6-22-20<\/p>\n
Pick and choose<\/em>. It should be the new motto of the United States, surely more appropriate than e pluribus unum<\/em> \u2013 \u201cout of many, one.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact we have become a culture that can be described as \u201cout of many: many more.\u201d No more unity. Only a push for uniformity.<\/p>\n It explains the New Abnormal for every totalitarian, from news anchors to street thugs: reliance on lies, half-truths, and intimidation. \u201cNever mind what I told you,\u201d W C Fields once barked at a caddy; \u201cYou do what I<\/em> tell you!\u201d<\/p>\n So the rest of the population, the vast majority, obeys or shuts up. Looting, vandalism, destruction, attacks, theft, and murder\u2026 most Americans watch on TV as if the events are parts of a bad cop show. What can we do? Change the (virtual) channel, is peoples\u2019 mindset.<\/p>\n What Americans mostly do is what every decaying society throughout history has done. We pick and choose. We might express solidarity, or sign petitions, or express concern, unless \u201cthere, by the grace of God, go I.\u201d Unless it is our<\/em> shop being stripped bare; our<\/em> neighborhood being terrorized; our<\/em> friends or our<\/em> police being murdered.<\/p>\n We pick and choose our outrage; pick and choose our sympathy. We have picked, and have chosen, to be blind fools.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n Pearl Harbor came quickly upon most citizens. And like on that morning, we suddenly find ourselves in the middle of a world war. Or the Second American Revolution? The pandemic, whether really random or orchestrated, muddies that calculation. But as urban rioting and destruction by strangely similar black-clad shock troops appear in cities of the world that never heard of George Floyd \u2013 or otherwise have little contact with black lives \u2013 \u201cWorld War\u201d is the apt description.<\/p>\n The utter outrage of public streets taken over; of public art being wantonly vandalized and ruined; of police being proscribed, attacked, and killed; of officials condoning and encouraging such savagery; all on top of occasional video-looped bad police actions \u2013 is nothing but nihilism. Definition: deadly anarchy aimed not at racism but at you and me; at the American Republic; at Western Civilization.<\/p>\n The battle theaters in this Third World War are not randomly chosen, and certainly are not spontaneous. We see the same black costumes, the same tactics, the same bundles of bricks.<\/p>\n And the same willing dupes at the fringes of rallies, in parades, occasionally pushed into the crossfire. Well-meaning moms and kids. Nature abhors a vacuum, so when when supine leaders accommodate, the radical Left provides leaders. When police are silenced, the radical Left provides street thugs. When small business owners \u2013 tragically, many of them black entrepreneurs \u2013 lose their life\u2019s dreams, the radical Left provides a new socialist-style economy.<\/p>\n These templates, by the way, were outlined in the handbook Rules For Radicals<\/em> by Saul Alinsky, two of whose students were Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n Christianity has become a Pick and Choose religion in America. Perhaps consumerism and national wealth has encouraged flaccid faith, the abandonment of Biblical standards. After all, who needs God when we have Social Security and Medicare, and TV comedies or music on hand-helds 24\/7, and 12-step programs for everything? Not to mention drugs and booze and\u2026<\/p>\n Welcome to America, 2020. And for many of those who still attend church, many denominations are Pick and Choose too. Biblical truths are bent, or ignored. Doctrine is regarded as mistaken or outdated. God\u2019s words about morality and responsibility are, well\u2026 you Pick and Choose what\u2019s \u201cright\u201d for yourself. Honk if you love Jesus.<\/p>\n Of course, a god who allows such \u201cbeliefs\u201d is not a God at all. Suddenly, the God of our fathers has changed from \u201cthe Great I AM\u201d into \u201cthe Great I MIGHT.\u201d<\/p>\n I drag the Lord into this because He should be at the center of all our discussions, decisions, and values; as natural as the breaths we draw. But\u2026 we are, instead, suffocating as a nation these days, not healthily breathing.<\/p>\n Every day of the spreading stain of anarchy and nihilism might mean a year or so of restoration. Streets can be cleaned; windows replaced; graffiti sand-blasted. The replacement of statues would be decades of sickening, useless debates, and probably futile. Warped views of society \u2013 especially the perceptions of youngsters \u2013 might be irretrievable.<\/p>\n Perpetrators are likely never to face justice, despite starring on news videos. The American public, stretched thin from the plague and the anarchy, will have extra tax burdens from the clean-ups. Rather, this nightmare will likely continue, with more defecation, more defaced statues, more cultural heritage obliterated from national life \u2013 worse than when Stalin merely airbrushed his enemies out of photographs.<\/p>\n The prime offenders are the conspiratorial black-clad thugs, of course. I do not blame police (I mean for their lack of riot response); if my son were a cop I would advise him against suiting up for what has become a daily suicide mission. But the guiltiest parties are these: those who have choreographed these events, whether directed and funded by Soros or others; and elected officials in America. National \u201cleaders\u201d rattle swords, but their inaction invites more thuggery. And local \u201cleaders\u201d have been radical moles waiting for these opportunities, or hiding behind radical slogans because they are moral cowards.<\/p>\n In any event this national disgrace will outlive burned police stations, ruined public art, and broken businesses and life-dreams. As I said, this is a stain that spreads easily and in every direction. And will be hard to wash out.<\/p>\n It is coming to your neighborhood. Your city hall, your public library, your local shops. Maybe your home’s windows and front doors and parked cars. The choice of responding will be one more case of picking and choosing: Accommodation with cowardice and surrender; or committed, righteous, action — physical and spiritual.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n