Saints are not perfect. But they love God more than themselves. And they love their neighbor—the person in need right near them.
Politics is the religion of true-believing leftists in America. Ignoring God, what else do they have to “change the world,” their “god”? “Blessed the one who blesses God; blessed the one who curses God; cursed be the one who ignores God.” A saying of the rabbis. The gift of life is to be cherished and lived well. To hate or to kill another is an attempted assault on the Creator of all. From the moment of conception to natural death, each human being belongs not to himself or herself, but to God, first and foremost. Christ is made visible when one human being lovingly tends another. All ways of worship or serving God are not equal, but each one deserves respect unless it is self-deceiving or human-abusing. Are our country’s best days behind us, or ahead of us? In truth, we do not know; our fate is ever in the balance. Nothing is assured but individual death and eventual death of our society. Live each day, each moment, as if it could be one’s last. It may be. Do not delay doing and being what are most essential: truly to love; to speak the truth; to do one’s best; to seek God in all and above all. Be grateful for the joys and the sorrows that come one’s way. Joy is far more pleasant, but the sorrows of life can build character, if accepted with a humble attitude. “You are not your own; you were bought with a price.” St. Paul A human being who cannot rule himself, herself, surely is not fit to seek to rule anyone else. What is it but hypocrisy for one to espouse “egalitarianism” while living in a mansion, or having considerable wealth? If you seek political power, live like the lowly person in your midst. The best teachings of ethics and politics come through setting a good example of a life well lived. If you want to see society “share its wealth,” why not begin by sharing all that you have? The poverty of Jesus and St. Francis speak far more convincingly, far more eloquently, than all the slogans and programs of political activists. Is it not strange for the Pope to speak about accepting all immigrants into one’s country when he lives in a walled city-state that does not welcome immigrants? The talk about “climate change” in a political context is primarily being used as a means to gain overwhelming power over others. The extreme left in American politics—self-styled “progressives” and “socialists”—is the nucleus of a major totalitarian political movement, unlike any seen in American history. What hypocrisy and pretense to hear a man or woman talk about the disasters of “climate change” when s/he travels around in a private jet—or lives in a very large house. What is there about Americans—and not only our young people—who are so easily duped by idealistic fanatics who promise so much and deliver so little? Anyone who will not serve God wholeheartedly is enslaved to himself: his ego, his opinions, his delusions, his desires. Many Americans in fact live in slavery today: slavery to themselves, to their desires, to their lust for power, to their greed, to their childish thinking. “Thinking themselves wise, they became fools.” We see the truth of these words in our “educators,” “experts,” “scientists,” “entertainers,” and other know-it-alls. A man of science may know a little in his chosen field of study, but when he opines on any other subject, he often displays more ignorance than “the common man,” who lives by common sense. Institutions of “higher education” in America have become purveyors of many untruths, much pride, and sheer foolishness. If you want to see a “ship of fools,” walk around on an American college campus, and just listen to what people are saying, and watch what they do. Lack of spiritual maturity and virtues in many Americans have contributed mightily to the growth of our enormous Federal Government. There is no substitute for personal self-governance; without a self-controlled population, we are veering between near anarchy and a growing totalitarian political regime. America, watch out! You are becoming more of a totalitarian political society than were National Socialist Germany or the Soviet Union. Our Federal Government has shown that it has the tools and often the will to control, to dominate, and to destroy. The modest Federal regime conceived by our Founding Fathers, and enshrined in the Constitution of 1787, has swollen into an unrecognizable Leviathan. By allowing our governments to become so large, so powerful, we have betrayed our modest, republican roots. One often becomes like what he hates. We hated National Socialism and Soviet Communism, and behold what we are becoming in the name of “Progress.” May each of our citizens love God and love our fellow citizens, but learn to be skeptical of those who hold political power—as our Founding Fathers were. They knew what was in the human heart. The will to power, the lust to dominate others, is, together with cruelty, the most demonic force in the human heart. There is no one who must not struggle against such forces. The most dangerous demagogue or would-be political leader is the one who assures you of how pure their own motives are, and how all they want to “to serve the people.” Beware the beast in the heart. The most dangerous political leaders in America have presented themselves as good and loving human beings, who seek only to serve the public good. We are all deeply flawed human beings; some just hide it better than others. A good person knows and admits his lack of goodness; a wicked person is self-deceived, and seeks to deceive others. If a politician is widely praised by journalists in the mass media, it is very likely that that politician is dangerous, and a potential demagogue. Most people—including most political commentators and journalists—are easily fooled by those who smoothly present themselves as good, well-intentioned, intelligent. The most dangerous political leader is the one who many believe is highly virtuous and worthy of following. In a society such as ours, a political demagogue is known by the friendly smoothness of his words and ways, as a “real man of the people.” Better a leader who is clumsy and obviously flawed than one who presents himself or herself as a political “savior.” How real “climate change” is best left to a fair and detailed study by climatologists; it is “beyond my pay grade." An enormous political danger in our society and in others in this century is the use of “climate change” hysteria as an excuse to amass enormous power in the hands of the ruling class. America has a small “elite” ruling class. They are most easily spotted by proclaiming themselves “friends of democracy,” even as they seek and hold much power themselves. “Science is a sacred cow.” There is much wisdom in that old formulation. Beware of those who lust for power and mind-control under the guise of being “experts” and “scientists.” A real man or woman of science desires to stay far away from anything to do with political power. It is not Aristotle but Karl Marx who sets the pattern for many of our “learned folks” today: the goal of their “science” is “to change the world.” Anyone who seeks political power is thereby demonstrating that they must be viewed with much healthy skepticism. —25 Feb 2020 To be continued Comments are closed.
|
Click on the above Poetry and Tanka tabs to read a variety of styles of poetry.
Archives
March 2021
Categories
All
|