...I don't walk in the halls of power...so the people I meet, put their pants on pretty much like I do...I know of no persons of deep dark conspiracies...most are trying to keep their heads above water, just like me...

Most people I meet, good and bad, all have their flaws, but none I know have world domination on their minds.

Unwitting tools of industry perhaps; or brainwashed 'good citizens' -- 'the government can do no wrong, because it looks out for our best interests'; or mindless chasers of pleasure.... But no half-lizard demon halfbreeds shop for groceries where I do....

Not that I would be surprised much to find such creatures in those halls of power...but what I've found in life, that it means little what happens in those halls -- unless it's acted upon by all the little guys down here in the dirt...

So to line up entire races of people (who put their pants on like I do, and worry about the same sorts of things that I do, and live their lives in the same sort of pattern that I do) and point a finger at them, strikes me as the worst sort of comicbook sensationalism, existing in a separate world unconnected to the neighbors all around you, who are hurting just as much as you are, and invisible to you in the web of cosmic conspiracies...

No doubt, onion skins of conspiracies do exist, but unless you're a player, you're not going to touch or effect any plan they may have...In fact, the sheer numbers of ongoing plots probably do much to cancel each other out...

And in my cosmology, there are demonic influences, and the Mystery of Evil -- which perseveres in the face of certain defeat...which seemingly controls and influences humanity. Evil conducting the orchestra, but still not able to deviate from the score...

You build something one brick at a time...so what you do to counteract any and all of these enslaving things...is to get yourself on solid ground, and build your life, and the lives of those all around you, the most God-connected and centered way you know how....how to help carry someone else's burdens...we're in a spiritual battle, we watch each other's backs, and step in to help at every attack that comes each others way...the examples are endless -- the tax form that doesn't make sense, that you can unsnarl -- the jobless person, and the job opening that you know of -- the old person on the side of the road trying to gird his loins to tackle that flat tire -- and I know it sounds so trite...but the world consists of all those little bricks built up...just like on the other side, the little cheats and stabs and ignorings that serve the System..."Oh, I can't help the helpless, I'll be dragged down with them!"...LOL, what better way to go, in honor and duty, giving of yourself....what will you really lose? All the toys bought because of the Worlds enticement? Your life? Cheap coinage if the return is eternal life...
It seems to me, if everyone were doing that, these players wouldn't have any pawns to play with...and would wither away...

But we know that's not going to happen...but we try anyway....it's what we were left here to do, to occupy until He returns...exercising those gifts that will blossom in full in His kingdom...

And why won't that happen? Because the world is lousy with wannabe players...through greed or power or lust or whatever, they play the game as laid out by those in the halls of power...the System barely requires a 'devil', empowerment comes from all the imitators lusting after the game...
And the game I've seen played the most by them is 'let's you and him fight'...
Distractions piled upon distractions...all to get you away from love of God and love of neighbor...

Wannabe players -- you make it tough to love you. So wrapped up in your deals and conspiracies, countermoves and manueverings...it's like there is nothing 'real' left to connect with...to respond to...

Which I guess is a case in point with this thread...instead of going deeper into the meat of pilot's theme, which seems to be a call for individuals to get their spiritual life together because the time grows shorter to do so...it splinters off into a fingerpointing 'who shall we blame' -- for what turns out to be, after all, our own wandering off of the path...