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Friday, May 16, 2014

A life of appeasement is not worth living

     You've probably heard the phrase:

                    "If you don't stand for something, you will will fall for anything".


     I was listening to Ronald Reagan's famous 1960 Destiny speech in which he makes the argument against "accommodation" saying that accommodation is really appeasement and that by appeasing the enemy you eventually have to answer the "final ultimatum"... and what then.  He gave this speech at the height of the cold war with communist Russia and in the speech says that the path to true peace is not backing down, but instead standing up to our enemies and telling them "there is a price we will not pay, a point at which they must not advance".


     I started to look at this speech at a more personal level in my own life and our children's lives.  It began when I heard of Riley Stratton, a girl in a Minnesota high school, who was forced to hand over the password to her laptop and Facebook account to her principal under the threat of dismissal (there was also a police officer in attendance as well).  She was "broken" by her masters and ended up complying with their demands (while in tears).   Like that girl we are all called upon to "accommodate" the government and their demands on us and as a Christian, I can agree with that for the most part (Paul tells us "if taxes, then pay taxes, if honor , then pay honor") but that does not mean we need to appease them and their demands.

     We all just want to get through life.  I can hear the parents now telling their daughter, "just give them the password and move on.  You will be in college next year...don't make any waves".   Then their daughter will go on to college and there too she will be forced to accommodate the college and their beliefs.  She again will be told, "Just give them what they want ... you will be out of there soon and working on your own".   Then later she will be out of college and working (maybe for the government) and she will be pressured to accommodate the workplace and make unethical decisions so she can make her way up the ladder.   All the time, accommodating, retreating, backing down and losing more and more of her soul until there is nothing left.

     I find it interesting that in Reagan's speech he talks about how the Russian leader said that when the final demand is made on the USA,
"Our surrender will be voluntary because by that time we will be weakened from within: spiritually, morally and economically".   
     What does that have to do with accommodation?  The answer is everything.   If you go back to my first paragraph, I say "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything".  You see, living a life of appeasement never ends well. By accommodating EVIL in our lives, the GOOD in us shrinks (never the other way around).  By appeasing we give evil a base to work from in our hearts and souls and in the end we must face the final demand:  total and unquestioning control of our lives.

     Going back to the girl in Minnesota, what would happen if she refused to hand over her PRIVATE information to the school principal (who has no legal authority to request such information in the first place).   Well, she might have been suspended for a time, maybe even have to leave that school to go to a different school.  Maybe that mark on her record would keep her from going to the ivy-league college she dreamed of and would have to live with going to a state-school instead.  Because she went to a state-school she might have to take a less prestigious job and start on a lower rung of the corporate ladder.

    But she would have maintained her soul intact.

    Jesus showed how priceless one's soul was by using hyperbole when he said, 
"What does it profit a man to gain the WHOLE world and yet lose his own soul".  
    He said this to get across to us the importance of not accommodating evil in our lives.  Reagan spoke of this as well in his speech when he said,
 "You and I do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet that it should be purchased at the price of the chains of slavery".   

     We all need to stand together and reclaim our rights as citizens and stop appeasing the government and handing over our rights.  Whether it's our right to not be searched and seized without warrant, or our right to privacy or our right to say what is on our minds and in our hearts, or our faith in God, or our right to protect ourselves and our families or even our right to a speedy trial by our peers.  We all have this constitution in common.  We may not agree with each other on other matters, but we all need to fight for each others rights to be free citizens. 

     To end, I would like to finish with Reagan's final words in his "Rendezvous with Destiny" speech. 
"You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.  We will preserve for ourselves and our children this the best hope yet for mankind on earth or we will sentence them to take the final step into a thousand years of darkness"













Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Using Capitalism to Control Free Speech

   There's an old Marxist phrase that says:

      "The capitalist will sell you the rope you intend to hang him with"

     It essentially means that money means more to the capitalist than his freedom (or in this case his life) and no truer words were ever spoken than these as we see this played out today in our country.

     I remember when the term "politically correct" (PC) first came out.  At first it was used by people on the left from college campuses and we were taught that it was just about us policing our speech to be more tolerant for others.  Black was replaced with African-American.  Chinese was replaced with Asian-American.  Alternative-Lifestyle replaced words like gay, queer or homosexual.  For the most part we bought into the new terminology and accepted it as fashionable or accepting of others (although I was always confused why "white" never was given a PC term and continues to be used today).

    But the march of the PC police did not simply stop with our terminology.  Today the left hunts down those with politically "incorrect" views and ideas regardless of whether those views are of any concern.   By using the capitalist system, they have managed to do what they were never able to do through the power of the government: instill fear into the American mind.  Communists for years tried to use government to squelch speech and thought, but were stymied by our 1st Amendment rights which guarantee these freedoms to its citizens.   So they turned to the "free market" system to do their dirty work by taking the freedom out of the free market and like the phrase says, the capitalists have been more than will to "sell them the rope".

    Take for example the former CEO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, who in 2008 gave $1000 to support California Prop-8 (a traditional marriage proposition).  His PERSONAL contribution mysteriously becomes public knowledge in 2014 and a pro-gay organization mounted a campaign to boycott Mozilla.  Fearing lost revenues the board decided to fire Eich from his position rather than stand up for Eich's right to hold his own personal views.    Did Eich not hire gay workers?  No.  Did he write a company policy on hiring gay workers? No.  Did he have his company give money to anti-gay organizations?  No.  Did he have his company put anti-gay statements on their companies website?  No.  He merely gave a $1000 to a political organization from his personal account on his own personal time.

    Another more recent example is Miami Dolphins safety Don Jones.  He recently made a tweet about being offended by viewing Michael Sam (NFL's first openly gay player) kissing his boyfriend on national TV after being drafted.   The Miami Dolphins acted quickly having fined Don Jones and barring him from team activities until he has finished "training classes for his recent remarks".   So now it is not enough to be fined, he will have to go through extensive "brainwashing" in order to keep his job as a professional football player.  Did he say he would not play with a gay player?  No.  Did he make remarks about what he would do in the showers with a gay player? No.   He just stated how he felt about what he saw.

     Then there is the story of the Benham brothers.  Twin brothers who own a home remodeling company were to be stars of their own show on HGTV called "Flipping it forward" in which they would help poor people renovate their houses.   The two brothers are outspoken and unabashed Christians.  A group called "Right Wing Watch" dug up statements they made on gay marriage and abortion advocated for the show to be boycotted.   HGTV, like all the rest,  crumbled like a cheap lawn chair and caved to the pressure by pulling the show.    Of course after doing some research (and who has time to do that these days) it can be found that the statements used were completely out of context and misstated altogether.   Were the two brothers only helping Christians? No.  Where they espousing gays be rounded up and re-educated?  No.  Were they advocating for abortion doctors to be killed or lose their license to practice? No.

   Finally there is the story of Don Sterling, owner of the LA Clippers.   Recently his views were made public by an escort who illegally recorded him making racist remarks regarding black people.  First off, he's a fool and an idiot! But the last I saw there's no law against being either (if it were Washington DC would be void of people for they would all be in jail).  The NBA, fearing reprisal from the black community now wants to force the sale of the LA Clippers from Donald Sterling, while still others want to make it even MORE permanent by making it illegal for anyone of Sterling's descendents to EVER own an NBA team (punishing the children for the sins of the father).   Did Don Sterling pay black players less than white players?  No.  Did Don Sterling order only white players should be hired?  No.   Did Don Sterling order only white people can be season ticket holders?  No.  Did any of us even know Don Sterling held racist views before this came out?  No.  Did Sterling have separate seating for blacks and whites?  No.  He is just a stupid old man who is too trusting of the people around him.

Putting Profit Over Principle

    In each of the above cases, a corporation fearing a loss of revenues (no matter how small) is willing to trample on a persons freedom of thought and expression (even if that expressions was thought to be private).   But these knee-jerk decisions are shortsighted.  Like the capitalist selling the rope to the hangman, eventually his willingness to sell off freedom will come back and kill him.  Recently a conference took place in Madison Wisconsin, called the White Privilege Conference in which teachers, administrators and high school students were indoctrinated for 3 days on the idea that "racism drives everything in our country"  and that "capitalism == racism".   Hidden video has been leaked out from the conference showing some of the most vile and hateful statements on race I have ever heard.  In my opinion, the PC police will not stop until they control everything in this country.  Will organizers boycott any company that does not have a black (or at least non-white, non-heterosexual, non-christian) CEO at their helm?   What about their board of directors?  How many of them are white or non-white?     Have they given money to "racist parties" (sarcasm added) like the GOP?   Are they racist if they believe in small government and low taxes?

     Maybe you consider me to be an alarmist, but many also sneered and mocked the PC movement in the 90's and now lament as to where it has gotten us.  If the "White Privilege Movement" takes root in our country like the PC movement we will see our country slide into the same racial hatred that Nazi Germany experienced in the 1930's.   To me, the White Privilege Movement is not much dissimilar than the Aryan Movement used to by Hitler to rouse hatred of the disenfranchised in his country.  Hitler used this hatred to put him into power and once in power he no longer needed these people and had many of them murdered in "The Night of Long Knives".  

    Finally, this "racial-bullying" will not end until the companies wake up to what is happening and see that the noose is tightening around them and they stand up to these PC bullies for the rights of their employees to believe and speak what they believe.   Until they do that the PC bullies will only get more extreme and more demanding until free speech is a faint thing of the past.

    Otherwise company execs, the only question left for you is this:

                         "Do you want your noose made of nylon or hemp rope?"