If we had in our history ever been honest brokers in negotiations and treaties, imagine the appeal for democratic values and how they might have influenced more oppressive governments. It is our "forked tongue" and unrelenting violence that betrays nobler sentiments of the common good for this land and for the far-off lands of others.
It speaks volumes to just how common Biggar's hubris among "professing" Christians is in this country. To maintain their zeal, it only means they have to chuck the sermon on the mount into the dustbin and completely ignore the old testament prophets. We are a new blood-thirsty Joshua and not disciples of Jesus--no matter how happy-clappy we worship in the "name of Jesus."
Brilliant essay, as it speaks to the moral case against empire, rather than the realist perspective against empire. The moral case is always stronger and wins out in the end.
Certainly Mr. Biggar can point to a Biblical verse wherein Jesus instructed us to make war upon our neighbors, to bomb them, yea, even unto false witness and laughably bogus pretext, as long as we say that it is all for their own good, of course.
Reasonable to who? American voter class (ie: the cattle class) don't lose any sleep over empire, and what little they know of it is to be grateful that it gives them cheap things to make their pain from being extracted tolerable, even hedonistic. Threaten them with losing their ATV, Seadoos, Campers, or even 30 cents more on a gallon of gas by messing with the empire and see how quickly they'll round on you.
If we had in our history ever been honest brokers in negotiations and treaties, imagine the appeal for democratic values and how they might have influenced more oppressive governments. It is our "forked tongue" and unrelenting violence that betrays nobler sentiments of the common good for this land and for the far-off lands of others.
It speaks volumes to just how common Biggar's hubris among "professing" Christians is in this country. To maintain their zeal, it only means they have to chuck the sermon on the mount into the dustbin and completely ignore the old testament prophets. We are a new blood-thirsty Joshua and not disciples of Jesus--no matter how happy-clappy we worship in the "name of Jesus."
“Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.”
“Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple, An hundred times made plain To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.”
-Rudyard Kipling,1899, nurturing American imperialist ambition couched in the now all too familiar moralistic themes.
Brilliant essay, as it speaks to the moral case against empire, rather than the realist perspective against empire. The moral case is always stronger and wins out in the end.
Certainly Mr. Biggar can point to a Biblical verse wherein Jesus instructed us to make war upon our neighbors, to bomb them, yea, even unto false witness and laughably bogus pretext, as long as we say that it is all for their own good, of course.
'Cause I sure can't.
Reasonable to who? American voter class (ie: the cattle class) don't lose any sleep over empire, and what little they know of it is to be grateful that it gives them cheap things to make their pain from being extracted tolerable, even hedonistic. Threaten them with losing their ATV, Seadoos, Campers, or even 30 cents more on a gallon of gas by messing with the empire and see how quickly they'll round on you.