Let's now chat about the earlier comments made by the guests.
We didn't earn what we have? Hmmm, who didn't? The robber barons? True, they used slaves and unfair work practices to build this country and accumulate their massive profits. Hey, that's how God gets the job done!
We didn't fight for our freedom? Who didn't? Well soldiers truly haven't (with the possible exception of WWII) and in fact they usually make us less safe? Well who did? Activists did. In the early 1900's when robber barons/establishment were doing some of their best work in oppression a more free press, labor movements, anarchist movements and social movements forced the hand of our establishment to give the population a better slice of the pie (we deserved more) through the New Deal. Those people who risked and lost their lives in all those protests deserve credit for any living standard we now have, a standard we are unfortunately allowing to dwindle waiting for God to fix it.
Another comment was that "We don't deserve our blessings?" Well, the people who have been murdered, enslaved, put under horrible living conditions here and abroad certainly don't deserve the technique's that allow western corporations to feed the glutinous US consumer do they?
The question did give us a chance to see ourselves as basically a very fundamentalist country that is disconnected from its own history and is certainly closed off to any understanding of the rest of the world or our involvement in it. A bad recipe and I truly doubt backed by any sort of righteous creator. If he did back these actions we are in serious trouble and I would seriously doubt any sort of heavenly after life awaits us...
Reply
To preface this commentary let me state that CSPAN is without doubt one of the most informative channels on television. Mostly because it is a peoples channel which by law must be funded by the corporations who have stolen the rest of our airwaves.
Today however on Washington Journal I unfortunately witnessed the most idiotic of talking points ever to air on C-SPAN. The question, has God blessed America? Two guests were on, one a contributor to Sojourners (religious commentary magazine) and the other some sort of Baptist leader. Both of these fellows believed "God" had blessed America. Here were some of the reasons why they believed so:
That we have blessings we didn't earn, didn't fight for, and do not deserve. And of course that God had given us our freedom. A slew of callers joined in to let us know how blessed we were with comments like "If we continue to support Israel we will be blessed." What, continue backing their illegal occupation of Palestinian lands? So many callers seemed to think our many luxuries blessings from God. Another said we were blessed but because we were doing bad things around the world God was messing up the world economy.
Ok, the stupidity is mountainous here but let me attempt to break it down for you without completely falling into a giant gut laugh. I will try to address everything, but it will be a task.
First off, if there is a powerful being that created the universe would he just bless a country? Would he just bless man? Would he just bless the planet earth? Would he even give a shit? Think of how we humans view a little bug and would smash it in a nanosecond. Why would the relationship between the creator of a universe and us, relatively much smaller than an ant to ourselves, feel any different? And what about the poor ants, no heaven for them? Are we arrogant or what?
Did this God bless us to arrive in North America and take part in a genocide that killed 11 million natives? To enslave multitudes of black people killing 3 million of them? To invade Mexico and take part of their lands? To take Hawaii by force? To constantly meddle in Central and South American affairs by unfair market control through NAFTA, Fast Track and the like, terrorist acts, funding murderous dictators killing millions of people there to control their resources and to put their populations under slave labor for the benefit of western corporations? Did he bless us for backing dictators in Indonesia, the Middle East and to many other places to mention for our benefit? The results of all these actions being multimillions dead and multimillions living under horrifying conditions just so you can drive that gas guzzling SUV and believe you're getting that GAP t-shirt just a little bit cheaper. Oh yes, all surely acts of a righteous God.
Reply
I just finished watching a documentary on the Kennedy family. Historically we are constantly reminded of the greatness of JFK and clan, or his famous quote's that supposedly represent what America stands for. Why don't institutions bombard us with Kennedy quote's like, "They can't touch me now, and when I'm dead who cares?"
The documentary went right from Joe Kennedy on up. Upon examination we see a family focused on attaining power by any means necessary. A family willing to cover up wrong doings to move up in status. A family basically like all other families looking to dominate politics or any establishments of power. They insert themselves into the corrupt machine and do what is expected no matter how immoral it may be.
What any logical person attains from this is that the true motives of the aforementioned have nearly zero to do with helping a population in need, but all to do with helping themselves. We as Americans have this strange fixation with "respecting" the Presidency. Respecting establishment leaders because of their position, not their actions. We forget politicians are just servants, no more, and should be there only to benefit us until their time served is up. If we look at it democratically they should do what we ask and then return to public life and "we" should get credit for what these policies generate, good or bad.
Instead of schools, media etc; raising up these corrupt fools I think we need an alternative history. One like Howard Zinns "A Peoples History of The United states." A history that doesn't set aside the people who truly fought for the good things this country has attained like human rights and our population getting a larger slice of the pie. People often look at moments in history such as the "New Deal" and hand credit to the establishment instead of activists who pushed for the New Deal and who are for the most part forgotten. In reality our establishment did everything it could to oppose such changes including using violence and murder. Why aren't we speaking about that? Because the establishment doesn't want you to realize if you get in the game you can change things. It doesn't want you to have "real" heroes like Emma Goldman who looked out for the well being of the whole population. The establishment does however want to give you false heroes, heroes under the control of the elite who work in their favor.
So I would like to see the list of people with genuine intentions in all fields, those who when confronted with corruption said NO, I will not take part in these actions and who were of course promptly kicked to the curb. Those who then responded by becoming active and trying to make positive changes for everyone! These are the people I respect, people who are truly noble. Let's please kill the ridiculous historically inaccurate idea that there are actually good presidents, it just isn't so.
So you're the President, well I say Big Fucking Deal!
Peace - the real kind...
Ronnie
Reply
Ronnie Neuhauser / Blog
Has God Blessed America? Dumbest question ever? (Part Two)
Let's now chat about the earlier comments made by the guests.
We didn't earn what we have? Hmmm, who didn't? The robber barons? True, they used slaves and unfair work practices to build this country and accumulate their massive profits. Hey, that's how God gets the job done!
We didn't fight for our freedom? Who didn't? Well soldiers truly haven't (with the possible exception of WWII) and in fact they usually make us less safe? Well who did? Activists did. In the early 1900's when robber barons/establishment were doing some of their best work in oppression a more free press, labor movements, anarchist movements and social movements forced the hand of our establishment to give the population a better slice of the pie (we deserved more) through the New Deal. Those people who risked and lost their lives in all those protests deserve credit for any living standard we now have, a standard we are unfortunately allowing to dwindle waiting for God to fix it.
Another comment was that "We don't deserve our blessings?" Well, the people who have been murdered, enslaved, put under horrible living conditions here and abroad certainly don't deserve the technique's that allow western corporations to feed the glutinous US consumer do they?
The question did give us a chance to see ourselves as basically a very fundamentalist country that is disconnected from its own history and is certainly closed off to any understanding of the rest of the world or our involvement in it. A bad recipe and I truly doubt backed by any sort of righteous creator. If he did back these actions we are in serious trouble and I would seriously doubt any sort of heavenly after life awaits us...
Reply
Has God Blessed America? Dumbest question ever? (PART ONE)
To preface this commentary let me state that CSPAN is without doubt one of the most informative channels on television. Mostly because it is a peoples channel which by law must be funded by the corporations who have stolen the rest of our airwaves.
Today however on Washington Journal I unfortunately witnessed the most idiotic of talking points ever to air on C-SPAN. The question, has God blessed America? Two guests were on, one a contributor to Sojourners (religious commentary magazine) and the other some sort of Baptist leader. Both of these fellows believed "God" had blessed America. Here were some of the reasons why they believed so:
That we have blessings we didn't earn, didn't fight for, and do not deserve. And of course that God had given us our freedom. A slew of callers joined in to let us know how blessed we were with comments like "If we continue to support Israel we will be blessed." What, continue backing their illegal occupation of Palestinian lands? So many callers seemed to think our many luxuries blessings from God. Another said we were blessed but because we were doing bad things around the world God was messing up the world economy.
Ok, the stupidity is mountainous here but let me attempt to break it down for you without completely falling into a giant gut laugh. I will try to address everything, but it will be a task.
First off, if there is a powerful being that created the universe would he just bless a country? Would he just bless man? Would he just bless the planet earth? Would he even give a shit? Think of how we humans view a little bug and would smash it in a nanosecond. Why would the relationship between the creator of a universe and us, relatively much smaller than an ant to ourselves, feel any different? And what about the poor ants, no heaven for them? Are we arrogant or what?
Did this God bless us to arrive in North America and take part in a genocide that killed 11 million natives? To enslave multitudes of black people killing 3 million of them? To invade Mexico and take part of their lands? To take Hawaii by force? To constantly meddle in Central and South American affairs by unfair market control through NAFTA, Fast Track and the like, terrorist acts, funding murderous dictators killing millions of people there to control their resources and to put their populations under slave labor for the benefit of western corporations? Did he bless us for backing dictators in Indonesia, the Middle East and to many other places to mention for our benefit? The results of all these actions being multimillions dead and multimillions living under horrifying conditions just so you can drive that gas guzzling SUV and believe you're getting that GAP t-shirt just a little bit cheaper. Oh yes, all surely acts of a righteous God.
Reply
So, You're The President...
I just finished watching a documentary on the Kennedy family. Historically we are constantly reminded of the greatness of JFK and clan, or his famous quote's that supposedly represent what America stands for. Why don't institutions bombard us with Kennedy quote's like, "They can't touch me now, and when I'm dead who cares?" The documentary went right from Joe Kennedy on up. Upon examination we see a family focused on attaining power by any means necessary. A family willing to cover up wrong doings to move up in status. A family basically like all other families looking to dominate politics or any establishments of power. They insert themselves into the corrupt machine and do what is expected no matter how immoral it may be.
What any logical person attains from this is that the true motives of the aforementioned have nearly zero to do with helping a population in need, but all to do with helping themselves. We as Americans have this strange fixation with "respecting" the Presidency. Respecting establishment leaders because of their position, not their actions. We forget politicians are just servants, no more, and should be there only to benefit us until their time served is up. If we look at it democratically they should do what we ask and then return to public life and "we" should get credit for what these policies generate, good or bad.
Instead of schools, media etc; raising up these corrupt fools I think we need an alternative history. One like Howard Zinns "A Peoples History of The United states." A history that doesn't set aside the people who truly fought for the good things this country has attained like human rights and our population getting a larger slice of the pie. People often look at moments in history such as the "New Deal" and hand credit to the establishment instead of activists who pushed for the New Deal and who are for the most part forgotten. In reality our establishment did everything it could to oppose such changes including using violence and murder. Why aren't we speaking about that? Because the establishment doesn't want you to realize if you get in the game you can change things. It doesn't want you to have "real" heroes like Emma Goldman who looked out for the well being of the whole population. The establishment does however want to give you false heroes, heroes under the control of the elite who work in their favor.
So I would like to see the list of people with genuine intentions in all fields, those who when confronted with corruption said NO, I will not take part in these actions and who were of course promptly kicked to the curb. Those who then responded by becoming active and trying to make positive changes for everyone! These are the people I respect, people who are truly noble. Let's please kill the ridiculous historically inaccurate idea that there are actually good presidents, it just isn't so.
So you're the President, well I say Big Fucking Deal!
Peace - the real kind... Ronnie
Reply