As we head into the year 2020, it’s hard to know whether to be fearful or hopeful. (Despite it being “20/20” I’m not seeing very clearly.)
So far, the 21st Century has left a lot to be desired.
When I was young–many years ago–I imagined we’d make great progress by the 21st Century. My anticipation had less to do with flying cars and computers and more to do with things like world peace; in any event, I wasn’t prepared for the renewed tribalism and various bigotries that have grown more intractable in the years since 2000. (I was definitely not prepared for a President reckless enough to Wag the Dog.)
It’s hard to know whether the problems we face are truly worse than they have been, or whether–thanks to vastly improved communication technologies– we are just much more aware of them. In any event, as we turn the page on 2019, pundits and historians are proposing terms to describe the last decade.
Washington Post opinion writers came up with six, one of which seems particularly fitting, at least to me: the Age of Unraveling.
“Unraveling” was the descriptor offered by Dana Milbank, one of the Post opinion writers offering their perspectives on the last ten years. I think Milbank got the decade right.
It began with the tea party, a rebellion nominally against taxes and government but really a revolt against the first African American president. At mid-decade came the election of Donald Trump, a backlash against both the black president and the first woman on a major party ticket.
Milbank attributes much of the ugliness of our time to the fury of white Christian men who realized that they were losing their hegemony. He saved some opprobrium for social media:
It gave rise to demagoguery, gave an edge to authoritarianism and its primary weapon, disinformation, and gave legitimacy and power to the most extreme, hate-filled and paranoid elements of society.
Molly Roberts had a somewhat different take; she characterized the decade as one of (over) sharing. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like have ushered in “full-frontal confessionalism to a country full of emotional voyeurs.” In the process of baring our souls, we also, inadvertently, shared a lot of private information.
To maximize our engagement, those platforms played on the preferences all our sharing revealed — which meant shoving inflammatory content in our faces and shoving us into silos. All that connection ended up dividing us.
Jennifer Rubin has been turning out a stream of perceptive columns the past couple of years, and her take on the decade didn’t disappoint: she dubbed it the Decade of Anxiety, “one in which we lost not simply a shared sense of purpose but a shared sense of reality.” Rubin, a classical conservative, is clear-eyed about what has happened to the GOP.
The Republican Party degenerated into a cult, converted cruelty into public policy and normalized racism. Internationally, U.S. retrenchment ushered in a heyday for authoritarian aggressors and a dismal period for international human rights and press freedom.
Christine Emba, with whom I am unfamiliar, characterized the period as a Decade of Dissonance–a period during which our reality and our expectations kept moving further and further apart.
For her part, Alexandra Petri called it the Decade of Ouroboros. I had to Google that one. Turns out it’s a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. (I’ll admit to some head-scratching; she either meant a time when we set about destroying–eating– ourselves, or a time when everything is ominous.)
The final offering, from the economist Robert Samuelson, struck me as appropriate, if depressing. He called it the Decade of Retreat.
It’s not just the end of the decade. It’s the end of the American century. When historians look back on the past 10 years, they may conclude this was the moment Americans tired of shaping the world order.
At my house, it has been a decade of civic disappointment–and exhaustion. (Persistent outrage really tires you out….)
How would you characterize the decade? And more to the point, where do you see America after another ten years?
Being 63 years old when the 21st Century hit; I was old enough not to have delusions about what to expect regarding how fast or from what direction change would come. I was glad those who believed the end of the world was coming when computers clicked from 1999 to 2000 would crawl back under their rocks and let the world move on via the calendar. I did hope for advances in humanity and acceptance of civil rights and the working class could continue working and bettering lives for their family and the economic condition in general would continue to rise. Living in Florida in 2000 and watching the bogus presidential recount in the state where George W’s little brother was governor should have been a warning sign.
Being part of history which elected President Barack Obama, a biracial American, gave me hope and raised my pride in this country. My belief that advances in humanity and acceptance of civil rights were coming true. I could not have been more wrong or more misled by, not one but TWO, presidential elections and my belief that the petty racist diatribes by family, friends, neighbors and the general disagreements by the Republican lawmakers in government were petty in nature.
“The Republican Party degenerated into a cult, converted cruelty into public policy and normalized racism. Internationally, U.S. retrenchment ushered in a heyday for authoritarian aggressors and a dismal period for international human rights and press freedom.”
The Republican party has degenerated further into the Trump party and we are on the verge of WWIII with the country being run by Trump and McConnell and our allies of 70 years are backing way from connections to the United States of America and all it now stands for. We said “Hello” to 1930’s Germany on January 20, 2017 and have escalated toward a 21st Century Holocaust faster than Hitler brought Germany and the European countries he overpowered.
Where do we go from here? Where CAN we go from here?
If we value our individual freedoms and follow what our forefathers institutionalized we will see the citizenry settle albeit into their corners of values but a more generally a happier ten years than the last. We see great divisions as some are pushing centralized government, something I studied and personally have a true disdain for because we can thru our states accomplish things at this level even if we seem to be enhancing our government at the federal level thru legislative values. The real problems we have say in education is many times laws are passed in which schools must follow but there is no funding or increased workforce to implement said laws.
Corporations on the other hand can see a better value of regulations as they are more capable to withstand newer regulations that generally are good for the welfare of the community as well as the corporate world such as coal as in the Carolinas and Duke energy coming to an agreement with the government.
Regardless of who Is in control we have to control our national debt as it is spiraling out of control. We live in an unreality show of incompetents running for seats to fulfill ideological values instead of maintaining the the state so that it is able to continue to enhance our lives thru bipartisan support.
Obamacare divided and still divides our nation not because there are things all sides can agree we must accomplish, but the way we reached it from a top down enforcement thru civil taxes and punishing the citizenry was uncalled for. This led to the rebellion seen today as many are walking away and others are waking up to see that their government continues to rule with or without their support.
We have to chose to be bipartisan in nature to control government and yet find how to enable it best thru the structure or forefathers set up for us.
These past ten years have been the era when the blanket of hypocrisy came off the majority of our citizens and revealed to all our naked truth. We are self-delusional, full of racism, drunk on religiosity, and as uncaring as any Nazi concentration camp guard. We are indeed the “Ugly Americans.”
I want my blankie back!
I hope but am not optimistic that we are not entering the Decade of Hospice. People in power and everyone else need to be really scared. Scared enough to act in concert and stop the destruction.
This is the great age of irony in so many ways. We recoil in horror when some local 18 year old man savagely beats is 2 month old daughter. But will be taxed heartily to unleash wars for our ‘Homeland Security’ that hurt/maim/kill so many other’s children. Not to mention every other unspeakable common horror that so much of the world is now enduring. Yeah we know better, but can we ever do better; Be Best and Make America Great again? See how ironic it is…sad.
You’ve got most of it. I would stress: deliberate divisiveness, fears not facts, retrenchment, racism, Extreme classism masked in religion, hypocrisy
How about the decade of, “When will we ever learn?” We continue to want services, while continuing to decry the taxes required to pay for those services. We continue to say we don’t want dirty campaigns, while voting continuously for those whose campaigns sling the most mud. We continue to be easily frightened by every bogeyman that some adman can conjure up. I’m betting we’ll be able to reuse this name for at least a few more decades.
Love your observation that “persistent outrage really wears you out”. I suffered that back when I was writing editorials for a weekly paper, but that was on a local level. Now there’s a local level as well as the national nightmare and I am actually having physical reactions to it all.
It so happens that I had an email exchange this morning before reading Sheila’s piece with an old friend and retired archivist of the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, and that we discussed her topic of the day. It seems (I hope) that Trump’s latest dictatorial foray has brought forth a pitchfork-ready defense of what we are on track to lose, our democracy. I told him that I was focused on simultaneously saving our democracy and our planet.
If the lessons of Australia and the adoption of assassination as a tool of foreign policy by an ill and impeached president playing Hitler are not enough to put us in the streets, then perhaps we are already too late to save the remnants of a better if imperfect set of democratic values we have enjoyed in varying degrees since 1789.
So what to do? Double down on our defense of democracy via pitchforks, voting, making our views known via blogging and in the streets and wherever opportunity presents itself. This is no time to be a Good German in allowing this sick man in the Oval Office to remain there while playing Hitler and starting wars, and while we’re waiting to see what the Senate does about it (probably nothing given the current political alignment), we can also flood our representatives and senators with calls which point out, among other things, that when a dictator triumphs, they too will be without a job irrespective of party. If anybody reading this has other ideas on how to save our planet and democracy, let’s hear them because, unless we stop or at least slow this madness, Mayday status is on the horizon. (I’m thinking martial law, cancellation of elections, and other Hitler-like grabs by the demented one while we sit by with our tsk tsks, watching this political Pearl Harbor unfold.} Figuratively speaking, To the ramparts!
“For her part, Alexandra Petri called it the Decade of Ouroboros. I had to Google that one. Turns out it’s a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. (I’ll admit to some head-scratching; she either meant a time when we set about destroying–eating– ourselves, or a time when everything is ominous.)”
According to wikipedia “The ouroboros appears elsewhere in Egyptian sources, where, like many Egyptian serpent deities, it represents the formless disorder that surrounds the orderly world and is involved in that world’s periodic renewal”
I watched the documentary on AI by Frontline. Some of the people they interviewed stated that we are in a major transition much like the industrial age. Many workers will be disenfranchised by this transition. And I believe there really was not a healthy middle class during the industrialization of first world countries.
Many people are already dying because of global warming. I sometimes entertain the jaded notion that the leaders in power are allowing this to happen to reduce overpopulation. If that is the case, they really don’t understand that this will simply leave them with an earth that the next privileged generation of power (their descendants)cannot live upon. I do not doubt that if Carl Sagan were here today he would be speaking with Al Gore on that issue. I think if we are to save the earth that we will have to be willing to make the same kinds of sacrifice that “the greatest generation” made to defeat the Axis powers.
I truly am afraid that this insane occupant of the White House will win again. He started campaigning right after he was elected. I wish people in rural areas and the rust belt would wake up out of their hypnotic trance. I wish we could remember that “United we stand, divided we fall.”
I hope and I pray that my fellow citizens will rise up and show him to the door. I want America and the Republican party to become sane again. I want the healing to begin.
Hard to argue with Theresa or Peggy. But I would personally describe it as the “Decade of the Fools.”
fool n. [ < L follis, windbag] 1. a silly or stupid person 2. a jester 3. A VICTIM OF A TRICK; DUPE—vt. 1. to act like a fool 2. to joke 3. [Inf.] to meddle (with)—vt. to trick; deceive—fool around [Inf.]to trifle—fool'er-y.
~Webster's New World Dictionary
How could a second-rate sociopath like Donald Trump become President?
One sure way was for Congress to cut off funds to the FBI to investigate the religious far-right, while at the same time, the premier Pro-democracy NGO, the Southern Poverty Law Center, was covering up the far-right activities within the Southern Baptist Convention.
Unfortunately, it wasn't until early in 2019 that its leader Morris Dees was forced to resign.
,
All of the above caused a massive INTELLIGENCE GAP that didn't take long for Steve Bannon to figure out. And now, we have to "sit in horror" waiting for what is going to come next.
Happy New Year!
When the century began with some intellectual dwarf named George W. Bush as our President, I knew we were in big trouble. Our thinking society’s response to having a doofus for President resulted in Barack Obama. That was when most people actually got out and voted.
Then, as someone said, white male Christians showed how insecure they are in their own skins – or cammo pajamas – and voted for their own image of masculinity (woman abuse), their own version of doing business (lying momentarily) and their own idea about America’s place in the world (one’s own little cave). And, in 2016, the masses who voted for Obama swallowed the GOP bullshit about Hillary and didn’t vote at all – 92+ million civic sloths stayed home. And we wonder how we got here?
“To maximize our engagement, those platforms played on the preferences all our sharing revealed — which meant shoving inflammatory content in our faces and shoving us into silos. All that connection ended up dividing us.” Best quote of the day describing who and what we are: Having our “smart” phones in front of our faces all day/every day. Someone called this “hyperconnected isolation” Perfect. But our silos need to vote, or there will soon be only silos producing the effluvium of decaying animal waste.
Curmudgeon time…the decade replacing Judeo-Christian values with further escalation of
“anything goes if I like it”….the decade of further decline of civil language (what’s a curse word/phrase now?)…the decade of real decline in religious affiliation and attendance…the decade of enormous growth of online gaming (and addiction) with impacts yet unknown…the decade of the highest hope that could never happen (Obama) and the greatest fear that could (The Duck)
Gerald,
I would strongly suggest that It might still be helpful, even at this late date, to plug the INTELLIGENCE GAP.
Culture, anthropologists say, has the purpose of filtering out capricious change among populations. At any given point usually the young demand faster change while us elders remind them that there is also good reason not to. I seem to have gone from young to elder as the temporal odometer clicked over the most significant digit. As I aged the ability to connect also broke out of limitation and suddenly all feelings were on media steroids and every voice was amplified to ear shattering volume. Progress vs comfortable ignorance, impatience vs caution, nimble vs plodding, the lure of the new vs the familiarity of the old, going forward vs backing up. Equality of opportunity became equality of ideas unsorted into good and bad, useful or dysfunctional, based on fact or opinion.
As I became a ward of caution, it was thrown out the window in favor of every man for himself as well as every woman.
What a mess we’ve made of things made worse by arriving at the same time that our population and life style reached unsustainable.
Now we are in a race between humans and Mother Nature as how to return to sustainable. We have a chance to prevail but she’s notoriously impatient and sustainability is not an opinion but a fact. We will return to sustainable numbers and technology, our way or her’s.
I fear her’s.
What’s more to be said? NOW stop talking and do something! Write about what you are doing, not what you are feeling.
“persistent outrage really wears you out”
Persistent outrage, constant stress, repeatedly facing new crises almost daily and the fear of nuclear war hanging over our heads like an anvil also causes emotional and physical illness. Couple that with loss of family members, friends and neighbors in the compressed period of time since Trump was appointed and inaugurated and we suffer in ways never experienced before. Trump has caused a nationwide pandemic for which there is no medical treatment for a cure; only some of the symptoms can be treated with medications too expensive for many of us to afford. Removing him from office is more than opening a new can of worms; it will, when it happens, leave us with trying to save ourselves while repairing what damage we can and learning how to live with the destruction which cannot be repaired. Getting rid of Trump will be in many ways worse than living with him; we must be prepared to face situations we are not prepared to deal with.
Morton,
Ditto.
JoAnn,
“Getting rid of Trump will be in many ways worse than living with him; we must be prepared to face situations we are not prepared to deal with.”
You’re right. So, you have to get rid of him in a way that will adversely affect those next in line.
“Trump” is the name of the disease. The icon of broken society at the time when dysfunction is least affordable.
Let’s talk about the days when the disease has been cured and we can return to living with purpose rather than running out of fear.
Marv and Morton > Re-ditto.
Gerald,
Going back to our law school days I’m reminded of how understanding the ISSUE was so important.
To me, the overriding issue is: Do we take #1 strong action domestically that has the possibility of retaliation or #2 do we sit around waiting for our foreign adversaries to make our decision for us?
#1 has my vote.
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Non-fiction, politically oriented books about current affairs our outdated the moment they’re published. Everyone who reads knows that.
Gerald and Morton,
It’s imperative that we take positive action as soon as humanly possible, since once Iran responds to Trump’s Act of War, it will be almost impossible to take action because of the Sedition Laws that will be, immediately, put into place.
Marv asked: How could a second-rate sociopath like Donald Trump become President?
An answer was provided decades ago:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
― H.L. Mencken
Bush the Younger qualified as step one in the move to a moronic President. What Bush the Younger had was his own Rasputin in the form of Dick Cheney. Cheney brought in the Neo-Cons who were just waiting and hoping for the opportunity to implement Regime Change.
Some relief was provided by Obama when he was elected. The “plain folks” finally got their heart’s desire and elected a Moron in the form of President Agent Orange.
M.L.,
“Bush the Younger qualified as step one in the move to a moronic President.”
Absolutely right. The day he was elected might best be called: A DAY OF INFAMY.
The next day after he was elected, I called Dennis Hayes who was then Chief Counsel for the N.A.A.C.P., and had a long discussion on the direction that Bush would take us. My concern was that it would be in the direction of FASCISM, based on my earlier experience with his father in Dallas. See http://www.TheAlarmReport.info.
This last decade, I buried our son and then my husband of 53+ years…..I am happy to kick it into the dustbin of the past. Now, my main life’s work is to get rid of the horrific thing in the WH.
Marv and Morton: More ‘Amens’. This truly is tiring. No place to go but up! Let’s rise!
Welcome Fran: Sorry for your losses. We agree that it’s time to kick him to the curb. In case there are any here who don’t know it yet…He’s just not the guy for the job! He proves that every single moment of every day.
The decade of “Willful Ignorance”
Webster’s Dictionary;
Noun. willful ignorance (uncountable) (idiomatic, law) A decision in bad faith to avoid becoming informed about something so as to avoid having to make undesirable decisions that such information might prompt. Synonyms: vincible ignorance, willful blindness.
Psychology Today;
The difference between willful ignorance and true self-deception is subtle, but important. Willful ignorance tends to be more adaptive than self-deception. Willful ignorance is a cognitive strategy that people adopt to promote their emotional well-being, whereas self-deception is less controllable and more likely to be detrimental. Although willful ignorance and self-deception sometimes help individuals to avoid unpleasant facts, in the long run, it is usually better to confront reality than to avoid or deny it.
Or how about the decade of “Apostasy”
Strong’s Emphatic Diaglot;
This term in Greek (a·po·sta·siʹa) comes from the verb a·phiʹste·mi, literally meaning “stand away from.” The noun has the sense of “desertion, abandonment or rebellion.” (Ac 21:21, ) In classical Greek the noun was used to refer to political defection, and the verb is evidently employed in this sense at Acts 5:37, concerning Judas the Galilean who “drew off” (a·peʹste·se, form of a·phiʹste·mi) followers.
A definite willful form of abandonment or withdrawal from a good or righteous path, whether intellectual, moral, spiritual, it constitutes rebellion.
Whatever one would call it, it’s definitely a marker. A marking point in the DNA of history.
Paul wrote, In his letter to Timothy, that “there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; and they will turn their ears away from the truth.”(2nd Timothy 4:3, 4.)
Whether you believe in Scripture or not, one would have to agree, “there is something greater than what is ordinary,” going on! Why!?!?
John Sorg,
“Whether you believe in Scripture or not, one would have to agree, “there is something greater than what is ordinary,” going on! Why!?!?”
There’s an INTELLIGENCE GAP in the Pro-democracy line that’s been there for 40 years, which is allowing Trump to run free. He can only be stopped by PLUGGING THE GAP. It’s as simple as that. We’ve plugged it before in Dallas during the ’80s and early ’90s, allowing for the successful battle for 1 man, 1 vote.
It cost George Bush a second term.
[I’ve mentioned this earlier, in another context on this blog]
John,
It’s not that difficult to close the GAP. But is dangerous to do it. If there isn’t a significant amount of CIVIC COURAGE, then Trump can’t be stopped. It’s as simple as that.
fran seyer,
You remind us what is really important. Our hearts go out to you.
John Neal et al
Marv, remember the phrase, “don’t leave me hanging?”
There Will be blood! No doubt about it! When I was still in my teens, I took my long hair, Levi’s and Winchester 30-30 to the Canadian border to support my native American brethren. I’m not going to get too specific about it, but suffice it to say, there was blood.
That was something I could get behind, and because of all of the anger from those who considered themselves Superior, I had no bad feelings about payback.
My native American brothers were ready to die that day, and some did.
Later on, the white guys that I thought had some gumption, had none. They left me hanging out to dry and I never let that happen again.
I look at all the Patriots, LOL, posting their patriotic patriotism, snicker, and it’s all bs. If it comes down to me and mine or the wing nuts, the wing nuts are going to be in for a rude awakening.
My Avatar picture was me this summer, doing a little field tracking. My great grandfather taught me all of the things that I needed to know. Including what you need to do, and how on the darkest of nights.
I know plenty of my brethren are in for the same thing. Some probably much better equipped than myself.
I’m ready, I’ve always been ready, hate has made me ready, abusive treatment has made me ready, bigotry and bullying have made me ready, although it does not consume me, I use it to hone my ability.
The Decade of Sudden Onset Schizophrenia
For Uncle Sam (every swinging consciousness in the country), there have been some early signs and some symptoms of schizophrenia, but they pointed to a long, slow degeneration through various stages of cognizant dysfunction and suggested that early intervention might still have a chance to save the patient.
But BOOM; full-blown delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, resistance to council, and failure to function hit us like a pandemic.
Hit us.
Yes, us. Trump is not the only schizophrenic; at least 40 million Americans have been taken down by the disease. And it took only three or four years for the pandemic to mature.
And now we are faced with a nationwide population of maniacs who have taken over the asylum.
John S.
Marv, remember the phrase, “don’t leave me hanging?”
I understand it well. But it’s not just the white guys that do it.
Larry,
“And now we are faced with a nationwide population of maniacs who have taken over the asylum.”
I can’t argue with you on the above. But I still haven’t given up on the possibility of the administration of a series of successful “political shock treatments.”
John Song,
I can’t let you think all of us support this talk of the use of guns, “there will be blood” and implied killing discourse. I certainly don’t.
John Neal
John N.
I for one am not into guns. But on the other hand, America is “armed to the teeth” and I’m not going to cut off communication with those who feel that they need to protect themselves and are willing to communicate the real state of affairs now prevalent in the U.S.
We all need to quit kidding ourselves. We’re on a rapidly sinking ship and better, quickly, find a way to right it, and you can’t do that with “blinders” on.
Marv,
Don’t get me wrong, I’m one of the meekest and mildest individuals that you would ever want to meet right now. I speak from my experience, and I know you speak from yours. In my previous comments I’ve said that revolutions never turn out well, and I agree. The Civil War was a whole nother deal. I will not give my life for a flag, I will give my life for a true brother. That’s the way I was taught by my great-grandfather’s people. I do not take my responsibilities to my brethren, and, by brethren I don’t mean just Native Americans. I have locked horns with a couple of my native brethren because of opinion differences, some lines that can be crossed are way above my pay grade so to speak. But let’s say, this was Nazi Germany in the late, late, late 1930s and early 1940s, could I watch all of the people rounded up into concentration camps? Not just Jews, but the Romani, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, those of the Catholic resistance, and some of the Protestant resistance. When the rubber hits the road, it’s time to put your faith to the test. Is what you believe right? Would you fight for it? Would you die for it?
A lot of people talk about their anger, their distaste for what’s happening, and, make no doubt about it, what’s happening now, happened not that long ago. The ancient Romans, or the 1st Reich, used the Eagle, they also used the fasces, the Germans or the 3rd Reich, used the Eagle and the fasces, the United States uses the Eagle, and also has the fasces mounted prominently next to the speaker’s chair in Congress. I’m sure there are many reasons why this is the case, but this was done in our distant past. There is an absolute link, a daisychained authoritarian control disguised as good and wholesome democracy.
It took a while, they needed the right mix to make it all work, and they waited, and waited, and waited, the Civil War didn’t quite work, the subversive activities during the Great Depression didn’t work, the infiltration from outside between the 1st and 2nd world wars i.e. the German Bund didn’t work, at least not right then. But the groundwork was laid. Let’s not forget, eugenics really started in earnest in England and the United States, the Germans picked up on it, they ran to the end zone with it. The same with American Manifest Destiny, was directly related and admittedly so to German Leibensrum i.e. blood and soil. The Germans thanked the United States of America for all of these things, and they thought that eventually the United States would be an ally also. American corporate power was brought to bear on behalf of Germany, and those weapons of war killed American soldiers. The number of corporations that still exist, that actually worked against the government is astounding. Why would anyone think that this infrastructure would be and could be changed?
This world is not a wonderful place, there is a lot of evil deeply entrenched, much more evil than good.
John Neil,
Whether you fight with your pen, or your fists, or the sword, you fight! What is worth fighting for John? Both of my younger brothers are dead John, and I wish I had been there when they were fighting for their lives, what I have made a difference? I changed their diapers, they were my little brothers, and I would have died for them. If I would’ve been there when uncle David had his back broken, wrapped in a chain, and dropped in the lake because he dated a white girl, if I could’ve been there, I would have died for him. The same with Carl, Bergen, Bobby, John, Frederick, I could go on, all family members, all murdered by white folks. I wish this world wasn’t so rotten, I cry for my little granddaughters, I am mortal and I will not be able to protect them as they start their families. The world is full of despair, the world is full of unfairness and out and out wickedness.
So John, I don’t cross the bridge before I get there, the point is, we can all make declarations, declarations born of distress, distrust and history. I’ve made mine, you can read them. What are you willing to do John? I know the difference between right and wrong, I know the penalties, I know superior authorities are put in place to bring some order to this world. That does not mean all superior authorities are good.
There being no reason for A Christian to set Himself/herself in opposition to an arrangement that God has permitted, they have good reason to be in subjection to the superior authorities. Governmental rulers, though they may be corrupt personally, would not normally punish others for doing good, that is, for adhering to the law of the land. But a person who engages in thievery, murder, or other lawless acts could expect an adverse judgment from the ruling authority. One guilty of deliberate murder, for instance, might be executed for his crime.(Romans 13th chapter)
So basically, one would have to obey the law, correct? But what if the superior authorities go against God’s commandments? What would you do? Would you surrender your life for your belief? Or would you go with the program? Those that died in concentration camps, those that held fast to their beliefs, died for those beliefs! I can only hope, my belief in my God is strong enough to counteract my imperfect human tendencies. There’s a lot more to unpack here John but, maybe we’ll discuss this in further detail at an other time. Read Hebrews the 11th chapter. Have faith John.
We’re at war here in America. The FASCISTS are in control right now. If you don’t have a warrior mentality, then you can’t be a leader in the RESISTANCE. I can’t make it more simple than that.
Your mother would be proud.
This last decade “seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” (Joseph Conrad)