Anti-Establishment
Until the Civil War this country, the USA, was pretty well free of wars. What wars we saw were fairly small, and usually within our own borders, such as the Indian Wars, and the Mexican-American War which was essentially a dispute over borders.
And the Federal Government served as it was intended; as a kind of glue, rather than a binding chain, to hold all the voluntary states together.
The first real test of whether the Federal Government was glue or a chain was the Civil War.
The glue proved to be a chain.
Then came WW1 where this country showed itself to be more of a world power than it, or the world, supposed.
We were One Nation Under God, and proud of it.
And the Federal Government still tried to keep as low profile as possible, recognizing the Power of the Individual States.
The Depression and the Dust Bowl wreaked havoc on this country, as well as the rest of the world. While the Depression lingered on, the people, and eventually the states, began to cry out for the Federal Government to do something about the problem.
But President Hoover held back, much to his bad reputation. He said the problem would eventually work itself out, and he tried to keep the Federal Government out of State business.
(Remember "Hoover Blankets," a newspaper to bundle up in to keep warm in your cardboard box - if you were lucky enough to have one?)
All countries did not have leaders that wished to keep a low profile during their nation's dark hours; Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan are names that come to mind.
And eventually this nation also had a President who had no qualms about the Federal Government getting involved with State Affairs.
And sure enough things began to improve. And as all countries do during war time (WW2), this country began to grow prosperous. And also, as the world found out, when the US is involved, even the Losers win. (Have you read The Mouse that Roared?)
After the war and the depression, one would expect the Federal Government to again turn the States back to their own Government.
But like a salesman who once he has his foot in the door, or a "Temporary Tax" that has once been enacted - it becomes more like a cancer than a healing sore, trying to enlarge itself and overcome its victim.
The Frog in the Boiling Pot.
During the Hay-Days of Hollywood it was fashionable to only speak well and glamourously of our Movie Stars. Gossip columnists and newspapers only reported the grand and beautiful things the Stars were doing. It was rare that "Dirty Secrets" were divulged.
And so it was with Royalty throughout the world. We especially hear of the glamourous activities of Downing Street (England).
And so it was with the Royalty of this nation - the Government could do no wrong.
And we heard of all the wonderful things that our Stars were doing, as well as the great things coming forth from the White House. Why the President himself would come into our living room and have a "Fireside Chat" with each and every one of us.
This culminated with our youngest and most glamourous President of all: John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his Queen Bride, Jacquelyn.
After the horrifying death of J.F.K., and this nation's dishonorable show of force in Korea, Cuba and Laos - Cambodia, this nation's people began to cry out for the underbelly of the White House. *
Then to add to the uproar, our next presidents made some significant booboos of their own (Nixon and Johnson).
Meanwhile Hollywood, the mighty kingdoms of the silver screen were crumbling, allowing an ever-broadening exposé of their Perfect Celestial Kingdom.
It did not take long for the Media to catch on to the way the tide had shifted. Within that generation the worm had slowly turned until nothing was safe from the media's prying cameras.
By then the Frog had fairly well adapted to its steaming pot. By the time he saw what he was caught up in, and knowing that it would take more effort to get out of the pot than to adapt to the heat, he chose to turn a blind eye to his situation.
After all, he knew it couldn't possibly get any worse, and there was always hope of his pot cooling down.
In the '50's we saw groups of young people - those we called "Drop outs," who had shunned anything to do with Society. They did nothing significant, rather they worked at the insignificant just writing their poetry and selling their art on street corners.
They were not trying to change anything; they just wanted to "do their own thing," which was essentially - nothing.
In the '60's the Youth Pot began to heat up. The flame found its way onto the College campuses where the students rebelled against having to follow graduation by being sent overseas to face getting shot and killed because of an unpopular and undeclared war.
The South saw its rebellion as well; and the pot grew hotter.
Rebellion, Civil Disobedience and Anti-establishment attitudes were becoming commonplace and the accepted (and expected) norm.
Drugs, rebellion, free sex and hedonism were the bywords of the time; which only grew and matured into the '70's.
And the Media ate it up! Like small sparks carried by the wind from a forest fire, the media ignites fires of its own in ever broadening places.
Every five to ten years I go through Culture Shock. Like the Frog who sits peacefully in his pot, I am aware of small changes in the temperature of this world's situation, but I am totally unaware of how much hotter the water has become in other parts of the Pot than that spot wherein I sit.
Then I am struck with a tidal wave of awareness - and am almost scalded.
But I think "It can't get much worse than this!"
Then five years down the line I get hit by another scalding wave.
"How did this happen?" I ask myself. "How, in one short lifetime could we have gone from the Best of Times to the Worst of Times? How could all the high standards that we, as a people, stood for fall to such depths? How did we fall from being creations in God's Own Image, to bugs with no hope and no purpose? How did 'Of the People, For the People' become 'The People are Mindless Bugs and the Government is God?"
I think I might know.
I grew up during the '40's, therefore all the other generations that followed them as well.
I did not see the devastating poverty of the Depression, but I felt the effects since our family was on the poor side of normal.
I got to witness the growth of radio; the birth of TV; and the excitement of indoor toilets; and running water in the house; and throwing out the ice box to make way for a refrigerator; from milking the cows twice a day to milk bottles at the front door.
From quarter moon on the outhouse door; to man walking on the moon.
My younger brother by eleven years, on the other hand, was born into a house with a TV and flush toilets. His perspective and appreciation of the simple things were far different from mine.
During the late '60's and the '70's he was going to college and getting involved with the "things of this world" like drugs and sex, humanism, and rebellion.
Meanwhile I was serving my military stint in Germany, then working in a factory; and when the factory went on its final strike, I traveled much of this country living on a bicycle.
While he and his college buddies were playing Hippie; I was living the life that they purportedly wished to live.
He was learning about what life was supposed to be from behind a desk and a weed; while I was learning about life from life, that is, by living it.
The two of us are total opposites, in so many ways.
Rebellion breeds rebellion. Since the '50's there has been an ever growing seed of rebellion and an anti-establishment mentality that has matured into a huge, overshadowing Tree.
And there is no George Washington or Abraham Lincoln standing by with an ax to chop it down.
But there is a swelling crowd of Tree Huggers who cultivate and nurture the Tree and anxiously grab for themselves the fruits of it.
Those who grew up in the era I did (unless they are feeding from the tree) see this world as spiraling into a pit. Those who are of my brother's age see this world as a great Titanic, that even though the hull of the ship is getting thinner and thinner with its dwindling Economy and Moral Decay, believe the ship will grow stronger and stronger until it becomes a Hindenburg blimp, and float over this sea of troubles.
Whatever happened to the Hindenburg Blimp?
The Colleges of the past have produced a rebellious, anti-establishment mindset in its graduates. It has also produced an attitude that Man comes from a bug and therefore has no accountability or purpose in this life but to acquire all he can for himself before he dies.
And those born since, have been trained and educated by their parents and educators who have taken on that mindset.
"Raise up a child in the way he should go, and he will not depart from it," (Prov 22:6 see 27:22 as well) How much more is that true when a child is born into a world that stinks from its own self-indulged filth?
**snipped**
During those rebellious learning years the most the college students of the past could do to exhibit their anger and frustration at the Establishment was to throw a Molotov cocktail at a policeman.
And if that student was rich enough, he did not have to do his duty to this country he lives in and rebels fervently against.
He has become a Military Evader, therefore has not learned one of the greatest and most needful traits of any leader.
He has not learned how to follow orders.
And since he has come from a wealthy family, he has not learned another very important lesson that any leader must know from experience.
He has not learned to be poor. He has not learned to do without. He believes the poor are less human than the rich, and as any student of human history will tell you - he believes that only the superior are blessed, and the inferior deserve the poverty life has dealt them.
And this untrained, unprepared leader no longer holds stones and Molotov cocktails in his hand; rather he holds the Books of Laws and Social Morality; and the button to Total World Destruction - while utilizing the decision making capacity of a Evolved bug rather than a creature answerable to a God to which he must hold himself accountable.
Which leads to my second awareness.
I think of Germany and many other countries, how in a very short time they fell into Social and Moral decline - then totally accepted their situation, and relished in it.
"But those were hard times where a person would reach out to anyone who could offer them a little hope. This is a democracy, and we are seeing prosperous times."
Yes, we are. And prosperity breeds complacency. As long as we get what we want, we will allow those we feel are supplying our desires to continue doing as they will, and justify them as well, assuming that Good Times for Me will continue.
As for Democracy; Hitler was voted into office (though by devious means).
Under Hitler the German people were having their desires met while the rest of the world continued in a depressed state. Then they began to hear of "things" happening to the infirm; then to the elderly; then to the socially unacceptable; then to the Polish, then to the Jews, then those who helped the Jews. But it wasn't happening to them. And the rationalizations the Government was giving them were sounding more and more "reasonable" the deeper they became embroiled in the boiling pot.
Meanwhile, the churches were slowly being implanted and overtaken by Government puppets who were watering down and changing the Message while directing the congregation's allegiance to Hitler. And their children were no longer being brought up by their parents, but by the State through the school and children's camps where they learned to be warriors and Citizens loyal to the Government. And the children were being taught to be faithful Nazis and effective spies against their own parents.
"Bring up a child. . . ."
But the pot was too hot to touch as the fire blazed its way all across this planet. There was nothing to do but accept it, or fight it and suffer the wrath of the Government.
To not be loyal to the Government, or to be on the list of those the Government considers expendable; meant deprivation, and death.
[ As it did to be a Christian under Nero, and the Jewish Sanhedrin.]
Even though (on the surface) the Government Leader began as a Humanitarian Lamb, then turned into a Humanist Wolf, allegiance to him remained the same.
[ Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic but grew to accept the Protestant view because it allowed him more latitude to alter the meaning of Scripture. His main doctrine that he wanted to inject was that Jesus fought against the Jews, in other words, He was an Anti-Semite. He called his reinterpretation of the Bible "Positive Christianity" in contrast to Traditional Christianity.
Altering the meaning of words instead of risking the wrath that would be forthcoming by trying to change the words themselves is very popular with Governments and churches, which accounts for the many Denominations and Political Parties we see.
God's Word has long suffered this type of abuse; and we are seeing that our Constitution and Bill of Rights are not immune to such abuse.
We humans have the ability to use the same words and mean entirely different things. Consider "cool," and "bad," or "Separation of Church and State." ]
In the past, individual countries had their problems and their uprisings. Normally little to nothing was done by the rest of the world, unless the uprising began to spill over the borders to other nations. Then occasionally the rest of the world would get involved as well.
For the past sixty years or so this country has fairly well (or altogether) set the pace and example and (in some ways downright forced) its standards on the rest of the world. And we have set such a pace, especially in the field of Technology, that we cannot keep up with ourself; leastwise can any other nation expect to keep up with us, though it tries to, and pretends to have done so.
No more is the world pockets of individual nations trying to maintain their own autonomy - any more than are the States in this country. No, the world is now a bunch of wannabe Americas, a nation they hate.
And to aid in this direction, there are many groups working hard to make the world into one homogenized, plastic, self-deceived planet with no individual thought or interests or religion; just "Peace and Harmony."
The pot is now boiling very close to the top, and will soon be spilling over.
On the burner next to our Pot is another pot that is already boiling over; and it does not like our Pot in the slightest, and would willingly blow itself up in order to rid the world of us and our Pot.
That Pot has a tag written on it with the title "Muslim Confederacy."
So while the rest of the world does its best to get the world to unite and spread "Peace and Love" (do you recall that cry from the '70's?), our Frog sits in his pot picking his nose and humming his little song called:
"Peace and Safety."
P.S.
We relish in our Blindness. A Pastor once said that he tried hard to get the local government(s) to support his efforts in dealing with its local drug problem.
"We don't have a drug problem," he was informed.
In fact, and especially now, that local drug problem is one of the worst in the land.
Finally the local Government said they would let him use a building; but he was not allowed to speak of Jesus. He declined the offer.
To my way of thinking leaving Jesus out of a Morality and Social problem is like leaving medicine out of the pill you take to solve a problem.
**snipped**
[ If it seems as if the life has been clipped out of this article: it has. To read the article in it's entirety, it is available in First Trump, the Bible section of this website.]
(Almost the entire article is presented here, minus the Biblical references.)
Tumbleweed
