Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."  James Madison: Federalist 51: Government has always been considered by many to be a necessary evil. Because of the natural tendency of human beings towards misdeed and the fallibility of our nature, government exists as an attempt to manage and direct its subjects toward acceptable and productive behavior.       Unfortunately, the government is run by people just as fallible or corruptible (if not more so) than that of the governed, which is why you check power and put a leash on the powerful. The quote above reflects that fallibility of humanity and the hypothetical infallibility of the divine.  Such propensity towards mistakes and corruption is why the founding fathers tried to design a system that contained, controlled, and restricted to an extent the power of the powerful.   Unfortunately, that system can only work

    What makes a human being valuable? Is it what they do? How they think? What they look like? What they accomplish?  The short answer is...all of the above to an extent, but its much deeper than that. The value of a human being should never be contingent on things like race or sexuality or gender. The value of a human being lies mostly in our sentience. Our minds. The fact that we feel. We think. We love.  These are intrinsic in our nature. The fact that we are isolated, individualized samples of consciousness essentially renders every human being into an isolated world. Who is to say one world is more or less valuable than another.  Our intrinsic worth comes from the shared nature that we have with God. We are conscious, sentient and aware, something that makes us unique amongst all other forms and substances of the existence.  This awareness, the feelings of pain, the feelings of pleasure, our capacity for growth, our capacity to learn, our capacity to love, makes our worth almost

Creativity is one of the most important parts of the human condition, and one of the most essential parts of existence in general. Existence being the creation of an all-powerful, infinite Creator.       Creativity is, from my perspective, where the image of god is most greatly demonstrated in the human condition. If you create, you are acting out the very essence of a Creator God.          For me, the greatest gift God ever bestowed on me was creativity. He put my ideas into my mind. He sowed a hope for an eternity beyond my wildest imagination. He gave me that imagination.  The concept of an infinite creation, unlimited in its scope, depth, wonder, and glory and unlimited in the things it contained would have never crossed my mind had that Creator God never put it there.      God is the Creator of creators. He created subordinate conscious beings who shared in a fraction of His creative capacity, and put them in positions where they could exercise some of that creativity.      One of

    Hierarchies are a naturally occurring arrangement of a wide range of systems in reality.  They occur in the social and political systems of human beings (and possibly other conscious beings) as well as non-conscious, physical systems like stars, galaxies, and computers. I would argue that they are a necessary, and inevitable, component of existence.   Existence itself being constructed of a complex hierarchal arrangement of consciousness, forms, ideas, space, time, energy, and matter.     In politics, government, and society, the arrangement of a hierarchy is the determining factor of a wide range of social vices and virtues, in particular the applicability of things like power and liberty, as well as the enabling of oppression and subjugation.  The economic and social hierarchy determines the enabling or restricting of upward mobility and the fluidity of the hierarchal system (whether or not you can move to different positions in the hierarchy) The more rigid and immobile the hier

If I was rich, I wouldn't be free. Kind of an odd statement. Usually wealth entails a level of freedom that the poor and economically disadvantaged don't have. This is true in most contexts, but not in the freedom I am referring to. If I was rich, I wouldn't have the liberty of the mind that I have at this point in my life. I would have never needed to.       Wealth would have given me a freedom to move more easily and acquire resources more easily, and this would have deprived me of the base incentive for deep thought; the need to ask questions. If my base physical needs were met in absolute abundance where all the finer, luxurious, and more leisurely comforts the rich take for granted were easily at my disposal, I wouldn't need to ask deep, meaningful philosophical and existential questions.   I'd have all I'd ever want and need at my immediate grasp.   This would have prevented me from coming to many of the conclusions and understandings I have come to over t

    Aside from love, liberty is probably my favorite aspect of the nature of the Creator. Freedom and liberty are of the highest value and the highest priority in my life on earth. I absolutely loathe oppression and bondage. I despise it, detest it, and hate it to its core.        I've mentioned before that I think liberty is an inherent human right, one that should be protected, nurtured, and fostered in every human society and nation. The desire for freedom is wired in every human being on the planet, both those in bondage and those who enjoy it and are blessed with it.          To me, the Creator of existence is a God of the highest liberty, and the bestowing of liberty upon His creation is an act of the highest love. Love itself being the most preeminent component of God's nature. God's infinite creative capacity provides for an infinite amount of opportunity and endless levels of freedom. An infinite Creation is the biggest possible platform by which liberty can be par

I dream of a day... Where insanity no longer exists. Its darkness purged out of existence by an absolute truth. I dream of a day... Where the lies of this place that poison the minds of this world and cause such pain and such death are eradicated by the purest of light  and the most perfect of truth I dream of a day... Where I wake up  and no longer question my sanity what is real or what has happened to me.  Where truth is an ultimate and it is absolute and all the darkness of my life is brought to light and all the voids of my existence are filled to the brim overflowing with nothing but love I dream of a day... where my fears are destroyed where hate no longer poisons my life and the darkness and confusion that sows these are burned up by the light of truth.  I dream of a day... Where blights of the mind  and poisoned thoughts and all the other products of the sin here will no longer be lifelong curses I dream of a day... Where I am absolutely unequivocally completely utterly libera

       If you want a quick victory, catch your opponent completely off guard. The element of surprise is a very useful strategy and can be decisive if used correctly.  If you achieve complete surprise, hit hard and hit quickly, and overwhelm your enemy, it can be exceedingly difficult for a surprised enemy to defend against it.               Unpredictability and strategic complexity are effective tactics in any war, spiritual, physical, or otherwise. The more complex the strategy, the more unpredictable it is. The more unpredictable it is, the less an enemy can anticipate the moves, increasing the probability of success of the strategy in the conflict.       The level of complexity involved in a strategy is directly related to the level of complexity of the planner.  So too, is the level of unpredictability. Having an inability to be anticipated or predicted greatly increases the probability of success for the operation you are undertaking and the fruition of your goal.              In

   Thinking shapes the human condition far more than people realize. Aside from the natural world and the interaction of physical systems, human thought is the most potent driving force for change and advancement in the human condition.          All social, economic, political, and technological systems that exist in our world have come from the minds of human beings. The vast majority of societal and social constructs and systems stem from human thought.            As a result of this, the species is only as advanced as its thinking.  The engineering of complex systems can only come from complex thought. If thinking isn't complex and multidimensional, then the human systems designed and engineered by human thought will often not be complex and multidimensional enough to account for the volume of variables in complex social, economic, political, and physical problems to solve them to any  significant and effective degree.        In other words, you need complex thinking to solve co

When I was little, I developed an avid fascination with space and almost every science fiction, outer space theme and concept out there. Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica. Everything you can think of. My imagination got lit on fire pretty early, between my brother's video games and all the movies.         As a child, I liked to play by myself a lot. I had so much creative control in my own mind, and I'd incorporate so much of the media and entertainment I was exposed to and create very complex and dynamic fantasies in my head. Probably more so than most people realized at the time, and as I got older they got more complex.  I remember most of it. The traveling around my hometown with trees being galaxies and my bike being a massive spaceship. I fought war after war and had adventure after adventure with the characters I created and the stories I developed. In my spaceship, there were complex arrangements of advanced societies and highly advanced technology. O

 My mind is your Temple, King. Dwell in it how you like. Do whatever you want to it. With my imagination and words I will glorify you. In my mind I picture an infinite array of worlds Of realms Of universes Of realities As I imagine these things, I imagine each world, each realm, each universe, each reality having a temple for you, or a palace. Each world has a throne that only you get to sit on.  Each throne is unique. The thrones for the worlds are fitting for each world.  The thrones for entire universes are fitting for each universe, and proportional in value and power as well. Every realm has a throne that only you get to sit on, my King You are King of all things in my mind You are King of all things outside of my mind You are King of all things everywhere The Creator of the Infinite Creation A platform for Your glory A platform for everything My King, make my mind Your temple And make me who you want me to be.

I will travel with you, my dearest friend, across an existence that has no end. No end in time, or end in space, no end in realities, there will always be place after place, city after city, mountains and rivers and lakes and forests across endless worlds with stars and nebulae and clusters of galaxies stretching across the night sky.     You could even enter into other realms. Realms with wonders and beauty inconceivable to humanity. Realms where you can have countless souls immersed in total, absolute liberty. The liberty to go from world to world, construct to construct, spaceship to spaceship, universe to universe, reality to reality, and everything in between.  You can be whatever you want to be, have whatever you want to have, live however you want to live, and explore whatever you want to explore in God's infinite and eternal creation. You'll have me, love. My dearest love. I will be your copilot in your spaceship, your guardian in danger, your caretaker, your lover, you

One of these days I'm gonna wake up in a clean room A room with stars and galaxies painted across the walls and ceiling I'll have this galaxy blanket...one of those soft mink ones. I'll have my spaceship models collected on the dressers and window sills. I'll have a bookshelf with all kinds of books about existence About all kinds of worlds and places. This room will be all mine. My own space. This room will be in a massive palace in the highest heaven. There will be hundreds...thousands of rooms in this palace.  I will be one of many children there. It is the most beautiful buliding in creation. One of these days, I'm going to wake up in this palace        And I will be clean.        No sin        No hate        Fear will no longer blight my life        I will no longer say awful things        I will no longer do incorrect things        Bitterness will no longer be in my spirit        All my traumas will no longer have a sting        No more flashbacks        No mo

     The world is a scary place. There are lots of dangers here. Lots of pitfalls and "cracks" in the system to fall through. There are endless ways to become crippled or disadvantaged in this world, and you can be stripped of rights and privileges you take for granted in a matter of moments.         I have already fell through a couple cracks in the system. It wasn't fun. Being on the outside looking in to much of the opportunity and dreams that I've always wanted to be involved in can be an uncomfortable experience. It also has been quite embittering. Even so, I recovered from my slip-ups quite well and I handle my stuff much better than I used to. I'm also seeing a plan and a purpose for much of my sufferings and disappointment.       As the old saying goes, "when one door closes, others open." I may not be exactly where I wanted to be at this stage in my life, but that's ok! This, I'm starting to truly believe, is where God wanted me to be. N

      In ancient Rome, during the persecutions of the early Christian church, hundreds to thousands of Christians were put to death, some in horrific ways, and some for the entertainment of the Roman citizenry. These early victims of fear and hatred formed the foundation of the martyrdom concept.      What ended up happening in these early days is that the willingness to die for the cause and the unwavering loyalty to Jesus and his teachings despite the efforts of the authorities of the time only served in the end to garner more converts to the faith.       There are few things that impact humans in their social and cultural make-up as well as their traditions and mental and psychological states quite as significantly and potently as death. Witnessing death and losing someone has a strong emotional weight to it, even if you don't like the person that much. It will still affect you. Because of the potent psychological effect death has on people's minds, attaching a set of ideas

"And when I fight, I will fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you."      -Phil Wickham, from the song "Battle Belongs"     This war was never mine to fight. I'm too docile and too gentle to be a warrior in the traditional sense. I hardly have a mean streak in my spirit at all. I'm more likely to talk someone to death than shoot them. Hell, I've fired a rifle only around 10 times in my entire life (and I wasn't the most impressive of marksman.)      In all my years of fixating on all things warrior and warfare related, all the books, all the movies, all the games, I have to be frank and forthright with myself as well as everyone else I just wasn't cut out for it. It's good for me to admit that and be honest with myself.  It just wasn't my destiny. I get disheartened too easily, and violence just doesn't have the same appeal that it used to for me. I'm quite pacified.          I've fought a

    I have been fascinated by the ways and means warfare can be carried out for most of my life. I went through phases of being fascinated by the weapons to being fascinated by the tactics and strategies to being fascinated by the types and forms warfare can take and why we fight wars to begin with.           The form of warfare I have been particularly fascinated by is psychological warfare, especially in recent years.  From my vantage point, all warfare starts in the mind and the mind remains a massively important theater of all wars.  If you can conquer the minds of your enemy, you don't need to even fire a shot.       The more advanced our mind warfare gets and the more advanced our propaganda gets, the potential for influencing and maybe even controlling target groups becomes more pronounced and more effective.       Since the human mind is a giant information processor, psychological warfare is at its heart information-based. Information is the primary avenue for psychologica

A lot of people dream about wealth and fancy houses and cars as we grow up and well into adulthood, thinking that these things will make us happy and fulfilled. I've never been wealthy, so I wouldn't be able to judge or discern whether they are as fulfilling as they may appear to be on the outside.  It's hard to get rich in America when the doors won't open or you don't play by the rules.  When it comes to getting rich, the saying "it's not what you know, it's who you know" is painfully true here. I would know. I know a lot of stuff and I'm definitely not rich. There are gatekeepers here. They determine who gets into the careers or the lifestyles that are desirable and who doesn't. I would know this too. I have knocked on a few doors that probably won't ever open, but I still knock nonetheless. Even though I don't have a lot of money, I have a wealth of knowledge. Terrabytes of data in my mind, haha. I have a life experience and lif

     You can't turn on the news in modern America without being hyper=saturated in politics. Even our entertainment media can't steer away from the American political scene long enough to talk about a subject that hasn't been beaten into the ground and turned into a cliché.            I have paid attention to politics for most of my life. I have changed viewpoints over the years and shifted more to a spiritual/philosophical/existential focus of my readings and conversations. I've been described by some of my friends as a relatively moderate, centrist guy, which may surprise some people, given my past political affiliations.         Being in the middle of the road has its perks, but it also has its downsides.  There is a stigma against fence-walkers and it's not always the most comfortable place to be. You can end up being friends with everyone and being a bridge builder, or everyone ends up hating you for not taking a side.       I can tell you one thing, I am defin

"Memento Mori-remember we die" -old latin proverb The most preeminent fear of the human condition is the fear of death. The fear of death is a natural predisposition of any organism. It is something all mortal, temporary conscious beings must face and come to terms with at some point.  Death is natural. In a physical sense it is the consequence and end result of entropy, which decays and breaks down all complex systems. In a spiritual sense, it is the final consequence of sin and the fall from grace that cursed this world into the tragedy that it is today.  The fear of death is not always a bad thing. Self preservation is a necessary part of a person's life. It's hard to be productive and responsible if you don't value your life to some degree. However, the fear of death can also be a binding thing. An enslaver and oppressor. Every dark enemy or oppressive force humanity has ever faced has used the terror that the threat of death and destruction bring to subjugate