist no. 47

And therefore, can be described as tyrannical. From a purely secularistic point of view, what is wanted is for states to have the right to determine their own legislation within reason. It is important to remember that this means if the people of California wants to allow the right to have an abortion and the people of Alabama decide they want it to be illegal, we cannot stop either states from enacting this by federal legislative or executive rule. This would be tyranny.

Moralistically, however, if abortion is indeed murder, (which I believe it is) then it is the moral and political obligation and duty of the Judiciary branch to make sure beyond a shadow of a doubt every American citizen’s rights are not being infringed upon.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are LIFE, LIBERTY and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS…” ~ Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

In other words… the People of the United States of America, have the Right to Live and to live well, regardless of age, race, gender, or any other defining trait. Conclusively, this means that in order to legally kill the children of our nation, we must:

A. Dehumanize them

or,

B. Deny them the Rights they are obligated to as people of this nation.

This is the state of abortion from a political point of view in this country.

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Why Do Women Want Abortions in the First Place?

All of this information on politics is important, but it does not really explain why abortion is such a problem in our current state. According to a survey given to more than 1100 women on reasons they got an abortion, the following was stated:

“The reasons most frequently cited were that having a child would interfere with a woman's education, work or ability to care for dependents (74%)…”

Having a child would interfere with my life. Having a child would be an inconvenience that I am not willing to accept so the best option is to just do away with the inconvenience.

Hold on, I will even use the “proper terms” for this…

I cannot have a baby, so I will “abort” this “fetus” because that is all it is. A clump of cells. No harm done.

This is a moralistic attitude not a political one. Our culture has taught us our whole lives that children are nothing but a burden, saying our lives will cease to exist once they come into existence. We run from our responsibilities and consequences towards the immaturity of the individualistic party-culture that has become Western society and in doing so, have left our children behind. Even places like churches, school, and even our own friends and family are now at the center point of the push for the hatred of children.

“A sign of sexual immorality… Reminder of your sin.” says the church.

“An inhibition to your intellect and education…” says the school.

“This ‘thing’ will ruin your life…” says friends and family.

All of these statements are referring to what is, in reality, the future of our humanity. The holy, innocent, beautiful gift from God that is a child is what they have declared to be the evil, impure, destroyer of lives. Therefore, let us begin by blaming our society for this cruel equivocation that is called “abortion”.

Women desire abortions because of the demands of society and nothing more. Our society has lifted women to the masculine role, causing her to question her identity and demanding such things from a woman that neither man or woman can hold alone. A woman is, in our age, now required to have an education, a career, and to raise children because to do or want otherwise would mean to be less than a man. The majority of women are not gallivanting around simply having abortions because it is fun and they like killing children (although I am sure there are a select few that know exactly what abortion is and are using it for their evil purpose). Most of them truly believe that there is no harm in what they are doing, because they have never been taught otherwise and never experienced the goodness of being a parent. Most of the are afraid that they will be unable to carry the responsibility of childrearing, and providing alone and based on the comments of their church, school, and family, they obviously could never expect help from them. And when they are suddenly confronted by someone telling them they deserve to be in prison for life for what they’ve done, they are naturally angry and defensive. Of course, abortion is unacceptable and we must be firm in our stance on defending the lives of the innocent, but in order to really make a dent in the problem, we must reverse the way our culture views children.

Remember these things next time you see a pregnant teen, or an unmarried pregnant woman in your church, or your friend whose idiotic, one-night stand with the guy at the bar took a turn for the “worse”. See to it that you are not the hypocrite that says you are against abortion, but secretly are instigating the hatred of children through your gossip and judgement. Hate the sin, but love the child.

And as always…

“Concerning culture, remember to survive…”

Laz,

References:

Finer, L. B., Frohwirth, L. F., Dauphinee, L. A., Singh, S., & Moore, A. M. (2022). Reasons U.S. women have abortions: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Guttmacher Institute. https://www.guttmacher.org/journals/psrh/2005/reasons-us-women-have-abortions-quantitative-and-qualitative-perspectives

Toxic positivity, as defined by Psychology Today, “is the act of avoiding, suppressing, or rejecting negative emotions or experiences.” Mostly, this is being defined how it pertains to the individual who is experiencing it, but not much is being said about how it applies to others when the individual uses it as a tool to make other’s emotions invalid as well. I am referring to something that we all probably have felt at one time or another, and we just didn’t know it. It is what I like to refer to as Covert Weaponized Positivity.

“Toxic Positivity is the act of avoiding, suppressing, or rejecting negative emotions or experiences…” — Psychology Today

Covert Weaponized Positivity is not an official term that is recognized by the APA, but I would like to define it as follows: “A demeanor, often mistaken for positivity, that allows an individual to covertly shame/degrade another using a fake positive personality. This is often accompanied by an over-exaggeration of how one lives their life (i.e. the Instagram life).”

When an individual uses this against someone, they make someone feel as if they are the only one with negative thoughts. They use a twisted sense of positivity to form a shield against criticism by making the critic feel as if it is there own sense of cynicism that’s the problem. They do this by creating an atmosphere, often amongst many meetings, posts, videos, or events, creating a false sense of an immaculate lifestyle. They will use these skills in order to manipulate someone into feeling as if they are privileged to be invited into this space, therefore making them feel ashamed if they ever dare to critique it. Why would they do this? Control. In order to keep followers coming back, they must make the person long to have the happy lifestyle, positive personality, or kind of family that they have. This can be done primarily through social media as well which leads to all sorts of issues such as depression and anxiety. Though this term may not be within the APA, it goes hand in hand with cluster B personality disorders such as Narcissism.

Why do I feel the need to write about this particular topic? Well, I’m willing to bet that most of you know someone like this. A person that rubs you the wrong way, but you just can’t articulate why. You can never pin point one specific thing that they have ever done wrong, but every time you are around them, your space begins to wreak with the burning sensation of falseness. They are so bubbly, active, kind, and generous, but something is wrong. The beginning of your relationship was amazing, but after time has passed, something feels off about them. Your relationship eventually ends disastrously and leaves you feeling as if you were the problem all along. Why couldn’t you love them like everyone else does?

My goal is to show you that even through something as uplifting as positivity, a person is able to belittle others. Don’t get me wrong, it is very important to first look within ourselves to determine if our dislike comes from the wrong place. “Is the reason I am put off by this person because I am secretly jealous of them? Do I envy them? Why do they make me feel so uncomfortable?” But once we have established that we are being honest with ourselves and are not at fault for our feelings, we can begin to realize that not every thing that appears good really is. As humans, we are specifically designed to be able to sense when something is amiss. Our brains are profoundly good at finding things that are out of place or unusual. So next time your brain tells you something is off about a person, do not beat yourself up because there appears to be nothing wrong. Stop and think about why you are having a particular feeling. I’m willing to bet you have it for a reason.

And as always…

“Concerning culture, remember to survive…”

Laz

References:

Carmichael, C. (2021). What is toxic positivity?. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-high-functioning-hotspot/202107/what-is-toxic-positivity

My Colleague,

To start our beautiful campaign against the subject, I would like to advise you in the most important part of college.

Isolation.

What you must do is remove any influence of the family. Right now, your greatest enemy is his parents whom I cannot see because of their… vile beliefs. They will continually keep him in line with their regime and you will be unable to catch him while they are doing this. But do not despair, my dear friend. The enemy created these stupid creatures in a way that your boy is already looking for his freedom. Therefore, it will be quite simple now to convince him that his parents are ignorant fools, hell-bent, or… I might say, heaven-bent on keeping him under their thumbs.

Whisper in his ear everytime he calls his mother. Embarrass him when they visit. Take the most innocent loving actions and make them seem like control. Destroy his respect for them, and he will build himself up. He has already given you a series of yeses to slowly change his course. He desires great things and in doing so… we shall give them to him.

I must go now, but I will send more soon.

Happy Tempting, Your affectionate colleague…

Slubgob

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Little Monsters:
Examining the Causation of Aggression in Children

{REDACTED} Alias: Laz McCollum

{REDACTED}

Psychology Department

{REDACTED}

Due Date: December 8, 2023

(NOTE: Changes could be made)

Little Monsters

Introduction

Understanding aggression in preschool and elementary school aged children has had a surprising impact on the way we treat children with behavior disorders. The reason why it is important to identify budding aggressive behavior in this age group is because “the elementary-school period is critically important to the later phases of a person’s life, in terms of… [] …empathy skills.” (Avci, 2021) Further studying this part of human development will give the potential for psychologists to predict future issues that may arise in the child’s life such as “…problems at school, delinquency, and [the child’s] psychopathology.” (Gonzalez-Pena, 2013)

The most common theme found in the sources discussed in this review was the idea that parenting style was the biggest determiner regarding disruptive-aggressive behavior in kids, but a child’s genetics and brain development plays a role as well in determining a child’s disposition.  The single, most important issue that needs to be addressed is the lack of research in this area of childhood development. Questions such as: how much does parenting styles determine the disposition of a child, what environmental causes other than parenting style may cause a child to become aggressive, and what role does genetics play in the development of aggression, are just a few questions that need to be addressed to further our preparedness to help those dealing with children who have behavioral disorders.

Parenting Style

As in any case involving children, it is important to first recognize the role that different aspects of parenting styles play into the development of a child. Since empathy and other general human development (such as physical, psychosocial, cognitive, linguistic, etc.) come directly from parental mimicry, it is the role of the parent to ‘teach’ the behavior that they want their child to exhibit. This is exactly the argument being made in a study conducted by Gonzalez-Pena. When examining the role of temperament and family socialization, it was found that “…parenting variables [are] increasingly important with age in identifying groups with low and high aggression levels…” (Gonzalez-Pena, 2013) and “… it is mainly deficient levels of affect, rather than control that form the basis of aggressive behavior.” (Gonzalez-Pena, 2013) The research done into parenting styles that has now become common knowledge (i.e. the research done into Authoritarian, Authoritative, Permissive, Negligent) supports this idea. The Authoritative Style of parenting being the most desirable because of the way that it exhibits affect while also maintaining enough control to properly discipline a child.

 To summarize this finding, the research supports that it is not a lack of parental control, but rather the lack of influence through the regular presentation of proper behavior that positively correlates to aggressive behavior. Also, the lack of affection demonstrated by the parent to the child. The findings support the various hypotheses found in this study including the idea that too much autonomy too soon in children favor the appearance of reactive aggressive behavior.

Number-of-Siblings Impact on Empathy Skills

Another aspect to consider when discussing the psychology of children is the size and influence of the rest of the family. A single child may not develop the same comfortability with sharing as a child with five siblings may have. In another study used to measure the empathy of fourth graders using a quantitative survey-based approach found that “the empathy skill levels of the [participants] who had five or more siblings were higher than those of their peers who had one or two siblings.” (Avci, 2021) This presents the idea that routine, empathic actions such as sharing, and cooperating are healthy actions for children to have to exercise. Having multiple children would effectively give the parents another way of demonstrating or controlling the behavior they would like to see by enforcing rules regarding cooperation between children, supporting the idea that having siblings has a positive impact on a child’s behavior.

Peer Influence

In a study conducted by Christopher Powers of the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (Powers, 2013), it was found that there were three aspects of peer relations and its correlation to aggressive-disruptive behavior: peer dislike, reciprocated friends’ aggressiveness, and classroom levels of aggressive-disruptive behavior.  The main aspects that I would like to focus on are peer dislike, and classroom levels of aggression. “Peer dislike may increase aggressive-disruptive behavior by isolating children from the positive peer experiences that support prosocial development and foster peaceful negotiation skills and by exposing children to higher levels of peer rebuff and ill treatment, which fuel anger and elicit aggressive retaliation…” (Powers, 2013), and  “…although the size of the direct effect of classroom aggression is small, because it affects all children in a given classroom and frequently has compounding effects across multiple years, the total effect on the population may be larger than the small effect size would typically indicate.” (Powers, 2013)

This study is essentially highlighting the idea that peer influence plays a larger part of developing aggression in children then otherwise realized by researchers. It is supporting the hypotheses that disruption in the classroom as well as reciprocated aggression by a child’s fellow peers, even in small effects, can have compounding effects over the years and will influence the outcome of a child’s empathy/aggression levels.

Genetics

Until now, we have only examined external causes of high aggression/low empathy levels in children. Let’s focus for a moment on the possible internal causes. I would like to first point out the importance that the Amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) play in aggression and regulating emotions. At the Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience at the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, researchers have provide a link between mPFC function and aggression stating: “In humans, many studies have reported a link between brain damage to the frontal cortex and increased aggressive behaviour. These findings are consistent with reports that individuals who rank highly on measure of reactive aggression show lower than average baseline-activity in the frontal cortex. The frontal cortex provides inhibitory inputs to circuits in the hypothalamus and amygdala that might promote aggression.” (Nelson, 2007) This shows how the different parts of the brain may affect the ability of an individual to control oneself, but let’s apply this to children.

 The study conducted by Sandra Thijssen and others seeks to answer whether “parents may play an important role in child emotion regulations…” and if “as a consequence, adverse caregiving may affect amygdala and mPFC development.” (Thijssen, 2017) The findings support the hypotheses stated above. The researchers found by conducting resting-state Amygdala fMRI testing that “…less sensitive parenting accelerates amygdala-mPFC circuit development.” This would effectively lead the child to begin to develop independence and self-regulation early (Thijssen, 2017) and, as we established in the examination of a previous study in this paper, this is not a good thing in terms of regulating a child’s aggression.

This study, from what I can tell, fails to fully elaborate on what it means by more and less “sensitive” parents and therefore, somewhat confuses the reader. The definition of “sensitive” is “quick to detect and respond to slight changes.” One can only assume that the researchers are meaning the level of care that the child is receiving from the parents. I think it would be more beneficial to elaborate on exactly what is meant by “sensitive parent”.

Conclusion

The sources used to discuss aggressiveness in children throughout this review all support the idea that aggressiveness in children is primarily caused through the child’s direct familial environment though genetic makeup has an impact as well. Educating parents on how to properly treat their child during development to foster a growth of natural empathy and how to ‘show’ the child behaviors they want imitated would almost certainly increase the likelihood of producing a kinder, less aggressive child. I could find no obvious flaws or shortcomings in my review of the sources used; only questions that were presented and then left unanswered. Is empathy an inherent human characteristic or a learned behavior? Understanding it does play a role, how much does a child’s genetics contribute to developing aggressive behavior? (i.e., monoamine oxidase A, Prefrontal cortex, and Amygdala development, etc.) I would like to see future research done on these two specific questions to further understand the science behind human aggression.

Sources

Avci, E., & Sak, R. (2021). The relationship between parenting styles and fourth graders' levels of empathy and aggressiveness. Current Psychology, 40(2), 510+. https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.utsouthern.edu/apps/doc/A653014215/AONE?u=tel_a_mmcwml&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=22caf7f4

Gonzalez-Pena, P., Egido, B. D., Carrasco, M. A., & Tello, F. P. H. (2013). Aggressive behavior in children: the role of temperament and family socialization. Spanish Journal of Psychology, 16, NA. https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.utsouthern.edu/apps/doc/A419413147/AONE?u=tel_a_mmcwml&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=c8825c79

Nelson, R. J., & Trainor, B. C. (2007). Neural mechanisms of aggression. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn2174

Powers CJ;Bierman KL; (2013). The multifaceted impact of peer relations on aggressive-disruptive behavior in early elementary school. Developmental psychology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22545840/

Thijssen, S., Muetzel, R. L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M., Jaddoe, V. W. V., Tiemeier, H., Verhulst, F. C., . . . Van Ijzendoorn, M.,H. (2017). Insensitive parenting may accelerate the development of the amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex circuit. Development and Psychopathology, 29(2), 505-518. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579417000141

(Just thought I’d post my latest research on here in my Psych section. Hope you enjoy it.)

“Concerning culture, remember to survive…”

Laz

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Have mercy on me, my Father, 
According to your promises of old, 
In the Son's holy name I ask, 
If I may be so bold.

I ask that you would spare me,
Erase my sin and shame, 
Blotch out all transgressions,
Lord, I pray this in thy name.

For how often have I failed thee, 
I’m an insult to your name,
Wait is that the Devil talking, 
Or is that the wind and rain. 

I feel your call upon me,
I feel it and I claim, 
The innocence I left behind,
Oh, please come back again. 

Until then,
I have one request,
I ask this faithfully,
Don’t let me suffer for my sins,
Please let me die for thee. 

Your kingdom come, 
Your will be done, 
Hail the victorious king,
Damn to hell the evil one,
Come take me home to thee. 

- Laz McCollum

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(NOTE: If you deem it fit, please use the direct links below because I will earn a bit of commission. It’ll help me pay for my samwichs XD.)

The Radio Itself

The UV5R is considered by many as a go-to for survivalists, preppers, and anyone who wants two-way tactical-esque communications. It can operate on a variety of different frequencies including civilian, marine, and ham bands. More information on signal intelligence can be found here.

Battery Upgrade

The battery upgrade is the most important because it will allow you to operate your radio for longer. It is the one that I recommend getting first.

Antenna Upgrade (You will need THIS adapter as well)

This antenna upgrade will allow you to get better performance out of your radio as well as give you the option to quickly detach your antenna to connect it to an external jungle antenna if you have one. You MUST purchase the adapter if you plan on using this antenna. There are other options if you do not want to use the adapter.

Headset

This will allow you to have almost hands-free communications and you can also whisper into it and if your buddies have a headset, it makes communications almost completely silent. I would recommend this headset in any situation including when carrying a rifle. The ability to hear AND communicate in a very dangerous situation is more important then being able to hear when you are 70.

3D Printable Upgrade

This cage keeps the user from hitting buttons by accident. A must if you have ever used radios in a tactical environment. Worst thing you could have happen is to accidentally hit the PTT while you are trying to be silent.

(NOTE: I would be willing to 3D Print a version of this and ship it somewhere in the 48 contingent for $10 if anyone lacks the ability to do it themselves. Just send me a DM or comment.)

Tactical Version of the Radio

There is a tactical version of the radio that I have come to like ok. It has less upgradable parts but from what I have seen, I don’t think you need it.

There you go! I hope this helps! Feel free to check out some of my other posts. Most don’t have anything to do with preparedness but if I get enough interest, I will start a series of posts on the ideal settings for these radios and more preparedness content. Feel free to leave comments below…

“Concerning culture, remember to survive…”

Laz

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Wisdom is a thing for old men,
Sitting by an open fire,
They think of life’s drear gone by,
With much regret, remembering sins committed,
Made when they were fools,
With character none should admire;

They think of things that could have been different,
If they hadn’t believed the lies
Told to them by their closest friends,
About life and its responsibility,
They think now only of repentance
And of how important it is for youth to be wise

- Laz McCollum

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