We didn't use to need such reminders, but we deserve them now. And it's been a long time coming...ever since we and others publicly declared the death of God several decades ago (which probably brought a tear to His eye). (Note: No agenda, since I'm a devout Theravada Buddhist; no conflict, either, when saying that Christians are right.)
I'm old enough to remember those times and how my elders said that all such talk would just let the godless Commies win the Cold War. We laughed at their superstition and elected Reagan and Company, and things just got more and more materialistic, prideful, soulless, hypocritical, drug-fueled, and -- for a few -- profitable.
We. This is on me and my generation.
It has been sticking in my craw for a while now that, after the USSR went down, our businesspeople went into Russia to spread the happy democratic message of capitalism but instead have ended up becoming heartless, material-obsessed, vicious power players like the "Commies" in control over there.
And I think a powerful minority of OUR business types want to exercise such control here now.
Chesterton's
Outline of Sanity helped me a bit because he shows that there really isn't much difference between the goals of modern capitalism and socialism/communism. Both concentrate power, money, and resources in a few hands and use them as a club on the rest of us.
And now something good is happening. Europe's standing by the Ukraine has reminded me of
their basic principle: Christianity, as a tradition anyway. They were united in it for much longer than the EU has been around, and the influences of that are still strong, despite the many human frailties in evidence there today.
- The powerful should not abuse the weak.
- Excess of anything is not healthy
- Thou shalt not steal land and lives, any more than other possessions.
- Don't hate. Try to love your neighbor as you do yourself. If that's too hard at first, simply realize that others exist just as much as you do: no more, no less.
- Vows also matter, and breaking them has consequences.
- In fact, everything we say, think, or do has consequences: good, for right things; bad, for evil things. (The opening scene of Dante's Peak references the real Dante's description of wishy-washy people's fate in The Inferno.)
- Individuals matter because each us is where the battle between Good and Evil takes place ..all the time. And it's no game. Individual freedom to speak of insights gained in this struggle benefits us all; suppression of publication about such insights and their fruits is wrong; freedom of assembly to worship, participate in governance, &c., is right; and so on.
- Pride goes before a fall.
- Live.
- And so forth.
Everyone still knows such things are good, but they don't acknowledge the source of Good any more. To really do so would mean to accept the responsibilities that come with God's great gift (I'm staying within the traditional framework here).
Hey man, we ditched those forever when God died in the 1960s. Now it's fun and games for all the fittest survivors forever.
And things get drearier and sadder, to the point where the US is starting to feel a bit like Moscow during Soviet times, in winter, but we dare not even think about admitting the failure of that ancient little social experiment.
With nothing Good to stand for, we've ended up standing for anything, to paraphrase MLK, Jr., I think.
Europe is a fellow traveler along that slouching road, but the momentum of its great tradition is strong and, I think, is helping to bring them to Washington with Zelensky this week, along with the obvious secular self-interest and war experience.
They are doing the right thing.
It is wrong, as well as stupid (in light of the Hitler precedent) to let a powerful country get away with invading and stealing land from one less powerful.
Of course, we have a religious tradition, too, but not a similar centuries-long momentum to carry us along as Europe does. Do we still dare to stand up for Right against Might?
I think we do and that this is why Trump brushed off questions after Friday's conference, since he couldn't admit to the power-play game planning that presumably went on.
But how much abuse are we Americans still willing to trade for a pretty glowing screen and a relatively hassle-free personal existence in the short term?
We've already traded away so much over the past six decades. And now there are generations who don't even know it.
I'm worried that the godless Commies might be close to winning, after all.
).
