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We’ve Had Worse Times
My wife became a US citizen 14 years ago. She did it on her own hook, after being in the US for 25 years, not because she married me. But now she tells me she’s beginning to regret becoming a citizen because of all the nonsense we are seeing now.
Yes, racial relations are getting worse and worse and the situation is being driven by race mongers and seditionist leftists. Yes, the libs are threatening to tax us and take the money in our IRA’s and 401ks. Yes, an increase in inflation is threatening to destroy our retirement savings. Yes, inflation is increasing. Yes, corporations will pay higher taxes, and we will pay more for goods and services as a result. Yes, people are losing their jobs and status for speaking their minds. Yes, we are set to waste trillions on the phantom of climate change. Yes, crime is on the rise even as leftists are calling to abolish the police. Yes, we have seen continuous rioting, vandalism, and violence in our cities. Yes, anti-white racism in on display everywhere. Yes, there is an open season on American Jews. But not to worry, I say. The US has seen worse.
We enslaved millions of people, dragged from their homeland to work here, but we stopped that practice and freed those people, committing even to civil war to correct the situation.
We saw people oppressed with violence, segregation, abrogation of their civil rights, and terrorism, but that was ended.
We saw the nation erupt in turmoil over a controversial war.
We saw our government put millions in concentration camps on the basis of their race on the mere suspicion that they might be disloyal, but that was later condemned.
The government fomented violence by mobs against dissenters in WWI, coming very close to fascism, but those officials were removed from office.
We saw the economy crash and unemployment of 25%, but that resolved.
We taxed the wealthy for 90% of their income, but that tax was ended.
We saw unions bring American industry nearly to a standstill with incessant strikes, but that was ended.
And there are many more examples.
All of these current troubles, too, shall pass.
Published in History
So do kidney stones, but I would not want to wish that on anyone either.
Yes, yes, they will pass. With the death of the Republic.
These times are unprecedented.
We never had a dementia patient lose a national election before only to be inserted militarily against the will of the American people.
God only knows how this ends.
Not if my generation has anything to say about it.
They always are.
Uh, not quite. Britannica says about 120,000.
Gee Librarians, hard to sneak anything by them.
Oh, well, no problem then.
So said the Byzantine Empire in the 7th Century.
Sigh.
Yes, it, too, shall pass (this is a dumb sentence with to many commas).
But what spurred the ending of worse times? Good men doing nothing or good men holding the line, pushing back, or demanding change?
This is such a pat observation. Guess what, if we don’t push back, things could get worse.
Is the fact it’s been worse a reason to not act and LET it get worse?
As a marker for perseverance, this is great advice. But if it promotes sloth and do nothingness, it is worthless platitude.
Nothing changes, it has all been done before, it’s fleeting, and worthless. And yet we should continue persevering, pursuing rightness and justice and mercy, and seeking God’s goodness. There is a time for peace and a time for war. The fact it has been worse before should be a learning point, not a call to drop the fight. We know the trajectory. So why stop pushing back on things that are obviously wrong?
Yes, we’ve had worse times for sure, but we should be past many of these current issues by now. The fact that we keep being forced to re-live them, and we have this Marxist thug mentality giving license to burn businesses, trash churches and bully average people eating lunch or walking down the street without consequences is complete and utter bull. You bring up past history and how we survived it. I don’t recall people sitting on the sidelines when the redcoats came, or taking a nap while the world was catching fire from communism and Nazis. This new indoctrination is being tolerated out of what? Fear?
If we look at past history, we need to look at its heroes and stand up for our country, its freedom, our families and stop putting up with it.
I respect your accuracy Charlotte. Pedantry unending.
Why do folks resent the suggestion that things, long ago or right now, are not as bad as presented? As a pessimist, I understand the impulse toward catastrophism, but history does indicate it ain’t necessarily so.
Because it is frequently used as an argument to get the more active minded to sit down and shut up.
But half of the things above didn’t just happen overnight. It wasn’t that everything was hunky dory for Jews in Germany and one morning, they woke up and 6 million were dead.
Is it good to maintain perspective? Yes. But this should not be used to incorporate a lackadaisical attitude toward the current trajectory.
In fact, it’s the attitude of passiveness that has deteriorated our culture. Oh sure, we all have fuller bellies and more leisure time, but we have a corrupted education system that will reap very negative fruits. But it’s ok, he says. It’s been worse. No need to worry…
Yet.
If it’s all good with you, I’d like it to NOT get worse.
Perspective is essential. I agree that emphasizing “it’s been worse” may encourage passivity. Certainly we need Cassandras, but hair-afire hysteria leads to other evils. Among them are empowering the “burn it all down” wings of both the left and right.
In some cases because the suggestion might conveniently avoid addressing why things are so bad, essentially comparing apples to oranges. For example, as bad as the riots last summer were, the worst aspect was the monolithic celebration of the largest mass racist movement since the 1920s KKK engaging in said domestic terrorism by every powerful public and private institution in the country, as well half the country openly and self-consciously rejecting and demonizing the very foundations of America. That is in fact unprecedented, as the most comparable circumstances of the past consisted of people disputing the universality of American values, rather than the pursuit of the same. That is a rubicon that forever destroys everything that America is, voiding American Exceptionalism and rendering our country subject to the same political trajectory as others countries such as Italy, France, Lebanon, etc.
Optimism about the future comes from the assurance that there will be push back against the nonsense. We are already beginning to see that. I think we can also expect some of the radicals fads to burn out, especially when leftists see the blow torch being turned on them. For example, #MeToo excesses, the destruction of people for little or nothing, have toned down because the wrong people, like Joe Biden, were threatened. Some prominent progressive musicians, like John and Yoko’s son, Sean Lennon, have slammed woke culture for making race relations worse.
When it comes to the conservative right, that make up the bulk of the Ricochet audience, which sin do you think we are most likely to be guilty of? Excess and unthinking “burn it all down” action? Or sloth-like, “it’ll all be alright” passivity?
By who, exactly?
Most of the people pushing back are criticized by the right as “that’s not who we are”. Seems rather convenient to rely on tactics we ostensibly disagree with while benefitting from them, right?
Say what? I’ve not come across this. Please elaborate.
You make a fair point.
The primary example is how the right criticizes the Proud Boys. Also, Kyle Rittenhouse had quite a few NR pundits trying to distance themselves.
NR has also been highly critical of one of the new and much younger think tanks adopting Trump’s platform as their foundation.
Cruz and DeSantis pushing back on Big Tech gets a lot of criticism from the conservatarian right (who are ostensibly over represented in the pundit class).
During the confederate statue debates, Trump was the only one to not castigate the pro statue protestors as neo-nazis and his defense of those people was twisted into an unseemly lie by even the right.
And the “insurrection”. A peaceful rally that set nothing on fire pushed back on our ruling elite (not on defenseless business owners).