Maybe our core is still healthy no matter what the pseudo-Weimar culture around us keeps telling us. Maybe Bad Bunny grabbing his crotch is no longer outré, but just boring, and we are free to choose something else?
This is a wonderful essay, Andrew. I would even forward it to my Dem friends, but for one truthful ingredient you include that I know will trip them up in agreeing with much else: the cable TV news comments. This is the one point that most divides our points of view and they are religiously devoted to their favorite cable TV news and thus see our current situation very differently. I have better hope of engaging them by pointing out the similarities between Weimar/Europe and America with the pattern of the destruction of the divided kingdom post King Solomon in the Kings and Chronicles. The northern kingdom was a cautionary tale that the southern kingdom should have paid attention to, but the prophetic voices who urged them to do so were disregarded and in many cases murdered. It could have been different if they had listened to the prophetic voices God sent them to warn them. And then when Jesus entered the story, it was the ordinary men and women of Israel, the Samaritan woman and some Roman officials and the self-harming demon-possessed among the tombs who believed in Him, not the professionally religious class. Patterns as you say, ancient patterns, are there to be noticed, if only we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Thanks for your own prophetic voice from which I draw so much courage and hope, as well as sheer joy in reading.
You may not be a prognosticator, but you are on the cutting edge of where we are standing right now, which is a darn sight farther along than most of our whining classes who bemoan our current situation. You might want to suggest your list of essential readings to your TNJ audience, too. I would add The Federalist Papers to that list.
Perhaps the culture needs a period of abstinence- a Lent if you will - which reminds me begins on the 18th and Christianity uses it for renewal like the abstinence of caterpillar 🐛 before it emerges into a butterfly 🦋 which has lasted a damn sight longer than that old nationalist socialist workers party chap in the (no not the Guardian) but the Weimar Republic- the Hitler dude their political kindred spirit👍
"Our accomplishments were many. We made hypocritical virtue signaling an art, introduced self-destructive drug use to the general population, slowed the rise of black Americans by burying them under the smothering dependencies of the Great Society, and wasted all the money accumulated by every generation before us along with some money that will be accumulated by the generations to come. We also popularized the personal computer so, like, yay for us."
I get REAL tired of the constant dumping on my generation. Like we're somehow A Special generation that did nothing good. I would point out many of us were the ground troops who fought the Cold War (and and died).
So many patriotic parents indeed sent their wonderful soldier children to serve. They had an understanding that the US needed to try to rebuild a decadent and destroyed Europe after WW 2 and then to protect nations from Marxist tyrants. One of our tragic errors was that materialism surged. We wanted to acquire so many “things” that we were willing to offshore to be produced for a lower price. We made the willing decision to borrow money we couldn’t pay back, and we now have a national debt that our children and their children are holding. Recovery in seeking the good, true, and beautiful can be done, and I am grateful for resources that aid us in understanding history and what we can be. Thank you
Maybe our core is still healthy no matter what the pseudo-Weimar culture around us keeps telling us. Maybe Bad Bunny grabbing his crotch is no longer outré, but just boring, and we are free to choose something else?
This is a wonderful essay, Andrew. I would even forward it to my Dem friends, but for one truthful ingredient you include that I know will trip them up in agreeing with much else: the cable TV news comments. This is the one point that most divides our points of view and they are religiously devoted to their favorite cable TV news and thus see our current situation very differently. I have better hope of engaging them by pointing out the similarities between Weimar/Europe and America with the pattern of the destruction of the divided kingdom post King Solomon in the Kings and Chronicles. The northern kingdom was a cautionary tale that the southern kingdom should have paid attention to, but the prophetic voices who urged them to do so were disregarded and in many cases murdered. It could have been different if they had listened to the prophetic voices God sent them to warn them. And then when Jesus entered the story, it was the ordinary men and women of Israel, the Samaritan woman and some Roman officials and the self-harming demon-possessed among the tombs who believed in Him, not the professionally religious class. Patterns as you say, ancient patterns, are there to be noticed, if only we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Thanks for your own prophetic voice from which I draw so much courage and hope, as well as sheer joy in reading.
You may not be a prognosticator, but you are on the cutting edge of where we are standing right now, which is a darn sight farther along than most of our whining classes who bemoan our current situation. You might want to suggest your list of essential readings to your TNJ audience, too. I would add The Federalist Papers to that list.
Perhaps the culture needs a period of abstinence- a Lent if you will - which reminds me begins on the 18th and Christianity uses it for renewal like the abstinence of caterpillar 🐛 before it emerges into a butterfly 🦋 which has lasted a damn sight longer than that old nationalist socialist workers party chap in the (no not the Guardian) but the Weimar Republic- the Hitler dude their political kindred spirit👍
"Our accomplishments were many. We made hypocritical virtue signaling an art, introduced self-destructive drug use to the general population, slowed the rise of black Americans by burying them under the smothering dependencies of the Great Society, and wasted all the money accumulated by every generation before us along with some money that will be accumulated by the generations to come. We also popularized the personal computer so, like, yay for us."
I get REAL tired of the constant dumping on my generation. Like we're somehow A Special generation that did nothing good. I would point out many of us were the ground troops who fought the Cold War (and and died).
So many patriotic parents indeed sent their wonderful soldier children to serve. They had an understanding that the US needed to try to rebuild a decadent and destroyed Europe after WW 2 and then to protect nations from Marxist tyrants. One of our tragic errors was that materialism surged. We wanted to acquire so many “things” that we were willing to offshore to be produced for a lower price. We made the willing decision to borrow money we couldn’t pay back, and we now have a national debt that our children and their children are holding. Recovery in seeking the good, true, and beautiful can be done, and I am grateful for resources that aid us in understanding history and what we can be. Thank you
Probably my favorite piece in "The New Jerusalem". Bravo.
Truly beautiful article and guide. A sermon really. Thank you for your greatest gift. Which is to remind us of what opening up to Christ really means
To me, the man of the hour is Steven Greer.