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| Pope |
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| King |
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| Martn Luther |
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| Hen/ry VIII |
INESCAPABLE ORTHODOXY
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| John Locke |
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| Thomas Jefferson |
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| Charles Darwin |
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| Eli Whitney |
We have seen the emergence of a new form of ORTHODOX RELIGION from the depredations of Marxism and its hideous derivatives.
As Farmer John once quoted long ago, "Meet the new boss. He's the same as the old boss.”
It was never particularly “Christo Fascism,” (Theocratic Tyranny), Monarchism, “Naziism”(Fascism), or "Communism" (Marxism) against which we've periodically rebelled, because all those things are essentially the SAME: TOTALITARIANISM, DESPOTISM, TYRANNY, AUTHORITARIANISM in dfferent guises in front of different sets with different titles and different "buzzwords."
Every few generations a NEW set of ruthless, politically ambitious sophists works its wiles to persuade the masses the NEW brand of sophistry they are promoting can provide the means of ESCAPE from the present mode of established authority.
And so it has gone throughout history …
See-Saw by fang and claw
Jack shall gain a new master
He'll earn less than a penny a day,
Because he has fought for Disaster.
Poor "Jack" –– i.e. "Everyman" –– can never get out from under no matter what Pied Piper he chooses to follow. All Jack can do is periodically DESTROY the status quo, then find himself –– IF survives the debacle –– back in Square One.
Or as the Pennsylvania Dutch quaintly put it:
“The farther ahead I go,
the behinder I get.”
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| Hegel |
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| Karl Marx |
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| Sigmund Freud |
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| Josef Stalin |
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| Adolf Hitler |
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| FDR |
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| Harry S. Truman |
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| Ronald Reagan |
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| Steve Jobs |
?
:P
ReplyDeleteYou've been spending too much time wth the Left, I'm afraid, FJ. The beguiling-but-extraordinarly verbose would-be-Marxist, Zlavoj Zizek, may have had a deleteriius effect in your powers of judgment.
Delete}:^∑>
I can't see that the gentle belligerence in those little girls singing "Save the Rich" in a clever little ditty spouting anti-Capitalist talking points is not much help in expanding on the viewpoints I've tried to raise in my skinny little photo-precis of modern Anglo-European history.
What could I possibly have meant for instance in posting a portrait of ELI WHITNEY?
If I'd gone back as far as I probably should have, I'd have posted a picture of a Neanderthal wielding a club. Now how would that have fit into my admittedly tendentious ittle scheme?
What might my endng with a satanic-looking Steve Jobs imply?
Perhaps you've been spending too much time with the GOPe. I'm all for the creative destruction of capitalism, provided it isn't continually re-propped up by Government (as it was in 2008).
DeleteWhitney's invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States. Despite the social and economic impact of his invention, Whitney lost many profits in legal battles over patent infringement for the cotton gin. Thereafter, he turned his attention into securing contracts with the government in the manufacture of muskets for the newly formed United States Army. He continued making arms and inventing until his death in 1825.
Patents (enforced by government) and government contracts. Big G having a field day since the dawn of the Republic.
Corporations NEVER die. Was Jonathan Swift the ONLY pre-Enlightenment figure to have a problem with immortal Struldbrugs?
Deleteps - The world's 1st corporation was the Catholic Church (seeking to retain special tax rights for its' land holdings). Glad to see that you began this with the Pope...
DeleteI recommend to you fine gentlemen the following two articles:
DeleteDemocracy's Discontent
Has the Operating System for the Western World Crashed?
:P
DeleteLife cannot be simply an individual pursuit of (Fill in the Blank).
DeleteUsing your freedom to pursue a thing to the detriment of family and community, and perhaps to the detriment of a better, more actualize you, is ultimately, slavery.
Maybe it all does boil down to the biological imperative ...
Money is the ultimate objet petit 'a. And commodities are our fetish.
DeleteEstablishing limits are what the ideas of family and community entail. I have "achieved the American dream" until, that is, 2,000 sq ft becomes "sub-par", or more likely...
Dame Rebecca West wrote in The Fountain OverflowsL
Delete"A funamental questiin that can never be answered satisfactorily would be "Precisely how much does the State owe the Individual, as opposed to how much does the Indiciual owe the State?
I, personally, feel inclined to do my best to follow this remarkable piece of sage advice:
Delete"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you're thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."
~ G. B. Shaw (1856-1950)
Politics always comes down to power, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteMost politicians are greedy for power.
That is certainly ONE of the points I have tried to make, AOW. The ither may be a bit more subtle, but I think it's important to realize that power, ITSELF, is "our chiefest enemy," as Shakespeare mught have put it. It doesn't matter so much how it LABELS itself, or what "BANNER" it parades under.
DeleteWe have often heard "The Love of MONEY is the Root of All Evil."
I think that may be wrong. It would have been better had it said, "The Love of POWER is the Root of All Evil."
The reason most of us on the Right detest the thinking of those on the Left is THEIR, apparent belief, that it is ossble for an al ighty STATE to BERATE, BULLY, BLUDGEON and MURDER its citizens into being "Model Citizens" –– in the Marxian mode.
The CHURCH made the same mistake when it turned away from the simple beauty and inerrant truth of the Gospel and embraced Power Politics, instead.
Viktor Frankl says both of your formulations are correct.
DeleteEach individual has a Will to something. For some it is power, other, money. It could be sex, fame, whatever.
:)
DeleteFT,
DeleteMoney and power often lead to the very same thing: money leads to power, and power leads to money -- and not only in politics. But in politics, we see the deleterious effects of both money and power. Most of the time, both used to subjugate some other entity, either economic or political.
Around and around goes the partnership between money and power.
Human beings love to lord it over others -- even if only over a very few others.
SF,
DeleteEach individual has a Will to something. For some it is power, other, money. It could be sex, fame, whatever.
I agree!
With Donald Trump’s approval rating at 50 percent, it seems the media is failing in its Democratic mission.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting about Donald Trump’s approval rating is that it coincides with a poll that finds only 37 percent think the country is going in the right direction. This strongly suggests that there are many who like Trump but believe the country is being negatively influenced by other players. Perhaps that reflects the anti-Trump media and the deep state.
I don't disagree with your prepared statement, Factso, but it failed to address the article I posted in any way.
DeleteIf I were grading these responses as a homework assignment, which in a sense tey are, I would .have to give you a FAILING grade.
Liberals continue to block the progress of mankind. Their first attempt was with economics. They took us back to the 1800's - implementing Karl Marx's "from each according this abilities, to each according to his needs". And though it has collapsed economies around the globe, that wasn't quite enough for liberals. So then they decided to take us back to the 1700's with their politics. Shred the U.S. Constitution, consolidate all power into one branch (the executive branch) and then consolidate all power there to one man (the president) - much like King George III. But that still wasn't enough for them. They then insisted on taking us back to the 1600's by outlawing energy. Everything (coal, fracking, nuclear, etc.) is "bad" for the environment (even though all science points to no impact at all on the environment) so now we're only allowed to burn candles for light and heat.
ReplyDeleteBut shockingly enough, that still wasn't enough for regressive "progressives". Their latest assault to stop the progress of mankind is their assault on speech. It has literally gotten to the point that we can't even use words which are not only common - but also accurate. Calling a man a "man" is now illegal in New York if that man prefers to be called a woman (so the government is basically forcing us to tell a lie - just like oppressive regimes throughout history have). And basic words like "mailman" and "anchorman" have now been forbidden by Princeton University.
Liberals have actually achieved their goal of taking us back to the caveman era were all we have is fire for light and heat and no words are spoken - we can only grunt and point. I can only imagine what the next step is for the regressives.
Thank you for making a thoughtful , intelligent comment pertinent to the material we've posted. That's gettung to be a rare treat these days. ;-)
DeleteWhile I have to say some of your claims are a bit exaggerated [we are NOT back in the Stone Age quite yet! ;-] I have to agree with the philoasophical flaws you've exposed and the basic trends you've noticed.
I use hyperbole quite frequently, myself, but the intent is only to "awaken" people enugh to be able to make a point.
One of my ,uncles graduated from Princeton magna cum laude in 1926. He must be spinning in his grave like a top to see the depredations Culture Marxism has made on his beloved alma mater.
Back in the goodle daze, when peoples naturally gathered themselves into like-minded communities of family and tribe, law was not "made," according to Sir William Blackstone.
ReplyDeleteAs the common law scholar explains it, "law" flowed naturally from the people and was "discovered." It grew out of their mores and cultural norms, and thereby adapted with time and necessity.
In such a situation, the ones who feel the lash of tyranny are the non-conformists, non-believers, and the wrong-doers. People in those circumstances who were "different" found some secret outlet, or subsumed their genuine selves into the community and poured themselves into worthy communitarian pursuits. The more extreme cases either suffered in near unbearable silence or left the security of community in tenuous hope of more amenable pastures.
Now, western society is so far from that ideal; great herds of non-conformists pockmark the land, since all threats to non-conformance have long ago been exterminated. It's easy to thumb your nose at society, culture and morality; millions daily topple sacred shibboleths and ancient totems and pay no price.
Speaking truth to power is banal: Power no longer threatens and retaliates--it just goes on being power.
So, this polyglot, multi-ethnic, neo-pagan, caliginous collection of me-centered agonists squatting upon the North American continent celebrates the cult of the individual. Libertarians, Liberals and Conservatives each have their own grotesque over-simplified myth of the "individual," and none of the three cartoonish conceptions have any responsibility to or connection with the larger society that sustains them.
How could such a rabble be ruled by anything but a tyranny?
Everything is a double-edged sword.
THANK YOU, Silver, for that excellent, thoughtful analysis, even though it lacks the "dig" I would always insist on making at the dreadful effects Cultural Marxism has had on Western Civilization in the past hundred years.
DeleteI must take exception, however, to this statement of yours:
"So, this polyglot, multi-ethnic, neo-pagan, caliginous collection of me-centered agonists squatting upon the North American continent celebrates the cult of the individual."
I can understand why you might want to THINK that, but from where I stand the DELIBERATE IMPORTATION of pointedly DISPARATE, INHARMONIOUS ELEMENTS into a once reasonably COHESIVE society has not had the ,effect of glorifying THE INDIVIDAL at all, rather it has had the (I think fully-intended) effect of DIVIDING us into tribalesque groups of warring SPLINTER FACTIONS.
Instead of fostering and harnessing the best "The Individual" can produce, we are, instead, dominated by the woeful curse of IDENTITY POLITICS –– a place were NO "individual" can thrive, because he MUST consider himself One of the Crowd or face ostracism and thus be cast out into the Wilderness.
In other words the very thing against whicg Abraham Lincoln warned when he said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," has come to pass. Not only are we DIVIDED, we have been manipulated into continually tearing at each other's throats.
__________________________
PS: I thank you for adding a great new word to my vocabulary.
CALIGINOUS
misty, dim; obscure, dark
I see CALIGINOUS is a sibling or first cousin if not an identical twin of NEBULOUS.
Seven-hundred-years-ago when I was a mere schoolboy, we were told by ALL our teachers that the more DIFFERENT ways we could find to express any particular thoughtor feeling the better and richer our WRITING our CONVERSATION, and our LIVES would be.
In my high school EVERY teacher was an ENGLISH teacher, whether he taught Chemistry, Physics, Algebra, Geometry, History, or Biology, ALL our work was graded not only on how well we grasped a particular subject, but on how well we used ENGLISH.
I thank God for that highly enlightened educational policy every day.
Rasmussen Daily Poll says that 49% of voters approve of the job Trump is doing
ReplyDeleteIf the election were held today, Republicans and independents would elect him
In a turbulent week at the White House, Trump reportedly came 'unglued'
Hicks was his longest serving aide, and the 4th Communication Director to quit
Trump's tariff announcement sent market plummeting, down 420 on Thursday
Americans are split evenly when it comes to President Trump's approval, according to the Rasmussen Reports. The poll says that 49 per cent of likely voters approve of the President's job performance, while 50 per cent disapprov
My son's bicycle will likely be ruined, as he was riding it in the rain and it got all wet and will most likely get rusty. Also a dog peed on it. And he so angry that he peed on the food, and the dog bit him.
ReplyDeleteAll that happened in West Springfield, MA.
So I will never go to that awful, and horrible town again.
Gertrude Vandenstein O'Beirne said
DeleteDon't you think they should have had the sense to pass a law FORBIDDING RAINFALL in their town, except at selected times in selected places?
Surely THAT would have prevented the tragedy you described?
As my dear departed daddy always said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Daddy was a Liberal-Demicratt, of course, –– so ADVANCED! A man far ahead of his time.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete________________ NOTICE ________________
DeleteREMARKS that FAIL to ADDRESS the DESIGNATED TOPIC WILL be DELETED.
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ReplyDelete________________ NOTICE ________________
DeleteREMARKS that FAIL to ADDRESS the DESIGNATED TOPIC WILL be DELETED.
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ReplyDeleteREMARKS that FAIL to ADDRESS the DESIGNATED TOPIC WILL be DELETED.
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ReplyDelete________________ NOTICE ________________
DeleteREMARKS that FAIL to ADDRESS the DESIGNATED TOPIC WILL be DELETED.
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ReplyDelete________________ NOTICE ________________
DeleteREMARKS that FAIL to ADDRESS the DESIGNATED TOPIC WILL be DELETED.
Homosexuals, sodomites, transvestites, atheists, self-loathing castrati, black activists, communists and man-hating militant feminists have wormed their way into every last institution of Western Civilization, and the host is slowing dying from this pestilential and parasitic infestation.
ReplyDeleteA weak and effeminate people cannot survive. Thank you for posting this article.
Significant that you BEGAN your plain,give remarks with an attack n, homosexuals, and ther sexually aberrant phenomena.
DeleteDo you realize that mght reeal ore about you than the objects of your derision?
Why do you think the decided evil of MARXISM is necessarily lnked to marginal people who have problems "fitting in," because they are different in some way from those you regard as "normal?"
Surely Sexual Orientation per se has nothing to do with problems of economic inequality.
Today’s liberals seem to have the strange idea that Mid-Term Elections are going to be very favorable to the left, and that they are going to gain many seats in Congress, yet unless they ( the Liberal’s) plan on having the Dead, Illegal, and their Pets vote, more and more people are moving to the right because they don't feel safe with liberal compassion, and their pie in the sky agendas. The DNC is broken, and the voters are aware of what your Un-Crowned Queen tried to pull off during the last election. And I don't think President Trump's Department of Justice is going to just sit back and allow those bogus voters to happen. This isn’t 2008, where the Black Panthers were allowed to run amuck and intimidate the voters. How much farther up your anus are you guys willing to shove your cranium?
ReplyDeleteWhat a silly post! What, pray tell, do you recommend? Anarchy? Revolutions are such ugly things, accompanied as they are with shortages of luxury goods and threats to one's safety.
ReplyDeleteObviously you haven't the faintest notion of the content or objectives of this post, so please SIT DOWN,and learn how to eo keep yor MOUTH SHUT, your EARS OPEN and your MIND ENGAGED
DeleteWell I never! I will not be spoken to in such a manner, you brutish man! You are a horrible host and your manners deplorable.
DeleteGo attempt hypergamy someplace else, DF.
DeleteHoneypot, I AIN'T a "host," I am a writer and editor, a sometime "agent provocateur," a lifelong student, and a retired professor.
DeleteI am in the last laps of conscious life, so I have no time for claptrap, and absolutely no capacity for tolerating rudeness directed at me.
Ergo, toss me a live coal, and I'll toss it right back in your snotty, pugncacious little face.
FT,
DeleteDo you honestly believe Miss fool was trying to marry into an equal or higher caste?
If so, i can't see how it applies to this particular discussion
It doesn't. But as for your question, does a bear...
DeleteIt is healthy to have public debates because societal conflict allows us to move forward. I simply think that common sense should be our guide in such debates.
ReplyDeleteYes, Dave, but ONLY if te debate is REAL.
DeleteRage-Addicted imbeciles indulging in temper tantrums, –– shouting. cursing, calling each other names, and trading childish insiits has NO VALUE WHATSOEVER.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteAnyone else nostalgic for the good old days of the Obama Administration?
ReplyDeleteNEVER
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThe M.A.D. comment needs to delete.
ReplyDeleteI loooove MAD thingies!
DeleteI do too –– at times –– but THIS post is not one of them.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWow. That was some Post that you posted there FT
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of stuff "liberals" and "progressives" like me have been shouting about for years, only to be poo-pooed by people like you, as if the problem didn't exist, or worse, that the solution was more of what they were doing to cause the problem in the first place.
Historically, it's all very clear now.
The military became a permanent top expenditure from WWII on. There was an entire economic sector built on that war and to this day we still have it.
It is extremely expensive. Right now, about 1.6 trillion a year in total. 1.6 TRILLION A YEAR.
It's insane.
Granted, throughout the period since WWII military spending was usually not quite that high, but it was always in that top three with Social Security, and later Medicare.
But unlike SS and Medicare, the military is not funded by direct taxation. We have no War Tax. The money is spent by discretion of the government from the public treasury.
When I hear people call SS a "Ponzi Scheme," I chuckle. When people say Medicare is "unsustainable," I feel sorry for those people's souls. But when I hear the same people who say those things then say say, "We need MORE military spending," I think I'm listening to a paranoid moron.
What all this gets to is what We the People spend OUR money on. 140-something bases around the world? Or a new interstate-integrated, fail-safe power grid? Military occupations or more and less expensive schools? Being the center of the world or taking care of our own?
That's the question. That's why I am a "liberal" or whatever the heck else you'd like to call me
Thank you for giving this material some serious consideration, and for responding politely.
DeleteI'd like to talk with you in some detail, but right now I have t oleave for an appointment.
Meanwhile, I'll post these words of wisdom for you to consider in my absence
"If we can prevent government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy."
"It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism – free government is founded on jealousy, and not in confidence which prescribes limited constitutions . . . In questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
"I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest danger to be feared."
"When we consider that this government is charged with the external and mutual relations of these states; that the states themselves have principle care of our persons, our property and our reputation, constituting the great field of human concerns, we may well doubt whether our organization is not too complicated, too expensive; whether offices and officers have not multiplied unnecessarily, and sometimes injuriously, to the service they were meant to promote."
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye upon them [public offices] a rottenness begins in his conduct."
"In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will cultivate, and improve. Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe their minds must be improved to a certain degree."
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
:
Can you imagine there are people that were so pathetically obsessed with their hatred for Pres. Trump that they voted for that swamp creature Hillary Klinton and after all that we have found out about her they still want her in the white house?
ReplyDeleteHillary is still relevant, for those same losers that voted for that Crook that will predictably say I am obsessed with that kuuunt.
Yes –– and no. If we must be "obsessed" with anything, why not concentrate on things of VIRTUE that give us ENCOURAGEMENT?
ReplyDeleteTry to look at it this way:
GOD is POSITIVE.
SATAN is NEGATIVE.
Simplistic to be sure, but very effecive (I've found) in turning my thinking around.
I used to get depressed, and suffered from feelings of resentment.
NO MORE!
I have to admit there are still many thngs I dislike intensely –– Hillary is certainly one of them –– BUT I've found the less time I spend thinking about her –– and many other irritants, the BETTER I FEEL.
Begin and end each day by COUNTING your BLESSINGS. It works wonders.