Sunday Morning Thoughts

James Lewis has an interesting think piece today on Fascism as Sadism at the American Thinker. A quote or two to give you a feel for the piece:

In his book Liberal Fascism Jonah Goldberg defines "fascism" as an economic and political system. There's nothing wrong with that, but it misses a vital truth about Mussolini, Hitler and Tojo, Saddam Hussein and Ahmadinejad: The political use of sadism to recruit millions of followers in a campaign of pleasurable punishment against a scapegoated person or group. Read about the Japanese rape of Nanking, if you can stand it, and you'll see thousands of literal rapes as well as sadistic torture and killing of Chinese people by Japanese soldiers as a matter of policy and for psychological satisfaction.

Goldberg is under no illusion that such regimes always turn on their own people, and that mass murder always follows. But in writing his book, he had to take a scholarly approach to the subject to simply be taken seriously. There is something deep in human nature that wants to believe in the existence of philosopher kings. They want to believe it so badly, that when told that such people do not exist, the react like children when told that Santa Claus is a myth.

Huge chunks of our history have been lost, glossed over, or outright revised.  The history channel, for instance, concentrates on the war, the tactics and strategy, the soldiers and generals, but doesn't pay much attention to the politics at home leading up to WWII.  In the 1930s, Mussolini in particular, and Hitler to a lesser extent were lionized by our media.  Just as today, Thomas Friedman wishes to have a government more like China's, so too our media then longed for a strong dictator who would make the trains run on time.  Mussolini had the reputation of making the trains run on time, but press at the time glossed over his treatment of dissidents.  Because Mussolini's victims were not an identifiably "different" group of people as were the Jews, he seems to get a pass.  But Mussolini was a ruthless dictator, and the Italian people were glad to get rid of him.

Many see something of the same pattern happening today, when criticism of the policies of The One are shouted down or dismissed as racism or hatred.  But when, for instance, polls show that 80% of people are happy with their health insurance plan, calling opposition to ObamaCare racism defies logic and reason.  Remember that the same health care plan was shot down when it was billed as HilaryCare.  Oh that's right, then it was sexism.

Today the Marxist, Communists, Fascists, Socialists, collectivists bill themselves as "Progressives."  But what the Progressives want is not progress, and if they named themselves truthfully, it would be "Regressive."  They want to regress us back to the time when we were ruled by the strongest thug.  Such men always sold the people a mess of pottage in return for their liberties.  As the ancient Hebrews asked God for a king to lead them, so today some would place their trust in mere men.  As the Hebrews discovered to their horror, men can not deliver on their promises.  We must rely on God alone.

Which brings us to our own self defense, both individually and as a nation:

In civilized societies armed force is always used with the greatest self-discipline possible. That is a defining feature of civilized societies compared to all the others. Self-discipline in the use of force is not a reflection of cowardice, like so much of the left's vaunted pacifism. Self-discipline is an aspect of courage and civilized purpose.

A Federal Constitutional Republic like ours, founded on the providence of God, will always be seen as the enemy to the dictators of other lands that rely on men. We need to be ready to defend it at all times, just as the modern Israelites need to be ready to defend Israel at all times.  We must never be ashamed of our defense, but must constantly guard against using our arms to wage aggressive wars.  "With malice toward none, and charity for all" must be our byword.  As such, we must consciously maintain our arms, and our facility with arms, not for war, but to avoid war.  Even a Progressive occasionally gets it right.  Teddy Roosevelt famously said "Walk softly, and carry a big stick."

I carry a gun most places I go.  I carry it for defense of myself and my family.  I carry a gun because I can.  I carry a gun as a citizen performing civic duty.  Do I expect trouble?  No, and if I did, I would avoid going to that place.  I pray to God that I will never have to use it.  I also pray that I will never have to use my automobile insurance.  Mike Vanderboegh has a post over at  Sipsey Street Irregulars that provides a history lesson for those who want to initiate a civil war.  Mr. V calls such people simpletons.  Perhaps.  But I think they are Leftist agents, attempting to get the three percent riled up.  Remember what I said earlier?  I pray to God that we don't have to go to war.  Mike's response was excellent, but Mike did not begin to touch on what is available to us.  In addition to acts of resistance, which can be performed by individuals, the States themselves are moving to reassert their sovereignty over that of the Fed.  But mostly what each of us has to do is recognize that we are moral actors, responsible to our Creator for our actions.    

May the peace of God be with you.