Bin Laden Just Won. (The Five Special Report).
Hey,
I guess we’re all grieved in one way or another.
As I’ve stated before, The Five is not about “breaking news.” That means I don’t even think about including a story until it’s rock-solid settled and undisputed. If the facts are still in question, you won’t read about it here.
Nothing that’s happened this week is certain enough to quality for The Five.
Instead, I want to take a different direction and present to you my first-ever special report.
[part 1: bin laden just won his war]
I’m going to lean into podcaster and writer Chris Spangle here (follow him on Twitter, check out all his podcasts via chrisspangle.com, also Chris subscribes/reads The Five).
Read Osama Bin Laden’s strategy for toppling America. (The Black Banners by Ali Soufan has a great explanation.) it was to lure America into unwinnable wars that would hollow out wealth and cause civil unrest for generations. He won, and MAGA and ANTIFA are doing his work for him.
In a separate post, Chris wrote this:
Violence hardens people's positions and makes them more zealous. Left-wing political violence exists for a few days in a small geographic area. Right-wing political violence is much, much more widespread and better armed. Much of our military and police sympathize with them.
If we, as a country, do not work together to immediately turn our society from using violence to achieve political goals, we will be in serious trouble. Every American needs to be engaged and vigilant.
What's needed is grace for those willing to change and tough love on those that won't. When violence occurs, we must be united in applying swift and just consequences.
Chris is echoing a much older idea.
[part 2: Lincoln’s haunting words]
More than 20 years before the first shot of the Civil War was fired, a young lawyer in Springfield, IL addressed a group of young men about the threats that could tear America apart—slavery, governmental corruption and lawlessness.
Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.
It turns out Lincoln was only half right, and Chris Spangle hit the nail on the head as to why.
Because in the information age, invasions aren’t the only way of waging war. Bin Laden planned to rile up America enough to tear itself apart, destroying the economic and cultural base that makes the U.S. an impossible target for invasion by a foreign army.
Well, the terrorist bastard got what he wanted years after his death. That’s not the final word of it, but it may be if we don’t do better.
Which begs the question…what now?
Once again, I’m leaning on the wisdom of others.
[part 3: fix yourself to save the nation]
YouTuber Tim Pool has been pushing the idea of “fourth and fifth generation” warfare, meaning that whoever has the better ideas in the long run, whoever tells better stories, wins.
So how do we do that, when most of us don’t have a national platform? (Heck, I reach a tiny fraction of the people I did when I was in Chicago media/TV, although at a much deeper level).
Well, here’s the best answer I’ve seen so far, courtesy of Jack Murphy.
Here’s what that looks like for Amanda and I over the next year:
Finish the big projects on the house.
Increase the number of people we invite into our home for dinner.
Create new streams of revenue.
Create more content online.
Create more digital community (more on that below).
Slow down life/cut things that aren’t necessary or helpful.
Increase our practical skills for an unstable world (fitness, self defense, first aid, navigation, self reliance).
If we can change ourselves, the places we live can transform as well. And by definition, America is just a really big collection of communities. I’m realistic enough to know that I’m not going to change the tone of the nation, but perhaps you and I together are something more than just me. And maybe somebody else will see us and imagine a better future, and jump on board.
”One voice in a crowd is smallBut if he speaks the truth he speaks for all.
One man they can grind to dust,
but if he died for love, he died for all of us.
The first man through’s an easy kill.
But none are safe if we all stand still.
None of us.”
I don’t know where all this goes, but Amanda and I are making ourselves better with the #75Hard challenge. It’s a movement born on social media with a few simple rules.
Follow a diet. Zero cheat meals. No alcohol.
Work out 2x/day for 45 min…one workout must be outside…no matter what.
Drink a gallon of water every day.
Read at least pages of non fiction per day.
Take a daily progress pic.
One reader of The Five has already agreed to join this challenge. If you don’t want to post a daily progress pic, cool. Take it for your own records. But other than that…no excuses, no days off (unless you’re seriously ill or have a family crisis).
This isn’t some New Year’s weight loss challenge…this is about rising to the occasion of a nation in crisis. I didn’t even think about it until the realistic threat of Civil War made me take a hard look at my own life.
Let’s dig in deep. We all need you (and I) to come alive right now.
I’ll set up something where we can talk. Not on big tech. Maybe the Signal app.
We’ll talk about the books we’re reading, the ways we’re changing from the mental discipline, and what we’re going to do next to build a better world. Plus, I’m guessing we’ve all “lost somebody” during these events…between a COVID and a country burning to the ground, a lot of relationships have been severed. Let’s build some new ones.
No enrollment fee. No subscription cost. Except for the suffering you agree to subject yourself to in order to become something better.
Email/text/call me if you’re in. sethtowerhurd@gmail.com/314.580.3719.
Rest up. Cause tomorrow we’re going to build a better world,
-sth