We must learn from history how tyranny arises:
The more I study the past, the more the present alarms me. For example, I have long wondered how tyranny would come to the West. What form will it take? How will it come about? Now I think I know. Simply ask yourself this question: What do you get when you put a bunch of power-hungry leaders who seek ever more control together with hordes of docile sheep who seem to question nothing?
Tyranny of course is the answer, and history is full of examples of this. It was the American journalist Edward R. Murrow who rightly said, “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves”. We certainly see this with the corona crisis.
In one piece I quoted the great philosopher and economist F. A. Hayek: “‘Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded – and once they are suspended it is not difficult for anyone who has assumed such emergency powers to see to it that the emergency will persist.” https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/04/17/mandatory-corona-police-powers/
We see this perfectly unfolding in so much of the West today with the corona crisis. Here in Victoria we see perhaps the ultimate version of this being played out. There are plenty of mindless sheeple here who seem to view Dan Andrews as infallible. They will do whatever he says, no questions asked, and defend him to the death. This is the perfect storm for tyranny.
No matter how much blood this government has on its hands, no matter how many more people will die because of their criminal negligence, no matter if we stay barricaded in our own homes for the rest of our lives, we have these brainless devotees (mostly Labor Party hacks or public servants sucking on the government teat) who will fully and fanatically support it.
I am no legal expert, but if the following that is making the rounds on the social media is even somewhat true, then we are in dire straits indeed: “The State of emergency which is constitutionally capped at 6 months, to protect us from tyrants, expires on 13 September 2020. Daniel Andrews is applying through Labor’s attorney general to make a Permanent State of Emergency.”
Whether or not this is the case, it appears that Dan Andrews can do no wrong for too many folks, and they will turn on anyone who dares to ask questions and not fully bow down to the narrative. I get these people all the time attacking me and hating on me. Worse yet, there are countless people who claim to be Christians who are doing this very thing.
I could write a book just on these very sorts of people. Indeed, as I was penning this piece I had even more examples of this. For example, on the social media I had a gal going ballistic at me, accusing me of not being a Christian because I dared to show concern for those dying alone under these draconian lockdown conditions.
I had posted a meme of a sad grandmother isolated from everyone else, wishing she could be with her own family and loved ones in her dying days. But of course Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has ruled that out – it is verboten. And I know of people who have died like this – it is utterly horrible that they must live their final moments all by themselves.
Yes believe it or not, I had this gal who likes to think she is some great follower of Christ attacking me for this, claiming I did not know Jesus, and that we must do what the State tells us to do. She said this old woman was selfish for wanting to see her own family, and she should just die alone because that would be the loving thing to do! I kid you not!!
She has clearly embraced all the fear-mongering and panic-porn about Covid, and thinks being a good Christian is to attack others who dare to question all this. Worse yet, she thinks the loving thing to do is just abandon your own mother to the faceless State because that is somehow the Christian response. Mindboggling! I found her remarks to be so utterly shocking and bizarre that I responded to her as follows:
Oh good grief. No she did NOT say I want to go home and infect everyone I love, hoping they die. Don’t be so foolish. The meme is making the obvious point that it is despicable to isolate people at their most vulnerable and desperate period in life and prevent them from having any contact with their loved ones and close family members – especially in their final days. If you think allowing your own mother to die a horrible death all alone because Dictator Dan said so is so peachy, then it is you who knows nothing of Christian love or biblical reality. I sure am glad you are not my daughter. Neither Jesus nor the prophets nor the disciples have ever insisted that the state is absolute and must be obeyed without question. Sorry, it is sheeple that spout this sort of callous nonsense that are a part of the problem.
She sent back an even more angry response, insisting that I of course am not a Christian. Before I could offer a response, she then blocked me, banned me, and unfriended me! Oh dear – feel the love! Sadly there are so many other folks just like her. They have become slaves to the State, and will actually side with the secular State against actual Christians.
I am seeing more and more that the devil is using fake Christians to attack real Christians. And it can be all very subtle as well. Let me offer one more example of this. The other day I penned a piece on just how bad Kamala Harris and her policies are, and how her and Biden are the most radical leftist Democrat team so far seen in America.
Of course I got all the usual suspects attacking me for that: lefties, Democrats, atheists, and so on. One guy claiming to be a believer said he prayed to God first before penning his comment. He then proceeded to tear into me, telling me I am no Christian. While he hated on me and Trump, he sang the praises of Biden/Harris.
Um, I don’t think the god he prayed to is the one he thinks he did! It sounds like his god is himself and his hardcore leftist ideology. And the god of this world who has blinded so many. Yet he wanted me to believe that he was some concerned brother in Christ seeking to lead me back to true faith! Um, no, I don’t think so.
Just as there is fake news, so there are fake Christians. Jesus of course warned that these folks would be a major problem for his genuine disciples. And we sure are seeing it now. The corona crisis is simply bringing many more of them out into the open. And it sure is frightening to behold.
So between all these sham believers and counterfeit Christians, and masses of servile sheep who are too afraid to think for themselves and actually ask some hard questions, and plenty of Statists who are loving their new-found powers, we do have the perfect storm brewing.
And as mentioned, history is replete with examples of this. But it is exactly because we do not know our history that we keep repeating its mistakes. Let me conclude by briefly mentioning one new book which is quite relevant here. I will need to properly discuss it in future articles, but I can at least alert you to it now.
I refer to Defying the Holocaust by Tom Dowley (SPCK, 2020). In it he tells the stories of “Ten Courageous Christians Who Supported Jews”. The sad part is, as he says in the introduction, there were not many of these sorts of Christians around.
Most of them either supported Hitler and the Nazis, or they remained silent. And among the very small group of those who did seek to help and rescue the Jews, there were some who were non-Christians as well. Let me just offer one small part of what he wrote:
When the Nazis started to destroy the European Jews, the millions of non-Jews in Europe had to decide their stance: would they help the Nazis, help the Jews, or do nothing. A very small percentage resisted or helped. The great majority did nothing. More than 16,000 rescuers have been recognized officially by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, yet no one knows how many there were in total. The number of those who escaped the Holocaust by living illegally with the aid and support of non-Jews is extremely low in comparison with the number deported to the extermination camps.
Of course I am not equating what happened last century in Europe with what we are now going through in the West with corona. But a significant point needs to be stressed. Back then very few people spoke out and resisted the rising tide of tyranny when they had the chance to do so. And soon enough it was too late to speak out at all.
Many voices today have been warning about over-the-top Statist responses to corona: the erosion of freedoms, the destruction of liberty, the radical increase in State power and control, and the silence of so many people. Fear has paralysed far too many folks, and they seem to be willing to go along with whatever the powers that be tell them to do.
That is a very frightening place to be in. Clearly, we have NOT learned the lessons of history.
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