Judges, not Kings - Anarchy in the Bible

I've finally gotten round to read the Bible. In part because I want to check for myself whether or not Christianity is compatible with anarchy.

Slow going at first

For anyone interested in reading the Bible, I can highly recommend it. I'm about a quarter into the old testament, and things are happening at a blistering pace. However, there are some slow moving sections earlier on that it took some effort get through.

Endless lists of names, numbers and measurements related to clan structures, and sacred objects, isn't my favorite reading. So, I skimmed through it, as any sensible reader would do, and nothing was lost in the process.

The pain was well worth it, though. Because the endless ramblings formed a solid basis for the continued development of the story. With all the laws and regulations, as well as all the tribes, well documented. The stage is set for all the action to come.

Collective consciousness

There are a lot of noteworthy stories and anecdotes everywhere in the text. Too much to note in a short post like this one. But some things stand out.

First of all, I get a strong sense that I'm reading about a collective consciousness. Adam and Eve wake up from a sort of slumber. Violence and murder ensues. Human sacrifices are common all around. But Abraham realizes that this is a sin.

He instigates a new practice. Instead of offering first born boys to god through slaughter, they are offered in a poetic sense. They become priests.

But this creates too many priests. So, Moses changes things around. The tribe of Levi gets a monopoly on priesthood.

However, this too goes wrong. There is a realization that priesthood should be open for anyone who wants to become a priest. Instead of inheritance, it becomes a calling.

Judges, not kings

Samuel becomes the first priest that's not a Levite. He anoints Saul as king. Then, realizing that it was a mistake, he anoints David.

What follows is a civil war with the house of Soul fighting against the house of David.

But Israel was never meant to have kings in the first place. Samuel anointed Saul against his wishes. David is later anointed in order to fix the mistake. However, the true mistake was the decision to have kings in the first place.

Because Moses made it clear in his set of rules that there should only be judges, freely chosen by the people. Israel was meant to be an anarchy.

Samuel knew this. He warned about the consequences. He anointed a king for Israel, only because the people insisted.

Civilization is progressing

All of this happens in an environment where cities become larger. There's a sense of progress despite all the unhinged violence and destruction that's going on.

Interestingly, there's no mention of the devil, nor any heavenly court thus far in my reading. God rules supreme. The evil spirits that torment Saul and others come from God, not the devil. Even the snake in the garden of Eden is a creation of God.

Another interesting point is that other gods are recognized as real entities, despite their impotence. But only the Lord gives people freedom and prosperity. Worship any other god, and you end up poor and enslaved.

But people get tempted by empty promises, and they get themselves into trouble.

However, none of this changes the core features of the religion. Even as society moves towards a system of kings and social hierarchies, the religion remains unchanged. There's one true god, and that's it.

God's kingdom on Earth

Both bronze and iron is mentioned in these early stories, so we're looking at things as they were some four thousand years ago. We're a long way from meeting Jesus. But a prediction is made. David's descendants will eventually birth a king that will rule us all.

So, the stage is set for continued strife and slaughter. But also for some future king that will rule everybody in peace.

Fast forward to the last book in the Bible, and we learn that a new Jerusalem will descend from heaven, with Jesus as eternal king, and with no churches or temples anywhere.

Moses gets vindicated. The only king is God himself.

The end goal is to live free from earthly kings, priests and rulers.

In other words. Anarchy is the ultimate goal for humanity.

Moses

By the Providence Lithograph Company - http://thebiblerevival.com/clipart/1907/ex14.jpg, Public Domain, Link

Lessons from Minneapolis

“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.”

— Thomas Sowell

This week, we saw the fatal shooting of an anti-ICE demonstrator in Minneapolis, which reminds us of the importance of not facing the state head on.

From the footage we've seen, the shooting looks excessive. But that's the privilege of the state. If you go face to face against it, you may well get a bullet through your head, just like Renee Nicole Good found out the hard way.

Based on this, we can skip any discussion about the justification, or absence there of. However, this is precisely what everybody is focusing on.

That's exactly how politicians like it. Because they thrive in the antagonism that they create. The polarization of opinions creates a red team against blue team atmosphere, which in turn creates calls for new laws and regulations.

It's a win-win situation for both the red and the blue team. Politicians get more power, and everybody else lose.

However, if we make a simple observation like: "It was excessive but legal," and leave it at that, we can get on with our lives, largely unaffected by the turmoil created. Instead of focusing on the actions of the individuals involved, we can look behind the scenes to see what caused the situation in the first place.

This is where an anarchist view of the world comes in handy. Because, in an anarchy, this conflict would not have occurred.

Without taxation and subsidies, there's no incentive to move into a country in search of special favors.

So, the creation of the ICE task forces could have been avoided simply by cutting subsidies. A few cuts here and there would have had a greater deterrent effect on illegal immigrants than what the ICE agents are able to create.

But this peaceful solution wouldn't create the dynamic red vs. blue situation that we're now seeing. So, it never comes up as a suggested solution to problems. It simply isn't in the interest of politicians to create a stable non-antagonistic climate of trust and respect.

Thomas Sowell

By Internet Archive Book Images - https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14569447530/Source book page: https://archive.org/stream/belltelephonemag4344amerrich/belltelephonemag4344amerrich#page/n356/mode/1up, Public Domain, Link

Intervention in Venezuela

Here are some bullet points of what the Trump administration achieved with its night raid of Caracas, and what we can expect to see going forward:

• A more cooperative tone from the new government in Caracas.
• Venezuelan oil no longer sold in other currencies than the dollar.
• Oil prices will be kept low through increased output from Venezuela.
• Trial of Mr. and Mrs. Maduro will expose criminal involvement by western banks and politicians opposed to Trump and his policies.
• Mr. and Mrs. Maduro will most likely go free. But only after many revelations related to criminal activities among Trump's foes.
• This will help Trump win the midterm elections.

Monroe doctrine

By Louis Dalrymple - https://diplomacy.state.gov/stories/the-monroe-doctrine-the-united-states-and-latin-american-independence/, Public Domain, Link

Continued Snow and Ice Accumulation

Winter is well on its way, and the UN's own data indicate that it's going to be a snowy one.

Snow and Ice accumulation 2025 to 2026

Just like last winter:

Snow and Ice accumulation 2024 to 2025

And the winter before that:

Snow and Ice accumulation 2023 to 2024

If this trend continues, we'll be having the sixth straight winter with above average snow fall, according to the UN's own scientists.

Glaciation

Note that every year ends with accumulation of snow and ice. So, we can conclude that the northern hemisphere is in fact gaining ice, and that this has been going on for six years straight.

Nine Year Cycles

Numerology has a fascination for the number nine. So, when a year is divisible by nine, they give it special significance. It is, according to this superstition, the end of a cycle. A year of completion, whereupon a new cycle starts.

So, 2025 is considered an important because it's divisible by nine. As it happens it's also divisible by nine times nine, which makes it even more significant.

Personal experience

This triggered my curiosity. Because it fits well with my own situation, as well as that of many of my nearest.

Going nine years back in time, I was in the process of selling my house in Asker, Norway. The money I made from this, I put into gold, which I have just started selling. My wife and I have just bought a house in Fermil de Basto, Portugal for some of the gold we purchased nine years ago.

Nine years before then, I had just started my move out of Norway. This move didn't fully complete before I sold my house in Asker.

Family and friends

My daughter in Norway has similarly bought a house in Bergen this year.

My oldest son in Norway has had something of a break through as a cameraman on film sets. He's gone from nine years of struggle to up and coming. Nine years into the future, he's likely to be well established.

My youngest son in Norway works for a company that has recently expanded. So, he's likely to see more responsibilities and better salaries.

My wife has, after nine years+ of struggle, established herself in the niche trade of machine knitting. She's seeing success both as a teacher and in sales of her products.

My stepdaughter has established herself as an interpreter in the EU parliament.

A friend of mine here in Porto has bought a house, and gotten married.

Politics

2025 marked the end of a bigger cycle that started nine times nine years ago. That would be 1944. The end of the second world war, and the start of the welfare state. An unsustainable system that is unlikely to last for much longer.

This coincides well with my sense that 2022 marked a turning point in politics. The chaos that we've seen over the last nine years are typical for the end of unsustainable systems. We're moving into a new era where people will rely less on the state. Most institutions introduced after 1944 will be gone within the next eight decades.

Super-cycles

Built into this logic, we have super-cycles that last 9^3 years. That is 729.

With year 1 being the height of the Roman empire, under emperor Augustus, we have a natural start to our cycles.

Year 729, although unremarkable in itself, is smack in the middle of the so called dark ages. The political structure is no longer that of empire. Instead, we had private kingdoms.

However, private kingdoms came to an end some 729 years later. By1458, the renaissance was in full swing. Private states changed into nation states. Taxation became systematic. The state went from being a private enterprise, often privately funded, to a powerful machinery of taxation, warfare, colonialism and corporate expansion.

This system is still in operation. But we are past its peak. The death of the welfare state is likely to take the nation state down with it. A new system will emerge. Most likely based on natural law and voluntary interactions between individuals.

The start of this new super-era will according to the super-cycle theory be year 2187. That is only two big cycles away. We can therefore expect the nation state to whither away over the next 162 years.

There will be an attempt to revive this dying system during this coming big cycle. There will also be a last ditch attempt to do so in the next big cycle. But the nation state will be as archaic in 2187 as Rome was in 729. Everybody will remember it, often fondly. But no-one will seriously try to revive it.

Vitality and strength

By Andrea del Castagno - The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, Link

Annual Status Update

Things are going to change at a brisker pace going forward, so I will update our status annually rather than biannually as has been my habit until now.

The change in pace is due to the house my wife and I bought in October. It requires refurbishment, which means that we're in the process of moving some of our gold into real-estate.

We have in other words started a process of rebalancing.

The following changes have taken place in the markets since my previous assessments:

The Dow/Gold ratio has declined, which means that gold has outperformed the Dow:

• Jan 2017 = 16.4
• Jan 2019 = 18.2
• Jan 2021 = 16.2
• Jan 2023 = 18.8
• Jan 2025 = 16.3
• Jan 2026 = 10.0

The PSI20/Gold ratio is also down, continuing its quarter century decline. It's currently standing at an all time low of 70.

Having rebalanced in October, we're now equally exposed to real-estate and gold:

• Jan 2017: 10 part real-estate, 20 part gold, 5 part cash - for a total of 35
• Jan 2019: 15 part real-estate, 20 part gold, 5 part cash - for a total of 40
• Jan 2021: 20 part real-estate, 30 part gold, 3 part cash - for a total of 53
• Jan 2023: 24 part real-estate, 33 part gold, 3 part cash - for a total of 60
• Jan 2025: 24 part real-estate, 40 part gold, 6 part cash - for a total of 70
• Jan 2026: 5 part real-estate, 5 part gold, 1 part cash - for a total of 11

Looking forward in time, we expect to see the following balance by this time next year:

• Jan 2027: 6 part real-estate, 5 part gold, 1 part cash - for a total of 12

The projected numbers are based on an assumption of higher real-estate and gold prices. But our shift from gold to real-estate will benefit our real-estate holdings at the expense of our gold holding.

British gold sovereign

By Benedetto Pistrucci - Own work, Public Domain, Link

Significant Changes in Reported Deaths

It's now six years since the beginning of the pandemic. Yet, according to Wikipedia's data, we're still seeing excess deaths, sometimes as high as 60%.

Excess deaths according to Wikipedia

From the above chart, we see that April and May of 2021 was particularly bad.

We can also see a new tendency for December. Because it has been persistently deadly ever since 2020.

Finally, we can see that big excess death numbers didn't appear before March 2020. That was the month the state got involved. Health bureaucrats began prescribing new health procedures, medication and lockups.

From this alone, we get an indication that it was the state, rather than the virus, that caused the excess deaths.

Excess deaths started with government mandates, peaked with the introduction of vaccines in 2021, and remained persistently high ever since.

December has become a particularly severe month due to annual shots being administrated in November.

But the story doesn't end here. Because there is more evidence to be found from analysis of what age groups are hit the hardest.

Deaths before 70

People don't normally die before the age of 70. So, it's interesting to see at what age the deaths occur. Because it tells us what age group is the hardest hit.

Deaths before 70 years of age

From the above chart, we see that deaths among those younger than 70 jumped higher in 2021, and that it remained high until 2025. Then, there was a curious drop from 22.5% to 20.5% in 2025.

This is remarkable. So, something significant must have happened.

Either, Wikipedia has introduced a new policy, where young deaths are underreported, or the behavior of those older than 70 has diverged from that of younger people.

If the numbers are underreported we must conclude that the actual numbers are higher than presented.

On the other hand, if this is due to a change in behavior, we have even more reason to suspect the vaccine. Because the significant change in behavior we've seen the past year is a growing skepticism against the vaccine among young people. While old people still get their annual shots, young people don't.

So, we can again conclude that the vaccine has done more harm than good, and that it continues to do so.