Fooling Ourselves.

I had the great pleasure of standing and listening to a chap in the US room the other evening. I stood behind the bar and pulled the pints for the occasionally silent crowd as they were stunned into thought. Occasionally silent that is between the murmers of discontent, expressions of false bravado and some minor protest. But they listened. 

Matt Walsh was (as they say ) 'Reading the Riot Act' in a rather more gentle and nuanced way than one usually sees with a phalanx of boots armed with shields and batons. He was providing Perspective. 

He was taking a hard and honest look at America's Greatness.

I was reminded for a fleeting moment of an old friend of mine from a very long time ago.  A noble Knight who occasionally visited my Castle, back when I was a King. He was Sir William. De Burgate. 

Bill was a shortarse.

Now, I m'self am a mere 5 foot 8, shrinking with the years. Bill was shorter than me. I could look clear over his head even when he wore his helmet. His wife could too. She, Alianora, was a lanky gal; beautiful to be sure; slim and gracious and a delight to have around the Halls for a week, but she towered over him. 

It caused him just a bit of embarassment sometimes. He was shorter even than most other Knights and when he encountered some martial chap of Rambo stature, he was fired up to show his mettel. It made him a great fighter. 

He did not bullshit though. He was a man of action. He 'did' things. He was in fact rather proud of his Lady. He did not glorify himself. He had no illusions about his stature, nor his wife's nor his place in the world.

After he and Ali shook off their mortal coils, as they say, their friends and family made a fine tomb for them.

On top they placed an image of the two of them, together in that long sleep as in life: he standing on a dog and wearing boots and his best and tallest helmet, and she in 'flatties', feet on the ground, with a simple veil hat on her fine head. No fancy beehive hairdo either.

He appeared to be as tall as she. It 'equalised' them, their friends hoped. 

It gave him a sadly 'faux' air, unfortunately. It was just the bullshit he had spent his life avoiding. 

Many people today have that disposition to bullshit America too.  One shudders to think what image will adorn the Tomb of America. Odds are though that if the Flag is placed reverendly over it, some bugger will try to burn it.

And so Matt was giving a 'Realistic' assessement. It was in response to someone 'lauding' America unrealistically and far too optimistically. Not there there is nothing to be laudatory about, but much if not most of the laudableness (is that a word?) is past. It is history. The present is far different and God alone knows what the near future will be like. And Matt was of the view that God certainly has some things in mind.

But he put the questions. And.... as he had a lot to say, I will not put it all here but ask you to 'review the tape' by following the link. But here are some points to ponder. 

No, America Is Not a Great Nation

Here’s the truth: I am not happy with this country, and you shouldn’t be, either. I am disappointed in it. It disgraces itself. It turns from God. It kills its young. It attacks the family. Am I supposed to pretend otherwise just for the sake of being festive? 

 http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/no-america-is-not-a-great-nation/

While Michelle Obama felt pride in her nation for the first time recently, I am more and more developing a deep anger at it, and I think it’s time I admit that out loud. 

I’m a patriot, but to borrow from Chesterton, a patriot who is uncritical of his country while it teeters on the edge of total destruction is like a son who doesn’t warn his mother that she’s about to fall off a cliff. In this case, however, we already fell off the cliff. We are shattered on the rocks below, and I’m truly not certain if we can be repaired.

You want me to get into the holiday spirit and remind everyone that America is still great, but I don’t know, Mike, does a great country murder a million babies every year?

Does a great country ignore its own laws and tear its Constitution to pieces?

Does a great country become among the first in human civilization to dismantle the institution of marriage in favor of legitimizing sexual perversion?

Is a great country so confused that it can’t tell the difference between male and female?

Does the nuclear family collapse in a great country?

Does a great country have historically high rates of divorce, unwed pregnancy and fatherless homes?

Do little girls get IUDs implanted in them by school officials without parental consent in a great country?

Do citizens burn down their own cities in a great country?

Is moral relativism the cultural driving force in a great country?

Are churches empty in a great country?

Do one in every five citizens favor forcing priests to perform gay weddings in a great country?

Is pornography a billion-dollar industry in a great country?

Are there 110 million cases of STDs in a great country?

Are college students unable to name the vice president but able to chug a fifth of vodka in a great country?

Is higher education overrun by feminists and nihilists in a great country?

Is apathy endemic in a great country?

Does the average person watch five hours of TV a day in a great country?

Are people threatened, fired, attacked, belittled and ripped to shreds for having differing opinions in a great country?

Do young adults ransack stores just for fun in a great country?

Do schools teach kids how to masturbate but forget to teach them how to read in a great country ?

Is “50 Shades of Grey” a best-seller in a great country?

Does Christianity decline in a great country?

Are soldiers forced to sit in classrooms and listen to lectures about “white privilege” in a great country?

Has the gay agenda so infiltrated even the military that now officers are chased out of their jobs for telling lesbians to stop french-kissing while in uniform in a great country?

Does the government hand out birth control to children in a great country?

Do illegal immigrants stream over the border at will in a great country?

Are 151 million people on the government dole in a great country?

Do a majority of Americans vote for Barack Obama twice in a great country?

Does a great country laugh at morality, reject reality and worship cross-dressers?

Do adults in a great country so lack even the most rudimentary knowledge of their own great country that they can’t even explain why their great country celebrates the Fourth of July?

Is this what happens in a great country?

If so, what’s so great about being great? 

Where is the optimism in that miserable greatness? Where is the hope for the future if moral bankruptcy, selfishness, confusion, stupidity, deviancy and failure are “great”?

Face it, Mike. Judge America by any measure — moral, political, economic, social, cultural — and none of it points to greatness. Not by a long shot. Not even close. Not anymore. 

Progressivism dominates all of these spheres, and with its rise our greatness diminishes.

Here’s what I do know, and here’s the hopeful part: Our priority has to be our families and our souls. The fate of the country or the globe has not been put entirely, or even mostly, in our individual hands. But we have profound jurisdiction over the fate of our families, the spiritual state of our children, whether our households serve the Lord, and whether we serve the Lord. 

That’s our hope for the future. 

Right there.

We can find greatness if we strive for holiness. 

We have to. We are entering an age where only the great Christians will spiritually survive. It’s a scary time, but if we heed the call to holiness, we can find immense joy. That’s what I want for my children, though I fear for them quite a bit these days. 

I can’t imagine what this country will look like in 30 or 40 years. Maybe things will have turned around, but honestly I really doubt it. So all I can do is hold them close, try to be a better father to them and a better husband to my wife, and equip them as best I can for what comes next.

I believe strongly that real persecution awaits us down the road. I think my children will face hostility and opposition and maybe even violence on a level I haven’t yet seen. 

We are heading into very challenging times, but if we keep our families together and our hearts with God, we’ll be OK. No matter what happens, we’ll be OK. And, by extension, if we pour ourselves into our families and into our faith, we might be able to rescue this culture and this country from the clutches of progressive annihilation. It won’t happen quickly, and I don’t know if it will happen at all, but I know there’s a chance. America is not lost completely. Not yet.

He had a lot more said, but you can follow and hear for yourselves.

I know many fine people in America. Heck, I know many fine people in most western countries, and I do not doubt that there are fine folk too in non-'Anglophile' countries. But realistically the West is Hell bent on a slow suicide. The general populations of Hillary's Villages fool themselves; they bullshit themselves. They have ceased even to 'do', prefering to sit in 'safe spaces' and cheer on the night as it falls over us.

We need sound Christian Knights to roll back the dark night coming. William De Burgate was one.

Drink deep of Grace.

Pax