Difficult days have a way of shrinking the world around us. Uncertainty presses in. Fear whispers that peace is something other people get to have. A deep sense of guilt is awakened—a strange sense, for it seems forever to imply that the individual has committed crimes and deeds that were, after all, not only not committed but would have been quite impossible. This is a stage of fear for life and limb. There are seasons when life feels like walking through dim light — not total darkness, but not enough brightness to see the path clearly. In those moments, your mind reaches for safety but finds only questions. Your heart wants rest but keeps bracing for the next blow. Your spirit longs for God but feels like He is just out of reach. The great governor of initiative is conscience. Now, not only does one feel afraid of being found out, but one also hears the “inner voice” of self-observation, self-guidance, and self-punishment, which divides an individual radically within himself: a new and powerful estrangement. This is the ontogenetic cornerstone of morality. If this great achievement is overburdened by all too eager adults, from the point of view of human vitality, it can be bad for the spirit and for morality itself. For the conscience can be primitive, cruel, and uncompromising, this fear is not about wrongdoing. It is about vulnerability, exposure, and the internalization of scrutiny. The suspiciousness and evasiveness which is added to the all-or-nothing quality of the superego makes moralistic man a great potential danger to himself and his fellow men. Morality can become synonymous with vindictiveness and with the suppression of others. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

To someone who has never lived under chronic pressure, humiliation, suppression, or fear, all of this may seem strange. However, there is the potential powerhouse of destructive drives which can be aroused and temporarily buried, only to contribute later to the inner arsenal of a destructiveness so ready to be used when opportunity provokes it. Yet, if we learn to understand the conflicts and anxieties of adulthood and the importance of autonomy for mankind, there is little in these inner developments which cannot be harnessed to constructive and peaceful initiative. However, if we should choose to overlook or belittle the phenomena of adulthood, along with the best and worst of our dreams, we shall have failed to recognize one of the eternal sources of human anxiety and strife. For again, the pathological consequences of this stage may now show for a while, when conflicts over initiative may find expression in hysterical denial or in a self-restriction which keeps an individual from living up to his inner capacities or to the powers of his imagination and feeling. All of this, in turn, may be “overcompensated” in a great show of tireless initiative, in a quality of “go-at-itiveness” at any cost. While the struggle for autonomy at its worst had concentrated on keeping rivals out, there has been an expression of jealous rage, most often projected by underqualified individuals trying to encroach on fields outside of their realm of expertise. While some Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs have allowed some individuals who were qualified for their position to enter arenas they qualify for, but may not have usually been accepted in, others who do not qualify have been allowed in fields they are not prepared for. Because they have long been marginalized, undereducated, and dismissed, some estranged candidates who have benefited from DEI programs come into careers with a lot of jealousy, rivalry, and embittered and yet essentially futile attempts at demarcating a sphere of unquestioned privilege. However, the performance of underqualified and embittered employees makes their failure both inevitable and predictable, and the corporation’s own dysfunction merely mirrors their incompetence. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

Highly educated individuals know they will not be granted unearned advancement. Their careers depend on demonstrating competence, expanding their skill sets, and consistently delivering results. In profit‑driven corporations, value is measured by output, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. As a result, their sense of personal worth becomes inseparable from their performance — from what they are actively “going at.” However, the strain consequently developed in their bodies, which are always “on the go,” with the engine racing even at moments of rest, is a powerful contribution to the much-discussed psychosomatic diseases of our time. It is as if the culture has made a man over-advertise himself and so identify with his own advertisement that only disease can designate the limit. For overachievers, their identity development was created by the stories of big life and of what to them is the great past. These individuals absorbed the ethos of action in the form of ideal types and techniques, fascinating enough to replace the heroes of the picture book and fairy tale. This was fulfilled because of some form of basic family, which taught these children by patient example, where play ends, and irreversible purpose begin and where “don’ts” are superseded by sanctioned avenues of vigorous action. These individuals look for new identifications which promise a field of initiative with less conflict and guilt which attach to the values of the stringent rivalry from their peers. Also, in connection with comprehensible games and work activities, a companionship may develop between these overachieving employees and their superior, an experience of essential equality in worth, despite the inequality in developmental schedule. Such companionship is a lasting treasure not only for the boss and employee, but for the community, as it is a counterforce to those hidden hatreds based on differences in mere position, salary, and seniority. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

Only thus are guilt feelings integrated in a strong but not severe conscience, only this is language certified as a shared actuality. This stage in one’s career eventually results not only in a moral sense constricting the horizon of the permissible; it also sets the direction toward the possible and the tangible which attaches dreams to the varied goals of technology and culture. Success is at the core of man’s conflicted existence, and this is not only according to psychiatric evidence but also to the testimony of great fiction, drama, and history. For the fact that man began as a playing child leaves a residue of play-acting and role-playing, even in which he considers his highest purposes. These he projects on the glorified past as well as on a larger and always more perfect historical future; these he will dramatize in the ceremonial present with uniformed players in ritual arrangements which sanction aggressive initiative even as they assuage guilt by submission to a higher authority. Among the group psychological consequences of the initiative career stage, then, there is also a latent and often rageful readiness in the best and the most industrious to follow any leader who can make goals of conquest seem both impersonal and glorious enough to excite an intrinsically phallic enthusiasm in men (and a compliance in women), and this to relieve their irrational guilt. These impulses are usually kept under tight control because they conflict with one’s moral self‑image, they feel socially unacceptable, they threaten one’s sense of being “good,” “responsible,” or “professional,” but they do not disappear. They remain unlived, unexpressed, and psychically charged. This creates a psychological pressure point. However, a charismatic leader who frames conquest, expansion, or domination as impersonal, glorious, or morally elevated gives them a psychological release valve. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

Suddenly, their forbidden impulses feel sanctioned, purified, justified, shared, and heroic. This is the phallic enthusiasm is not sexual, but symbolic: the excitement of power, potency, expansion, and victorious action. Furthermore, cultural scripts shape psychological reactions: men are encouraged to express power; women are encouraged to support it. The indispensable contribution of the initiative career stage to later identity development as a corporate employee, then, obviously, is that of freeing the employee’s ingenuity and sense of purpose for tasks which promise (but cannot guarantee) a fulfillment of one’s range of capacities. This is prepared in the firmly established, steadily growing conviction, undaunted by guilt, that “I am what I can imagine I will be.” It is equally obvious, however, that a widespread disappointment with this conviction, by a discrepancy between naïve expectations and disillusioning workplace realities, can only lead to an unleashing of the pressure-and-punishment cycle so characteristic of the corporate infrastructure and yet so dangerous to man’s very existence. Employees internalize impossible expectations, feel guilty for falling short, and then discharge that guilt through sanctioned forms of aggression — competition, blame, and scapegoating — which only deepens their insecurity. However, such is the wisdom of the ground plan that at no time is the eager employee more ready to learn quickly and avidly, to become big in the sense of sharing obligation, discipline, and performance. He is also eager to take on important projects, to share in constructing and planning, instead of trying to coerce other colleagues or provoke restrictions. Young professionals attach themselves to successful employees who have seniority, and they watch and imitate them. If they are fortunate, they spend at least part of their lives in proximity to “captains of industry” and other driven individuals, surrounded by people of varied ages and backgrounds, allowing them to observe, imitate, and gradually participate as their own capacities and initiative develop in tentative spurts. #RandolphHarrisi 5 of 20

For early‑career development, psychological maturation, and genuine growth of high achievers, unlike the stagnation of underqualified employees, the captains of industry tend to have more specialized careers, and they prepare their mentees by teaching them things that, first of all, make them literate in business and psychology. He is then given the widest possible basic education for the greatest number of possible careers. The greater the specialization, the more indistinct the goal of initiative becomes, the more complicated the social reality, and the vaguer the father’s and mother’s roles in it. The young professional goes to school, and school skill seems to many to be the world all by itself, with its own goals and limitations, its achievements, and disappointments. Oftentimes, playfulness disappears, and people cease to be regarded as persons at all; they become objects — inspected, bumped aside, or conscripted into demeaning little roles, forced to “be horsie” for someone else’s momentary gratification. Such learning is necessary in order to discover what potential others have in one’s life and who can be admitted; and what content can be shared with others and even forced upon them. It is not restricted to the technical mastery of people and things, but also includes a rudimentary way of mastering social experience by experimenting, planning, and sharing. While all young professionals, at times, need to be left alone in solitude, they sooner or later become dissatisfied and disgruntled when gratification is delayed and/or the environment is not well and evenly perfect. They need a sense of industry. Without this, even the best-prepared young professional soon feels exploited. It is as if he knows, and his society knows that now that he is psychologically already a successful corporate entity, he must begin to manifest a vision of success in his environment. He won recognition by producing things. He developed perseverance and adjusted himself to the inorganic laws of the business world and has eagerly been absorbed as a unit of a productive situation.  The danger at this stage is the development of an estrangement from himself and his peers. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

When examining any institutional order, the central question is how much of everyday life it succeeds in regulating. Some societies institutionalize nearly everything, leaving little room for spontaneous or personal action; others allow wide spaces of uninstitutionalized behavior. What determines this difference is the degree to which people share the same “relevance structures” — the same assumptions about what matters, what counts, and what deserves attention. The more widely shared these structures are, the more expansive the institutional sphere becomes. In other words, institutions grow strongest where meaning is most uniform. When a collectivity agrees on what is important, institutions can script more of life; when that agreement breaks down, individuals reclaim more of their own behavior, improvising in the gaps where institutions no longer reach. It may be heuristically useful to think here in terms of ideal-typical extremes. It is possible to conceive of a society in which institutionalization is total. In such a society, all problems are common, all solutions to these problems are socially objectivated and all social actions are institutionalized. The institutional order embraces the totality of social life, which resembles the continuous performance of a complex, highly stylized liturgy. There is no role-specific distribution of knowledge, or nearly none, since all roles are performed within situations of equal relevance to all the actors. This heuristic model of a totally institutionalized society (a fit topic for nightmares, it might be remarked in passing) can be slightly modified by conceiving that all social actions are institutionalized, but not only around common problems. While the style of life such a society would impose on its members would be equally rigid, there would be a greater degree of role-specific distribution of knowledge. Several liturgies would be going on at the same time, so to speak. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

Needless to say, neither the model of institutional totality nor its modification can be found in history. Actual societies can, however, be considered in terms of their approximation to this extreme type. It is then possible to say that primitive societies approximate the type to a much higher degree than civilized ones. It may even be said that in the development of archaic civilizations, there is a progressive movement away from this type. The opposite extreme would be a society in which there is only one common problem, and institutionalization occurs only with respect to action concerned with this problem. In such a society, there would be almost no common stock of knowledge.  Almost all knowledge would be role-specific. In terms of macroscopic societies, even approximations of this type are historically unavailable. However, certain approximations can be found in smaller social formations—for example, in libertarian colonies where common concerns are limited to economic arrangements, or in military expeditions consisting of a number of tribal or ethnic units whose common problem is the waging of the war. Apart from stimulating sociological fantasies, such heuristic fictions are useful only insofar as they help to clarify the conditions that favor approximations to them. The most general condition is the degree of division of labor, with the concomitant differentiation of institutions. Any society in which there is an increasing division of labor is moving away from the first extreme described above. Another general condition, closely related to the previous one, is the availability of an economic surplus, which makes it possible for certain individuals or groups to engage in specialized activities not directly concerned with subsistence. These specialized activities, as we have seen, lead to specialization and segmentation in the common stock of knowledge. And the latter makes possible knowledge subjectively detached from any social relevance, that is, “pure theory.” This means that certain individuals are (to return to a previous example) freed from hunting not only to forge weapons but also to fabricate myths. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

Thus, we have the “theoretical life,” with its luxurious proliferation of specialized bodies of knowledge, administered by specialists whose social prestige may actually depend upon their inability to do anything except theorize—which leads to a number of analytical problems. Institutionalization is not, however, an irreversible process, despite the fact that institutions, once formed, have a tendency to persist. For a variety of historical reasons, the scope of institutionalized actions may diminish; deinstitutionalization may take place in certain areas of social life. For example, the private sphere that has emerged in modern industrial society is considerably deinstitutionalized as compared to the public sphere. There is nothing really mysterious about the principle that consists of using scientific reasoning to the advantage of prophecy. This has already been named the principle of authority, and it is this that guides the Churches when they wish to subject living reason to dead faith and freedom of the intellect to the maintenance of temporal power. There remains of Marx’s prophecy—henceforth in conflict with its two principles, economy and science—only the passionate annunciation of an event that will take place in the very far future. The only course of the Marxists consists in saying that the delays are simply longer than was imagined and that one day, far away in the future, the end will justify all. In other words, we are in purgatory, and we are promised that there will be no hell. And so, the problem that is posed is of another order. If the struggle waged by one or two generations throughout a period of economic evolution which is, perforce, beneficial, suffices to bring about a classless society, then the necessary sacrifice becomes comprehensible to the man with a militant turn of mind; the future for him has a concrete aspect—the aspect of his child, for instance. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

But if, when the sacrifice of several generations has proved insufficient, we must then embark on an infinite period of universal strife one thousand times more destructive than before, then, the conviction of faith is needed in order to accept the necessity of killing and dying. This new faith is no more founded on pure reason than were the ancient faiths. In what terms is it possible to imagine this end of history? Marx did not fall back on Hegel’s terms. He said, rather obscurely, that communism was only a necessary aspect of the future. However, either communism does not terminate the history of contradictions and suffering, and then it is no longer possible to see how one can justify so much effort and sacrifice; or it does terminate it, and it is no longer possible to imagine the continuation of history except as an advance toward this perfected form of society. Thus, a mystic idea is arbitrarily introduced into a description that claims to be scientific. The final disappearance of political economy—the favorite theme of Marx and Engels—signifies the end of all suffering. Economics, in fact, coincides with pain and suffering in history, which disappear with the disappearance of history. We arrive at last in the Garden of Eden. We come no nearer to solving the problem by declaring that it is not a question of the end of history, but of a leap into the midst of a different history. We can only imagine this other history in terms of our own history; for man, they are both one and the same thing. Moreover, this other history poses the same dilemma. Either it is not the solution of all contradictions, and we suffer, die, and kill for almost nothing, or it is the solution of contradictions and therefore, to all intents and purposes, terminates our history. Marxism, at this stage, is only justified by the definitive city. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

Can it be said, therefore, that this city of ends has a meaning? It has, in terms of the sacred universe, once the religious postulate has been admitted. The world was created, it will have an end; Adam left Eden, humanity must return there. If the dialectical postulate is admitted, it has no meaning in the historical universe. The dialectic correctly applied cannot and must not come to an end. The antagonistic terms of a historical situation can negate one another and then be surmounted in a new synthesis. However, there is no reason why this new synthesis should be better than the original. Or rather, there is only a reason for this supposition, if one arbitrarily imposes an end to the dialectic, and if one then applies a judgment based on outside values. If the classless society is going to terminate history, then capitalist society is, in effect, superior to feudal society to the extent that it brings the advent of this classless society still nearer. However, if the dialectic postulate is admitted at all, it must be admitted entirely. Just as aristocratic society has been succeeded by a society without an aristocracy but with classes, it must be concluded that the society of classes will be succeeded by a classless society, but animated by a new antagonism still to be defined. A movement that is refused a beginning cannot have an end. “If socialism,” says an anarchist essayist, “is an eternal evolution, its means are its end.” More precisely, it has no ends; it has only means which are guaranteed by nothing unless by a value foreign to evolution. In this sense, it is correct to remark that the dialectic is not and cannot be revolutionary. From our point of view, it is only nihilism—pure movement that aims at denying everything which is not itself. There is in this universe no reason, therefore, to imagine the end of history. That is the only justification, however, for the sacrifices demanded of humanity in the name of Marxism. However, it has no other reasonable basis but a petitio principii, which introduces into history—a kingdom that was meant to be unique and self-sufficient—a value foreign to history. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

Since that value is, at the same time, foreign to ethics, it is not properly speaking, a value on which one can base one’s conduct; it is a dogma without foundation that can be adopted only as the desperate effort to escape of a mind which is being stifled by solitude or by nihilism, or a value which is going to be imposed by those whom dogma profits. The end of history is not an exemplary or a perfectionist value; it is an arbitrary and terroristic principle. Marx recognized that all revolutions before his time had failed. However, he claimed that the revolution announced by him must succeed definitively. Up to now, the workers’ movement has lived on this affirmation which has been continually belied by facts of which it is high time that the falsehood should be dispassionately denounced. In proportion as the prophecy was postponed, the affirmation of the coming of the final kingdom, which could only find the most feeble support in reason, became an article of faith. The sole value of the Marxist world henceforth resides, despite Marx, in a dogma imposed on an entire ideological empire. The kingdom of heaven ends is used, like the ethics of eternity and the kingdom of heaven, for purposes of social mystification. Elie Halevy declared himself unqualified to say that socialism was going to lead to the universalization of the Swiss Republic or to European Caesarism. Nowadays, we are better informed. The prophecies of Nietzsche, on this point at least, are justified. Marxism is henceforth to win fame, in defiance of its own teachings and, by an inevitable process of logic, by intellectual Caesarism, which we must now fully describe.  The last representative of the struggle of justice against grace, it takes over, without having wanted to do so, the struggle of justice against truth. How to live without grace—that is the question that dominates the twenty-first century. “By justice,” answers those who do not want to accept absolute nihilism. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

To the people who despaired of the kingdom of heaven, they promise the kingdom of men. The preaching of the City of Humanity increased in fervor up to the end of the nineteenth century, when it became really visionary in tone and placed scientific certainties in the service of Utopia. However, the kingdom has retreated into the distance, and gigantic wars have ravaged the oldest countries of Europe, the blood of rebels has bespattered walls, and total justice has approached not a step nearer. The question of the twenty-first century—for which the terrorists of 1905 died and which tortures the contemporary world—has gradually been specified: how to live without grace and without justice? Only nihilism, and not rebellion, has answered that question. Up to now, only nihilism has spoken, returning once more to the theme of the romantic rebels: “Frenzy.” Frenzy in terms of history is called power. The will to power came to take the place of the will to justice, pretending at first to be identified with it and then relegating it to a place somewhere at the end of history, waiting until such time as nothing remains on earth to dominate. Thus, the ideological consequence has triumphed over the economic consequence: the history of Russian Communism gives the lie to every one of its principles. Once more, we find, at the end of this long journey, metaphysical rebellion, which, this time, advances to the clash of arms and the whispering of passwords, but forgetful of its real principles, burying its solitude in the bosom of armed masses, covering the emptiness of its negations with obstinate scholasticism, still directed toward the future, which it has made its only god, but separated from it by a multitude of nations that must be overthrown and continents that must be dominated. With action as its sole principle, and with the “kingdom of man” as its alibi, the movement has already begun to build its own armed camp in the east of Europe, facing other armed camps across the continent. This hardening of ideological boundaries — this insistence that only one script for human conduct is permissible — provides a useful backdrop for considering how scripts operate at the level of individual psychology. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

Many people object to the theory of scripts, each from his own point of view. Yet the very intensity of these objections reveals how deeply patterned human behavior actually is. The more satisfactorily these objections can be answered, the stronger the inference that script theory is valid. What appears on the geopolitical stage as the construction of armed camps appears, in the individual, as the construction of rigid interpretive frameworks — the personal “scripts” through which people justify action, defend identity, and resist ambiguity. Some people feel intuitively that the theory of scripts cannot be valid because it is contrary to the destiny of man as a creature of free will. The whole idea arouses in them a kind of revulsion, since it appears to reduce mankind to a mechanism without a vitality to call his own, very much as, in its extreme form, conditioning theory does. These people are also, and for the same humanitarian reasons, uneasy about psychoanalytic theory, which in one form constricts man into a closed-off, cybernetic energy system with only a few restricted input and output channels, and leaves no room for his godhead. These are the moral descendants of people who felt the same way about the Darwinian theory of natural selection, which, in their minds, reduced the processes of life to mechanics and left no room for Mother Nature’s creativity. They, in turn, are the descendants of those who found Galileo intolerably impudent. Nevertheless, such objections, arising as they do from a philanthropic regard for human dignity, must be treated with proper consideration. The answer, or apology if you will, is as follows: Structural analysis does not pretend to answer all questions about human behavior. It states certain propositions about observable social behavior and inner experiences, and these propositions are valid.  It does not deal, formally at least, with the essence of being, the Self. It deliberately provides a concept which is beyond its province, the construct of free cathexis, wherein that Self resides, and thereby sets aside a whole field, in many respects the most crucial one, for philosophers, metaphysicians, theologians, and poets to deal with as they see fit. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Structural analysis in no way attempts to encroach on this well-defined area, and expects the same courtesy in return from those who do deal with the problem of man’s essence or Self. It has no desire to intrude into either the ivory tower, the cathedral, the minstrel’s pad, or the courtroom, but on the other hand, neither does it expect to be dragged into any of them against its will. Script theory does not pretend that all human behavior is directed by the script. It leaves as much room as possible for autonomy, and indeed, autonomy is its ideal. It only states that relatively few people attain it completely, and then only on special occasions. Its whole purpose is to increase the distribution of that invaluable commodity, and it offers a method for doing so. However, the first requirement is to separate the spurious from the genuine, and that is its whole task. It does forthrightly call a chain a chain, however, and this should not be taken as an insult by those who love their chains or choose to ignore them. “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” reports Matthew 5.10. This does not refer to the righteousness of God; it does not refer to persecution for Jesus Christ’s sake. It is the beatification of those who are persecuted for the sake of a just cause, and, as we may now add, for the sake of a true, good, and human cause. This beatitude puts those Christians entirely in the wrong who, in their mistaken anxiety to act rightly, seek to avoid any suffering for the sake of just, good, and true cause, because as they maintain, they could with a clear conscience suffer only an explicit profession of faith in Christ; it rebukes them for their ungenerousness and narrowness which looks with suspicion on all suffering for a just cause and keeps its distance from it. Even if a cause is not precisely the confession of His name, Jesus gives His support to those who suffer for the sake of a just cause; He takes them under His protection, He accepts responsibility for them, and He lays claims to them. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

And so is the man who is persecuted for the sake of a just cause is led to Christ, so that it happens that in the hour of suffering and of responsibility, perhaps for the first time in his life and in a way which is strange and surprising to him but is nevertheless an inner necessity, such a man appeals to Christ and professes himself a Christian because at this moment, for the first time, he becomes aware that he belongs to Christ. This, too, is not an abstract deduction, but it is an experience which we ourselves have undergone, an experience in which the power of Jesus Christ became manifest in fields of life where it had previously remained unknown. Peacemaking begins in the most basic place—in our hearts. Then in homes and families. As we practice there, peacemaking will spread into our neighborhoods and communities. Building peacemaking in our homes by using the Lord’s pattern to influence our relationships with one another: persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, kindness, meekness, and love unfeigned. If it is possible for a man really in truth to will one thing, then he must will the good in truth. If it be possible for a man to will the Good in truth, then he must be at one with himself in willing to renounce all double-mindedness. Therefore, if it be possible for a man to will one thing, then he must will the Good, for only the Good is one. Thus, if it becomes a fact that he wills one thing, he must will the Good in truth. All God needs to accomplish His purpose and to help us become who He wants is for each of us to turn our hearts fully to Him. As we dedicate time daily to come closer to Christ, our hearts are changed. Daily study of the scriptures, accompanied by sincere prayer and regular fasting, will increase your love for the Savior and strengthen your faith and desire to repent and humbly yield your heart to God. Spiritual habits create an internal readiness, a kind of moral fire‑safety system that activates when life grows dark or uncertain. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

The fire at the X Apartments began just after dusk, when most residents were settling in for the evening. Smoke alarms sounded in uneven bursts, some shrill, some silent, as if the building itself could not decide how seriously to take the emergency. But the elevators kept running — not because of a malfunction, but because management had quietly overridden the fire‑safety interlock years earlier. They wanted to avoid complaints from elderly tenants during false alarms. It was a convenience that had never been tested against real danger, and on this night, it became catastrophic. Residents inside the elevator felt the car rise smoothly, unaware of the fire spreading on the fourth floor. When the doors slid open, they revealed a corridor already overtaken by heat and smoke. The elevator’s logic, stripped of its safety protocols, simply waited for passengers to exit. The people inside pressed buttons, tried to close the doors, tried to reverse direction, but the car remained fixed in place, unable to override the building’s manual bypass. By the time the Sacramento Fire Department arrived, dispatch had already relayed the chilling detail: “Elevator occupied. Doors open on the fire floor.” Firefighters moved with practiced urgency, but the situation demanded more than routine. They had to reach the elevator without allowing the shaft to draw the fire upward, and without triggering further mechanical responses from the compromised system. Crews advanced under controlled conditions, forcing the elevator doors shut manually and using a portable override to bring the car down to a safe landing. Once the passengers were removed, the incident commander ordered a full shutdown of the elevator bank and redirected teams to contain the fire’s spread, which had been accelerated by the open shaft acting as a vertical conduit. In the aftermath, investigators documented what the firefighters already suspected: the building had ignored fire code, intentionally disabling the automatic elevator shutdown required during alarms. The tragedy was not the result of unpredictable technology but of predictable negligence. The event became a stark reminder that safety systems are not optional conveniences — they are the thin line between inconvenience and irreversible loss. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

When it comes to firefighting, no matter how large or small the fire is or how routine the call seems to be, there is always the potential for injury. If you see a fire truck stopped in the street without the lights on, be very careful. Sometimes there is an emergency, and you should not pass the fire truck. It might be a good idea to safely turn around and go another way because if you hit someone and they happen to die, you could be charged with manslaughter. Sometimes fire firefighters are getting back into their vehicle, and if you pass the apparatus, you may collide with a firefighter who is on foot. Also, be sure to look at their signals; sometimes emergency vehicles are in motion, albeit slowly, and drivers try to pass them, and this could lead to a dangerous situation. Also, if you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other people’s problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation, and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Also, to ensure that we have farmland and buildable land for future use, we need to start limiting the number of people allowed to immigrate to America. Perhaps with the immigrants we do allow into America, there needs to be a diversity program to make sure we have a population that equally represents all races of people. If Americans continue to spend money on American products, then more need to be made to keep up the inventory. When investors notice these goods are selling, it gives them the confidence to pour more money into that local business. It shows that people want these goods made in America and pressures investors to keep these goods and services in America. The jobs stay here, the business stays in America, wages naturally increase, and more money is invested to keep up with demand. This reduces the burden on the taxpayer. When you support American businesses, that money stays in our economy and can help to reduce the national debt. The government creates debt by borrowing from businesses in the private sector or from foreign countries. It also increases the national debt by spending more than it gains in tax revenue in a fiscal year. When people shop locally, more tax money stays in the economy and goes to the government. This way, it keeps more money in our national economy and keeps more jobs located in America which also sends more taxes to the government, which can again help to reduce the national debt. When you buy foreign goods, these companies usually have lighter tax loads or exemptions, meaning less money for the national debt, plus you are helping to strengthen these foreign nations by sending more money overseas. Buying American-made products is also better for the environment and helps to reduce the carbon footprint because these products do not have to travel nearly as far. Furthermore, American companies and manufacturers are held to much higher standards on pollution. American companies must be more careful about air, land, and water pollution and have proper ways to dispose of waste. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Under President Trump’s administration, he has made America a priority. President Trump has closed the southern border, illegal crossings have fallen to an all-time low, and are 90 percent lower than under the previous administration. Since President Trump’s crack down on crime, violent crimes in Washington D.C. have dropped by approximately 80 percent. He has stopped thousands of pounds of drugs from entering America and killing citizens. And since President Trump took office, investments in America have increased by trillions of dollars in U.S.A. manufacturing, production, and innovation. As you can see, President Donald Trump and his pledge to “Make America Great Again” is exactly what America needs to save the country and the American people. And yes, diversity is important, so you can see why it is also important to preserve blonde hair and blue eyes, as the people with these characteristics are becoming a minority in America. As a reminder, parents, please teach your children to love America and be patriotic citizens, and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. It is inborn in the human mind to wish to know. If this begins with the endless surface questions of a child’s curiosity, if it continues into deeper questions of a scientist’s probing investigation, it cannot and does not stop there. For the higher part of the mind will eventually come into unfoldment, that union of abstract reflective thought with mystical intuition, which is true intelligence, which needs and sees a view of the whole of things. And so, the knowing faculty enters the realm of philosophy. A lot of children are having problems in school and cannot even write a paragraph because they are not reading their books. When you actually read books, you get an example of how to write and will become a better student. Therefore, remember to take your education seriously so that you will be successful in life and make your family proud. Also, to make sure they have all the resources required, please donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to help improve our national security. “Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand between their loved home and the war’s desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause is just, and this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’ And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

The Winchester Mansion

People say the Winchester Mansion is strange because Mrs. Sarah Winchester built it that way — staircases to nowhere, doors that open into air, rooms that appear without warning. But those who have studied the deeper folklore whisper something else: that the house inherited stories far older than California, stories that drifted across oceans and centuries until they found a place to root themselves again. They say the mansion carries echoes of another place — a fortress of stone, a house of trials, a home of restless spirits. And at the center of those echoes stands a single figure. The Watcher. Long before the mansion rose from the California soil, the Watcher belonged to a different tower — a high, narrow room where he kept vigil over a land filled with fear, accusations, and unanswered questions. But when Mrs. Sarah Winchester began her endless construction, something in her grief called to him.

Visitors to the mansion sometimes see him in the uppermost windows: a tall silhouette, unmoving, always looking outward as if guarding something only he understands. Guides say the tower is empty. Workers say no one goes up there. Yet the figure appears, night after night, watching. Some believe he is a guardian. Others say he is a witness. But the oldest version claims he is both — a presence drawn to places where sorrow builds walls and fear carves corridors. In the eastern wing, guests sometimes report a pale woman drifting through the hallways, her gown trailing like mist. She never speaks. She never approaches. She simply moves from room to room as though searching for something she lost long ago. Some say she is a memory Mrs. Sarah could not let go of. Others believe she is one of the mansion’s “unfinished stories,” a spirit who followed the Watcher across the sea and found a new home in the labyrinth Mrs. Sarah built.

On fog-heavy nights, the mansion grounds echo with the sound of a horse-drawn carriage approaching the front steps — though nothing ever arrives. The clatter of wheels, the snort of horses, the creak of leather harnesses… all vanish the moment someone opens the door. Locals say it is the carriage of a former visitor returning to the house, eternally repeating his journey. Others whisper that it is the Watcher’s escort, arriving to collect the lost or guide the wandering. In the farthest corridors, where the house seems to fold in on itself, visitors sometimes hear heavy footsteps pacing behind them — too slow for a person, too deliberate for an animal. Some claim to hear low growls echoing from the walls, as though something unseen is patrolling the mansion’s edges. Mrs. Sarah herself once wrote of “shadows that walk like men but breathe like beasts.” Whether she meant it literally or metaphorically, no one knows. But the stories persist.

The legend says Mrs. Sarah Winchester did not create these hauntings — she inherited them. Her grief, her isolation, her relentless building formed a kind of beacon. The house became a sanctuary for wandering spirits, a place where old stories could settle into new rooms. And the Watcher, drawn by the same sorrow he had known in his first tower, took up his post again — not to frighten Mrs. Sarah, but to accompany her. To stand guard over a woman who built a labyrinth not to trap spirits, but to give them somewhere to go. Some nights, when the mansion is especially still, visitors swear they see him turn from the window, as if acknowledging them. As if reminding them that every house with a history has someone watching over it.

PRIVATE EVENTS & WEDDINGS
at WINCHESTER ESTATE

Many event locations claim to be unique, but nothing compares to the Winchester Mystery House. If you’re truly seeking a distinct, one‑of‑a‑kind setting for your milestone celebration or special occasion, reserve a venue that delivers on uniqueness many times over. Whether you’re planning a wedding, birthday or anniversary celebration, corporate gathering, holiday party, or any other meaningful event, the Winchester Mystery House offers an unforgettable backdrop. Give your guests an experience they’ll be talking about for years to come.

Café 13: A Rest Stop on the Edge of the Mystery

After wandering the winding halls of the Winchester Mystery House—where staircases defy logic and whispers seem to cling to the walls—Café 13 offers a welcome return to warmth and grounding. Newly reopened and serving guests daily from 10 AM to 3 PM, this cozy hideaway invites you to pause, breathe, and gather yourself before diving back into the mansion’s secrets. Here, you can enjoy breakfast, lunch, snacks, and refreshing drinks in a calm indoor space that feels worlds away from the mansion’s twisting corridors. Settle in with a warm meal, challenge a friend to a board game, or simply rest and recharge as sunlight filters through the windows. Café 13 is more than a café—it’s a moment of calm between chapters of the Winchester legend, a place to steady your nerves before returning to the gardens, the grandeur, and the mysteries that await.

Winchester Mercantile Gift Shop

Your journey into the Winchester Mystery House begins long before you cross the mansion’s threshold. It starts at the Mercantile gift shop—a welcoming outpost standing at the edge of a world where history and myth intertwine. Here, beneath warm lights and shelves lined with curiosities, you can secure your tour tickets and prepare for the adventure ahead. Guests often pause for a souvenir photograph, capturing the moment before they step into Sarah Winchester’s enigmatic domain. As you explore the shop, you will find an eclectic array of gifts and keepsakes: tokens of the mansion’s lore, echoes of Victorian elegance, and mementos that carry a touch of the house’s enduring mystery. The Mercantile is more than a gift shop—it is the gateway. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Why Choose Harris?

Harris Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electric has been in business for 30 years. How many businesses can say that? We take pride in everything we do – no matter how big or small the service call might be. We’re here to help your home be as safe and comfortable as possible for you and your family. We take that responsibility very seriously as a company.

Harris will ensure you have the information you need to decide what to do next, whatever your home is facing. We’ll perform a diagnosis and detail what issues are present before starting any work. This gives you a personalized quote and service plan specific to your home’s needs, not some random quote based on the best guess. The only way we can do our best work is to make sure we handle the issues at hand. https://www.callharrisnow.com/about-us/

Brian Harris BMW

With its top ranking in Consumer Reports’ Auto Brand Report Card and consistent market share growth, BMW, The Ultimate Driving Experience, has demonstrated its ability to produce high-performing, reliable vehicles that meet consumer demands.BMW stands out due to its focus on driving dynamics and engineering excellence. While other luxury brands prioritize comfort and opulence, BMW is known for creating cars that are fun to drive and offer a unique connection between the driver and the machine. This is why BMW is known as The Ultimate Driving Machine. https://www.brianharrisbmw.com/

Randolph Harris San Francisco Taxation & Mergers

Building strong and lasting client relationships is crucial for a successful legal career. Many lawyers mistakenly believe that mastering legal skills alone ensures success, but law is fundamentally a service industry—our job is to solve problems through the time we sell. To build long-term relationships, attorneys must focus on three core elements: knowing their clients, understanding how their legal issues fit into a larger context, and consistently delivering exceptional service.

Randy advises clients with regard to business transition, taxable and tax-deferred mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, restructuring, integrated tax planning, federal and state tax controversy resolution, and real estate transactions. Trust is the cornerstone of any client relationship. Ultimately, my clients feel they are in capable hands with someone who genuinely understands their problems and goals. https://www.jmbm.com/l-randolph-harris.html

Magnolia Station

Base Price $735,000

Sales Office 4159 Aura Way
Rancho Cordova, CA 95762

Only three homesites remain in this peaceful, welcoming community, a place where thoughtful design and everyday comfort come together to create a lifestyle that feels both effortless and deeply fulfilling. Here, wide streets, mature landscaping, and a sense of neighborly warmth set the tone for a community that values connection as much as convenience. Each single‑story floorplan has been crafted with care, offering open living spaces, flexible rooms, and natural light that moves gently through the home throughout the day.

Residence One, a beautifully balanced 2,293‑square‑foot design, features three spacious bedrooms, two well‑appointed bathrooms, a versatile den, an inviting great room, a dedicated dining area, an outdoor patio perfect for morning coffee or evening gatherings, and a two‑car garage. It’s a home that adapts gracefully to the rhythms of daily life, offering both comfort and possibility.

For those seeking even more room to grow, Residence Three offers 2,827 square feet of expansive living, including four bedrooms, two‑and‑a‑half baths, a private den ideal for work or retreat, a generous owner’s suite designed for rest and renewal, and a three‑car garage that provides ample storage and flexibility. With its larger footprint and thoughtful layout, it offers the perfect blend of openness and privacy. In a community defined by tranquility, thoughtful planning, and a genuine sense of belonging, these final homesites represent a rare opportunity to settle into a place that truly feels like home — a place where every detail supports the life you want to live. https://www.cresleigh.com/communities/california/rancho-cordova-ca/magnolia-station#plans

Gratitude is not just “thank you.” It is a posture. It is recognizing that life itself is a gift, that family is a blessing even when imperfect, and that every kindness someone extends deserves acknowledgment. Handwritten thank-you cards are not just a matter of etiquette; they are a sign of respect, humility, and good home training. They tell the recipient, “I see you. I appreciate you. You matter.” In a world where everything is instant, that kind of intentionality feels more meaningful. Ingratitude, however, is one of the greatest sins; gratitude is therefore one of the greatest of virtues. Gratitude builds our testimony. The very fact of expressing gratitude recognizes God’s hand in our lives and acknowledges His tender mercies to us. This, in turn, increases our confidence that the Lord will hear and answer our prayers and guide our lives. In recognizing our dependence upon the Lord, we become more dependent on Him. As our gratitude for the Lord’s blessings increases, our desire to come unto Him increases, and we will reach out to Him in all we do. Furthermore, real giving is not measured by convenience. Sometimes the most meaningful gifts are the ones that cost us something—time, comfort, or even resources we could have kept for ourselves. However, giving while you have the chance is powerful. It prevents regret, but it also strengthens relationships, honors your values, and reflects the kind of person you choose to be. It is better to give with a full heart now than to wish later that you had. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16

Manners and respect, thoughtfulness and intention, generosity without expectation, living without regret, honoring the people who matter while they are still here—that is not old-fashioned—that is foundational. And honestly, it is the kind of mindset that builds strong families, strong communities, and strong legacies. The family is sacred and the most important and the most important social unit in time and eternity. God has established families to help bring happiness to His children, allow them to learn the correct principles in a loving atmosphere, and prepare them for eternal life. The home is the best place to learn, teach, and apply the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the place where individuals learn to provide food, shelter, and other necessities they need. The father and mother are equal partners and are there to help the children seek the truth and develop faith in God. Purity of heart is to will one thing as we base our meditation on the Apostle James’ words in his Epistle, Chapter 4, verse 8: “Draw night to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts ye double-minded.” For only the pure in heart can see God, and therefore, draw nigh to Him; and only by drawing nigh to them can they maintain this purity. And he who in truth wills only one thing can will only the Good, and he who only wills one thing when he wills the Good can only will the Good in truth. “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only moments,” reports Proverbs 12.19. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16

At the close of the Middle Ages, a sombre melancholy weighs on people’s souls. Whether we read a chronicle, a poem, a sermon, a legal document even, the same impression of immense sadness is produced by them all. It would sometimes seem as if this period had been particularly unhappy, as if it had left behind only the memory of violence, of covetousness and mortal hatred, as if it had known no other enjoyment but that of intemperance, of pride and of cruelty. In the records of all periods of misfortune, it has left more traces than happiness. Great evils from the groundwork of history. We are perhaps inclined to assume without much evidence that, roughly speaking, and notwithstanding all calamities, the sum of happiness can have hardly changed from one period to another. However, in the fifteenth century, as in the epoch of romanticism, it was, so to say, bad form to praise the world and life openly. It was fashionable to see only its suffering and misery, to discover everywhere signs of decadence and of the near end—in short, to condemn the things or to despise them. No other epoch has laid so much stress as the expiring Middle Ages on the thought of death. An everlasting call of momento mori resounds through life. In earlier times, too, religion had insisted on the constant thought of death, but the pious treatises of these ages only reached those who had already turned away from the world. Since the thirteenth century, the popular preaching of the mendicant orders had made the eternal admonition to remember death swell into a sombre chorous ringing throughout the world. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16

Towards the fifteenth century, a new means of inculcating the awful thought into all minds was added to the words of the preacher, namely, the popular woodcut. Now these two means of expression, sermons and woodcuts, both addressing themselves to the multitude and limited to crude effects, could only represent death in a simple and striking form. In the evaluation of the dominant moods of any historical period, it is important to hold fast to the fact that there are always islands of self-sufficient order—on farms and in castles, in homes, studies, and cloisters—where sensible people manage to live relatively lusty and decent lives: as moral as they must be, as free as they may be, and as masterly as they can be. If we only knew it, this elusive arrangement is happiness. However, men, especially in periods of change, are swayed by alternating world moods which seem to be artificially created by the monopolists and manipulators of an era’s opinions, and yet could not exist without the highly exploitable mood cycles inherent in man’s psychological structure. Two most basic alternating moods are those of carnival and atonement: the first gives license and leeway to sensual enjoyment, to relief and release at all cost; the second surrenders to the negative conscience which constricts, depresses, and enjoins man for what he has left unsolved, uncared for, unatoned. Especially in a seemingly rational and informed period like our own, it is obvious how blithely such moods overshadow universally available sets of information, finding support for luxurious thoughtlessness at one time, for panicky self-criticism at another. Thus, we may say that beside and beyond a period’s verifiable facts and official doctrines, the world image “breathes.” It tends to expand and to contract in its perspectives, and to gain or lose solidity and coherence. In each careless period, latent panic only waits for catastrophe—famines, pests and depressions, overpopulation and migration, sudden shifts in technology or in leadership—to cause a shrinkage in the world image, a kind of chill attacking the sense of identity of large masses. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16

Every expansion opens frontiers; every conquest exposes flanks. Gunpowder and the printing press could be used against their users; voyages revealed a world of disquieting cultural relativities; wider social contacts increased the chances of ideological contamination and of further inroads of plague and syphilis. The impact of all these Pyrrhic victories, and of the spiritual decline of the papacy and the fragmentation of the empire, produced both a shrinkage of that official perspective which was oriented toward eventual salvation, and an increase in the crudity and cruelty of the means employed to defend what remained of the Church’s power of persuasion. Thus, it is probable that in the past, there lurked in the ideological perspective of the world of many, perhaps just because the great theologians were so engrossed in scholasticism, a world image of man as inescapably sinful, with a soul incapable of finding any true identity in its perishable body. This world-image implied only one hope: at an uncertain (and maybe immediately impending) moment, an end would come which might guarantee an individual the chance (to be denied to millions of others) of finding pity before the only true Identity, the only true Reality, which was Divine Wrath. Among the increasing upper urban classes, among the patricians, merchants, and masters who were the town fathers of the ever more important cities, the reaction was developing which eventually became the northern Renaissance. These upper classes no more wanted to be the emperor’s then growing economic proletariat than they wished to end on the day of judgment as God’s proletariat who (as they could see in the paintings which they commissioned) were to be herded into oblivion by fiery angels, mostly of Italian extraction. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16

This attitude reflected the discrepancy between the era of unlimited initiative then dawning and the era coming to an end which subordinated man’s identity on earth to a super-identity in heaven. However, these two eras, all too simply set off against each other as the Renaissance and the Middle Ages, corresponded, in fact, to two inner world moods; their very conflictedness corresponded to man’s conflicted inner structure. Hegel haughtily brings history to an end in 1807; the disciples of Saint-Simon believe that the revolutionary convulsions of 1830 and 1848 are the last; Comte dies in 1857, preparing to climb into the pulpit and preach positivism to a humanity returned at last from the path of error. With the same blind romanticism, Marx, in his turn, prophesies the classless society and the solution of the historical mystery. Slightly more circumspect, however, he does not fix the date. Unfortunately, his prophecy also described the march of history up to the hour of fulfillment; it predicted the trend of events. The events and the facts, of course, have forgotten to arrange themselves according to the synthesis; and this already explains why it has been necessary to rally them by force. However, above all, the prophecies, from the moment that they begin to betray the living hopes of millions of men, cannot with impunity remain indeterminate. A time comes when deception transforms patient hope into furious disillusionment and when the ends, affirmed with the mania of obstinacy, demanded with ever-increasing cruelty, make obligatory the search for other means. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16

The revolutionary movement at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth lived, like the early Christians, in the expectation of the end of the world and the advent of the proletarian Christ. We know how persistent this sentiment was among primitive Christian communities. Even at the end of the fourth century, a bishop in proconsular Africa calculated that the world would only exist for another one hundred and one years. At the end of this period would come the kingdom of heaven, which must be merited without further delay. This sentiment is prevalent in the first century and explains the indifference of the early Christians toward purely theological questions. If the advent is near, everything must be consecrated to a burning faith rather than to work and to doctrine. Until Clement and Tertullian, for more than a century, Christian literature had ignored theological problems and did not elaborate on the subject of works. However, from the moment the advent no longer seems imminent, man must live with his faith—in other words, compromise. Then, piety and the catechism appear on the scene. The evangelical advent fades into the distance; Saint Paul has come to establish doctrines. The Church has incorporated the faith that has only an ardent desire for the kingdom to come. Everything had to be organized in the period, even martyrdom, of which the temporal witnesses are the monastic orders, and even the preaching, which was to be found again in the guise of the Inquisition. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16

A similar movement was born of the check to the revolutionary advent. The passages from Marx already cited give a fair idea of the burning hope that inspired the revolutionary spirit of the time. Despite partial setbacks, this faith never ceased to increase up to the moment when it found itself, in 1917, face to face with the partial realization of its dreams. “We are fighting for the gates of heaven,” cried Liebknecht. In 1917, the revolutionary world really believed that it had arrived before those gates. Rosa Luxemburg’s prophecy was being realized. “The revolution will rise resoundingly tomorrow to its full height and, to your consternation, will announce with the sound of all its trumpets: I was, I am, I shall be.” The Spartakus movement believed that it had achieved the definitive revolution because, according to Marx himself, the latter would come to pass after the Russian Revolution had been consummated by a Western revolution. After the revolution of 1917, a Soviet Germany would, in fact, have opened the gates of heaven. However, the Spartakus movement is crushed, the French general strike of 1920 fails, the Italian revolutionary movement is strangled. Liebknecht then recognizes that the time is not ripe for revolution. “The period had not yet drawn to a close.” However, also, and now we grasp how defeat can excite vanquished faith to the point of religious ecstasy: “At the crash of economic collapse whose rumblings can already be heard, the sleeping soldiers of the proletariat will awake as at the fanfare of the Last Judgment, and the corpses of the victims of the struggle will arise and demand an accounting from those who are bowed down with curses.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 16

While awaiting these events, Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg are assassinated, and Germany rushes toward servitude. The Russian Revolution remains isolated, living in defiance of its own system, still far from the celestial gates, with an apocalypse to organize. The advent is again postponed. Faith is intact, but it totters beneath an enormous load of problems and discoveries which Marxism had not foreseen. The new religion is once more confronted with Galilee: to preserve its faith, it must deny the sun and humiliate free man. What does Galilee say, in fact, at this moment? What are the errors, demonstrated by history itself, of the prophecy? We know that the economic evolution of the contemporary world refutes a certain number of the postulates of Marx. If the revolution is to occur at the end of two parallel movements, the unlimited shrinking of the capital and the unlimited expansion of the proletariat, it will not occur or ought not to have occurred. Capital and proletariat have both been equally unfaithful to Marx. The tendency observed in industrial England of the nineteenth century has, in certain cases, changed its course, and in others, become more complex. Economic crises, which should have occurred with increasing frequency, have, on the contrary, become more sporadic: capitalism has learned the secrets of planned production and has contributed on its own part to the growth of the Moloch State. Moreover, with the introduction of companies in which stock could be held, capital, instead of becoming increasingly concentrated, has given rise to a new category of smallholders whose very last desire would certainly be to encourage strikes. Small enterprises have been, in many cases, destroyed by competition as Marx foresaw. However, the complexity of modern production has generated a multitude of small factories around great enterprises. In 1938, Ford was able to announce that five thousand two hundred independent workshops supplied him with their products. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16

Of course, large industries inevitably assimilated these enterprises to a certain extent. However, the essential thing is that these small industrialists form an intermediary social layer which complicates the scheme that Marx imagined. Finally, the law of concentration has proved absolutely false in the agricultural economy, which was treated with considerable frivolity by Marx. The hiatus is important here. In one of its aspects, the history of socialism in our times can be considered as the struggle between the proletarian movement and the peasant class. This struggle continues, on the historical plane, the nineteenth-century ideological struggle between authoritarian socialism and libertarian socialism, of which the peasant and artisan origins are quite evident. Thus, Marx had, in the ideological material of his time, the elements for a study of the peasant problem. However, his desire to systematize made him oversimplify everything. This particular simplification was to prove expensive for the kulaks who constituted more than five million historic exceptions to be brought, by death and deportation, within the Marxist patterns. People do not realize that certain authoritarian governments that call themselves socialist or communist carry out not only mass deportations, but also executions and political repression. That is not an opinion—it is documented history. In the Soviet Union, during the era of Mr. Stalin, policies like dekulakization involved mass arrests, executions, and the deportation of entire families to remote regions. The goal was to eliminate the kulaks class by the 1930s. It is estimated that five million people died as a result of this policy. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16

The implementation of dekulakization was closely tied to the consolidation of power by the Communist Party. The elimination of the kulaks was seen as a way to remove a perceived threat to the socialist state and to strengthen the position of the Party. Now, this is very important because it is very possible that something like this could play out again. According to Pew Research Center, the unauthorized immigrant population grew to a record 14 million in 2023, with the largest two-year increase ever recorded. Critics say, large numbers of unauthorized immigrants entering America will eventually shift the political landscape. Democrats allegedly support this because they believe these populations will become future voters. Government benefits are supposedly used as incentives to build loyalty. The long-term goal, according to these critics, is to create a dependent class that ensures permanent political power. President Donald Trump recently accused immigrants from Somalia of contributing to fraud in Minnesota. This accusation comes against the backdrop of a federal prosecutor’s allegation earlier in December that at least fifty percent of approximately $18 billion in federal funds allocated to Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Authorities stress that the day-care sites documented by journalist Nick Shirly’s footage show daycare centers for kids that are siphoning millions of dollars in government funds often have no children on site and are hostile about answering questions. Muslim Ilhan Abdullahi Omar is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Minnesota’s 5^th congressional district since 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Ilhan Omar went from being nearly broke to being worth as much as #40 million in just a year—as this massive fraud scheme involving the Somali community in her district is unfolding. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16

Timothy James Walz is an American politician and the 41^st governor of Minnesota. He assumed office on January 7, 2019. He was selected as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in the 2024 U.S.A. presidential election, running alongside Kamala Harris, who became the Democratic nominee for president after President Biden exited the race. Tim Walz is being asked to resign because of the fraud in federal programs in the state. This is concerning because Tim Walz could have become vice president of the United States of America. And he is not the only one to worry about. Many people question the loyalty of Kamala Harris to the United States of America because, for one, during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, she endorsed a bail fund that put violent repeat offenders back on the streets of Minneapolis. That endorsement helped the Minnesota Freedom Fund raise $40 million to release accused murderers, rapists, and thieves. Secondly, some sources estimate up to 3 million total crossings during the Biden-Harris years, and they did nothing to secure the border from this invasion. Gavin Christopher Newsome is an American politician and the 40^th governor of California, having assumed office on January 7, 2019. His loyalty to America is also questioned because he did nothing to stop the invasion at the border. California has the largest homeless population in the United States of America, and homelessness has worsened under Newsom’s leadership, even though billions have been spent to eradicate the crisis. Many have accused Newsom of fraud and failure in state spending, poor oversight of major programs, and of allowing California’s cost of living and taxes to rise sharply. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16

Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris are expected to run for president in 2028. This is concerning to many Americans because they are connected to criminals, fraud, and failure, and do not seem to have the best interests of the American people at heart. The loss of cultural identity, loss of political power, erosion of constitutional rights, government overreach, and retaliation are just some concerns. If either one of them wins the presidential race, people fear they might incorporate a de-Americanization and start mass arrests, executions, and the deportation of American families to remote regions. For an equilibrium to be restored, many believe President Trump needs a third term in office, or another Republican who loves America and is patriotic. Under Democrats, poverty and degeneration have become abundant. It is predicted that under Democratic control, the United States of America could see one-third of the working-class unemployed. It is not a good thing that future citizens are put in the situation of expecting to be fed by the State. Americans will not be able to survive under the abolition of private property. Division of labor and private property are identical expressions. Critics are saying the Democrats are socialists and communists. Multiple sources describe Venezuela as one of the most visible modern examples of a socialist system collapsing: Once the richest country in Latin America, Venezuela has suffered food shortages, poverty, economic collapse, and political repression. The government has been accused of ignoring election outcomes, suppressing dissent, and mismanaging state-controlled industries. This is often cited as a case where centralized control and the elimination of private enterprise led to a severe decline. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16

There is a kind of pride that does not boast or belittle. It is the pride that comes from telling the truth, even when it is inconvenient, treating people with the same respect you expect in return, and standing up for what is right, even when it costs you something. This kind of pride is not loud. It does not need applause. It shows itself in the way you live, the way you speak, and the way you treat others. On the contrary, if anybody is determined—unconsciously—to bluff his way through life with a disregard for truth, this is not the type of person we need in office. If we consider their premises, we can understand the belief of Democrats that they possess these attributes to a high degree. To hit back or—preferably—to his first appears to them (logically!) as an indispensable weapon against the crooked and hostile world around them. It is nothing but intelligent, legitimate self-interest. Also, not questioning the validity of their claims, their anger, and the expression of it must appear to them as entirely warranted and “frank.” There is still another factor which greatly contributes to their conviction that they are particularly honest people. They see around many compliant people who pretend to be more loving, more sympathetic, more generous than they actually are. And in this, Democrats regard themselves are indeed more honest. They do not pretend to be friendly people; in fact, they disdain doing so. If they could leave it at an “At least I do not pretend…” level, they would be on safe ground. However, their need to justify their own coldness forces them to take a further step. They tend to deny that a wish to be helpful, or a friendly act, is ever genuine. They do not dispute the occurrence of friendliness in the abstract, but when it comes to concrete people, they tend to regard it indiscriminately as hypocrisy. This move, then again, puts them on top of the heap. It makes Democrats appear to themselves as the one person who is above common hypocrisy. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16

This intolerance of the pretense of love has a still much deeper root than the need of Democrats for self-justification. Only after considerable analytic work, there appear here too, as in every expansive type, self-effacing trends. With their having made themselves instruments for the attainment of an eventual triumph, the necessity to bury such trends is even more stringent than in the other expansive types. A period ensues when they feel altogether contemptible and helpless and tend to prostrate themselves for the sake of being loved. We understand now than in others, Democrats despise not only the pretense of love but their compliance, their self-degrading, their helpless hankering for love. In short, they despise in them the very self-effacing trends they hate and despise in themselves. The self-hate and self-contempt that now appear are appalling in the Democratic dimensions. Self-hate is always cruel and merciless. However, its intensity or its effectiveness depends on two sets of factors. One is the degree to which a Democrat is under the sway of their pride. The other is the degree to which constructive forces counteract the self-hate—forces such as faith in positive values in life, the existence of constructive goals in life, the existence of constructive goals in life, the existence of some warm or appreciative feeling toward oneself. Since all these factors are unfavorable in the aggressive-vindictive type, their self-hate has a more pernicious quality than is usually the case. Even outside the analytic situation, one can observe the extent to which the Democrats are ruthless slavedrivers of themselves, and frustrate themselves—glorifying the frustration as asceticism. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16

Such self-hate calls for rigorous self-protective measures. Its externalization seems a matter of sheer self-reservation. As in all expansive solutions, it is primarily an active one. Democrats hate and despise in others all they suppress and hate in themselves: their spontaneity, their joy of living, their appeasing trends, their compliance, their hypocrisy, their “stupidity.” Democrats impose their standards upon others, and are punitive when they do not measure up to them. Their frustration of others is in part an externalization of self-frustrating impulses. Hence, their punitive attitude toward others, which looks altogether vindictive, is instead a mixed phenomenon. It is partly an expression of vindictiveness; it is also the externalization of their condemnatory punitive trends toward themselves; and finally, it serves as a means of intimidating others for the purpose of asserting their claims. Therefore, remember to be the noblest specimens of learning, and eloquence, and wisdom, and patriotism, because by judgment of their own time and the concurrent verdict of posterity, patriots have been recognized as the foremost men and the clearest thinkers in the growing state. Patriots dare to protest against wrong. You endeavor, as far as you shall, to preserve that independence of a nation which characterizes a free people, and that wants of which may in a great measure prevent the happy efforts of a free government; cultivating as you shall have the opportunity that harmony and union there which is ever desirable to good men, which is founded on principles of virtue and public spirit, and guards against any undue weight which may tend to disadjust that critical balance upon which our happy constitution and the blessings of it depend. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16

The Winchester Mystery House

Ladies and gentlemen, gather close… and welcome to the Winchester Mansion. Before we step inside, let me tell you a story—one that locals have whispered for more than a century. You see, long before this mansion stood here, this land was nothing but open fields. Empty. Silent. Undisturbed. And then, on the afternoon of Saturday, March 13, 1886, something extraordinary happened. Sheriff Angel Camilio began receiving frantic reports from townsfolk. They claimed a massive wooden castle had magically appeared. Gables rose like jagged mountains. Towers pierced the sky. Some swore that the sprawling labyrinth rose from the earth like a mushroom after rain. Others insisted it materialized out of thin air. No blueprints. No permits. No records of construction. Just… a house that wasn’t there the day before.

The house’s sudden manifestation had been both disconcerting and fascinating to the community. To some, it looked like a fairytale palace shimmering in the spring sunlight. To others, it radiated something darker—shadows that moved on their own, cold drafts on warm days, and a feeling that something unseen was watching from the windows. And then came the hearse. One morning, without warning, a black carriage barreled through these very gates. Inside was a coffin. Some believed it held Mrs. Sarah Winchester herself. Others whispered it was a decoy, or perhaps a warning from whatever spirits lingered here.

Now, legend says Sarah Winchester—widow of William Wirt Winchester, heir to the Winchester rifle fortune—was haunted by tragedy. After losing her husband and infant daughter, she sought answers from a spiritual medium. And the medium told her something chilling: “The spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles are angry. They will take your life too… unless you flee west and build them a house. A house that must never be finished.”

And so, in 1886, Sarah Winchester came here to the Santa Clara Valley. She bought an 18‑room farmhouse and began to build. And she never stopped. Day and night, for decades, hammers rang, saws screeched, and workers added room after room after room. At its peak, the mansion rose nine stories high and held as many as 600 rooms. Staircases that lead straight into ceilings. Doors that open into thin air. Windows built into the floor. Hallways that twist like a maze. Some say Sarah designed it this way to confuse the spirits that followed her.

Today, the mansion stands four stories tall, but it still stretches over 100,000 square feet. And many believe the spirits never left. Some visitors report footsteps behind them when no one is there. Others hear whispers drifting through the walls. A few have seen a woman in black wandering the corridors late at night, searching for something—or someone. Now, if you’re ready… we’re about to step inside. Stay close. Watch your step. And if you feel a tap on your shoulder or a cold breath on your neck, don’t worry. It’s probably just one of the house’s… permanent residents. Shall we begin?

And before you leave this place—whether you walk out with a shiver down your spine or a spark of wonder in your eyes—I’d like to extend a special invitation. After your journey through the mansion’s twisting corridors and secretive rooms, it would be a pleasure to have you join us for a delicious meal at Sarah’s Café. Once you’ve eaten, feel free to stroll along the paths of the Victorian gardens, which long ago stretched across 740 acres, all the way down to Stevens Creek Boulevard. Imagine the carriages, the orchards, the rolling lawns… and perhaps the quiet footsteps of someone who walked here long before you. And if you’re feeling brave, you’re welcome to wander once more through the miles of hallways inside the world’s most mysterious mansion. Every corner has a story. Every window has a whisper. And every room—well, you’ll see for yourself. Welcome to the Winchester Mansion. Enjoy your stay… for however long you choose to remain.

For further information about tours—including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and our many special events—please visit our website for all the details you’ll need to plan your next unforgettable experience: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Before you head out into the sunlight again, don’t forget to stop by our online gift shop. It’s the perfect place to find something special for friends and relatives—and perhaps a memento for yourself to remember your time inside the world’s most mysterious mansion. From classic souvenirs to unique collectibles inspired by the Winchester legend, you’ll find a wide variety of gifts waiting for you. Take a look, explore, and bring home a little piece of the mystery. Before you head out into the sunlight again, don’t forget to stop by our online gift shop. It’s the perfect place to find something special for friends and relatives—and perhaps a memento for yourself to remember your time inside the world’s most mysterious mansion. From classic souvenirs to unique collectibles inspired by the Winchester legend, you’ll find a wide variety of gifts waiting for you.
Take a look, explore, and bring home a little piece of the mystery.  https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

Father, I declare that You are my source. Every good and perfect gift comes from You. Let financial breakthroughs and opportunities come my way. Amen.