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Monday, May 27, 2013

Let's Be Honest, Shall We?

A certain entertainer who will go unnamed because I have no interest in vilifying individuals, had this to say about Bush and his administration, and I quote: "What is the difference between that terrorist and and other terrorists?" and later, "What do you call Bush when the war he put us in to date has killed almost as many Americans as died on 9/11....By most definitions Bush can be considered a terrorist."  When this entertainer was asked if he expected to be criticized for his remarks, he had this to say, "Bring it on, dissent is central to any democracy."  But does he really believe that?  Here is what he said later concerning those American leaders opposed to Obama's policies (Americans, mind you, you know, co-citizens with this entertainer and all the rest of us citizens living in the United States of America, land of the free, A DEMOCRACY): "The only thing left to Barack Obama to do is to work like a third-world dictator and just put all those guys in jail.  You're violating the American desire."  So this entertainer doesn't really advocate the democratic process of open and free dissent, except when it is convenient to his agenda and the agenda of those he wishes to align.

What I want to know is aren't we all getting tired of this hypocrisy?  May I remind us that Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and all the rest of the lesser notorious dictators all thought their systems were the right way and represented the "desire of the people".  And all of them put those people who disagreed with them "in jail"; only they weren't called jails; they were called concentration camps, re-education camps, internment camps, and labor camps--places where if the hapless "dissenter" couldn't be persuaded to change his or her opinion, he or she was tortured and slaughtered--all in the name of someone's idea of truth.  How many innocent people have been "sacrificed" for their leaders' policies in the last 100 years? 100 million?  "Oh, Bruce," people have told me, "you're exaggerating; it was more like maybe 10-50 million; besides we know better now; we are more civilized; we really know that system A would work and we now have the wisdom to make it work without all that bloodshed."  The entertainers remark unwittingly tells a different story--the true story: "I will get what I want, and I'll get it by any means necessary!"

Now before you get the wrong impression, I am NOT saying Obama or any leader in this great country is advocating the extremist policies implied by that entertainer's remarks.  My purpose is not to attack people, politics, or groups--regardless of which side of the aisle they might sit.  What I am attacking is the double standard.

If you really believe what I think that entertainer and most others do,"I will get what I want, and I'll get it by any means necessary!" then admit it openly!  Be honest! Stop with the shell-game, already.  But you won't do that.  And you know why? Because if you were to allow your ideology to debated in an open and totally free marketplace of ideas, where everyone must play by the same rules, where the press is required to truthfully represent each idea, and accurately report incidences (something woefully lacking at late in American journalism--another thing that should both anger and scare us in light of the great Twentieth century experiments I alluded to above), I strongly suspect your ideology would not stand up to the scrutiny.  And you know it, which is why you resort to intimidation and name-calling, all under the guise of free-speech, justice, and democracy; the very practices you accuse your opposition of, you practice.  You play out this double standard because it takes the eyes off your own duplicity.  Hypocrites!

I've seen this hypocrisy play out in homes all my life--I've been a party to it at times, to my shame.  It goes like this: "Don't you dare criticize me for X, or be angry if you had to wait for me, or challenge my eating habits, or criticize the company I keep, or the books I read, or the way I drive, or the way I eat, or the cloths I wear, and don't you dare say I live by a double standard when I want to use a weapon in an argument that I won't allow you to use!  Because if you do any of those things or things like them, you don't understand me, you are shaming me, you are not allowing me to express my feelings, you don't appreciate me, you don't love me, you are emotionally abusing me, you are controlling me, and on and on and on."  Okay, but if the person receiving this riot act attempts to hold the other person to those same standards the poor person will get, "you don't understand me, you are shaming me, you are not allowing me to express my feelings, you don't appreciate me, you don't love me, you are emotionally abusing me, you are controlling me, and on and on and on."  Hypocrites!  At least be honest and admit you want to be treated by a different and in all cases more tolerant standard than you will ever allow anyone else to operate, and be done.  But of course, you won't do this because everyone, even though they live the same way, will look askance at such honestly because they, as you, know deep down it is a lie--nay, it is evil.  Good Lord, you won't admit it because it might mean you won't get what you want; at least be honest about that.

We are all hypocrites, except unlike the entertainer quoted above, we don't get paid for it.  But we sure make everyone else pay for it with divorce, law suits, theft, betrayals, character assassinations, cheating, lying, torture, murder, war, bigotry, greed, abuses of all kinds, being marginalized, gossip, cliques, cronyism, terrorism, being ostracized, cruelty, hatred, and...did I leave anything out?

Do you really want peace on this planet, or is it you want to be comfortable by having it exactly your way?  If it's the latter, great!  I mean, I think it is a wrong viewpoint, but I ain't going to convince you of that because you aren't even honest enough to admit to yourself it is the standard by which you live.  How then can you possibly be open to any objective dialog?  Let's be honest, people.  There's a gigantic elephant in the middle of our global room with the words "selfish-ambition and conceit" painted on its side like the scarlet letter.  Let's either repent of it or lay our cards on the table and admit we live by it and we will continue to live by it.   Let's be honest, please! The smoke and mirrors are killing us all.

1 comments:

Jeff said...

Amen Bruce!

Throughout human history we see the same terrible sequence of events. First, some “intelligent” person comes up with a plan for HOW THINGS OUGHT TO BE! The person gets into power pushing his dream of paradise and begins implementing THE PLAN. Unfortunately, people are too stupid to follow the plan so he must start using “mild” coercion to get people to go along “for their own good”.

Still people don’t do what they should so stronger coercion is necessary.

Still people resist so they must be “forced” through fines and jail time – open up the reeducation camps.

Unfortunately, some people are just too "evil" to go along so they must be “eliminated”.

Now look at God’s way. We fail to follow His plan again and again. So He sends His Son to show the way and die for us.

Still we don’t obey, but He continues to love us, and speak truth to us, and work His will in our lives.

Even when we disobey He still loves us!

The human “leader” must hide his plan because he believes people are too stupid to understand; God shows His plan over and over again and calls us to His truth!