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This Month's Scripture Verse:

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
I Timothy 6:10

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Views From The Left For April 9, 2025

Views From The Left 

Below is a list of articles from a sampling of leftist websites. Except for the Democracy At Work website, each leftist site listed below has a high reliable reporting rating according to MediaBiasFactCheck.com. The articles listed below express views that will sometimes be divergent from the views of the owner of this blog.

Martin Luther King statement made when speaking against the Vietnam War (click here for source):

'I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.'


  • Democracy Journal
            No New Articles This Week





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Tuesday, April 8, 2025

What's Most Important To Americans

 During the 2024 Presidential campaign, the #1 issue for American voters was money. It was inflation, grocery prices, and money spent on immigrants. The second issue for many conservatives was the culture wars. And the culture wars revolved around the equal rights for the LGBT community.

Now what is the #1 issue of conservative Americans? The polls tell us that. We could say that the #1 issue is the same for Americans in general; it is money. But that is not entirely accurate. The #1 issue for conservative Americans is oneself. How are conservative Americans concerned about themselves? They are concerned about themselves in terms of money issues including jobs, taxes, and prices. They are concerned about themselves in terms of whom they will share society with. They want the LGBT community to be put back into the margins of society. They are concerned about non-Christian influences on the lives of their families. They see themselves as being victims of  illegal immigration. In general they see themselves as being victims because their leader, Donald Trump, tells them so. And because they are victims by so many people and even countries, remember the Trade Wars, they could care less if Trump does not follow the rules to save them. And in thinking that way, they not only ignore history.

How America got to be this way must be told so that others might avoid our plight. It starts by thinking that one's own group is above all others. Because of America's great wealth, it starts by leaning toward finding more significance in what one consumes more than in what one contributes to others and society.

And though I am no longer a conservative American, I am not innocent of these charges. As I was talking with my best friend, she was talking about how her husband has always been a very hard worker. I had to tell her that I wasn't raised that way. I was raised to be a consumer and so hard work and how it contributed to others was, to me, the price of admission for consuming rather than a reward in and of itself. And so I didn't always work as hard and with the right attitudes as I should. I still struggle with having a good work ethic for the right reasons.

We Americans, especially conservative Americans, want two things in life. The first thing we want is to believe that we are special in a way that makes us and our nation superior to all others. Listen to conservative talk radio if you doubt that part of my analysis here.

And because we are special, or perhaps when we doubt ourselves, we want to consume as much as possible. So we make consumption the center of our lives. That is because, for us, consuming  is both a reward for being so special and an assurance that we are.

In an article (click here and use Google Translate if necessary) written by Richard Martineau for Le Journal de Montréal, Trump is described as the leader whom we all deserve because of our obsession with entertainment--something which we consume in great quantities. And so our consumption of entertainment results in our entertainment replacing culture. Our consumption of entertainment means that we eventually  become attracted to the spectacle and no one makes more of a spectacle of himself than Trump.

Read the comments on capitalism made by Martin Luther King Jr in his book, Stride Toward Freedom (click here and read pg 94-95). When describing what Marx saw as the danger when the profit motive becomes the 'sole basis for an economic system,' King said that Capitalism 'inspires' people to focus more on 'making a living' than on 'making a life.' That capitalism causes us to 'judge ourselves' more by our income and possessions than by what we contribute to others.

If we want to get Biblical about it, note what the prophet wrote in Ezekiel 16:48-50):

48 As I live,” declares the Lord God, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done! 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, plenty of food, and carefree ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. 50 So they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it.


Paul wrote, in his letter to the Galatians, that the desires of the flesh oppose the desires of the Spirit . I believe that a secular parallel to that conflict can be found in the conflict between consumerism and Democracy with equality. Certainly not all consuming is bad; a certain amount of consuming  is necessary for both individuals and society. But when consuming becomes a main way of defining oneself, then we start caring less and less about Democracy with equality. When our own possessions and consumption of material and immaterial goods becomes too important to us, we start to care less and less about the injustices and inequities that those outside of our own tribes suffer. And the more we love to consume, the more we will see those outside of our own tribes as threats to our way of life. And so the more we care about consuming, the more we are likely to fall prey to authoritarian leaders who promise us pie in the sky while warning us, or using fear mongering, that those outside of our tribe are threatening to steal our slice of the pie from us. And the thing about authoritarian leaders who tell us what we want to hear is that they don't have to be rational, they just have to stroke our fears and egos to be persuasive.

America has already been caught in consumerism's vortex because of what we believe about ourselves. How we can escape alive I do not know. But perhaps our example can serve as a warning to our dearest neighbor to the North and our former allies to the East and to the rest of the free world.






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Friday, April 4, 2025

Views From The Outside For April 4, 2025

 Views From The Outside

The purpose of this page is to list news stories and reports from Western sources outside of the U.S. and from Ukraine. You can use Google Translate to translate articles that are printed in another language. Some articles posted from Der Spiegel and NZZ will be German and some will be in English.

April 4, 2025

From Canada

From England

From France

From Germany

From Switzerland

From Ukraine








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Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Views From The Left For April 2, 2025

Views From The Left 

Below is a list of articles from a sampling of leftist websites. Except for the Democracy At Work website, each leftist site listed below has a high reliable reporting rating according to MediaBiasFactCheck.com. The articles listed below express views that will sometimes be divergent from the views of the owner of this blog.

Martin Luther King statement made when speaking against the Vietnam War (click here for source):

'I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.'









 

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Tuesday, April 1, 2025

What Can We Realistically Expect From American Evangelicals Now?

As I compare Trump's 2nd Presidency with opinion polls, I see a great disparity. Why aren't more people disapproving of Trump? From what I see, Democracy is not just in a mere crisis, it should be placed in hospice. For at the current pace, it won't take long for Democracy to be irreparably harmed and destroyed. But Trump supporters are reacting to his Presidency as if their house was launched by a tornado and landed over the rainbow. 

And so why don't today's Repubs see the danger that our Democracy is facing? For some it is because they prefer a conservative autocratic regime to Democracy. One reason for that is because they didn't like all of the groups that were emerging from the margins to move into the equality neighborhood with them. For according to them, such people bring the value of their own property down. These Republicans are wearing such tinted glasses that they can't see the harm that Trump is causing.

Since over 80% for my fellow Evangelicals have played a key role in not just electing Trump, but in maintaining support for his regime, I thought I would share my views on why this is happening.

IMO, a main, but not only, reason why so many of my fellow Evangelicals have voted for and continue to support Trump is due to their penchant for authoritarianism. Dr Russell Razzaque has identified how many Christian parents raised their children as the reason for that tendency to embrace authoritarianism. And though he has some excellent points to make and to consider, he reduces the cause for their authoritarianism to be anger over how they were raised. Though that can come into play, it isn't the only factor involved here. I think that another factor that so contributes either with or without how children were raised which has caused my fellow Evangelicals to lean toward authoritarianism is the culture that religiously conservative churches promote. BTW, despite some of the reasoning that Dr Razzaque employs in his talk (seen below) and how some of what he says  challenges a Biblical understanding of the Old Testament God (see his short talk below), he is well worth listening to.


What first needs to be said here is a meaningful definition of authoritarianism. This is needed, especially by my fellow Evangelicals, because Evangelical churches so often teach us that we are always under authority structures and thus under people in authority so that we could easily conflate the Biblical submission to authority figures with authoritarianism. Authoritarianism, as it applies to our personalities, was originally identified and defined  by the Frankfurt School. Its interest in the subject was due to rise of Nazism and the German response to it. Authoritarian personality types refer to specific ways by which authoritarian leaders lead and authoritarian followers follow their leaders. BTW, here is a big disclaimer on my views on authoritarian personality types. I am speaking as a common person, NOT AN EXPERT. 

And because Evangelical churches tend to so heavily emphasize the authority structures that we live under and our Biblical obligation to respect all who are in authority, many Evangelicals are confused as to how to interpret what an authoritarian personality type is. What authoritarian leaders want is to have authoritarian followers. And what authoritarian followers want are unimpeachable sources of instructions and worldviews. What such followers want from their leaders are those with whom they can reflexively agree. In a sense, they are looking for a pope-like parent who is relatively or absolutely infallible. They want nanny thinkers to lead them. Their leaders speak and they follow. And what drives them toward wanting such a leader is fear. And because they expect so much from their leaders, they tend to employ black/white thinking. And the fear that drives them to expect so much from their leaders also acts as a defense from attacks from all sides. All of that causes authoritarian followers to put their leaders on too high a pedestal, whether their leaders have real expertise to offer or not.

It is the inordinate desire to follow authority figures that causes many Evangelicals to be unable to distinguish a Biblical way of following those who have authority over us from an authoritarian way. And so they conflate both ways. In addition, many of my fellow believers develop an inability to distinguish situations when we do not need to follow an authority figure because we are surrounded by peers, by equals.

But why do I mention all of this about authoritarian personalities? One reason is that it realistically helps explain why many of my fellow Evangelicals are following Trump the way they are. It isn't the only reason though I see few other reasons why they would. And all that indicates are the limits of my own intelligence and thinking. The other reason why I mention all of this about authoritarianism is because it helps provide explanations on why many Germans remained so loyal to Hitler despite what was happening to them and their nation. We should note that the resistance group, the White Rose, was looked on as traitors to Germany by many of their fellow countrymen for years after the war because that group challenged the legitimacy of their leader.

And so if being authoritarian made many Germans reluctant to turn on Hitler and Evangelicals have a penchant for authoritarianism, then how should we expect Evangelicals to react to Trump's Presidency and its failures and challenges to Democracy? The poll numbers are providing a partial answer. With Trump's attacks on Democracy and people, independents seem to be changing their minds about Trump, but many Evangelicals are not and we should expect them to be very reluctant to for at least the short term.

The above is my take on what we should expect from many of my fellow Evangelicals. Now again, when I am talking about authoritarianism and the authoritarian personality, I am not talking as an expert. But that does not imply that everything I wrote is false. And so one could, and should, study the subject of authoritarianism and the authoritarian personality types and see what one can agree with in this article and what one thinks is wrong.





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Friday, March 28, 2025

Views From The Outside For March 28, 2025

Views From The Outside

The purpose of this page is to list news stories and reports from Western sources outside of the U.S. and from Ukraine. You can use Google Translate to translate articles that are printed in another language. Some articles posted from Der Spiegel will be German and some will be in English until I better understand its website.

March 28, 2025

From Canada

From England

From France

From Germany

From Switzerland

From Ukraine

 





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Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Views From The Left For March 26, 2025

 Views From The Left 

Below is a list of articles from a sampling of leftist websites. Except for the Democracy At Work website, each leftist site listed below has a high reliable reporting rating according to MediaBiasFactCheck.com. The articles listed below express views that will sometimes be divergent from the views of the owner of this blog.

Martin Luther King statement made when speaking against the Vietnam War (click here for source):

'I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.'


For March 26








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