Featured image from The Guardian. Follow the link for the related article.
Boy oh boy, this post went more existential and philosophical than I had thought it would. I hope that you have a chance to consider what I wrote, to reflect on the eternal over the temporary. Best of luck, and on with the post…
I feel for the Canadians. They are descending into a tyranny. In a single generation, in the course of two years, they went from a free people to martial law. They are no longer free people in Ottowa, or for that matter anywhere in Canada. The convoy participants, their supporters, and anyone who provided “material support” for them are now rebels. They will be hunted down and prosecuted, fined, and arrested.
We have become a weak people in the West. We have engaged with the Communists in China and the former Soviet Union, and we were the ones who moved. We believe that this can’t happen here, but in all actuality, it can, and likely will. I occasionally have conversations with my “Democratic” coworker, and it is interesting to say the least. There is no principle except for power for the Democrats. There is no end goal but control.
Looking back at history, we wonder how the German people never saw the rise of the Nazi party coming. We wonder how the people of China tolerated the oppression of the Communist Party and their use of manipulation and violence to keep power. We stand aghast at the cruelty of the Russian Revolution and the millions who died under the oppression of Lenin, Stalin, and the other leaders of the USSR.
But we’ve only begun to notice that the creep of authoritarianism is slow, then sudden. I understand now how we’ve allowed ourselves to be hollowed out from within, how we’ve allowed ourselves to be corrupted into a people so willing to turn to despotism because we’ve gone to sleep. I understand why liberty can only last for so long, and freedom has a shelf life. Born into prosperity, we believe it to be the norm. Born into excess, we believe that it is only natural that the world keeps going this way.
This world is not our final stop. I understand better now the hope that the belief in God provides, and the accountability. A power that supersedes all of my abilities, that is beyond any chance of understanding, that exists beyond the scope of time, space, and my own brain’s ability to compute it. It’s more than I can possibly imagine. And for that power to love me on an individual basis, to want me to willingly choose, the only act that is truly free, is far beyond my understanding.
We’ve become like the people of Babel, of Sodom and Gomorrah. We’ve become so obsessed with our own materialistic obsessions and the frantic chasing of wealth, that we have forgotten our purpose. We are made to care for each other, to love each other, to be good stewards of the Earth, to seek God and to follow, to be servants to one another, and to prepare ourselves for Heaven. I know that some may look at my writing and say that I’ve become some crackpot, but it is truly relieving to know that if I give my life to God, that there is something beyond this world, beyond the clutches of despots and tyrants hell bent on power and control. My body becomes nothing but a transitory vessel, so that nothing they do will matter in the end.
Time will pass, the memories will fade. The names of these dictators and tyrants will disappear into the realm of monsters. But knowing that my soul is free from their grips gives me more power than any they could muster.
A Place 4Politics 