Now I think that we are counted as among the mere nations, no special country set apart, no people coupled in amity with Israel. How could this be? From such a sacred and special beginning, like a city on a hill, like a family called out of the nations, like a child of the king, are we now no more than a wastrel living among pigs?
It may be, I think now, that we were never anything more than that -- a nation blessed as nations sometimes are, but with no special blessing, only of being used for a certain purpose. A golden chamber pot is in reality no more noble than one of clay.
Admittedly, this is a dark view, and disrespectful of the highest aspirations of our history. If however our American dream is just a fantasy, a national myth such as every nation has, different only in our idealism -- well, there is much to be said for a myth that is an ambition, but we must know reality for what it is. I say we must, even if reality makes us unhappy. That's my own version of idealism: there are things more important than happiness.
There were true prophets who were not godly. Balaam, for example. More to the point, there were great national powers that were used for a time as an instrument of God's will, but which were condemned. Assyrian Ninevah comes to mind, as we know it from Jonah. More telling is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. What could be more filthy than Babylon? Who could be more depraved than its king? Yet Nebuchadnezzar was known by and himself knew God.
Is this it? That is where we fall? Are we Babylon, one of the many Babylons? It may be that our increasingly erotic embrace of the mores of paganism is reversible, as a prodigal may repent and wipe off the pig shit that covers him. The news of the day may somehow be a footnote and not a theme of our history. Indeed, perhaps. I don't wish to be direful, as I was in my formative years. Optimism, pessimism, realism -- you know the studies, and who is happy. It must be a temperament thing. I crave reality. Given almost every lesson of history, what does it take to reverse a civilizational trend? Revolution, catastrophic invasion, plague, decades of famine -- you see the magnitude. Nothing like anything in the brief history of the nation. It's not a law of history. It's just the pattern.
So I'm not optimistic.
The answer of course is to stop caring about idealism and work for what is attainable. What is left for us to fight for? It's coming as sure as abortion and gay marriage: churches required to officiate over such unions. Unthinkable you say? The Leftist movement against true free speech proves otherwise. We no longer live under a Constitution with the rule of law. Sorry, we just don't. Law is whatever current and progressive opinion would have it to be. If you deny it, I refer you to a June 26 Supreme Court ruling.
This is why I now come down firmly where I do. We can't push back, and holding actions have inevitably, universally failed. Over time, we lose, always, always. Every victory was in battle, not in war. Proof? You actually ask for proof? This is your proof: America wills that it shall never win a war. Witness all the wars we have won, then lost. The last one we didn't lose in this way was re Korea, and, my sweet naive friend, we will, will, will lose that one as well. It's what we do.
This is why I have for so long been silent in these pages. I don't want to be pessimistic, a negative voice, disloyal to what I have thought to be true. All we have is faith, in this case a sort of hope that things are different than they seem according to the evidence. Puts me in a bind. So I've been silent.
Is it worth it? To speak up?
J
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