Millennials, with no hope for the future, splurge on themselves now

And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die. Isaiah 22:13

If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die. I Corinthians 15:32

40 years ago, in his documentary film series Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, Francis Schaeffer commented that while the secularists of the early 20th century thought that man would eventually solve all his problems, the last 50 years had been characterized by a profound pessimism. Add 40 years and more pessimism, and you have the situation reported by Meagan Campbell in the Canadian newspaper National Post, October 10, 2019. The reader will notice that those described in the article aren't "paying it forward," with any thought for the future, but are acting out the mentality referred to in the scripure verses above:

Kevin Nahm, 19, does not expect to be able to afford a home one day, and his parents tell him that a Bachelor’s degree is no longer sufficient to get a sought-after job. When he feels stressed by his reality, he often spends money on an Uber instead of walking home, or he splurges at a restaurant. Nahm doesn’t know what to call this type of expense in English, but in his mother tongue of Korean, such an expense has a name.

“Shibal biyong” is a neologism in South Korean that Nahm translates — in the least profane manner — to a “what-the-hell expense” or “screw-this expense.” South Koreans use the term to describe spending extra money now because the future looks bleak, given the housing and job markets. Without hope of owning a home, many young Koreans decide they might as well spend money now instead of saving it, and the sentiment applies to young people in Canada, where major cities are facing housing bubbles and nearly one-third of graduates with humanities degrees were underemployed as of 2011, according to Statistics Canada. Nahm says “shibal biyong” became a popular term in 2016 in South Korea but that the phenomenon is universal.

“I think it’s existed for many generations; it’s just that it’s become an actual term, an everyday-life kind of deal, among my generation,” says Nahm, an economics student at Western University who moved to Canada when he was 10. “It’s become like a daily habit for most of us when we feel stressed. We would impulsively just purchase something.”

Sometimes the stressor is immediate — during exam season, for example, Nahm says one of his friends bought a Gucci belt. However, the stress is often more existential. “Why am I going to university? By the time I graduate, the climate and all this environmental damage is going to make the planet unliveable anyway,” says Nahm, “or (artificial intelligence) will take over the job market.”

Language reflects what is going on in a society, says Sali Tagliamonte, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Language Variation and Change. For example, when her children were watching Star Wars, they started talking like some of the characters.

“I was thinking, Oh my goodness, they sound like Jar Jar Binks. Are they going to lose that?” she says. “For language scientists these things are extremely revealing.”

She had not heard of “shibal biyong” before being asked about it, but between the world wars, she notes, many people were similarly trying to enjoy the present moment given the uncertain future.

“That attitude of saying, ‘Come what may. Let’s have a good time, not a long time’ — these are sentiments that have been around for quite a long time,” she says.

English speakers have not started using “shibal biyong,” but in the past they have adopted terms from other languages including “hakuna matata” and “que sera, sera.” She notes English has also seen a surge in certain toss-off terms including “whatever” and “meh.”

“The older generation always thinks the language is being bastardized, that the language is being degraded, but every generation says that,” she says. In the 1940s, she notes, older people were complaining that youth were always saying “like.”

Like linguists, economists can also help explain the use of “shibal biyong.” In an age when employment is less secure than it was in the past, people have more frustrations for which to compensate with purchases, says Wayne Lewchuk, a professor of labour studies and economics at McMaster University.

Lewchuk had not heard of “shibal biyong,” but he recently encountered the sentiment while living in Australia. Sydney has even higher costs of living than Vancouver and Toronto, and, “there is a sense that young people are spending money on going out to restaurants, etc., and not saving for a mortgage downpayment,” he says. “Certainly a little bit of hedonism is a good thing. Not having housing security is a bad thing.”

The reasoning behind the expenditures is sound, Lewchuk says. If young people have no possibility of owning a home and don’t need to save, say, 20 per cent of their income for a deposit on a house, then they have extra money to spend now.

“I wouldn’t call it cynicism,” he says. “It seems a perfectly rational response.”

Canadian Army brigade commander bans church parades

They still have the same titles and look somewhat the same, but the Canadian armed forces in the 21st century aren't fighting for the same things their predecessors in the 19th and 20th centuries were fighting for. In typical Orwellian SJW fashion, the brigade commander mentioned in the article below defines "inclusivity" to mean excluding anything Christian. It's ironic that a columnist who's a professing atheist sticks up for military church parades; as reported by Christie Blatchford in the National Post, October 16, 2019 (link in original):

An army brigade commander has told the 14 Ontario reserve regiments under his charge that they must cancel any “church parade” they have planned.

Despite a lack of complaints about the parades, which see soldiers march to their regimental church, Col. Daniel Stepaniuk urged his commanding officers to stop participating in “any event where the primary purpose is liturgical, spiritual or religious … even if the service is non-denominational.”

A custom in the Canadian Army since the time of Confederation, the parades aren’t as common as they once were, though many units still have at least one a year, often tied to Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Reserve regiments are made up of part-time soldiers, also called citizen-soldiers, and one of their greatest benefits is keeping alive and visible the community-army bond. In the small cities and towns where most of the units are based, the units are often an integral part of community life.

While the parades are sometimes considered a pain in the butt by troops (remembering that soldiers love to complain), reservists nonetheless appreciate the fact that they are paid for their time.

Stepaniuk told his COs in an Oct. 4 memo that, “As we embrace diversity and strive for inclusivity, we really need to examine those practices which may be exclusionary to our soldiers.”

Or, as he told the National Post in a recent phone interview, “I think it’s important not only that we create a diverse environment, but also that diversity is a hallmark of the Canadian Forces. … We can’t be privileging one group over another.”

(It’s the first time to my memory I have ever heard privilege used as a verb.)

He defended his order by saying, “It’s our policy,” which is true so far as it goes.

In 2014, the rules for army chaplains were amended to read, in section 33.11, that “Officers and non-commissioned members shall not be ordered to attend a parade that is primarily religious or spiritual in nature.”

But the rule has been on the books for almost five years, it appears to be the first time that a commander is making an issue of it.

The last time Stepaniuk struck in similar fashion was in August of 2017, shortly after he took command of 32 Brigade, when he determined that if his units weren’t nominating sufficient numbers of women to serve as “honoraries,” he would leave the appointments vacant, rather than (the horror! the shame!) see them filled with men.

Honoraries in the militia — colonels and lieutenant colonels — are traditionally recruited locally, and while in recent years there were soft targets for seeing more women represented, Stepaniuk was the first to lay down the law so arbitrarily.

As he wrote his commanding officers at the time, if their units were being advised by a regimental or association committee and they “choose a suitable nominee and they are not using an appropriate diversity lens, it is your responsibility to ignore their recommendations and proceed to find a suitable candidate.

“If this is not absolutely clear, if we don’t proceed in the direction of gender diversity, I’m prepared to have no honoraries because as current appointments expire, folks won’t be replaced.”

Now, however, it appears he has surpassed himself in the category of stupid and unnecessary orders.

First of all, there is the glaring contradiction with Stepaniuk’s harsh stand on church parades and a parade that happened in Toronto last April.

A group of soldiers — I counted between 15 and 20 — were issued weapons, allowed to march in their military uniforms and were escorted by an armoured vehicle in the annual Khalsa parade for Canada’s Sikh community. It is considered a holy day.

The soldiers were from the Lorne Scots, one of Stepaniuk’s reserve units based in Brampton. The CO of the unit said at the time that he signed off on the weapons only after his commander (that would presumably be Stepaniuk, or perhaps the brigadier-general above him) approved the soldiers’ participation.

So weapons worn at a Khalsa Day parade good, though against the rules (The Canadian Armed Forces Manual of Drill and Ceremonial), according to army spokeswoman Karla Gimby.

But soldiers going anywhere near a church, bad, and against rules five years old that no one cared to enforce until now.

But most of all, in such small incremental strikes, does Canadian history and tradition lose strength.

I am an atheist. I have been to a church parade in a small eastern Ontario town. It was lovely. It was entirely benign. It did no harm and probably some good.

Stepaniuk appears to believe there is malevolence there. He also appears to believe that the core business of the Canadian Army is diversity, not training soldiers for war. What a disservice he does to those he leads.

See also my post Canadian Forces Base Edmonton: Standing on guard for Sodom (June 13, 2013)

Paris Zoological Park's latest exhibit resembles modern liberals

Almost 720 sexes, and no brain--sounds like a typical modern liberal. As reported by Reuters, October 16, 2019:

PARIS - A Paris zoo showcased a mysterious new organism on Wednesday, dubbed the “blob”, a yellowish unicellular small living being which looks like a fungus but acts like an animal.

This newest exhibit of the Paris Zoological Park, which goes on display to the public on Saturday, has no mouth, no stomach, no eyes, yet it can detect food and digest it.

The blob also has almost 720 sexes, can move without legs or wings and heals itself in two minutes if cut in half.

“The blob is a living being which belongs to one of nature’s mysteries”, said Bruno David, director of the Paris Museum of Natural History, of which the Zoological Park is part.

“It surprises us because it has no brain but is able to learn (...) and if you merge two blobs, the one that has learned will transmit its knowledge to the other,” David added.

The blob was named after a 1958 science-fiction horror B-movie, starring a young Steve McQueen, in which an alien life form - The Blob - consumes everything in its path in a small Pennsylvania town.

"Jesus Shoes" cashes in on greed and superstition

More evidence that you can't be a satirist anymore, as reported by Alexandra Deabler of Fox News, October 9, 2019 (link in original):

That’s a holy lot of money.

A limited-edition sneaker, which is filled with holy water in the soles and blessed by a priest, sold out within minutes of its debut, despite each pair costing a whopping $3,000.

Brooklyn-based creative label MSCHF is responsible for releasing the shoe, which is a pair of all-white Nike Air Max 97s -- though the design is in no way affiliated with Nike -- that have been injected with holy water sourced from the Jordan River. The water, which is visible in the see-through sole, has some coloring added to enhance visibility, the shoe’s creator told Fox News.

The kicks, succinctly called “Jesus Shoes,” also feature the Bible verse Matthew 14:25 — the passage describing Jesus walking on water — and a single blood drop to represent the blood of Christ.

Among the other religious details are the frankincense-scented insoles, a crucifix threaded through the laces, and a red sole, which references the red shoes traditionally worn by past Popes.

The shoebox itself also displays an angel and a seal that resembles the official papal seal.

The shoes, which were bought at Nike retail value by MSCHF designers before being re-designed, were part of a desire for the MSCHF brand to poke fun at collaboration culture.

“We thought of that Arizona Iced Tea and Adidas collab, where they were selling shoes that [advertised] a beverage company that sells iced tea at bodegas,” head of commerce Daniel Greenberg tells the New York Post. “So we wanted to make a statement about how absurd collab culture has gotten.”

“We were wondering, what would a collab with Jesus Christ look like?” he added.

Less than two dozen of the Jesus Shoes were made with no plans to create more, according to MSCHF. Although, Gabriel Whaley, founder of the brand, hinted there may be a “second coming” in the future.

The MSCHF label releases new items every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

As reported by Lauren Steussy and Hannah Frishberg in the New York Post, October 8, 2019:

What would Jesus wear? The sickest sneakers ever dropped, most likely.

Nike shoes with actual holy water in the soles are going for as much as $3,000 a pop, and sold out in mere minutes when they dropped Tuesday morning. “Jesus Shoes” are made with 100% frankincense wool (get it?), while the laces are strewn with a crucifix.

The godly shoes were made by Brooklyn-based product design company MSCHF, which created about two dozen of the kicks as a way of trolling “collab culture,” its head of commerce Daniel Greenberg tells The Post.

“We thought of that Arizona Iced Tea and Adidas collab, where they were selling shoes that [advertised] a beverage company that sells iced tea at bodegas,” Greenberg says. “So we wanted to make a statement about how absurd collab culture has gotten.”

To do that, it started with “one of the most influential figures in history,” Jesus Christ.

“We were wondering, what would a collab with Jesus Christ look like?” Greenberg says. “As a Jew myself, the only thing I knew was that he walked on water.”

The holy water MSCHF injected into Air Max 97 bubble soles came from the Jordan River — “I have a friend in Israel,” Greenberg says — and was blessed by a priest.

Shoe drops like these, followed obsessively by rabid fans called “hypebeasts,” have become an economy unto themselves. Cash-strapped fashion fans are even turning to the underground streetwear market to make ends meet, reselling duds from the likes of Supreme and Kith.

To promote its shoes, MSCHF sent about six pairs to YouTubers and other big shots, such as rapper A$AP Rocky, prior to the drop. Then, by 11 a.m. Tuesday, it posted them on the retail site StockX.

The shoes were in no part affiliated with Nike — MSCHF bought the sneakers at retail value and hand-created the design. MSCHF anticipates making “biweekly drops at 11 a.m. on every second and fourth Tuesday of each month,” Greenberg says.

“But this one was the holiest of all the collabs,” he says.

70 years ago: The Episcopal Church supports the agenda of the Antichrist

...Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8b

More evidence that the last days apostasy has been building for a long time: On October 7, 1949, the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America ended in San Francisco after passing resolutions urging international control of Jerusalem and formation of a world government to keep peace. One might think that an ostensibly Christian church would call on the Lord Jesus Christ to return and establish His government in Jerusalem and over the whole world; the fact that the Episcopal Church did otherwise indicates the extent to which apostasy had already taken hold of the church.

It should surprise no one that in the last 70 years, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, like mainline Anglican and Protestant churches elsewhere, has continued in a further apostate direction, manifested in such things as female leadership and support for various sexual perversions that God calls "abominations." These things will continue until the Lord Himself returns and destroys them with the brightness of His coming (II Thessalonians 2:8).

230 years ago: U.S. President George Washington issues his Thanksgiving Proclamation

On October 3, 1789, U.S. President George Washington, in response to a request from Congress, issued the first Thanksgiving Proclamation since the adoption of the Constitution in 1787, with the day to be observed on November 26, 1789:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be--That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions--to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

90 years ago: Fatal fanaticism in the Canadian Arctic

This kind of story has become more familiar in recent years, but, to quote the last part of Ecclesiastes 1:9, "...there is no new thing under the sun." As reported by Canadian Press and published in the Edmonton Bulletin, October 2, 1929 (capitals, bold in original):

ESKIMO GETS RELIGION AND SLAYS THREE

---------------------------

Insane Native Then Pushed Through Hole in Ice by Tribesmen


OTTAWA, Oct. 2--Believed by the authorities to have been a victim of a recurrence of the wave of religious mania which swept over this lonely land about ten years ago, a young Eskimo inhabitant of the interior of the southern portion of Baffin Land became demented and shot and killed his two parents and a young woman relation. He shot at but missed, his brother. The Eskimo tribe of which he was formerly a law-abiding member, kept him in close confinement through a long winter but in the spring after he had twice escaped their vigilance, pushed him through a hole and drowned him beneath the ice of the sub-Arctic.

The story, almost unbelievable in its complications, forms a part of a routine report of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers at Lake Harbor, Baffin Land, and will be incorporated in the annual report of the R.C.M.P., now being prepared at headquarters here.

Sergeant J.P.C. White in charge of the detachment at Lake Harbor reported that last winter, accompanied by Constable P. Dersch, he made a long patrol through a section of southern Baffin Island where white men were unknown before the great war. He learned the story from the tribe in which the tragedy occurred.

Heard Voice From Heaven

The report stated that Mako Gliak, a young man, became obsessed with the idea that he was a purifier of his race. He told his relatives he had heard a voice from Heaven telling him to kill all his people. He promptly proceeded to put this mission into operation.

The names of those he murdered were not ascertained by the police, although they were told Mako's parents and a young woman related to him were shot before the rest of the tribe overpowered him.

As Mako was obviously under a devilish spell, the Eskimos did not know what to do with him. The nearest post, Lake Harbor, was 500 miles away...