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‘Socialism Destroys’: The Tenth Commandment
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” — The Tenth Commandment
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” — John Adams
“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” — Winston Churchill
“I believe in returning the nation’s wealth to its rightful owners.” — Barack Obama
“When the people find that then can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” — Benjamin Franklin
The idea that socialism will destroy a society is not new. God himself warned people about this, in the 10th commandment. Which is probably one reason that socialists often abandon conventional religion, creating a sort of religion of their own, which is based on taking from the unpopular and giving to the popular. Or, put more succinctly, their religion is based on coveting their neighbors’ stuff. As Winston Churchill put it, “…the gospel of envy.”
When President Obama said, “I believe in returning the nation’s wealth to its rightful owners,” that is exactly and precisely what he meant. The rightful owners of wealth are not those who earned that wealth – no, the rightful owners of wealth are those who voted for Barack Obama.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. The “rightful owners.” My heavens. That should send chills down your spine.
Taking things from people we don’t like, and giving it to people we do like. Using the power of government to not just rationalize, but enforce widespread theft, extortion, bribery, and blackmail. President Obama, and most modern American Democrats, worship “…the gospel of envy.” And because we’ve trained our children that such behavior is actually virtuous, they worship this gospel openly and proudly. They run for office on the platform of “…the gospel of envy.” And they win.
There are some who wonder how all this will turn out.
Benjamin Franklin knew. Perhaps he’d read the 10th Commandment.
Published in General
So far so good. But then we go back to incest town.
So… we did come from two people. So the Catholic Church turns against science and reason in a matter of no small import. Did I miss something Western Chauvinist? If the Catholic Church is so wrong about this, how can I trust them with other stuff?
Certainly this doesn’t emerge from small-minded anti-intellectualism. It emerges from a faith that denigrates the proper place of evidence and empiricism in human understanding. It is similar to high I.Q. Communists who can never accept that central planning just doesn’t work. High I.Q. folks that deny reality are usually far more misleading than the ignorant.
WELCOME, GRAHAM!
Yes, probably most of us in this thread believe things like “G-d created the universe,” “G-d created human beings,” “G-d created life,” and so on. Some, but only some, of those, no doubt, believe things like “G-d did it all in six days” and “Evolutionary change does not create new kinds of organisms.”
[Mumble, mumble.] [Something about philosophy and theology posts on my profile page.] [Mumble, grumble.]
Well, technically, Islam is “outside of Christianity.” And most modern forms of Judaism. The same sort of motivations can turn up there too.
It seems to show up alot in Judaism but as I understand it, Islam has denied science since al-Ghazali eclipsed Ibn-Sina. When was the last time that Islam discovered something?
[Mumble, mumble.] [Something about things I’ve written on religion and empiricism.] [Mumble, grumble.]
I believe Omega Paladin # 78 has responded to that.
Probably a bit oversimplified about Al-Gh. and Ibn Sina, but not wrong that I know of.
Read Allama Iqbal’s The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam if you care about this. His arguments for science are of some interest, and he also has a Muslim-influence theory on the origins of modern science that I doubt is the whole truth but can’t say is not true at atll.
(And I think that’s all I know about that!)
You must think we know very little about the universe.
Of course I take the story as 100% true. (What do I look like–a heretic? Or a Barthian? Ha!)
And it sure looks like theology to me. And maybe there are some layers of metaphor. (There sure is imagery, if that’s the same thing.) And it sure looks historical to me–not that that makes it literal.
But if it were literal, what sort of conflict with that I know about the universe would there really be?
A literal reading of Genesis coheres magnificently with everything I know about G-d, humanity, good, evil, men, women, life, death, suffering, metaphysics, ethics, history, and an endless stream of scientific insights ranging from a heliocentric solar system and “Bacteria cause diseases” to what little I understand about mutations, natural selection, and the things Intelligent Design people talk about.
At most, it would conflict with two or three currently dominate scientific paradigms that may look completely different in a couple of decades after another generation or two of scientists shuffle off into eternity–and, perhaps, with some subset of the miscellany of data sets that are usually interpreted in the direction of those paradigms.
But hey–if whatever reasons I might have to take it literally are weaker than whatever reasons I might have to prefer those particular scientific paradigms, so what? I can be rational enough either way, and either way I’m not exactly a heretic.
(More stuff I wrote down here. I wish I could remember the title of that book I haven’t read about evolution and a historical Adam.)
I never tried to argue for literalism here. Clearly, there is something metaphysical here – there is a garden, but there is clearly a lot more land outside of it. Where does it go? I don’t think it is referring to a physical place.
I am just saying that the story is not hypocritical and the gcneral message is right.
Also, some lessons provide knowledge at a high enough cost it is worth taking someone’s word for it.
So you are arguing for polygenism with lots of incest from Adam and Eve? So like more of an incest thorp. That reminds me of those old pagan religions where incest between the gods was OK. That’s not what the Catholic Church argued. The Church has argued that we are all the literal descendants of Adam and Eve.
@OmegaPaladin Your explanation makes more sense with the fossil record.
I think you want to respond more directly to some details in # 78 if that’s a topic you’re interested in.
As I recall, some of the genetics are considered in Lee Spetner’s Not By Chance–another book I haven’t read because I’m a loser.
Anybody, feel free to actually discuss the topic by Dr. Bastiat.
Good idea :-) Gospel of envy- otherwise known as comparison is the master thief of joy. It’s been attributed to Teddy Roosevelt, Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis et. al. Anecdotally, it seems the Left is always miserable, self-loathing, angst-ridden. “Karens” are almost always a suburban white liberal female phenomenon. Ever seen a BLM or ANTIFA activist actually smile? Didn’t think so, yet we’ve been fed ‘Liberalism is the politics of kindness’ ~Garrison Keiller~ repeated ad nauseum by the corporate press. But time and time again conservative self-identify (wow, I hate that word!!) as happier and find greater meaning in life:
https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/04/research-finds-conservatives-are-more-happy-generous-and-purposeful-than-liberals/
Certainly no coincidence
Thanks SA – been enjoying your writing for awhile. Oops – was that too sycophantic? Newbie fax paus?
Conservatives know that the world is pretty harsh and humanity is filled with limitations and sin. (The origin of that sin is up for debate but conservatives all agree that man is filled with sin.) Because conservatives know this, we are happier and can better endure the suffering of human existence.
Leftists believe that everything can be perfect. Though apocryphal I heard about Russian in the USSR under Stalin arguing about traffic deaths. Some said that even in the workers’ paradise some traffic deaths would still happen. However, some Utopians were so convinced of the glory of the New Kingdom that they believed that no one would die in traffic incidents because everything could work so well. It’s like Communists have never tried to organize anything complicated with multiple people before.
Agreed. Most people aren’t on a truth quest, they are on a happiness quest. Conservatism fundamentally relies on logic and reason, then responds with a lifestyle and belief system that aligns with reality – if we’re ‘doing it right’.
The current meme/troll that “Leftism is a mental illness” carries a great deal of truth. My ‘theory’ on Leftists: they construct a lifestyle and belief system first. It includes demonizing an alternative ideology. When faced with facts and logic, reality begins to contradict their unsupportable ideology, they experience cognitive dissonance. In their mind it’s a Hobson’s choice scenario because to be wrong would mean to be evil. So most choose to remain in this state of cognitive dissonance, manufacturing their own truth (post-modernist thinking) to support the unsupportable. Living in this suspended reality creates a level of insanity that manifests itself in psychological projection (Freud got that one right) and such things like 1619 project, Antifa, BLM and transgender ideology. It is those who get ‘red pilled’ that chose wisely (see Dave Rubin, David Horowitz, Candace Owens, Brandon Straka, et. al.)
I think you’re right. But this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. I can’t help but thinking that if leftists weren’t indoctrinated to it, none of this would be happening. And if the Left were to call it off tomorrow, most people would accept it and change. I can’t help thinking this has all the characteristics of a typical stampede.
Let’s not forget the massive social pressure. Humans are social animals and there’s almost nothing worse than being cast out alone in the wilderness. Which is why we conservatives need to hang together in the counter-culture. There’s a famous “or” statement following, but I’d rather not tempt fate.
/I actually heard someone say “if I die in the gulag. . .” at church today. 21st century America.
http://gulagswag.com