The times we are living in sure are interesting, eh? One the one hand we seem to be witnessing what was once the slow collapse of Western Civilization quicken its stride towards oblivion, not least of which is due to the pathetic inability of its elites to defend its existence and unquestionable virtue. A quick glance of the day’s headlines only exacerbates this doomsday thinking and feeling that it’s too late to turn back. We are screwed.
On the other hand, just looking back at what our young nation has been through these past 250 years and the gloomy perspective shifts more to one of endurance and strength. Just the Civil War alone, a brutal, bloody battle among brothers that ripped the country apart and killed 2% of the population, should cause a pause in our modern day despair and reflection on whether things today are really so bad.
Throw in 2 World Wars, The Holocaust, a nationwide financial collapse, the Vietnam War, which saw the deaths of 60,000+ Americans and the explosion of violent cultural struggles, race wars, the assassination of a president and the horrors of 9/11 and the thought that our country has survived many tough times and that today’s issue are mild in comparison comes to mind.
Yet, today’s world is different in one very important, perhaps the most important, way. Yes, we are not enduring a World War or daily riots and there is no Hitler amongst us, no matter how much the Trump deranged press and many Democrats wish to taint our president with the label.
What’s different is that we no longer agree on what is true. Commonly accepted beliefs that most people shared from not very long ago, have turned in to “personal truth”, subject to how a someone feels about how things are or ought to be. If I feel strongly identified to being a giraffe, than I am one and if you tell me otherwise you are a hater that needs to get with the times. And what do you have against giraffes anyway?
That’s really what it comes down to in all the hot debates of the day. Pick any issue, Trump’s impeachment, the tearing down of historical statues, climate change, sexual harassment, gun control, etc… and have a discussion about it with someone from the other side and you’ll soon see that their truth is vastly different than yours.
A lot of this has to do with the corrupt media and the outright lack of shame our political leaders have about lying to our faces on a daily basis. But there’s more to it than that too. This drifting away from truth is sliding us rights towards an ugly anarchy and thus I think some thoughts of dismay and doom are appropriate. At the very least we should be more aware of what’s happening and encouraged to speak out about it.
Two recent blog posts by writers with much more knowledge than myself dive in to this subject pretty deep. I encourage you to read James Atticus Bowden’s, Why Political Compromise is Vanishingand Citizen Tom’s, You Have Redeemed me O Lord, God of Truth.
The two posts really compliment each other, you will not be disappointed.
Freedom Through Empowerment 
The left’s eroding traditional virtues and common sense…
https://aladyofreason.wordpress.com/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yup.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are on to something gere. Tricia. What’s new, and very disturbing is the utter dismissal of objective truth in the grasp for power. No conscience, no restraint. Only a matter of time before we have lost our distinction from police states. This plays out as you have said. But we also have lost the agreement over objective morality. We are losing even the common language we need to communicate moral truths, to point out that something is WRONG.
Ww already have two realities: I get entirely different information about what’s going on than my liberal friends. How can we persuade anyone about snything if they gave a whole different set of facts, let alone values?
LikeLiked by 2 people
You are so right MB about the common language and objective morality. It is not a good sign at all that this is happening.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Encouraging post, Tricia. The subtle pauses of late in most the blogs seems to suggest a wait-and-see approach to what may or may not be coming. What you are reflecting.. and even that by Ms. Madblog’s reply… is the beginning of trying to recognize that we really have to come to grips with all that makes our divide.. a divide. Because… Trump or not, all this is going to get worse. I’ve re-designed my own blog.. and I am adding podcasts, all to unfold in the coming weeks. But the new emphasis is less about “dumping Trump” and more about helping ourselves get through all this. For the most part my blog had been devoted to getting rid of Trump since from his inauguration for lots of reasons that have nothing to do with Hillary, sour grapes, border walls… my objections have been all his behaviors.. which have come true. I see my original objective has been reached.. he’s being impeached. What happens in the Senate.. or even on election day.. is just a whole new set of issues. The bottom line.. the nation’s volatile divide is just not going to go away regardless which side “gets their way”. The result of the impeachment is NOT going to be a national panacea for future kumbaya.
First step is along the lines you reflect here… it’s more than just “getting it my way or the highway” or all this civil war nonsense talk on the Conservative blogs. Don’t sell yourself short one bit, Tricia, and defer to “smarter” people. There will always be smarter people than us.. and smarter people that act dumber than us. You should post more. Our politics differ by a country mile… but what you wrote here puts us in agreement.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks doug for the thoughtful comment. And you’re very right about no future kumbaya moments. Looking to checking out your new blog format this weekend.
LikeLike
Well.. thanks for giving me a peek.. but it’s a work in progress at the moment.. still removing all the more “antagonistic” older posts and there’s no podcast content yet. Maybe swing by in a couple more weeks.. and I could post a heads up in here if you wish. I’m coordinating with Buzzsprout for the podcasting.. so takes a little while.
Keep posting… and I’ll keep following.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes keep me posted 😉
LikeLike
@Tricia
Thanks for the link and for ranking my post with one by James Atticus Bowden. James is one wise, thoughtful and smart dude. Since you are a smart lady yourself, I am honored you think well of both of us.
@Doug
Won’t say I have you figured out. I don’t.
Will we have a civil war? I don’t know. About every four generations, 80 years, our civilization experiences a major crisis. WWII started in 1939. Do the math.
Is the fury over Trump and impeachment this crisis? Doubt it. I think that hullabaloo serves as evidence that we have become two peoples, two peoples who see the world differently in fundamental ways.
When Americans fought each other in the American Civil War, that was the problem, becoming two peoples instead of one united in defense of our God-given rights. Because one side was “slave” and the other side “free”, the people of the North and the South had different ways of living because they had different views not just on slavery but on many other things. They shared the same religion, but not the same sort of faith in God. Imagine going to the Bible looking for excuses for slavery. If God is love, and He is, what do you have to do to find such excuses? Did Peter or Paul find any inferiority in slaves? No. With their example, the apostles expected slaves to spread the Gospel to their masters and save them.
Today? More and more Americans, because the state has educated to believe otherwise, no longer believe in the God of the Bible or God-given rights. So they are trying to twist our nation into something that suits them, and they are doing so without respecting the rights of their fellow citizens. That is creating a crisis that some how some way will be resolved.
What is most scary about this whole thing. Most of the elites in our nation have joined the group that no longer believes in the God of the Bible or God-given rights. I suspect that is because our elites are the most educated among us and so the most indoctrinated in Secularism. It is curious how an education can make us dumb.
Why is the apostacy of most of our elites such an important problem? Our elites provide leadership for all of us. It is the Christ-informed consciences of the elites in 18th Century that brought the British and American Enlightenments to fruition. When our country was founded, our elites wrote the Declaration of Independence and fashioned our Constitution. Now too many of them deny the value of the first and would happily dispense with the second.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe think less of people by their labels (ie. elites) and think them more like fellow human beings. Seems to me there’s something Christian in that, although I am not the Bible whiz you are and can’t quote song & verse.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Doug
You going to try that with Donald Trump?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I consider him a clear & present danger to the country and I will use whatever verbiage I choose to illustrate my feelings for just that. I don’t hate the man in the least like Conservatives hate Liberals. I hate his performance and what he’s doing to the country and want him out. When he’s out we can share a beer someday. But it matters little now.. impeachment will go as far as it goes. Time to fix the divisive mess he’s put us in.
LikeLiked by 1 person
…”like conservatives hate liberals”, that’s painting with a pretty wide brush there Dough.
LikeLike
And you expressly make my point, Tricia. The truly vehement Conservative blogs I visit do indeed paint “the other” with broad scope.. broad labels to to imply “don’t touch these people or they will turn you with their political cooties”. Especially those who love the Second Amendment out of some fear someone is coming for their guns.. and want a shooting civil war… and they expect to win it over the weekend and smugly return to work on Monday after stopping off at Starbucks for their morning latte. Do Liberals use broad terms? Of course.. although Liberals are far less.. prone to tout some level of violent retribution… probably because they all, of course, want to take away guns. See the circle? It’s a mess.
Your post suggests your personal frustration with it all is finally getting to a point of some consideration for working toward a reconciliation. That’s the main reason I’m flipping my site around a bit. Tom isn’t there yet. He’s still in the “onward Christian soldiers” thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Doug
Well, labels mean something, but we don’t know how to apply them well. We don’t know what exists in another person’s heart. We just know what we see them do and hear them say. Further, we are subject to being propagandized. So, in addition to not being able to see and hear the full truth, we have to filter out the lies.
I don’t think you are doing enough to filter the propaganda.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Apparently one person’s facts are another person’s propaganda, hence the divide.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well Doug, I don’t think you’re doing enough to take the giant plank from eye your before criticizing others on being haters. I mean Jeeze, you devoted an entire blog to ranting about Trump and conservatives which was often reflected in your comments around bloggersvillle. There’s nothing wrong with this if that’s your bent but the lectures I could without.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And so it goes.
LikeLike
We have more to celebrate than we have to grieve. God is good and in a good mood.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Aww nice reminder Michael, I like that. We do have to also keep vigilant on things that disturb us and do what we can to help. Doesn’t mean we have to be all gloomy though, that’s for sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Biology Tricia, biology! There is a built in fail safe against mandated subjective reality. Innate and hardwired into us all is a standard, a morality. When it looks like the world is chaotic and going crazy, it really isn’t. God is still sovereign, He has a hold on things. Not that it won’t be messy or painful, I am just saying, God’s got this thing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Lol IB, of course biology, how could I forget! When truth smacks one in the head it hurts and a lot of people are due for a thumping. It won’t be pretty but you’re right, we don’t need to worry how it will play out in the long run. Doesn’t mean we should not speak out against horrible things like child mutilation in regards to sex change surgery, though.
I keep a weary, trying not to be too cynical attitude about it. God’s got this indeed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
One thing I’ll say Tricia— your post is indeed truth— as in steeped in the surreal reality of our times and I know you always speak The Truth of the one Eternal Truth— thank you!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLike
Thank you for linking to me and Citizen Tom. I was very pleased to meet him face to face a few years ago in Richmond. Thank you for reading Deo Vindice and commenting. I only see your pingback when I go to the WordPress site that holds comments for the blog.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s so neat that you’ve met Tom! It would be cool to meet these on line blogging friends some day.
LikeLike
Thanks for posting to put things in perspective. You might enjoy this post … A speculation that in reality, Americans have much much more in common with each other than they think they do. The politicians and the media both have a vested interest in making people think they are farther apart on more issues than they really are.
https://petersironwood.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/what-if/
LikeLike
Indeed they do Peter. Thanks for coming by and sharing the link to you post.
LikeLike