We explore real-life reformation here in this informed, online community.
It was 1933. America was descending into a depression. FDR issued Executive Order 6102:
"All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1,
1933, to a Federal Reserve Bank or branch or agency thereof or
to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System all gold coin,
gold bullion and gold certificates now owned by them or coming
into their ownership . . .
"Whoever willfully violates any provision of this Executive Order . . .
may be fined not more than $10,000, or, if a natural person, may
be imprisoned for not more than ten years, or both . . ."
Note that the penalties were quite severe, and that all the gold was
literally to be turned over, not to the US Treasury, but to the private banking Federal Reserve System.
The plan was not rolled out because of an unexpected crisis. A full decade earlier, a new Federal Reserve Building was constructed, in 1923. In Cleveland. It was designed to contain the largest bank vault in the world and machine gun turrets on its exterior because it was to hold that confiscated gold.
A few weeks ago, an image went viral. In Belgium a migrant used the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to cook an omelette. For many, the desecration brought to mind a quote from French author Jean Raspail, written in 1973 in his novel Camp of the Saints, about a sudden invasion of Muslim, Indian and African migrants into France:
“Your universe has no meaning to them. They will not try to understand. They will be tired, they will be cold, they will make a fire with your beautiful oak door.”
“Beware of two errors: despising the world God sustains, or worshipping the culture He restrains.”
— Abraham Kuyper, Common Grace Vol. 1, Ch. 30
"[Successful NY Mayoral candidate] Mamdani built his campaign on the infrastructure of the Democratic Socialists of America. The DSA and its city allies can dispatch activists across New York and, with a network of progressive partner organizations, can mobilize young people, get out the vote, and do the work of door-to-door politics.
"We saw this dynamic many times in the twentieth century: socialists rise to power, their policies degrade the quality of life, and, as they enter the endgame, they tighten their grip on power and offload resentments onto their ideological, racial, and economic enemies.
"...the twentieth century taught us that left-wing voters have extraordinary defenses against reality."
-- Christopher Rufo
