A Different Armageddon
End Times or End of Empire?
Not too long after my blogs, "WDJS" and "Pax Americana" I stumbled upon another recent book that approaches similar topics. My "WDJS" blog discussed how Christian theology has devolved over two millennia, based on Gary Wills' recent book. "Pax Americana" offered some critique of Pat Buchanan's own critique of the Political Right. Now comes another book, "American Theocracy" authored by Kevin Phillips. Phillips was a Republican strategist years ago, but fell from grace with that party when he started offering independent assessments of where the GOP is going.
Phillips believes that the GOP has been hijacked not only by Christian conservatives, but by a significant subgroup of "end times” Christians who base much of their Middle East policies on a sincere belief that Christ's return is imminent. This subgroup also sees the Middle East as a prophesied staging ground for End Times. Phillips constructs his own Fall-of-the-American-Empire scenario based on 3 ongoing phenomena:
1) The US is obsessed with projecting its power across the Middle East, because of its obsessive thirst for oil.
2) The GOP is seriously controlled by Christians who put a literal interpretation on the Bible.
3) American debt is so enormous that we need foreign investors to keep us solvent by purchasing securities from us.
Now, if you truly hope and believe something will happen, there are things in your conscious behavior that can bring it about -- maybe not End Times, but how about a limited nuclear war, a holocaust or a stock market crash? (I'm reminded of the OUIJA board that always came up with the answers my brother desired). Phillips believes that America's Armageddon won't be a Second Coming, but rather enumeration 3, above. He thinks that we, like the Dutch and British empires, will collapse under the weight of our own debts.
My own take isn't as dire as Phillips'. Am thinking that the American people will pull back from the brink if we get too close. China and the European Union would love to take on our own mantle of 'Superpower'. The ending won't be 'Revelations' but merely 'revelations' that we shouldn't entrust major institutions or decisions to people operating on prophecy. Much as Nancy Reagan was lambasted for planning President Reagan's appointments around an astrologist, current policy makers must be taken to task if their decisions are not based on concrete, here-and-now assessments.
Labels: Society
posted by blogspotter @ 1:18 PM
1 Comments:
I know many Republicans, but I don't know any who are religious zealots. There are people "on the fringe" in both camps. I think that liberals want us to assume that Republicanism goes hand-in-hand with religious fundamentalism. If that's the case, no group attends fundamentalist churches more than blacks, er..excuse me, African-Americans, and yet they overwhelmingly vote for the liberal candidates who promise the most in entitlements. Liberals never talk about the strong religious ties to the pulpit that their black voters embrace. But if you are white and religious, you are surely close-minded and eagerly anticipating Armageddon - maybe even doing your best to make it a reality.
Frankly, I think it boils down to one thing - scapegoating. Over the past generation, liberals have had tremendous problems winning elections and winning a majority of people over to their point of view. That point of view includes a very secular vision for America so radical that even saying "Merry Christmas," "Happy Easter," or even the Pledge of Allegiance now brings out Orwell's Thought Police.
Once liberals realize that the problem is THEM, then they may start winning elections again (i.e. Bill Clinton can thank Ross Perot for handing him the 1992 election - liberals don't vote for billionaires). Until then, they are going to be blaming their woes on everyone from your poor ignorant granny in the front pew at church to the all-powerful and omnipotent FOX News Network.
Today's liberals just don't get it. And as long as they "just don't get it," they will continue to remain on the sidelines flailing their hands and screaming obscenities at a world that is passing them by....or more than likely has already passed them by.
In 1961, John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." If liberals would return to that philosophy instead of the reverse, they would have less time to feel sorry for themselves and just might get something constructive accomplished along the way.
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