Provocative thoughts
author unknown
Date: September 8, 2022 at 12:53:08
PM MST:
,
Men, like nations, think they're eternal. What man in his
20s or 30s doesn't believe, at least subconsciously, that he'll live forever?
In the springtime of youth, an endless summer beckons. As you pass 70, it's
harder to hide from reality. Nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the
2nd century contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near
East, thinking: This will endure forever.... Forever was about 500 years, give
or take. France was pivotal in the 17th
and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming
part of the Muslim ummah (Arabic for
nation). In the 19th and early 20th
centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in
perpetual twilight. Its 96-year-old sovereign is a fitting symbol for a nation
in terminal decline. In the 1980s, Japan
seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management
techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so rapidly
that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who
die alone.
I was born in 1941, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century
- the American century. America's prestige and influence were never greater.
Thanks to the 'Greatest Generation,' we won a World War fought throughout most
of Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the
rising sun to bed. It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented
prosperity. We stopped the spread of
communism in Europe and Asia and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our
enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world. We built skyscrapers and
rockets to the moon. We have almost conquered Polio and now COVID. We explored
the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA...the blueprint of life.
But where is the glory that once was Rome? America has moved
from a relatively free economy to socialism - which has worked so well NOWHERE
in the world.
We've gone from a republican government guided by a
constitution to a regime of revolving elites. We have less freedom with each
passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture
is everywhere. We've traded the American Revolution for the Cultural
Revolution. The pathetic creature in the White House is an empty vessel filled
by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, 'Dr. Jill'
had to lead him like a child. In 1961, when we were young and vigorous,
our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man to
ever serve in the presidency. We can't
defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our
streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We are a nation of
dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the
streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels. The president of the United States can't even
quote the beginning of the Declaration of Independence ('You know - The Thing')
correctly. Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders
could pass a generation ago. Crime rates soar and we blame the 2nd. Amendment
and slash police budgets.
Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who think they're
women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that
they're inherently evil, and others that they are perpetual victims. A
psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about 'unloading a revolver
into the head of any white person.' We
slaughter the unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower
year by year. Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend
that we will repay it one day. It's a $28-trillion monument to our improvidence
and refusal to confront reality. Our 'entertainment' is sadistic, nihilistic,
and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash. Our music is noise
that spans the spectrum from annoying to repulsive.
Patriotism is called an insurrection, treason celebrated,
and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets less respect than a man in a
dress. We're asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leaders no longer
believe in. How meekly most of us
submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lockdowns, and hand
sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spirit.
How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity?
* Fighting endless wars they can't or won't win
* Accumulating
massive debt far beyond their ability to repay
* Refusing to guard
their borders, allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde
* Surrendering
control of their cities to mob rule
* Allowing
indoctrination of the young
* Moving from a
republican form of government to an oligarchy
* Politicos* Losing
national identity
* Indulging
indolence
* Abandoning faith
and family - the bulwarks of social order.
In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced,
indicating an advanced stage of the disease.
Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an
obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we had? I'm
surrounded by ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers
who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered bastards of Bastogne, those
who served in the cold hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of
Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or neglected. This is the nation
that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my
uncles wore in the Second World War. I don't want to imagine a world without
America, even though it becomes increasingly likely. During Britain's darkest hour, when its
professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent,
Churchill reminded his countrymen, 'Nations that go down fighting rise again,
and those that surrender tamely are finished.'
The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a fight, what will posterity say of us? While the prognosis is far from good. Only God knows if America's day in the sun is over. I believe that we in America are at the moment in time to stand up, or let it fall! We now may be at the next step in our country's future. I believe that it might be closer than we think.