Sunday, September 1, 2019

“Men Have Forgotten God” – The Templeton Address by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Klaas Hendrikse:  MEN HAVE FORGOTTEN GOD – ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN
"As a survivor of the Communist Holocaust I am horrified to witness how my beloved America, my adopted country, is gradually being transformed into a secularist and atheistic utopia, where communist ideals are glorified and promoted, while Judeo-Christian values and morality are ridiculed and increasingly eradicated from the public and social consciousness of our nation. Under the decades-long assault and militant radicalism of many so-called “liberal” and “progressive” elites, God has been progressively erased from our public and educational institutions, to be replaced with all manner of delusion, perversion, corruption, violence, decadence, and insanity.
"It is no coincidence that as Marxist ideologies and secularist principles engulf the culture and pervert mainstream thinking, individual freedoms and liberties are rapidly disappearing. As a consequence, Americans feel increasingly more powerless and subjugated by some of the most radical and hypocritical, least democratic, and characterless individuals our society has ever produced.
"Those of us who have experienced and witnesses first-hand the atrocities and terror of communism understand fully why such evil takes root, how it grows and deceives, and the kind of hell it will ultimately unleash on the innocent and the faithful. Godlessness is always the first step towards tyranny and oppression!" . . .
The ‘Jersey Shore’-ification of the Elite  "Last week’s “Fredo” controversy, and President Trump’s response, has really driven home the point that U.S. politics is now just “Jersey Shore” for vain talking heads and self-serving politicos.
The president of the United States is a braggart with a bad spray tan who spends most of his day trash-talking on Twitter. Among his chief rivals are four first-term lawmakers who call themselves “the squad” without a hint of irony and a 79-year-old who, among other achievements, is lauded for her skill in “throwing shade.”
"These are among the chief characters in the “news” cycle, which has become a reality TV series about Twitter feuds between the rich and powerful while the country falls apart on their watch. In the latest episode, CNN’s Chris Cuomo berated a stranger for offending him with a Godfather reference.
"Yes, this is “news” in America today: America’s middle class is declining, wages are stagnant, nothing has been done to curb illegal immigration, and wars that started before smartphones were invented grind on interminably. But all of that is just a sideshow to the real story: that some overpaid, pompous news anchor with a sinecure lost his temper.

Clapbacks and Sassy Tweets 

"It used to at least be possible to pretend that America was governed by people of good character. For a brief moment, it was undoubtedly true. Twitter has dispelled that illusion once and for all. It has become clear that we are ruled by preening, moronic sociopaths, whose idea of governance is something like a “Mean Girls” drama, and whose notion of public speaking is entitled performance art.
"Politics has always been contentious, and some of history’s most memorable episodes were the result of elites struggling for power and prestige. But the characters in these stories had something of greatness in their stature. We are many days away from the conspiracies of the late Roman Republic or the fateful duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.
"Move over, Lermontov. This is not a time of bold, open challenges. Now is the time of the clapback, the sassy tweet, the passive-aggressive innuendo, the empty death threat." . . .

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