People need to be careful with their victim politics game. It can be turned back on them. If members of a given race, or gender, or any other demographic, can claim grievances as a group they could find grievances can be counter claimed against them.
First look at the problem. Some hard line feminists claim that because women were not allowed to vote in the past, they have to be compensated today. Now my own great grandmother could not vote until she was 36 years old. She was born in England in 1882. Women in England were not enfranchised until 1918. I remember this lady well. She lived until 1966, the year I turned 13, having settled in Australia to be near family. I've personally spoken to someone who recalls when women could not vote. But would that be made right if all her male descendants were forbidden to vote until they turn 36 years of age? Or would that repeat the wrongdoing? Or do her female descendants have to be given some extra benefit vis-a-vis her male ones? How? And why are we to blame for an injustice we had nothing to do with?
An extreme example of victims politics and claiming the right to get compensated would be that Australian Aboriginals, Native Americans, Maoris and any other first peoples could carry out massacres against white people, to get even for Wounded Knee, Myall Creek in Australia, and other such atrocities. But would that actually set things to right or add further wrongdoing? I know what I think about it. Being a white man does not make me personally responsible for any of the things mentioned above. Being of part German descent does NOT make me responsible for the vile attacks on Jews in Europe during World War 2. Being of part Scottish descent does not make me personally responsible for the slave trade, although Scottish merchant were apparently quite prominent in it. Having some French ancestors does not make me responsible for Alfred Dreyfus' ordeal. I must answer for what I've done, and no -one else has to. And I do not have to answer for what others have done. So the entire insidious moral blackmail industry can take it somewhere else.
And consider, if you trade in identity or victim politics, can anything be laid against you?
Some hardline feminists/female chauvinists claim that because some men commit rape we are all rapists. So if some women kill for money, does that mean all women are to be treated as gold-digging murderers?
This warning applies to all. Point fingers and they can be pointed back. Critisise and you can be critisised in turn. Lay a charge against a category of people and find one can be laid against yours.
The blame game could devour us all.
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Get the irony here!
Get the irony here!
This seems to me a classic irony. Wolves in sheep's clothing also being sheep trying to impersonate wolves.
Among the 'outraged activists' joining in the protests against the election of President Trump are people who insist they are the purest and most noble of visionaries, trying to enlighten society and save the rest of us from our blindness and foolishness. They would no doubt claim to have the halos and wings of angels in terms of goodness and knowledge of truth. They wish they could get control of schools and influence the minds of they young, to take up their ideas. To some of us they are ravaging wolves, whose pernicious influence would poison the society that supports and protects them if they could. They trample on what has been held sacred for centuries, presume to know better than millions of thinkers and believers in the past. So they can be seen as wolves in the guise of sheep. But here's the irony. While trying to look like wolves to their enemies, they are also revealing themselves as sheep. They follow the lead of those who tell them what to think, turn up to 'demonstrate' when told to do so, chant what they're told to chant, hold signs and banners they're told to hold, and follow the leader like the sheep in Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty Four", with their bleating 'four legs good, two legs bad'. So while trying to look like wolves, and being dangerous in their way, they are also sheep manipulated by whoever has some use for them and can flatter them into doing what is wanted of them. Sheep being revealed as wolves, wolves revealed as sheep - all at the same time.
This seems to me a classic irony. Wolves in sheep's clothing also being sheep trying to impersonate wolves.
Among the 'outraged activists' joining in the protests against the election of President Trump are people who insist they are the purest and most noble of visionaries, trying to enlighten society and save the rest of us from our blindness and foolishness. They would no doubt claim to have the halos and wings of angels in terms of goodness and knowledge of truth. They wish they could get control of schools and influence the minds of they young, to take up their ideas. To some of us they are ravaging wolves, whose pernicious influence would poison the society that supports and protects them if they could. They trample on what has been held sacred for centuries, presume to know better than millions of thinkers and believers in the past. So they can be seen as wolves in the guise of sheep. But here's the irony. While trying to look like wolves to their enemies, they are also revealing themselves as sheep. They follow the lead of those who tell them what to think, turn up to 'demonstrate' when told to do so, chant what they're told to chant, hold signs and banners they're told to hold, and follow the leader like the sheep in Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty Four", with their bleating 'four legs good, two legs bad'. So while trying to look like wolves, and being dangerous in their way, they are also sheep manipulated by whoever has some use for them and can flatter them into doing what is wanted of them. Sheep being revealed as wolves, wolves revealed as sheep - all at the same time.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Tell me: what next?
Speaking from Australia, I would love to know what American people think about the Presidential Election result. What do think about Donald J. Trump winning office?
Since I'm not a U.S. citizen I won't take it on myself to comment. I'd like to know what others think. One thing I do believe, though. The trendy, left leaning, social justice warrior faction who assume they always know best have been told that not every one sees things their way.The same goes for the Brexit, my mother's home country rejecting the politically fashionable view and deciding to leave the European Union. So what's happening? Is it just angry disillusionment, or have millions of people finally decided they've had enough of a self styled intellectual elite telling them what to think?
As a Christian, I'm really tired of seeing what I hold sacred held up to contempt or laughingly declared obsolete, like the idea that men and women are made in certain ways quite different; they are one or the other, that can't really change; and matrimony is the union of one man and one woman; and that we are all accountable to God. If it's true that Hilary Clinton wanted Christians to disavow or change their beliefs to fit political fashion, then I'm glad she lost the election. There you are, I've said it. But of course I don't have to live under what ever leadership American people choose, so I can't claim to say too much.
Any thoughts to share?
Speaking from Australia, I would love to know what American people think about the Presidential Election result. What do think about Donald J. Trump winning office?
Since I'm not a U.S. citizen I won't take it on myself to comment. I'd like to know what others think. One thing I do believe, though. The trendy, left leaning, social justice warrior faction who assume they always know best have been told that not every one sees things their way.The same goes for the Brexit, my mother's home country rejecting the politically fashionable view and deciding to leave the European Union. So what's happening? Is it just angry disillusionment, or have millions of people finally decided they've had enough of a self styled intellectual elite telling them what to think?
As a Christian, I'm really tired of seeing what I hold sacred held up to contempt or laughingly declared obsolete, like the idea that men and women are made in certain ways quite different; they are one or the other, that can't really change; and matrimony is the union of one man and one woman; and that we are all accountable to God. If it's true that Hilary Clinton wanted Christians to disavow or change their beliefs to fit political fashion, then I'm glad she lost the election. There you are, I've said it. But of course I don't have to live under what ever leadership American people choose, so I can't claim to say too much.
Any thoughts to share?
All human righteousness...
I'm really saddened by what's happened regarding Bill Cosby, and Rolf Harris here in Australia. If the allegations are not true, and it's a huge diabolic deception, then it's shocking that such a thing can happen in the modern age. If the allegations are true, it's really rotten and sad that people whose work I loved as entertainers have turned out to have such evil hidden sides. When the accusations first began I didn't know whether they were honest or whether some pathetic parasite had tried to get a life by claiming victimhood and hoping to get their hands on some money. Unless the judicial systems and investigative mechanisms in two advanced countries are a disgrace, the accusations of sexual assault and indecent interference must have some substance. All I can say is, I hate that it should be true and find it drives me away from belief in human goodness.
The first time I saw Bill Cosby, on a T.V. variety show in the 1960s, he was doing Junior Barnes and the snowball. It was a delight. I rolled around on the floor laughing. Clean humour, laughing at the human condition and human behaviour. Pure gold in a world which relies on smut or laughing at hurt and calamity, it seemed to me. Rolf Harris likewise. He presented songs like Jake the Peg, with comic antics accompanying, or daft comic songs like "Tie Me Kangaroo Down", and it was just innocent fun. I'm thinking, we need more like this; or is the world too cynical and mentally toxified for it? There was hope for our society while it could appreciate this sort of entertainment. So then it comes to light, unless we're being horribly deceived, that both these people have an evil hidden nature.
So I'm reminded, again: never put complete faith in a human being and treat them as larger than life, and talk about 'role models'. Mere human beings are not all as seriously evil as some cases, but we all fail some test at some time. I knew about myself, very early in life, that I could fail. I'd make careless mistakes that could have caused calamity. The problem was compounded by the fact that I was told other people could do everything right, which just made me feel like an even bigger waste of space. Then with time and maturity I could see that no-one's perfect; but some people are held up as examples to others, or at least as what we all should be if we could be. Then it happens, again and again. The celebrity crashes and burns. The idol has feet of clay - or soft mud, even. So I can't ever assume that any mere human person can be completely relied on.
SO I need Jesus Christ. I'm confirmed in my belief that the Bible gets it right when it says, all human goodness is sadly short of true rightness.
If some spiteful left winger or social justice warrior was glad to see the two people I've mentioned fall, then I say to them: don't think that makes you look any better to me. You too are only human. You too would cringe if The Truman Show was real and a record of your life was shown to the world. That's a scary thought for anyone, now I think of it. The only way a person would not be bitterly ashamed of some things that could be known about them is if they are psychopathic, and have no conscience or sense of wrong doing.
I need to be forgiven. We all do. Bill Cosby does. Rolf Harris does. And while we're on that subject, keep going, and list every human that every lived.
Thank you for being my Redeemer, Lord Jesus. I pray millions more turn to you, admitting their need.
To anyone who reads this, my best wishes for the year 2017 A.D.
I'm really saddened by what's happened regarding Bill Cosby, and Rolf Harris here in Australia. If the allegations are not true, and it's a huge diabolic deception, then it's shocking that such a thing can happen in the modern age. If the allegations are true, it's really rotten and sad that people whose work I loved as entertainers have turned out to have such evil hidden sides. When the accusations first began I didn't know whether they were honest or whether some pathetic parasite had tried to get a life by claiming victimhood and hoping to get their hands on some money. Unless the judicial systems and investigative mechanisms in two advanced countries are a disgrace, the accusations of sexual assault and indecent interference must have some substance. All I can say is, I hate that it should be true and find it drives me away from belief in human goodness.
The first time I saw Bill Cosby, on a T.V. variety show in the 1960s, he was doing Junior Barnes and the snowball. It was a delight. I rolled around on the floor laughing. Clean humour, laughing at the human condition and human behaviour. Pure gold in a world which relies on smut or laughing at hurt and calamity, it seemed to me. Rolf Harris likewise. He presented songs like Jake the Peg, with comic antics accompanying, or daft comic songs like "Tie Me Kangaroo Down", and it was just innocent fun. I'm thinking, we need more like this; or is the world too cynical and mentally toxified for it? There was hope for our society while it could appreciate this sort of entertainment. So then it comes to light, unless we're being horribly deceived, that both these people have an evil hidden nature.
So I'm reminded, again: never put complete faith in a human being and treat them as larger than life, and talk about 'role models'. Mere human beings are not all as seriously evil as some cases, but we all fail some test at some time. I knew about myself, very early in life, that I could fail. I'd make careless mistakes that could have caused calamity. The problem was compounded by the fact that I was told other people could do everything right, which just made me feel like an even bigger waste of space. Then with time and maturity I could see that no-one's perfect; but some people are held up as examples to others, or at least as what we all should be if we could be. Then it happens, again and again. The celebrity crashes and burns. The idol has feet of clay - or soft mud, even. So I can't ever assume that any mere human person can be completely relied on.
SO I need Jesus Christ. I'm confirmed in my belief that the Bible gets it right when it says, all human goodness is sadly short of true rightness.
If some spiteful left winger or social justice warrior was glad to see the two people I've mentioned fall, then I say to them: don't think that makes you look any better to me. You too are only human. You too would cringe if The Truman Show was real and a record of your life was shown to the world. That's a scary thought for anyone, now I think of it. The only way a person would not be bitterly ashamed of some things that could be known about them is if they are psychopathic, and have no conscience or sense of wrong doing.
I need to be forgiven. We all do. Bill Cosby does. Rolf Harris does. And while we're on that subject, keep going, and list every human that every lived.
Thank you for being my Redeemer, Lord Jesus. I pray millions more turn to you, admitting their need.
To anyone who reads this, my best wishes for the year 2017 A.D.
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