Victory in Living Well

Emerald City

In the wake of Joe Biden’s inauguration, vast stretches of the American political and cultural landscape appear to be smoldering, pyroclastic flows — hot, smoking carnage moving out towards the ocean as fanged clowns comb the wreckage for what remains of your children.  Instead of wrestling with the great ideas of Western Civilization, in Joe Biden’s America, many of your kids will be asked to apologize for their “whiteness” even if they are people of color.  (Yes, it’s a thing;  Donald Trump’s popularity with ethnic minorities is considered to be deeply divisive in the wake of the new call for a “unity” founded upon assumed identity hatred.)

This nonsense might explain the continued popularity of Riley’s Farm.

People need to breathe. They need freedom from the religion of critical theory, a place where they can celebrate the history of the greatest nation on earth, where they can hear actual melodies on the fiddle, where a couple with five kids can still dance like they were teenagers.  These days, we are scolded for not being properly fearful of an epidemic and not properly dismissive of our national origins.  Optimism itself is on trial. People invested in crisis just can’t stand the guy whistling while he works.

Our plan, here, is to whistle while we work — and sing, dance, and shoot as well.

If you thought we were too loud before, you haven’t seen anything yet.  Think of this place as an oasis, an Emerald City, a MIGHTY FORTRESS.  We will be here as long you need us, because we can’t do it without you.

We all grew up in a family of six children and when our brothers and sisters fell to bickering, my mother, in trying to settle matters, would always remind us, “it’s not who is right; it’s what is right.”

In other words, she was appealing to, and perhaps building in us, a sense of God’s unchanging moral law.  We wouldn’t have been able to respond..

“I can hit people whenever I feel like it.” or..
“But I like making her cry.”

Why?  Because it wouldn’t make any sense.  It would be contrary to the law written on our hearts.

This common sense Bea Riley was appealing to–our culture’s collective sense of  what is right no who is right–feels fractured these days, to put it mildly.  At a church meeting I attended a few months ago, one of the panel participants said words to this effect:  “It’s not so much Republican vs Democrat anymore; it’s good vs. evil.”

So in essential matters, Lord willing, the Riley family will not change.

• We cherish American history and the American experiment. We believe it is foolish to judge the behavior of historical figures by the standards of the present. George Washington and the revolutionary founders of the United States will remain heroes worth revering and learning from, even if some aspects of their world are repugnant to modern sensibilities, just as elements of our world would have been repugnant to them.  (The sort of generation that can kill 600,000 babies a year in the womb, through abortion, and stand in judgment of another generation’s sins needs to look in the mirror and take stock.)
• We believe in freedom of thought, expression, and inquiry. When we see political threats on the horizon that will affect our personal liberty and our prospects for business, we will speak to those issues. The First Amendment does not include the text, “be quiet if you own a small business.”  Our on-site programs have never been political, but we can’t celebrate the history of the First Amendment in the past, and then forfeit our personal right to it in the present.
• We believe in vigorous resistance to social-indexing, cancel culture, and political correctness wherever they rear their ugly heads.  Asking Americans to engage in intersectional identity shaming and reparations for crimes they never committed is the sort of thing we would expect from divisive half-wits anxious to ride the grievance gravy train.  Grow up.
• We believe in celebration, in “boy meets girl,” in great music, and good food, and family memories.  It’s been our high honor to build memories with you.  We won’t stop, unless they come to take us away — and that won’t happen without a fight.

We will likely be looking for partners and investors.  There is a lot of work to be done.  There needs to be a place where normal people can breathe free.

Categorised in: News

This post was written by Jim Riley