Where exactly would the world be
without Christianity, capitalism/free markets, and the idea of natural rights?
Without…America? Would assembly lines and mass production have ever been thought
of? Efficiencies of scale? Abundant and affordable goods of all kinds? What could
have brought billions out of poverty in the past several decades? Would someone
have eventually discovered electricity? Who would have invented dental floss,
hearing aids, cardiac defibrillators, radiocarbon dating, traffic lights, crash
test dummies, lasers, LEDs, chemotherapy, microwave ovens, video games, mobile
phones, fiber optic cables, email, personal computers, skyscrapers, suspension
bridges, airplanes, the phonograph, the light bulb, the internet, and the
Global Positioning System, just to name a few of the mind-boggling number of
American inventions that have so greatly benefited mankind humankind.
There is much talk today among the
woke about “appropriation” and “reparations.” Appropriation?! Virtually
everyone else in the world has appropriated American inventions, technology,
and ideas. (Or stolen them outright as is the case with China.) Perhaps reparations
are due to the United States from all the countries that have
immeasurably benefitted from its excellence and largess, and the countless
millions that would not otherwise be alive today.
It is true that the American
founders themselves gleaned much from Europe’s Enlightenment, also known as the
Age of Reason. Thomas Jefferson utilized some of John Locke’s ideas in
composing the Declaration of Independence, particularly his notion of natural
rights. Sadly, today Western nations are intent on rushing headlong into what
can only be called the Confusion, or the Age of Stupidity. Where once we
pondered and debated the accumulated wisdom of human history and man’s relation
to God and His universe, today we can’t even acknowledge the existence of two
sexes or identify the things that differentiate them. We in the West are on the
cusp of attempting to banish God-- and free markets-- to the trash bin of
history, while elevating and celebrating entitlement, sloth, and amorality
to/as virtues. Jacob Bronowski wrote of The Ascent of Man, but,
to my knowledge, did not anticipate our demise. The Descent of Man that
we are currently experiencing could be permanent, due to the complete control
that leftists now have over virtually every institution in most Western
nations.
In America—America!—today, the
concept of free speech, assembly and religion are under attack. As is the right
to defend oneself and one’s family. The idea of limited government is naught
but a quaint, if mildly amusing, reminder of days of yore. In 1775, Patrick
Henry famously exclaimed, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Yet it now seems
as if Chinese and Iranian citizens may be more willing to put themselves at
risk in an attempt to gain some semblance of freedom than Americans are.
How did we get here? By refusing to
properly understand the goals and motives of the left. By letting them convince
us that there is no objective truth, and that morality is 100% fungible and
subjective. And by somehow refusing to acknowledge that this can only lead to
utter decline and devastation. Someone once said, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the
world that he never existed.” Well, these are the corollaries. Many of today’s leftists
are similarly brilliant at being evil. And they have now completed their “long
march through the institutions” that they promised us they were embarking on
back in the 1960s. Too bad too few of us believed them. It was about the only
time they told the truth.
I once
asked an “educator,” at my son’s parent-teacher conference, why he thought the
United States was so prosperous and successful. He told me, “It’s only because
we are a large country with lots of natural resources and friendly neighbors
and two oceans for our borders.” In response, I asked him how he would explain
the staggering economic success of tiny Hong Kong (when it was essentially a British
protectorate) with the population density of a massive ant colony
vis-à-vis the fact that Russia-- the largest country in the world and sporting
the most resources—has historically had a tiny economy and an inability to quickly
and/or decisively defeat much smaller nations like France, Japan, and Finland
in military conflicts.
He did not respond, other than to
shake his head at me and sputter something akin to “well, your time is up.”
This is essentially what those on
the left are saying to us now. They have no answers and will not abide the
truth, so they fling insults at the rest of us and say, “your time is up.” And
then they say if our beliefs prevail it will be the end of “our
democracy.”
If the West—and particularly the
United States— encourages its own demise via what amounts to assisted
suicide, the rest of the world, too, may grow figuratively, if not literally,
dark. Possibly forever.
Who could pay reparations for
that?
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