Happy 4th of July
On this 4th of July, I give thanks to God, and in particular to Jesus, not Allah, not Vishnu, not Buddha. Why am I giving thanks? Because America is groovy. America is freedom. Imperfectly realized, but better than most. Why is America imperfectly realized? Because perfection is a word, an adjective that describes something. Not a reality. You could just as easily say America is tall. But, what would that mean? Tall, compared to whom or what? You see, you need a standard when making such judgments. Something that offers a frame of reference. Without a standard, you’ve got nothing but subjective opinion. “You say tomato. I say Tomato.” For example. Admittedly, this analogy doesn’t work very well when it’s written, but I think you get my meaning.
It seems that lots of Americans, mostly the left half, are angry at America because it is woefully imperfect. They seldom ever get as angry at the rest of world. Unless they want to cast their net of self-righteous anger more broadly. Then, they include the whole Western world. The left never get as angry at the 3rd world, for instance, because the downtrodden live in the 3rd world. Even if some people living in the 3rd world occasionally behave in the most savage fashion imaginable. It doesn’t matter, you see, they’re only behaving that way because of us. Who is “Us?” That half a billion plus living in Western Europe and the U.S., that’s who.
It is this core of people, who are pretty much responsible for everything bad that has ever happened. Or, so they tell me. And, throughout pretty much all of human history, no less. This is “The Gospel,” “The Good News” according to according to the left. Meaning that salvation for mankind can only occur if the Western world is completely made over. Until then, the U.S. threatens the world like a Death Star.
There are myriad reasons why this point of view is catastrophically dimwitted. Not the least of which is, that the complete history of the Eastern word has been left out of this selective story of mankind. Likewise, there is no mention of the Muslim ruled Ottoman Empire that was bigger and lasted longer than Rome and ended little more than a hundred years ago. Their history includes numerous mass genocides that are well documented. Similarly, there is no mention of brutal wars and genocidal actions of the Far Eastern countries, from Japan and China to current-day North Korea, with its mass starvations. All of these horrors are left out of the "Left’s" woeful tale of American and Western hegemony.
Here's another question. How about Africa’s central role in the slave trade, with North Africans enslaving Sub-Saharan Africans that exceeded the European slave trade and lasted longer? No, that’s generally left out, too. The European slave trade would have been impossible if not for African kings enslaving members of different tribes, captured in war, some of which continues, even today.
And, let’s not forget how powerful Native American societies from the Incas and the Aztec to the Maya, murdered and colonized the smaller, weaker tribes, and engaged in ritual, religiously induced slaughter on a wide scale? In fact, slavery currently persists in two places, Africa and parts of Asia, with as many 20 million people living as slaves. This doesn't begin to speak to the atrocities committed by well-intended socialists globally that killed more than 100 million or more people.
No, the left has been “Hoodwinked and bamboozled,” as Brother Malcolm used to say. It is this dangerous stupidity, bolstered by a warped sense of self-righteousness that informs the ideology of the Left, as they feed it to eager children, raised on self-loathing.
Let me offer both a history lesson and a religious one. Humankind, for all our wondrous attributes, is a woefully flawed creature, whose nature pits brother against brother. What do you think the stories of Cain and Abel and Esau and Jacob really represent? Not actual history. They are myth-histories telling the story of how a moral God gave mankind everything needed to live a good life. And how mankind squandered God's blessing and murdered one another, instead. Read literally, it is a silly fairytale. Read as an allegory that intends to tell a much bigger story, it rings with a deep historical truth.
The poet and essayist George Santayana said; “Those who are ignorant of history, are doomed to repeat it.” Such children will anxiously heave the baby and the bathwater out together, motivated, as they are, by the thrill of being clever—and there is nothing more dangerous than a semi-educated fool without sufficient life experience to back it up. So, when the left attacks the Western world as being uniquely terrible, it should be remembered that it was the pivotal role that Christians, primarily Caucasian Christians played in the abolition of slavery, on virtually a global basis, which is unique in human history? Imperfectly realized, of course, but realized, nonetheless.
So, praise God and his Son Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, including Lord of a terribly flawed United States—in need as ever, of salvation—as is the rest of world
Happy 4th of July.
Mark Magula
It seems that lots of Americans, mostly the left half, are angry at America because it is woefully imperfect. They seldom ever get as angry at the rest of world. Unless they want to cast their net of self-righteous anger more broadly. Then, they include the whole Western world. The left never get as angry at the 3rd world, for instance, because the downtrodden live in the 3rd world. Even if some people living in the 3rd world occasionally behave in the most savage fashion imaginable. It doesn’t matter, you see, they’re only behaving that way because of us. Who is “Us?” That half a billion plus living in Western Europe and the U.S., that’s who.
It is this core of people, who are pretty much responsible for everything bad that has ever happened. Or, so they tell me. And, throughout pretty much all of human history, no less. This is “The Gospel,” “The Good News” according to according to the left. Meaning that salvation for mankind can only occur if the Western world is completely made over. Until then, the U.S. threatens the world like a Death Star.
There are myriad reasons why this point of view is catastrophically dimwitted. Not the least of which is, that the complete history of the Eastern word has been left out of this selective story of mankind. Likewise, there is no mention of the Muslim ruled Ottoman Empire that was bigger and lasted longer than Rome and ended little more than a hundred years ago. Their history includes numerous mass genocides that are well documented. Similarly, there is no mention of brutal wars and genocidal actions of the Far Eastern countries, from Japan and China to current-day North Korea, with its mass starvations. All of these horrors are left out of the "Left’s" woeful tale of American and Western hegemony.
Here's another question. How about Africa’s central role in the slave trade, with North Africans enslaving Sub-Saharan Africans that exceeded the European slave trade and lasted longer? No, that’s generally left out, too. The European slave trade would have been impossible if not for African kings enslaving members of different tribes, captured in war, some of which continues, even today.
And, let’s not forget how powerful Native American societies from the Incas and the Aztec to the Maya, murdered and colonized the smaller, weaker tribes, and engaged in ritual, religiously induced slaughter on a wide scale? In fact, slavery currently persists in two places, Africa and parts of Asia, with as many 20 million people living as slaves. This doesn't begin to speak to the atrocities committed by well-intended socialists globally that killed more than 100 million or more people.
No, the left has been “Hoodwinked and bamboozled,” as Brother Malcolm used to say. It is this dangerous stupidity, bolstered by a warped sense of self-righteousness that informs the ideology of the Left, as they feed it to eager children, raised on self-loathing.
Let me offer both a history lesson and a religious one. Humankind, for all our wondrous attributes, is a woefully flawed creature, whose nature pits brother against brother. What do you think the stories of Cain and Abel and Esau and Jacob really represent? Not actual history. They are myth-histories telling the story of how a moral God gave mankind everything needed to live a good life. And how mankind squandered God's blessing and murdered one another, instead. Read literally, it is a silly fairytale. Read as an allegory that intends to tell a much bigger story, it rings with a deep historical truth.
The poet and essayist George Santayana said; “Those who are ignorant of history, are doomed to repeat it.” Such children will anxiously heave the baby and the bathwater out together, motivated, as they are, by the thrill of being clever—and there is nothing more dangerous than a semi-educated fool without sufficient life experience to back it up. So, when the left attacks the Western world as being uniquely terrible, it should be remembered that it was the pivotal role that Christians, primarily Caucasian Christians played in the abolition of slavery, on virtually a global basis, which is unique in human history? Imperfectly realized, of course, but realized, nonetheless.
So, praise God and his Son Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, including Lord of a terribly flawed United States—in need as ever, of salvation—as is the rest of world
Happy 4th of July.
Mark Magula