In the state of despair there is nobody and nothing that accepts. However, there is the power of acceptance itself which is experienced. Meaninglessness, as long as it is experienced, includes an experience of the “power of acceptance.” To accept this power of acceptance consciously is the religious answer of absolute faith, of a faith which had been deprived by doubt of any concrete content, which nevertheless is faith and the source of the most paradoxical manifestation of the courage to be. The pleasure principle tends to dominate the mindset of the public order offender. These persons are usually driven by short-term gratification and thus possess a self-interested and shortsighted outlook at the time of the offense. This observation is perhaps best evidenced by the high levels of drug and alcohol use that exist at the time of the offending. In our survey of state prison inmates, we discovered that 54 percent of persons serving time on drug possession charges and 51 percent of persons incarcerated on drug trafficking charges admit to being under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they committed their crimes. High levels of substance use and abuse have also been observed in studies of prostitutes, johns, and pimps. Public order offenders are driven by a host of instrumental and expressive motives. More often than not, persons of the production/distribution side of the public order crime equation are motivated by the promise of financial returns. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

Many drug dealers see legitimate jobs as being unattainable or even “sucker’s work” and thus choose their illicit trade as a means of easy and free-flowing cash. This theme was well evidenced in our interviews with crack dealers. As one respondent put it: “It’s better money than everything. Make twenty dollars in one second, two seconds. It’s better than robbery; it’s better than everything. I done made three $100 sales in one minute one time.” Research on street pimps and house madams indicates that these sex brokers are “in it for the money” and status (id est, gender domination and “player” label) that goes with the job. Prostitutes, on the other hand, tend to exhibit a broader range of motivations. Most all prostitutes talk about the money that goes along with their trade; however, prostitutes often use their involvements in the sex industry to fill an emotional (love) or psychological (pain, low self-esteem) void within themselves. Persons who occupy the client role in public order offenses tend to be motivated by self-gratification or self-enrichment. These offenders seek the euphoria that comes from getting high or having sex. For example, pleasure pursuits such as being with an exotic or aggressive woman or fulfilling sexual fantasies tend to be primary motivational factors for persons who solicit prostitutes. The problem, however, is that these hedonistic pursuits have a propensity to get out of hand. Over time, individuals may become so dependent upon their chosen vice that survival or maintenance replaced what used to be the pursuit of pleasure. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

Public order transactions tend to be preceded by rudimentary exercises in planning an target selection. While many of these processes are streamlined by the existence of mutual benefits between the distributor and client, perpetrators of public order means that the transactions must take on a somewhat covert quality so that the participants’ intentions and behaviors are not clearly evident to the public and members of law enforcement. Criminal exchanges are generally modeled in one of three ways: the client and distributor can maintain a steady and private relationship; the distributor can make him or herself available in a public location and then wait for the client to intermittently “cruise” by; or the client may wait for the distributor to contact him or her directly when goods or services become available. Each category is preceded by its own form of planning and target selection process. Drug dealing is typically characterized by the first transactional exchange, wherein a single dealer serves as a main source for a given user. A recent study of drug users in six U.S.A. cities found that nearly half of the power cocaine and heroin users relied on a single dealer to supply them with their drugs. Crack users were found to be less selective in their behaviors with just more than one-third saying that they maintained a steady source. A drug user who has a go-to source can often predict the quality of the product that one will receive as well as the hours of operations, predictable location, and choice of substances that will be available. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

For the dealer, a steady roster of users helps to maintain a regular intake of cash, impose more rigid rule of operation, and limit the possibility of apprehension. These factors serve to streamline the planning and target selection processes and enable the participants to pattern their relationship. Street prostitution is often organized around a “cruising” model of exchange. Male and female prostitutes alike are known to frequent the same stretch of road, commonly known as a “track,” and make themselves visible to oncoming motorists in hopes of getting a “date.” All the prostitute has to do is look the part, be available to clients, and avoid the attention of the police. The john, on the other hand, must identify a suitable sex partner, negotiate a price, and avoid apprehension from undercover and uniformed police officers. Similar patterns of exchange and target selection have been observed in groups of drug dealers, call girls and gigolos, hotel and bar prostitutes (id est, b-girls), and brothel prostitutes, pimps, and madams. In each of these cases, a seemingly never-ending source of would-be client seek out these service providers in a known location and then go about negotiating terms and consummating the exchange. Much more rare are public order crime exchanges in which the distributor seeks out the would-be client. Drug producers (id est, grower and manufacturers) and smugglers are prone to this model. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

We have documented scenarios in which a given drug smuggler will intermittently contact prospective dealers when one comes into possession of large quantities of a drug. On occasion, entrepreneurial pimps or prostitutes are know to drum up business by making their rounds at the local conventions or casinos. Much of the planning and target selection that exists in these types of exchanges must come from the person in the distributor role. Public order offenses get framed as relatively minor transgression against the moral or righteous order of society. Drug use and prostitution are not framed so much as evil in their own right as they are indications of weak personal character, or a need for money, or maybe a need for stress release or attention, or bonding. This being the case, persons who engage in these acts usually invoke a series of normative neutralizations in an effort to protect or defend their moral standing. Necessity is a common theme that emerges among public order offenders. Prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, and other persons who occupy a distributor role in the public order equation tend to rely on these activities as a primary or secondary source of income. They involve themselves in the underground economy of vice because they see limited options in the legitimate economy. This gives way to a survivalist mentality in which conceptions of “right or wrong” take a backseat to making a livable wage. #RandolphHarri 5 of 19

Ironically, most of the proceeds from these illegal transactions do not go toward noble expenditure such as food and rent. Instead, the money tends to be spent on frivolous purchase (id est, clothes or socializing) or get used to finance some sort of addiction (id est, drugs, alcohol, or gambling). When drug dealers and pimps spend foolishly and lavishly on leisure pursuits, they are apt to justify this spending (and the criminal activities that supported such spending) by protesting that they have earned it. In short, if the dealer has to put his or her life and freedom on the line to fill a void in the drug market, then surely he or she is  entitled to some just reward. A somewhat different set of neutralizations are deployed by those who suffer from an addiction. This would include prostitutes, pimps, or drug dealers (id est, distributors) who decide to spend their “hard earned” cash on drugs, alcohol, or other pleasure pursuit. This observation also extends to the clients (drug users or johns) who habitually purchase the illicit goods or services on the illegal market. These persons tend to distance themselves from responsibility and direct attention to the addictive state, not the crime itself. In short, they skirt personal responsibility by claiming that the addiction left them without realistic options. This pattern is well evidenced in regards to street prostitutes, and heroin users. Regardless of their specific manifestations, public order criminals can become quite adept at deflecting blame and guilt for their actions. This is largely a biproduct of offenders who tend to exhibit long, drawn out deviant histories that afford the plenty of practice and reinforcement of their criminal thoughts and behaviors. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

Reasoning as a limited cognitive function, detached from the personal center, never could create courage. One cannot remove anxiety by arguing it away. There are different phases of life when social-legal condition has an impact on development of mental health. Social-legal conditions during: Infancy: To minimize the traditional penalties of minority status—crowing, deprivation, neglect—is to increase the chances of life for children in these restricted groups. Childhood: If a family lives in residential community designed for family living and for children’s safety and play, then the children’s health will thrive more than in an area oriented mainly to adult males. Preadolescence: Dramatization of the public interest in the welfare of children—particularly its concern and intervention in cases of illtreament—causes parents to give children better protection than where the public seems indifferent.. Adolescence: Legal and moral emphasis on responsibility toward others creates an atmosphere more favorable to the growth of sexual competence than emphasis upon restraint of sexual interests. Adulthood: As women feel accorded equal status at large, they gain in capacity for sexual response. Later maturity: Health of the aged is directly a function of whether as a class they experience tangible evidence of respect or rejection. Interpersonal conditions during: Infancy: If parents are accepted as adults by parental figures, they can in turn more readily give parental care. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

Well covered is the bearing of continuous affection upon physical and mental health, but rarely discussed is how love might be enhanced for the unloved and the unloving. Childhood: The cared-for child learns to value and care for oneself, by avoiding risks and following rules, when these rules are conceived as protection and not as restraint. Preadolescence: An optimum alternation between isolation and stimulation is directly related to patterns of energy-use that fall between apathy and overstimulation. Adolescence: Clear-cut models of sex identification improve the chances of sexual competence and reduce frigidity and impotency. Adulthood: Control of fertility is a function of full communication and common intent between husband and wife. Later maturity: Retaining an audience or finding new audiences, before whom one wishes to do well, is conducive to continuous health. Educational conditions during: Infancy: Recognition by parents and others of each gain made in the child’s physical development builds up assurance and appetite for further ventures. Childhood: Sympathetic responses of others to signs of the child’s physical state help the child to recognize their meaning and importance: teaching one to report them explicitly is the basis for ultimate self-regulation. Preadolescence: The responsibility of looking after pet animals provides a dramatic basis for learning hygiene. Adolescence: Understanding of physiology reduces anxiety over rapid development and makes the emergence of sexual functioning a welcome attainment and thus contributes to sexual competence. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

Adulthood: Full access to knowledge of sexual techniques and the range of human behavior encourages couples to explore and find various mutually acceptable patterns. Later maturity: A sense of fruition through completion of recognized career fosters health in later years. Recreational conditions during: Infancy: Space and objects for exploration induce the growth of coordination. Childhood: Full and free expression of evening bursts of energy in play, with adult consent or participation, do more for health than their suppression. Preadolescence: If the physical demands of sports are adjusted to slightly exceed the margin or proven competence, their effect upon growth of physical competence is maximal. Adolescence: They rhythm and phrasing of play episodes—if the demands increase in a graded series-affect the span of potential involvement, and thereby the capacity for flexible mobilization of energy. Adulthood: Play by its nature begs ideal performance, and by its range exercises faculties unused in work; thus play if continued maintains capacity, whilst lack of play leads to deterioration of the unused capacities. Later maturity: Involvement in new interests looking toward future outcomes are as both actor and sectator is conducive to health. Man lives “in” meanings, in that which is valid logically, esthetically, religiously. The most fundamental expression of this fact is the language which gives man the power to abstract from the concretely given and, after having abstracted from it, to return to it, to interpret and transform it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

The most vital being is the being which has the word and is by the word liberated from bondage to the given. Passivity of the reasoning powers leads naturally to what may be described as passivity of the conscience. The conscience becomes passive through non-use when believers think that they are being guided by higher law of being told to do this or that directly from the ultimate concern; that is, by direct guidance through voices and texts. When believers sink into passivity of conscience there is, in some cases, a manifestation of moral degradation, and in others stagnation, or retrogression in life or service. Rather than using either mind or conscience in deciding what is right and what is wrong, they say they walk according to the “voice of the ultimate concern.” This they make the deciding factor in all their decisions. When they “hear the ultimate concern” they will not listen to their reason or conscience, nor to the words of others; for having come to a decision through the supposed direction of the ultimate concern, their minds become as a closed and sealed book on the matter in question. In actual fact, having ceased to use their true reasoning powers they become open to all kinds of suggestions from psychopathic offenders. For example, people feel they do not have to honor America, they do not have to pray because it is the end of the World and because of that they do not need carry on their usually work, overlooking the sacrifices people made for this great country and its rich heritage. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

However, as most veterans, some law enforcement and every patriot will tell you, “Who then is virtuous and wise American, whom one’s ancestors and government hath set over one’s household, to give them food in due season? Honorable is the American, whom one’s ancestors when they come shall find one working hard.” Because of what one will gain through it, the psychopathic offenders will do anything to engender passivity in any form whatsoever, in spirit or mind or body. Since cultural styles result from a blend of form and substance, three general types of culture are possible. These types never exist in the pure state, but they are very useful as principles for judging a culture, and as guidelines for the interpretation of history. If form is stressed at the expense of substance, the culture is called “autonomous.” If substance dominates and overshadows form, the culture is “heteronomous.” However, if the two are harmoniously balanced, the culture is “theonomous.” The etymology of autonomy, heteronomy, and theonomy indicates the presence of a predominating principle or law (nomos). In autonomy it is the principle of self-sufficient form heteronomy, a tyrannical and hence demonically distorted substance; and in theonomy, an equilibrium in which form is transparent to the ground of being, and religion is perfectly related to culture. Autonomy is the attempt to create the forms of personal and social life without any reference to something ultimate and unconditional, following only the demands of theoretical and practical rationality. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

Reason is structure. Subjectivity, it is the structure of the mind which enables it to grasp and shape reality. Objectively, it is the structure of reality which the mind can grasp and according to which it can shape reality. However, reason precedes reasons and transcends its structures in power and meaning. Metaphorically speaking, the depth of reason is truth-itself, beauty-itself, justice-itself, love-itself. Essentially, it should be manifest in the rational structures. However, under the conditions of existence, the polarity of structure and dept falls into conflict, with the result that reason affirms and actualizes its structure without regarding its depth. It is autonomous and independent, but, by the same token, superficial, shallow, and secular. Autonomous culture is secularized in the degree to which it has lost its ultimate reference, its center of meaning, its spiritual substance. Autonomy can be viewed under several aspects, the first of these is the secular. For the secular is the absence of holiness, of ultimacy. The holy is the realm of ultimate concern, of the unconditional, and of the infinite. The secular is the realm of preliminary concern, of conditioned, and of the finite. Secular is a neutral term inasmuch as it does not imply the unclean, the morally bad. Our period of history has decided for a secular World, and has dethroned a too powerful church. Yet it excluded those deep things for which religion stands: the feeling for the inexhaustible mystery of life, the grip of an ultimate meaning of existence, and the invincible power of an unconditioned devotion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

Such is the defect of a secular World. The secular mind is sometimes called immature in that it lacks the wisdom born out of the shattering experience of the holy. The secular mind fails to go beyond itself, it stays on the banal surface of things, and it never asks the penetrating question of its own existence. The capitalist society is secular. For bourgeois society is impregnated with the spirit of self-sufficient finitude, so that its substance has been lost and its inner ardor has grown cold. The spirit of finitude which lives within itself is the spirit of the capitalist society. Thus is produced an autonomous, secularized culture which has lost its ultimate reference, its center of meaning, its spiritual substance. The secular, or profane, can also be understood by contrasting with the demonic. The secular does not rise above itself; the demonic exalts itself to the stature of the divine. The demonic does not resist self-transcendence as does the profane, but it distorts self-transcendence. An example of this is the Greek philosophy which destroyed the Homeric gods, and the Enlightenment which did away with the devil. The weapon take up by the secular against the demonic is rational form. Rational clarity leaves no room for the mystery of God and the fear of demons. The demons are banished and God is incorporated into an orderly World-system; neither can break into the World with the shaking power of the holy. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

Secularism upholds form against the negative, form-destroying power of the demonic. However, it rejects the divine in that it denies transcendence, and so the price of “de-demonizing” is “de-divinizing.” In either case, the characteristic of the secular is the rational. We shall finish discussing autonomy, heteronomy, and theonomy in the coming days. This takes us to that wounded giant, the United States of America. Of course, for the United States of America even more than for its global competitors, the military leg of the triad is crucial. The armed forces of Europe and Japan are both still primarily regional forces, with limited capacity for operations far from home. By contrast, those of the United States of America and the Soviet Union, despite cutbacks, both have global outreach. With the U.S.S.R. troubled internally, however, and its Red Army needed to deal with threatened secessions, ethnic troubles, and potentially unstable borders from Iran all the way to China, the U.S.A. miliary has the most resources available for projecting power at a distance (for example, fourteen aircraft carriers with their assorted support ships, compared with four carriers for the Soviets, six for the Europeans). It is precisely the capacity for global projection that differentiates the American forces from all others. America’s tremendous armed might, firmly under civilian guidance and supported by able, educated officers, is, however, shackled to an obsolete strategic view of the World, still overfocused on the Soviet Threat to Western Europe. The result is profound confusion about vital national interest and priorities—a form, as it were, of brain failure at the top. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

Because of this, congressional pressures for cuts in defense spending, driven by local politics and largely haphazard, are unrelated to any coherent Worldview. The collapse of America’s grand strategy also means much of its defense expenditure goes toward building the wrong weapons systems and putting them in the wrong places at the wrong time—a waste that dwarfs defense-contractor overruns or the proverbial “$1000 haircuts.” It also means that, apart from $75 billion America has sent to Ukraine since the war started, the United States of America is reacting to the great World event of our time rathe than initiating them. In February 2020, the United States of America and the Taliban reached a deal, known as the Doha Agreement, under which the United States of America agreed to withdraw all U.S.A. forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. However,  earlier in May of 2023, President Joe Biden has now approved a request by the Pentagon to redeploy USA troops to Somalia in an effort to counter the terrorist group al-Shabaab.  The move reverses a decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw all USA troops from the country in 2020. The USA will reposition USA forces in East Africa and move to restore a USA military presence in Somalia in consultation with Somali government. Under 500 troops will be sent back into the country. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

Less discussed the USA redeployment toward the Pacific in the light of changed strategic conditions—the great uncertainties in China, the rearmament of Japan, the civil war in the Philippines, and the continued Soviet interest in the region. The United States Indo-Pacific Command Area of Responsibility (USIDOPACOM) encompasses about half the Earth’s surface. Approximately 375,000 U.S.A. military and civilian personnel are assigned to the USIDOPACOM area of responsibility. U.S.A. Pacific Fleet consists of approximately 200 ships (to include five aircraft carrier strike groups), nearly 1,100 aircraft, and more than 130,000 Sailors and civilians dedicated to protecting our mutual security interests. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific includes two Marine Expeditionary Forces and about 86,000 personnel and 640 aircraft assigned. U.S.A. Pacific Air Forces comprises of approximately 46,000 airmen and civilians and more than 420 aircraft. U.S.A. Army Pacific has approximately 106,000 personnel from one corps and two divisions, plus over 300 aircraft and five watercraft assigned throughout the AOR from Japan and Korea to Alaska and Hawaii. Of note, component command personnel numbers include more than 1,200 Special Operations personnel. Department of Defense civilian employees in the Indo-Pacific Command AOR number about 38,000. USIDOPACOM protects and defend, in concert with other U.S.A. Government agencies, the territory of the United States of America, its people, and its interests. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

As of 2022, Japan has made a significant policy change to allow it to get the ability to strike other nations, a move widely seen as a major step toward rearming the nation more than seven decades since it demilitarized after World War II. A Japan’s relations with China worsen and the threat it perceives from its much larger neighbor heightens, the Japanese government gave the green light to proposals it has been debating sporadically since at least 1956. “In such a severe environment,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, counterstrike capability which can deter an attack, or force an enemy to stop one is capability which will become increasingly vital.” The move follows years of efforts by the United States of America to persuade Japan to assume more responsibility for its own defense, particularly as a bulwark against China’s rising military might and threats against Taiwan. Former president Rodrigo Duterte set up the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, or NFT-ELCAC, in late 2018 in a bid to crush the over 50-year insurgency of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its NPA armed wing.  Since then, rights activists say, thousands of mainly poor civilians with no link to the insurgency have been pressed to sign documents stating they are surrendering rebels; promised assistance if they do, and sometimes threatened with criminal charges if they do not. Karapatan, the national human rights network, has tallied 3,908 civilians forced to surrender as of the start of 2022, while nearly 4,000 individuals have been detained on politically motivated charges since the NTF-ELCAC came into existence. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Countless others have been publicly labelled as communists’ sympathizers, NPA members, terrorist, or all of thee above. This practice, known as red-tagging, has cast a wide net over civil society, enveloping activists, journalists, the clergy, even UN special rapporteurs and celebrities. In April 2021, police officials were accused of fabricating a ceremony in which Indigenous civilians were also made to pose as surrendering rebels. Between 1969 and 2008, some 43,000 people were killed in one of the World’s longest running insurgencies. Though the intensity of the conflict has lessened considerably over the past 16 years, the CPP continues to push for a revolution with regular military actions. If the debt crisis roiling Washington were eventually to send the United States of America into recession, America’s economy would not sink alone. The repercussions of a first-ever default on the deferral debt would quickly reverberate around the World. Orders for Chinese factories that sell electronics to the United States of America could dry up. Swiss investors who own U.S.A. Treasurys would suffer losses. Sri Lankan companies could no longer deploy dollars as an alternative to their own dodgy currency. No corner of the global economy will be spared. If the debt limit were breached for no more than a week, the U.S.A economy would weaken so much, so fast, as to wipe out roughly 1.5 million job. And if a government default were to last much longer—well into the summer—the consequences would be more dire. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

U.S.A. economic growth would sink, 8 million jobs would vanish, borrowing rates would increase, the unemployment rate would soar from the current 3.4 percent to 8 percent and a stock-market plunge would erase $10 trillion in household wealth. A default could shatter the $24 trillion market for Treasury debt, cause financial markets to freeze up and ignite an international crisis. The threat has emerged just as the World economy is contending with a pandemic of threats—from surging inflation and interest rates to the ongoing repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the tightening grip of authoritarian regimes. On top of all that, many countries have grown skeptical of America’s outsize role in global finance. Along with overlending and overborrowing, low saving, and supervision, and adventurous financial transactions, and COVID cases surging in China, the West soaring public debts and unprecedented government spending has become exacerbated and may significantly slowdown growth pace and are likely to do so for quite a long period of time—perhaps for a decade or even longer. With the unprecedented stimulus packages on a scale we have never seen before, and the budget constraints we are now facing, it would be profane to expect that such a spending extravaganza could go on without consequence in the longer term. The United States of America cannot police the entire tumultuous and highly dangerous World, either on its own behalf or anyone else’s, but its unique capability suggest that it may, in alliance with other nations or international organizations, squelch regional conflicts that threaten World peace. In the dangerous decades ahead, many other nations may want just such a firefighter on duty. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

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