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How cultural revolutions die;Dr Hanson of Stanford U.Worthwhile

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Dr Victor Davis Hanson Phd

Unlike coups or political revolutions, cultural revolutions don’t just change governments or leaders. Instead, they try to redefine entire societies. Their leaders call them “holistic” and “systematic.”

Cultural revolutionaries attack the very referents of our daily lives. The Jacobins’ so-called Reign of Terror during the French Revolution slaughtered Christian clergy, renamed months and created a new supreme being, Reason.

Mao cracked down on supposed Western decadence like the wearing of eyeglasses and made peasants forge pot iron and intellectuals wear dunce caps.

Muammar Kaddafi’s Green Book cult wiped out violins and forced Libyans to raise chickens in their apartments.

The current Black Lives Matter revolution has “canceled” certain movies, television shows and cartoons, toppled statues, tried to create new autonomous urban zones and renamed streets and plazas. Some fanatics shave their heads. Others have shamed authorities into washing the feet of their fellow revolutionaries.

But inevitably cultural revolutions die out when they turn cannibalistic. Once the Red Guard started killing party hacks too close to Mao, it began to wane.

If toppling Confederate statues is required, what then about Nancy Pelosi’s own mayor father, who once as Baltimore’s mayor dedicated honorific statues to Confederate generals?

If racists understandably do not deserve their names on national shrines, what to do with the iconic liberal graduate program at Princeton, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs? It was named for a president who did more to further segregation and racial prejudice than any chief executive of the 20th century.

Stanford and Yale, coveted brand names of the progressive professional classes, are named after what protesters now deem racists.

It is easier to target Fort Bragg, the iconic military base named after a Confederate general, racist and military mediocrity than to see one’s MBA or Ph.D. lose its Yale luster, or to confess that a liberal presidential icon perpetuated racism.

Once a cultural revolution gets going, there can be no contextualization of the past, no allowance for human frailty, no consideration of weighing evil vs. good.

Eventually, the architects of cultural upheavals always make two miscalculations.

One, they presume that destroying things will never apply to themselves, given their loud virtue signaling.

Two, if they are fingered by the mob, they assume they can somehow use their clout and influence to win exemption.

In other words, once cultural revolutions turn anarchic and eat their own, they lose support. When quiet sympathizers conclude that they too may targeted, to survive they turn on their former icons.

We are seeing that now. Liberal sympathetic bystanders are wondering whether downtown arson and looting will go private and reach their suburban homes. Do they really want their marquee universities or the Washington or Jefferson monuments defaced or renamed? What happens when calling 911 gets a constant busy signal?

When a liberal mayor or black police chief or progressive governor or white leftist who diverges from the party line is targeted by the mob, then who really is safe?

Answer? No one. And so the cultural revolution sputters to irrelevance.

What deflated the MeToo movement was the high toll that the accusations took among the Hollywood and cultural elite. Suddenly, progressive celebrities began demanding evidence and insisting on presumed innocence when their careers were destroyed.

What burns out these cultural upheavals is that today’s revolutionary can be denounced as tomorrow’s sellout. No leader wants to share Robespierre’s rendezvous with his own guillotine.

There is one caveat.

Sometimes cultural revolutions don’t die out — if they are hijacked by a thug or killer.

The National Socialist movement was an irrelevant nihilist mob of crazies until Adolf Hitler turned it into his personal genocidal cult. A murderous Stalin resuscitated the absurdities of Lenin’s failing Bolshevism.

The present madness will wane like a virus, as it eats its own and terrifies its sympathizers that they may be next — unless, of course, a would-be Napoleon uses a “whiff of grapeshot” and turns the mob into his personal cult.

The armed rapper Raz Simone, who some say lords over the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” in downtown Seattle, so far has neither the diabolic talent nor the resources to spread his anarchy.

Dissident generals may be misguided, but they remain patriots. So far, we have seen no Napoleon emerge to claim that he is only the man who can lead today’s urban revolutionaries to victory.

A final thought: cultural revolutions not only eventually die without cruel dictators, but they can spawn dramatic pushbacks.

Ronald Reagan was the answer to the radical ’60s. Revolutionaries are now sowing the wind, but they have little idea of the reactive whirlwind they may soon reap.

Dr Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and the author, most recently, of “The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern”

You can reach him by emailing author@victorhanson.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Entry #1,245

Our Badge (of Society)

The Badge

 

When in dire need for help whom do you call???

 

Let me tell you about the badge and the thousands of good men and women it represents.

 

This badge ran towards certain death as the Towers collapsed on 9-11.

 

This badge ran into the line of fire to save the people in the Pulse Night Club.

 

This badge sheltered thousands as bullets rained down from the Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas.

 

This badge protected a BLM rally that left five officers dead in Dallas.

 

This badge ran into the Sandy Hook School to stop a school shooter.

 

This badge killed the Oregon District mass shooter in seconds.

 

This badge has done CPR on your drowned child.

 

This badge has fist fought the wife beater who left his spouse in a coma.

 

This badge has run into burning buildings to save the occupants.

 

This badge has been shot for simply existing.

 

This badge has waded through flood waters to rescue the elderly trapped on the roof.

 

This badge has intentionally crashed into the wrong way driver to protect innocent motorists.

 

This badge has helped find the lost child so his mother would stop crying hysterically.

 

This badge has helped the injured dog off the road and rushed it to the vet.

 

This badge has escorted the elderly woman across the street because she couldn't see well and was afraid to cross.

 

This badge has bought food for hungry kids because they had been abandoned.

 

This badge has been soaked in blood and tears.

 

This badge has been covered by a mourning band to honor those who have sacrificed everything in service.

 

You may hate me because I wear it. But, I wear it with pride. Despite your hate and your anger, I will await the next call for help. And, I will come running without hesitation. Just like the thousands of men and women across this great nation.

 

This badge.

 

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Entry #1,244

The Forgotten Man: i.e. Father's Day

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Happy Father’s Day | Jest_Tu_Positive

BlessingsBlue Angel for all Fathers everywhere: birth fathers, stepfathers, adoptive, foster fathers, grandfathers and all men who have given guidance, mentoring  and love to all our children who need Fathers :-)

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OUR FATHER....
Entry #1,243

NASA: A Ring of Fire Sunrise Solar Eclipse

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200615.html

Sun Burning GIF - Sun Burning Hot - Discover & Share GIFs

A Ring of Fire Sunrise Solar Eclipse

A Ring of Fire Sunrise Solar Eclipse Video Credit: Colin Legg & Geoff Sims; Music: Peter Nanasi Explanation: What's rising above the horizon behind those clouds? It's the Sun. Most sunrises don't look like this, though, because most sunrises don't include the Moon.
apod.nasa.gov
Entry #1,238

$383.95 "Paint" Job :-)

$383.95 "Paint" Job

 

What a great job he's done.  Looks quite professional.

I want to know how long it took to glue on 200 lbs of pennies.

 

He's got to be retired.

 

So, if the bank and government DO NOT want your pennies, do check this out…

 

Who said it can't be done?

I think what happened here is the man told his wife he needed to paint his car and when he told her how much it would cost,she told him to "save his pennies."

 

The $383.00 Paint Job.

The 1949 Cadillac is completely covered with 38,295 pennies!

 

They were affixed one by one using Silicone.

They added over 200 pounds to the vehicle's weight.

The entire project took 6 weeks.

 

The pennies are US, and include an 1817 "Big Cent", two Error Pennies,

 

and four 1943 Steel pennies;   (but who's counting?). 

 

And, it won't scratch…....   

 

 

 

 

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Entry #1,237

America's Proud FLAG DAY :-)

US Flag

I pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice

 

Long May It Wave for all

Eddessa_Knight Patriot

Entry #1,236

Be Courageous And Stand Firm, America—We Do Not Kneel

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Be Courageous And Stand Firm, America—We Do Not Kneel

 

Americans didn't kneel to British tyranny, Nazi fascism, or Soviet communism. We won't kneel for a collective guilt movement that's gone off the rails.

 

By  Joshua Lawson

JUNE 8, 2020

 

Those who live in the far north in author George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels live by one principle: “We do not kneel.” They call themselves the “Free Folk.”

That used to be a label that was proudly worn by all Americans. But a still-too-unquestioned movement pushing  guilt-by-associated-skin-tone has begun to undo one of this nation’s bedrock ideals.

 

The  kneeling phenomenon demanded by the radical left in the wake of George Floyd’s death—and embraced by those guilted into submission—creates a two-tiered social stratification of “kneelers” and “those who refuse to bend the knee” that’s wholly un-American.

Mobs resulting from years of citizens saturated in “critical race theory” and grievance studies have pressured far too many into believing they bear guilt for the past sins of others. Now they  kneel in fealty to that false reality or are exiled from society.

Unfortunately, it’s also moved beyond just kneeling.

 

A crowd in Webster, Massachusetts, recently  forced Police Chief Michael Shaw to lie face-down on the ground for eight minutes. In Cary, North Carolina, a group of Caucasians  washed the feet of black organizers to “ask for forgiveness.” Not to be outdone by the latest woke trends, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  took a knee at a massive anti-racism protest at Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

 

Worse, kneeling—either figuratively or literally—doesn’t even satisfy the mob.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said all the “right” things to the radical leftists holding Guilt Court but was still  heckled out of a public square for refusing to defund the police department. The truth is, even mobs tire of the readily subservient and easily obedient.

‘We Will Never Serve Your Gods’

 

Deep down, we know kneeling in submission to the whims of mobs or tyrants is wrong. Both our ancient stories and our modern myths reflect this truth.

Instead of bowing to the altar of collective guilt, our exemplars should be Hanania, Mishael, and Azaria—though most know them by their Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

 

When Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II commanded all his officials to bow down before an immense golden idol, the three men refused. They knew the prescribed penalty, one that was far worse than mere social ostracization or bullying. Failure to bow meant incineration in a vast furnace.

 

Yet they also knew that to prostrate oneself before something other than God was wrong. And so, they did not bow.  They did not kneel. They stood firm for what they knew to be right. Ultimately, though they were cast into the superheated flames, they were saved by their faith. We know who the heroes were in that episode, and it wasn’t Nebuchadnezzar or the henchmen that followed through on his tyrannical orders.

 

The One Who Stands

 

Fast-forward more than 2,500 years, and we witness  a similar scene. This time, the proving ground isn’t in Babylon, but Germany. Instead of our reality, it’s our world as depicted in “The Avengers.”

 

“Kneel before me,” orders Loki, the god of mischief. “Is not this simpler?” he asks as the crowd of innocents complies meekly. “You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

 

Everyone in the plaza kneels. All but one. “Not to men like you,” comes the defiant response from the solitary holdout. He’s an elderly German, one who has witnessed the tyranny that follows a population that kneels to the pressure of a mob.

“There are no men like me,” responds Loki.

The elder stares at Loki, “There are always men like you.”

It’s one of the most powerful lines uttered in the first 12 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And it should have special resonance today.

 

We don’t applaud the people kneeling in suppression. We feel sorry for them. Loki is the villain, not the hero. The elderly German who resists Loki shows true courage, and he’s saved by the  literal personification of America’s values.

 

While this is an example from the silver screen, it would not resonate if we didn’t know it to be true. The bravery of the elderly German wouldn’t place a lump in the throats of grown men the world over if they weren’t inspired; if they didn’t hope that there was at least a chance they could show that same level of courage if they had to.

Well, we need that courage now.

Showing the Way Out

 

One of the more frightening realities of the “kneel sessions” is that they represent the semi-successful takeover of an entire cultural narrative, which has now been thrust upon a temporarily cowed majority.

 

We must show people frightened by the collective guilt mob that, as Jordan Peterson once explained, “It is not virtuous to be victimized by a bully, even if that bully is oneself.”

Americans in a position to defy this nonsense must show their intimidated neighbors that peaceful resistance to the collective guilt mob is possible. Courageous men and women must rise and say, in one voice, “I empathize with all those who suffer, but I will not be bullied into accepting the sins of others. I bow to no earthy figures.” If that happens, then we will win.

Alexis de Tocqueville saw the potential for faltering democracies to create weak citizens who bow to social pressure. “There is,” he noted, “a great difference between doing what you do not approve or pretending to approve what you do; the one is done by a weak man, but the other belongs only to the habits of a valet.” Americans should reject both choices. Giving in will not abate the mob, it will only embolden them.

 

Tocqueville’s warning on what can happen under a soft despotism is eerily prescient:

It does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them, and directs them; it rarely forces action, but it constantly opposes your acting; it does not destroy, it prevents birth; … it represses, it enervates, it extinguishes, it stupefies, and finally it reduces each nation to being nothing more than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

 

Since this nation’s inception nearly 234 years ago, hundreds of thousands of brave Americans have died to ensure we will never have to kneel—not to a movement, not to a cause, not to those who seek power over our minds and souls.

 

We don’t have nobility in this country, nor do we condone one segment of the population coercing or bullying another segment into silence or emotional servitude.

 

We did not kneel to British tyranny. We did not kneel to Nazi fascists. We did not kneel to ruthless, Japanese imperialists. And though it took generations to muster the required resolve, we did not kneel to the Soviet Union’s quest for global domination.

 

If we are worthy of our Declaration, our Constitution, our flag, and our highest ideals, we will not bow to a movement that has quickly become intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt.

Americans do not kneel. We stand.

 

Joshua Lawson is managing editor of The Federalist. He is a graduate of Queen's University as well as the Van Andel School of Statesmanship at Hillsdale College where he received a master's degree in American politics and political philosophy. 

 

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Entry #1,234

Billy having school trouble. teacher constantly yelled ;"You're driving me crazy,

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Billy was having trouble in school. His teacher constantly yelled at him; "You're driving me crazy, Billy! Can't you learn anything?"

 

Billy's mother met with his teacher at Fall conferences.  The teacher told her Billy was a disaster, getting the lowest marks of any of her students and that she had never had such an unmotivated and ignorant little boy in all of her teaching career.

 

 

Billy's mom, shocked at this feedback, withdrew her son immediately and moved from Detroit to Cleveland.

 

 

It was 25 years later that the teacher was diagnosed with a severe cardiac disease.

 

 

Her doctors advised open heart surgery and that only one surgeon in the Cleveland Clinic could perform the procedure.

 

 

The teacher decided to have the procedure, which was turned out to be remarkably successful at the Cleveland Clinic.

 

 

In the recovery room, she saw the young doctor who headed her surgical team, smiling down at her.

 

 

She wanted to thank him.

 

 

Instead, her face suddenly turned blue as she tried to speak and then she quickly died.

 

 

The doctor was shocked, wondering what went suddenly wrong.

 

 

When the doctor turned to leave the room, he saw that Billy, the janitor at the Cleveland Clinic, had unplugged the life-support equipment in order to plug in his vacuum cleaner.

 

 

Statistics indicate that if you thought that Billy had become a heart-surgeon, there is a good chance you'll vote for Joe Biden!

 

Have a blessed day!

Entry #1,233
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