ANYway, so I spot this one headline:
I Fear We Are Losing
Naturally, I was curious what the author would say to back that up, so I had a read. I didn't get two paragraphs into the article before I got all fired up to respond. So I'll post the first four paragraphs from the article (original available here: http://www.nowpublic.com/i-fear-we-are-losing ) and then you'll see what got me so fired up:
Why is it that I often write about such subjects as Darwinism, liberalism, and the ACLU? It is because American society is engaged in a war between those who believe that there is no such thing as right and wrong – and those who hold more traditional views. Those who believe there is no such thing as right and wrong (whom Bill O'Reilly calls Secular-Progressives or SP's) believe that the only thing that matters is what feels good, and that their behavior is nobody else's business.
Although many people do not make the connection, this attitude and the behavior it promotes can be traced to Darwinian theory that we are all just accidental products of random happenings – in a straight line down to the dialectical materialism of Marx, Engels and Lenin – down to the communist and Nazi writings and exploits of Stalin, Mao and Hitler – and down to the ACLU and to modern liberalism.
This is not to say that liberals are always bad or wrong or that conservatives are always good and correct, but the obvious disintegration of American society that we see before our eyes (from a traditional standpoint) is going to continue its downward spiral unless those of us who care about such matters (mostly older people) make the connections and fight harder to reverse this trend. The freedom, the security and the prosperity of our grandchildren ultimately depend on having and enforcing standards.
We know enough of our own history that life was often brutal on the American frontier and in the factories and mill towns of an earlier America, and that lawlessness and reckless behavior was the norm. But always, in the towns and cities of this great country the educated class gained ascendancy and put in place laws and standards of conduct based on common Christian and Jewish teachings that had stood the test of time. Many evil things happened, often by those hypocrites who went to church on Sunday and cheated and stole during the rest of the week, but there was a sense of shared values that were widely recognized and accepted. This is no longer true.
OK, so, here is how I responded:
We are losing, but not the way you think.
In reply to your paragraph 1: There IS no such thing as pure right and pure wrong--simply pro and anti whatever it is you believe. Ask a bear or an insect about good and evil or right and wrong and I bet it won't know what the hell you're talking about (for more than just the obvious reasons). The point is, it's all about how we define right and wrong. During slave times many people believed it was right to treat blacks like slaves. However, we define "right" differently now. What's to say in another ten or a hundred years we won't define "right" as something other than what we define it as now? Regarding your claim that people who are "SPs" believe that "the only thing that matters is what feels good, and that their behavior is nobody else's business" I have to say you're letting your reactionary belief of a right and wrong effect your judgment, here.
It's easy to paint the world as black and white. But the world isn't. Bill O'Reilly would define me as an "SP" but I'm not. I believe "hate crime" shouldn't be a legal term but I also believe that what I do in my own home is none of your business. I also don't believe that "all that matters is what feels good." That would be like me saying "all conservatives care about is making their sense of righteousness stronger."
In reply to paragraph 2: Ah, I should have known better than to engage with someone who uses Bill O'Reilly as a non-satirical reference. Next time you can give me proof of God's plan I'll agree that evolution is not real. Sheesh. I'm sure I can trace a willful ignorance straight back through all of Christianity to Jesus and beyond. Now what? You've insulted my intelligence and I've insulted yours. Are we getting anywhere by this pig-headed finger-pointing?
Paragraph 3: Some would argue the disintegration of America has to do with not a lack of standards, but an abundance of blind faith in the system. Some would argue that the "American Empire" is disintegrating from extreme avarice and finally 230 years of greed (political and corporate) are proving too heavy for the system to bear. Outsourcing and over-dependence on oil has caused the US to become over-extended and our economy is showing it. See, that's the problem here. There is all this attention put on religion and anti-religion, race and anti-race, but the real issue here is money. But all you want to talk about is evolution, the ACLU and equating liberals to Nazis.
Paragraph 4: You're generally right--the guidelines for civilization put forth by the Bible, the Torrah and (let's be fair) the Koran are *generally* helpful at maintaining a civilized order in society. HOWEVER, a blind faith in any of the books or the belief systems that have sprung up around them have caused a lot of pain and suffering, too. Of course, the core problem with these books and their belief systems is that they were manufactured to control, not to guide.
You think George W. Bush believes in a heaven? Then explain his behavior, misleading the American people as he has done. He doesn't believe in a hereafter, all he wants is to get rich. He sends America to war and (hundreds of) thousands to their deaths and his pals in the military industrial complex give him stock options and consulting fees for the rest of his life. Do your research into the Carlyle Group and you'll know this is true. If Bush was really worried about doing right, he'd not have marched into Iraq at all. You think God is down with all those deaths based on lies? You think God is hunkydory with Bush? Yet, Bush claims he's tight with God. There's a disconnect here. To me it looks like the powers the be endorse the whole "God" concept because they know it's not true but don't tell us because they want us to stay suckers. Look at the Catholic church. Is God going to send child molesters to hell? If so, then won't God send people who help child molesters get away with it to hell? Yet, look what happens. It's because priests know, deep down, that there is no God, no heaven and it is THEM that believes all that matters is feeling good and that their behavior is nobody else's business.
My belief is that I want to be remembered as a good person, not a bad one. So, I spend my life doing things that I think will help the Earth be a better place. That's why I always try to do good things--I want my immortal soul (my legacy--the memory of me) to live forever in the good graces of humanity (even if it's just my immediate friends and descendants who remember me--I'm not in it for the fame is what I'm saying).
I disagree with your concept of an educated class, too. It's more like the "educated" class.
The things that make the Earth go 'round are politics and money (not in that order, either). Yet, in my public school education I don't remember taking a single class on politics or money. I had to teach myself how to balance a checkbook and I've been following politics for years now and I am always learning new things about how the government works (or not). So, it's not like we shouldn't have classes in these two subjects. Instead we have classes like history (where history stops just after slavery ends) and trigonometry (because we worry about triangle math all the time in modern society, don't we?). Why don't we teach ourselves about WWI and WWII and Korea and Vietnam (and don't forget our war with the Philippines and how we "won" Hawaii)? Why don't we learn about a corporate-sponsored attempted-coup on the United States government (read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler) and how corporations were first formed and how the stock market works?
These are all things we need to hunt down and throw in a cage before we can learn about them as adults, but wouldn't we have all benefited from learning about them as children? Isn't truth and balance much more important than math and history that ends in the 1800s?
I had meant to address each paragraph in your piece, but I think I've made my point. People like you cry out that the religious majority is being threatened while people you don't like cry "hate crime" and "artistic persecution". Meanwhile people like me are pointing at the real problems which most people are completely ignorant of. The real issues at work here are not religious oppression and artistic freedom, but class and intelligence wars. The longer you think you are being oppressed because you believe in Jesus the longer you'll be distracted from the fact that our economy is imaginary--our money is not backed up by anything but the "good credit" of the United States.
People like you bag on communism. What do you call a society with no real money backed up by gold or silver? Where everyone trades in gift certificates at the country's store?
This is what I mean by getting educated!
Ah, gotta love the Internet! Where can so much and so little be done at the same time.
Orignal From: EDUCATION, RACISM, RELIGION AND THE CRUMBLING AMERICAN EMPIRE
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