“Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you took advantage of the hardwire I included in The Phantom of Wisdom, then today’s episode is going to raise your antenna.

I didn’t intend to continue today’s discussion referring to King Solomon; however, after brainstorming over today’s topic, I realized that it wouldn’t be wise for me to ignore yet another lesson that we could learn from the ancient king.

I suppose only half the credit for today’s episode will be attributed to King Solomon while the other half of the lesson will be one that we will derive from his son Rehoboam. Granted, I understand King Solomon had his own issues as he distanced himself from God over the course of his life, but despite this fact, he did seek the wisdom of the Lord at the start of his kingdom.

Even though this was the case concerning Solomon, I understand that there has been ongoing debate over whether Solomon sought repentance. However, according to 2 Samuel 7:14-15 it appears that Solomon rests with the Lord.

Granted, I’m not here to debate that specific issue; but regardless of where you stand with King Solomon, the lesson that I wanted to point out here is the clear dichotomy that existed between King Solomon and his son, King Rehoboam, at the time that he took over the crown.

I want you to place this on a shelf for a moment as I’m going to shift gears and fast forward through time to a more modern place in recent history to illustrate an important point for today’s episode.

“A man’s got to know his limitations.”

–Clint Eastwood, Inspector Harry Callahan: Magnum Force

That famous quote by the legendary Clint Eastwood in the iconic action movie, Magnum Force, has been a line that has truly withstood the test of time.

Aside from just being a cool soundbite, there’s a real definitive lesson surrounding the context of this quote from the movie Magnum Force. Granted, when looking at today’s world, the lesson that we can derive from this movie is one that much of the world is currently missing.

To frame the context of this quote, earlier in the movie, there is some obvious tension between Lt. Briggs and Harry Callahan when they are working a crime scene involving a homicide. Briggs is Harry’s superior and he has clear disdain for Harry, and is quick to assert some harsh judgments regarding some of Harry’s past work. With a demonstration of one who feels the need to act like a moral superior, it was at this point when Briggs felt the need to remind Harry that he had never had to take his gun out of its holster during his entire career. This was when Harry responded by saying, “Well, you’re a good man, lieutenant. A good man always knows his limitations.” This was a clear dig at Lt. Briggs from Harry, where Harry was implying Briggs was a coward.

However, this moment in the film was foreshadowing something more significant that would happen later on in the story between the two men.

Now, I certainly don’t want to ruin the ending of this iconic film for you if you haven’t had an opportunity to see it, but this lesson is vital for today’s message. By the end of the movie, it quickly becomes clear what was being foreshadowed between the two men when we find out that Lt. Briggs tries to frame Harry for the vigilante killings involving other corrupt police officers.

After the true nature of the corrupt officers is revealed, Briggs forces a showdown as he has his gun drawn and is pointing it at Callahan. Briggs, being corrupt, while also being a by-the-book bureaucrat, even calls Harry a “maniac” and aims to attempt to prosecute him.

However, as Briggs is driving away from Harry, he is killed by his own car bomb after threatening Harry. It was at this point when Harry smiles and says, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

The lesson that we can derive from this here is that Briggs was obviously too arrogant and hypocritical to know his own limitations. Due to his desire and emphasis towards a self-serving nature, Briggs became blind to his own limits. In fact, he became so blind to them that it resulted in his own death.

Blind Spot

Aside from being a writer and podcaster, I’m also a professional strength and fitness coach. Given my background, I’ve previously covered the reality of a sixth sense that you possess that is known as proprioception.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with this sixth sense, but it’s an incredibly interesting and powerful trait that exists within your body. The amazing thing about it is that most people are completely unaware of this, even though it’s something they should intuitively understand.

You see, within your muscles, joints, and tendons you have proprioceptors which are sensory receptors that signal external feedback to you from your environment. This function works so that you understand the location of your body in relation to other people and other things in space.

This is a key sense to have so that you don’t accidentally run into things and people when moving in space on a day to day basis. Now, this may seem obvious, but many people’s sense of proprioception has been dulled in our society since the advent of technology, along with the modern era of cellphones, the laptop, and desktop careers that now make up a large part of our modern day way of living.

Basically, your sixth sense of proprioception is your key sense of awareness. Now having said that, when it comes to the reality of our modern day society, this sense of awareness isn’t so sharp concerning a large portion of people that you might encounter on a day to day basis.

So what exactly do I mean?

Let me begin by asking: How many times have you found yourself in a crowded public place, while trying to navigate through the crowd, only to suddenly have to move out of the way of others who are completely blind to your presence?

I don’t know about you, but this happens to me all the time whenever I find myself in these situations.

The key question here is: How is it that I’m aware of those people who are blindly violating my space, yet there is complete unawareness on the part of those who are guilty of violating my space?

The answer to this is due to a lack of proprioceptive awareness. In other words, every able-bodied individual possesses the sixth sense of proprioception; however, if this sense isn’t stimulated, it becomes dull and perhaps almost nonexistent. It’s the dulling of this sixth sense that I want to touch on here.

The reality is that there are people who possess a low level of proprioceptive awareness and there are people who possess a high level of proprioceptive awareness. I’ve already given you an example of a low level function of proprioceptive awareness with the space invaders I mentioned earlier in my previous experience of trying to navigate my way through crowded public venues.

However, I will give you a couple of examples here to clarify what I mean in regards to those who possess a high level of proprioceptive awareness.

For example, if you’ve ever carefully watched a defensive back in a football game cover a wide receiver, then you’ve seen a guy that can back-pedal and maneuver his body across the field of play while not even having to necessarily look at where he’s going.

In this example, the defensive back can maneuver his body across the field of play without bumping into anyone while simultaneously covering a wide receiver. Here, the defensive back knows exactly where his body is in space in relation to referees and other players on the field. In other words, the defensive back is aware of his environment. In short, the defensive back possesses a heightened level of proprioceptive awareness.

If that example isn’t good enough for you then consider the following example. I guarantee you, if you’ve ever been around any military personnel that came back from a war zone and observed them in a crowded space, you would see an individual who has a level of proprioceptive awareness that’s even greater than that of the football defensive back. Their sixth sense is fully honed and engaged.

Your sixth sense of proprioceptive awareness is an extremely powerful human trait. Just how powerful is it?

Well, if you still don’t believe me about your sixth sense, then the next time you go out to a restaurant or coffee shop, try the following experiment; but please don’t get busted on exhibiting too much of the “creeper vibe” and end up blaming this one on me.

The next time you sit down at a local coffee shop or cafe, simply pick someone else out in the room—especially if they are turned away from you— and lock your eyes onto them, to stare at them without turning away.

I guarantee you that if you do this long enough, eventually, the person that you’re staring at will turn and look in your direction. People know if they are being watched or followed, and depending on the level of their proprioceptive awareness, they will come to that conclusion faster or slower in this situation.

In short, a person with a high level of awareness will turn and look in your direction a lot sooner than a person with a lower level of awareness.

This is not make-believe.

This is as real as the turning of the earth.

Now, this leads me into my next point concerning the current epidemic of the lack of self-awareness that exists throughout our society. In my view, there is often, but not always, an overlap, as a lack of proprioceptive awareness can also be an extension of having a lack of self-awareness. There is a connection between these two traits because they both play a role in one having a firm grasp on both personal and situational awareness.

The two traits of proprioceptive awareness and self-awareness both share the trait of understanding your impact on the world around you. In regards to proprioceptive awareness, this is more closely associated with your sense and ability of how you interact within your immediate physical environment.

However, with self-awareness, this involves your ability to recognize your own character, thoughts, strengths, and weaknesses, while being capable of recognizing how all of these affect your overall behavior and interactions with others. Furthermore, when this ability is sharpened and heightened within an individual due to specific stimuli from a specific environment, this ability also results in a greater capability involving intuition.

The bottom line is that a dulled proprioceptive awareness can result in a lower level of self-awareness. As a result, a lower self-awareness can lead to a dulled ability of surface level thinking. Of course, a dulled ability leading to surface level thinking leads to one’s inability to harness their intuition.

You see, intuition is defined as one possessing the ability to grasp and understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.

When it comes to an environment that you’re familiar with then I’m confident that you’ve frequently illustrated an ability to demonstrate your intuition. We’ve all been in situations where we’ve had to use our intuition.

Some examples of these situations of demonstrating this trait might have involved the following:

The safety/danger scenario: This would involve a situation where you might avoid a specific person because they give off a weird vibe.

The interpersonal experience: This part of your intuition might involve a situation where you know that your close friend is upset about something, despite them saying that they are fine.

Key life decisions: Demonstrating your intuition in this situation might involve you choosing to pass on a high paying job because you don’t like everything that’s attached to it. Another example here would also involve the process of selecting a lifetime romantic partner for a husband or wife.

I believe you get the point here.

However, a lack of self-awareness can also show up when an individual doesn’t understand the sandbox that they’re functioning in within a certain environment. A good example here would involve a situation like the one I addressed earlier between the corrupt bureaucrat of Lt. Briggs and Harry Callahan.

For much of the movie, Magnum Force, Harry didn’t understand the sandbox he was in when investigating the many homicides of criminals who had escaped justice, but kept showing up dead.

However, once Harry discovers that a group of dirty rookie cops are actually the ones doing the killing, he realizes the circumstances have changed. Harry demonstrated self-awareness by possessing the intelligence, the acumen, and the intuition to follow through with the evidence in order to firmly grasp the environment that he was in.

On the contrary, the antagonist, Lt. Briggs, completely lacked the self-awareness to understand the sandbox he was in once Harry Callahan exposed him for what he was. After all, Lt. Briggs eventually shows his true colors and reveals to Harry that he’s the mastermind behind the vigilante killings, but he had to do so only after his failed attempt to recruit Harry into the corrupt police death squad that he was responsible for leading. Furthermore, he did this only after his failed attempt to kill Harry with a bomb. As a reminder, this very bomb would be the same exact bomb that would end up killing Briggs himself.

Who would have thought that we could extract so much value from the movie Magnum Force as it relates to an overall analysis of self-awareness and intuition?

As I mentioned earlier, a lack of proprioceptive awareness can lead to a lack of self-awareness which is something that we can see throughout much of our society, particularly when observing the actions and beliefs of the cultural Marxists and the Islamists. However, there can also be a circumstance where someone does possess a high level of proprioceptive awareness, but still lacks self-awareness.

I’ve already touched on how the cultural Marxists and the Islamists of the far left lack in self-awareness; however, there’s also been a rift on the political right of late regarding many who are demonstrating a lack of self-awareness. This is because they’re either putting on an act as they graft off of their positions in media, or because they simply lack the self-awareness to recognize the sandbox that they’re playing in.

Just this past week retired Green Beret combat veteran, Gold Star husband, and former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, released an official letter announcing his resignation as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. According to Kent, this was due to his belief and opposition involving the current war with Iran.

I will include a key excerpt from Kent’s official letter here below that he shared directly from his official X account.

Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again.

As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.

When I first heard about Joe Kent’s decision to leave the administration and took the time to read his resignation letter for myself, I was caught off guard.

Once I had some time to read and absorb it I immediately decided to step back and watch both the actions of Kent, as well as, the reactions of others towards his position.

Now, the reality is that his position was pretty radical. After all, in his own words he’s blaming Israel for the reason the U.S. got involved in both the Iraq war and this current war with Iran. Furthermore, he’s also stating that the president has been used as a pawn by Israel to start this war with Iran.

Any of those positions alone are extreme accusations and aren’t accusations that should be made unless he has overwhelming evidence of this that he’s prepared to lay out in front of the American people. Otherwise, in my view, he’s just expressing an opinion while having been in a position where that opinion could be undermining the country during wartime.

Now, before I go any further, I want to say that Joe Kent’s military service is absolutely remarkable, and it’s something that we all should be thankful for. I wanted to make sure to say that before moving forward.

However, I must say that it’s been interesting watching Joe Kent in the days following his resignation. As I previously stated, his resignation caught me off guard as I’m sure it did with many others throughout the media landscape.

Having said that, based on the media response from personalities such as Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, it was a bit surprising to see how quickly Kent had these interviews lined up, despite not having provided any evidence that I’ve seen regarding his claims.

Furthermore, it’s now come to light that Kent has been under a months long investigation by the FBI that long predates his resignation. According to Semafor, the matter involves a leak investigation related to allegations that he improperly shared classified information.

Despite all of this, as I’m sitting here and observing the reactions from the newly labeled Woke Right podcasters, all I’m hearing is a bunch of noise and not any critical analysis of Kent’s previous role within the administration, or the reasons surrounding his departure.

For instance, I saw where Shawn Ryan released a video previewing his upcoming interview with Kent. In this preview video Ryan is clearly agitated concerning the circumstances surrounding Kent’s departure.

Now, it has come out that for many months leading up to his departure, Kent was kept out of intelligence briefings. I point this out because in Ryan’s preview for his interview with Kent, he posits the position as to why the administration didn’t just go ahead and fire Kent, rather than keeping him out of the briefings for the alleged leaking, and trying to paint a different perspective for the public.

To me, this is just a bomb throwing attempt over the issue because it was clearly a lose/lose scenario for the administration concerning Kent anyway. In other words, if the administration had fired a retired Green Beret combat veteran, Gold Star husband, and father of two who had been deployed eleven times without having their facts in a row, then I’m curious if Shawn Ryan would think that would have changed his perspective on the administration. In other words, would his perspective under that circumstance differ versus how he’s expressing his perspective of the administration right now? I seriously doubt it.

Furthermore, in that same preview Ryan shared his frustration with a recent article from The Wall Street Journal that talks about how Lindsey Graham allegedly went to Israel to coach their intelligence service and their Prime Minister, Netanyahu, on how to persuade President Trump to bomb Iran. He suggests that perhaps the FBI should be looking into that situation with Graham and perhaps be looking at treason.

Now, concerning Ryan’s perspective on Lindsey Graham here I don’t disagree with him. However, let’s take a moment and imagine a scenario where both Graham and Kent are guilty of wrongdoing. In a scenario such as this that would occur in today’s political environment, what common denominator has the true America First movement been immensely frustrated about regarding every long list of wrongdoers that might resemble this scenario for the past six years?

I would say that the common denominator would involve the massive problem that our nation has had with the lack of accountability involved with everyone that’s been guilty of wrongdoing. Certainly, this lack of accountability is due to the institutions having been captured by cultural Marxists, which has led to a pandemic of judicial tyranny, with radical judges constantly undermining the president’s Article II powers at every turn.

If Shawn Ryan is calling for another investigation into Graham, given this pandemic of judicial tyranny, how far does he think this will actually go—if we’re talking about achieving accountability of a sitting United States Senator like Graham? The same thing can be said for Joe Kent, for that matter, if you happen to not believe him.

This is where I believe that if alternative motivations aren’t at play here with Kent, then he’s just simply not looking at this from the perspective of a geopolitical chessboard.

In other words, instead of assuming what Kent might know and whether or not he can be trusted, let’s slow down and take a look at exactly what we do know in regards to this current geopolitical landscape, and the way President Trump has navigated it.

First of all, am I supposed to believe that the toughest, and arguably the best president in American history, who gave up his billionaire lifestyle to become the most investigated individual in human history, is somehow being led around by a foreign Israeli lobby to get us into a war? Is this supposed to be a bad joke?

Furthermore, am I supposed to believe that this same president—that endured years of ruthless lawfare, had previously been debanked by JPMorgan Chase, and stared down the barrel of a gun in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a second assassination attempt down in West Palm Beach, Florida— is somehow a man that is not strong enough, smart enough, and capable enough to make his own decisions?

You see, this picture that’s being painted by the woke right is just stupidly reductive.

In addition to this, there’s also a very simple question I have regarding Kent’s resignation. Why did Joe Kent wait until the shooting started to resign from his position as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center?

In other words, why did he not resign back during Operation Midnight Hammer, during Operation Absolute Resolve, or during the massive build up of military forces in the Middle East just prior to Operation Epic Fury?

You see, given this modern era of Fifth Generation Warfare, it’s clear that President Trump understands the geopolitical chessboard, and how today’s modern era of warfare doesn’t solely involve tanks, planes, and bombs. This modern era of warfare is asymmetric and involves a war on the systems of the institutions that serve as the pillars of a society’s existence. These institutions involve the medical institutions, the financial institutions, the judicial institutions, and the longstanding media institutions.

By using the tactic that I revealed to you in my previous episode involving the Reverse Line of Delineation, we can minimize misunderstanding The Grand Strategy, and better recognize the sandbox we are currently in without losing it in our blind spot.

For starters, the president has been pointing out how much NATO has been ripping off the United States for years. Given that the U.S. is the chief financial contributor to NATO, and after seeing how unwilling NATO has been to help in the burden sharing involving the war with Iran, it’s pretty obvious that he’s right.

In fact, to make his claim about NATO concretely obvious, he recently referred to them as a “Paper Tiger” after Europe made it clear on its collective stance to not support securing the Strait of Hormuz, along with the U.S. and Israel, as the strikes on Iran continued.

In short, the president proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that NATO is a Paper Tiger, and isn’t good for anything other than ripping off the United States. After all, if NATO is supposed to be a partner during wartime, then why are they refusing to be partners with the U.S. during our war with Iran?

Meanwhile, all of the Middle Eastern partners are in favor of U.S. strikes on Iran while Europe does nothing. Does it seem ironic to you that our so-called allies are not offering to share any burden with us during this war with Iran, yet the Middle East has been relatively supportive of the effort?

The Wrap Up

Why do you think Europe isn’t getting involved with the war effort against Iran?

The answer is because most of Europe has fallen due to the mass migration of Islamist. It’s obvious that European leaders are scared of the threat of reprisals within their own borders if they support the efforts of the United States against Iran.

You see, the president understands this which is exactly why he’s been working to secure the Western Hemisphere involving South America, Canada, and Greenland. This also factored into his strategy involving the extraction of Maduro in Venezuela, along with their oil.

When it comes down to it, Iran has been a radical long-term threat, but who is it that is an even bigger threat to us than Iran?

If you replied by saying that would be the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) then you would be correct. As the old saying goes, let’s keep the main thing the main thing.

The reality here is that the president isn’t just killing two birds with one stone here, but rather he’s killing thousands of birds with one stone by dealing with Iran and securing our Western Hemisphere. Sure, it’s dangerous, but this has been something that has been growing for the last 50 years.

Historically, much of the global financial decisions have been driven by the City of London. With that being said, when the Iranian regime threatened to mine and shutdown the Strait of Hormuz, insurance policies were canceled, and for those that weren’t the cost of insurance to move product through became steep.

According to the Guardian, this is why the Lloyd’s of London has recently sought to defend its decisions to cancel war-risk policies. However, with the president’s quick actions of offering a competing U.S. government-backed insurance program to back the cargo going through the Straits, he’s solidified the exposure of NATO as the Paper Tiger that they are rather than the ally they’re supposed to be.

Based on what I know and what I can observe at this time, Joe Kent, at best, seems to be expressing a deficit of intuition concerning the geopolitical chessboard. At worst, his actions could be intentional as those on the Woke Right appear to be now with every day that passes. Until I can see evidence that convinces me otherwise, this is my current perspective on the matter, and there are many other reasons that factor into my decision besides what I’ve included here in today’s episode.

I began this episode talking about the difference between King Solomon and King Rehoboam. At the beginning of his rule, King Solomon asked the Lord for wisdom and a discerning heart in order to better govern the Lord’s people. However, when his son Rehoboam took the crown he ultimately chose to reject the advice of the elders who worked with his father, and instead chose to consult with the young men that had grown up with him and stood before him as king.

As a result of this choice, Rehoboam ended up losing more than half of his kingdom.

Rehoboam and his peers illustrated a total Deficit of Wisdom, which left them vulnerable to a Fatal Contagion of False Intuition. Because they lacked the hardware to audit their own ‘gut feelings,’ the false contagion succeeded—and the kingdom fell.

Rehoboam lacked something else that his father demonstrated the moment he took the crown. To learn the identity of that missing component, make sure that you bypass the Vault door and upgrade to Zenith Status. I will be revealing the missing hardware to this in my next transmission: The Curator of Agency.

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