BY: DAIMAN TEER for THE SIMPLETON STAR
There is no clearer diagnostic tool for the intellectual rot of the American public than a conversation about the price of a gallon of gasoline. We are living in a moment of absolute geopolitical clarity—a conflagration in the Middle East that threatens to redraw the map of the world—and yet the average American is standing at a terminal, staring at a digital readout like a confused primate, wondering why the number is higher than it was on Tuesday.
If you spend your day obsessing over the fluctuation of gas prices, you are not a concerned citizen; you are a moron. You are the “inner retard” that the political class prays for—the person whose entire worldview can be manipulated by a fifty-cent shift in a commodity price. It is the ultimate low-resolution conversation for a low-resolution population.
Look at the history they didn’t teach you in your watered-down public schools. During World War II, Americans didn’t just pay a few extra cents for fuel; they gave up their lives. They handed over their rubber, their sugar, their meat, and their dignity to ration stamps. They did it because they understood that beating Hitler and Tojo required a collective spine. They understood that sacrifice was the entry fee for being a superpower.
But look at us today. We are a nation of soft, pampered children who think a conflict in the cradle of civilization should have zero impact on our ability to drive a three-ton SUV to a drive-thru. No one wants to make a sacrifice. No one wants to acknowledge that freedom has a literal, fluctuating cost. Instead, we have a country full of people who think they are being “oppressed” because they have to spend an extra twenty dollars a week to move their fat bodies across the asphalt.
The political machine loves it. They use gas prices as a shiny toy to distract the idiots while the real games are played with our borders, our sovereignty, and our future. If you are complaining about gas prices while the world is on fire, you are proving that you are too small for the moment. You are the reason this country is sliding into the abyss—because you value your convenience more than your conviction.
The Verse
“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” — Matthew 16:26
The Application
This verse is the ultimate indictment of the modern consumer. We are so terrified of losing a few dollars at the pump—the “whole world” of our petty, material comforts—that we have lost the “soul” of what it means to be a resilient, principled nation. We have traded the grit of our ancestors for the cheap satisfaction of a full tank, proving that we are a people who value the vessel more than the spirit that is supposed to drive it.
LET US PRAY
Lord, deliver us from the smallness of our own minds. Grant this nation the strength to look past the trivialities of the marketplace and find the courage to endure the hardships that come with defending what is right. Shake the people from their comfortable stupor and remind them that a country built on sacrifice cannot be maintained by those who refuse to give up anything at all. Amen.
