SavageEagle
Grandmaster
- Apr 27, 2008
- 19,568
- 38
SOMETHING OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS IS HAPPENING
By Tim Wood
Professor of History at Southwest Baptist University
Bolivar, Missouri .
417-328-2067
twood@SBUniv.edu
I am a student of history. Professionally. I have written 15 books in six
languages, and have studied it all my life. I think there is something
monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking
crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but
they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now
coming into sharper focus.
Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I
know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it.
Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening
within our country that has been evolving for about ten - fifteen years.
The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make
massive loans to people we know they can never pay back. Why?
We learn that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight
by anyone, has 'loaned' two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000)
over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom, or why, or
disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three
times the $700B we all argued about so strenuously just this past
September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms
unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was
a government of 'we the people', who loaned our powers to our elected
leaders. Apparently not.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our
economy. Why? We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our
history, and we no longer teach our founding documents, showing why we are
exceptional and why we are worth preserving.
Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate.
Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, and school boards
continue to back mediocrity. Why?
We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election
(now violently in California over a proposition that is so 'controversial'
that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman!). Did you
ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago? We have corrupted our
sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that
radically change our way of life, and then allow mainstream Marxist groups
like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To
what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall,
major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of
collapse, Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our
entire government, and our education system is worse than a joke. (I teach
college and know precisely what I am talking about.) The list is
staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x
ten. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending
people of the same religion, an enemy who cannot wait to slit the throats
of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
Now we have elected President a man no one knows anything about, who has
never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla ,
Alaska . All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in
their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip
by drip, is unsettling, if not downright scary. Surely you have heard him
speak about his idea to create and fund a 'mandatory civilian defense
force' stronger than our military for use inside our borders. No? Oh, of
course. The media would never play that for you over and over, and then
demand he explain it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000
wardrobe is more important to the media.
Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: change. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am
now! This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has
never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will
divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to
realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is
indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation
again.
And that is only the beginning.
I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral
German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former
smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average
German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated
with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they
disagreed. He edged his way onto the political stage through great
oratoryand promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs,
and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people,
even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his 'brown shirts'
would bully them into submission. And then, he was duly elected to office
as full-throttled economic crisis was at hand [the Great Depression].
Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power,
department-by-department,person-by-person, bureaucracy-by-bureaucracy.
The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what
to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs
to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the
military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children,
advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs,
and promising to re-instill pride once again in their country, across
Europe , and around the world.
He did it with a compliant media. Did you know that? And he did this all
in the name of justice and ...... change. And the people surely got what
they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.)
Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted
down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill
pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of
Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his
seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.
Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in
Europe .. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and
universities. And in less than six years --- a shorter time span than just
two terms of the U. S. presidency --- it was rounding up its own citizens,
killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and
neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course
The road to hell is paved with them.
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I
have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence
tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what
history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can
hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring
what is transpiring around me.
Some people scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or
both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye
and tell them exactly what I believe, and why I believe it.
I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am.
By Tim Wood
Professor of History at Southwest Baptist University
Bolivar, Missouri .
417-328-2067
twood@SBUniv.edu
I am a student of history. Professionally. I have written 15 books in six
languages, and have studied it all my life. I think there is something
monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking
crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but
they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now
coming into sharper focus.
Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I
know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it.
Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening
within our country that has been evolving for about ten - fifteen years.
The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make
massive loans to people we know they can never pay back. Why?
We learn that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight
by anyone, has 'loaned' two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000)
over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom, or why, or
disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three
times the $700B we all argued about so strenuously just this past
September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms
unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was
a government of 'we the people', who loaned our powers to our elected
leaders. Apparently not.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our
economy. Why? We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our
history, and we no longer teach our founding documents, showing why we are
exceptional and why we are worth preserving.
Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate.
Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, and school boards
continue to back mediocrity. Why?
We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election
(now violently in California over a proposition that is so 'controversial'
that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman!). Did you
ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago? We have corrupted our
sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that
radically change our way of life, and then allow mainstream Marxist groups
like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To
what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall,
major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of
collapse, Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our
entire government, and our education system is worse than a joke. (I teach
college and know precisely what I am talking about.) The list is
staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x
ten. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending
people of the same religion, an enemy who cannot wait to slit the throats
of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
Now we have elected President a man no one knows anything about, who has
never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla ,
Alaska . All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in
their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip
by drip, is unsettling, if not downright scary. Surely you have heard him
speak about his idea to create and fund a 'mandatory civilian defense
force' stronger than our military for use inside our borders. No? Oh, of
course. The media would never play that for you over and over, and then
demand he explain it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000
wardrobe is more important to the media.
Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: change. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am
now! This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has
never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will
divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to
realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is
indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation
again.
And that is only the beginning.
I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral
German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former
smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average
German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated
with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they
disagreed. He edged his way onto the political stage through great
oratoryand promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs,
and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people,
even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his 'brown shirts'
would bully them into submission. And then, he was duly elected to office
as full-throttled economic crisis was at hand [the Great Depression].
Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power,
department-by-department,person-by-person, bureaucracy-by-bureaucracy.
The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what
to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs
to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the
military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children,
advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs,
and promising to re-instill pride once again in their country, across
Europe , and around the world.
He did it with a compliant media. Did you know that? And he did this all
in the name of justice and ...... change. And the people surely got what
they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.)
Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted
down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill
pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of
Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his
seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.
Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in
Europe .. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and
universities. And in less than six years --- a shorter time span than just
two terms of the U. S. presidency --- it was rounding up its own citizens,
killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and
neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course
The road to hell is paved with them.
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I
have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence
tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what
history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can
hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring
what is transpiring around me.
Some people scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or
both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye
and tell them exactly what I believe, and why I believe it.
I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am.
