Curtis Dahlgren
The truth and the facts and the Reality: LOST IN SPACE?
By Curtis Dahlgren
"People may be interested in avoiding reality or rearranging it, or obfuscating it, but it's there in the wings." – Errol Morris, film maker
THE WATERS HAVE BEEN MUDDIED; 50 Shades of Grey. It's all in the eye of the beholder? That is a very shaky foundation for a society. As RenewAmerica columnist Michael Bresciani put it in March:
"To hope and pray for revival in America and the world is indeed a noble and worthy aspiration, but it may simply be an extravagance. What is going on today does not invite revival, but rather judgment."
That, in a nutshell, has been my reason for writing about 750 columns since September 9, 2003. This week's piece is a compilation of some of the best quotations I've posted over the past 15 years. For example, in 2011 I quoted a college professor from bygone days who would open the first day of class with the same questions every year, including:
"Will a lonely dog follow you down the street? Can you look into the sky at night and see beyond the stars? Can you look an honest man or a pure woman straight in the eye?" He told his students that unless they could answer yes to all his questions, they were not very well educated. A few examples more:
- "Educate men without religion and you make them but clever devils." – Duke of Wellington
- "Few things could be culturally more deplorable than that today the average college graduate, who fancies himself educated, should never have read the book of Job, should be unfamiliar with Isaiah, and should hardly be able to identify those mighty men of valor, Joshua, Gideon, [etc] . . This is a forgetfulness of our cultural heritage that is as serious in the life of nations as is for the individual the loss of personality attendant upon neurotic disease." – anon, (Leaves of Gold; An Anthology of Prayers, Memorable Phrases, Inspirational Verse and Prose from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern")
- "Learning is not wisdom . . The student who has to cram through a school or college course, who has made himself merely a receptacle for the teacher's thoughts and ideas, is not educated; he has not gained much. He is a reservoir, not a fountain. One retains, the other gives forth." – J.E. Dinger
- "Historically, the university has usually allowed two schools of thought, except under totalitarian governments or philosophically monolithic faculties, where such choices are deemed 'divisive.' But the word 'division' does not equate with something deplorable; normally it referred to 'academic freedom,' which may be going the way of the dodo bird." – C. Dahlgren (August 2011)
- "The Father of his Country in his farewell address seemed to be the voice of prophecy, foretelling events and warning us of the evil to come. It is well known that there have always been those amongst us who wish to enlarge the powers of the General Government, to overstep the boundaries marked out for it by the Constitution." – Andrew Jackson, on George Washington
An American-born painter was in England painting a portrait of King George III, who asked what General Washington planned to do now that he had won the war. "They say he plans to return to his farm," he was told. King George said:
"If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world" (it was such a contrast to history's kings who had killed to get power and killed to keep power).
EVEN OUR IVY LEAGUERS DON'T GET IT: America was the exception to the rule. What the Founders saw as "starting the world over again" they see as "founded upon slavery," blah-blah-blah. How many slave holders were there? What percentage of the population of the colonies were they? Not much! Washington and Jefferson didn't assemble their slave holdings; they inherited them – and it was illegal in Virginia to free them. Could they have sold them? Maybe but the better slave owners didn't trust slave buyers. And, by the way, England and black Africans were intimately involved in the slave trade, not the colonies in general. And the Constitution's authors provided the Amendment process that resulted in the official freeing of the slaves, after heroic efforts by selfless white soldiers.
I have had it up to my vestigial gills with the millennials' mantra that America was founded on "genocide." Are you kidding me? There are unthankful people in all age groups, but the 20-somethings are ingrates deluxe! Even native Americans must know that today's America is still the world's last best hope.
"It is our sins that have made the Barbarians strong." – a Roman, during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire
America does not collect colonial territories. We paid for Alaska fair and square. I don't think of the Commonwealth as another Roman Empire either. The British "empire" was more like the concentric circles of a great global tsunami that hastened the development and well-being of millions, nay billions of people. And, providentially, its language was swept around the world. The sun never sets on the English language, to say nothing about their basic religion.
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national Morality can prevail in exclusion of Religious principle . . Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation?" – President Washington, farewell address
- "True religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt the whole fabric cannot be stable or long lasting." – Edmund Burke
P.S. Speaking of shaking, Abraham Lincoln said that he often felt like a man on a high wire over Niagara Falls, with midgets trying to shake both ends of the wire. President Trump must feel the same way. America has one last chance to get things right, before the great Beast arises to attempt world rule. If you think great Power over one nation is dangerous, just "imagine" someone trying to rule the whole world again! That is corrupting Power to the ultimate degree. And that is what the Ivy Leaguers desire: some kind of a world government.
PPS: "The church that is remaining faithful to biblical principles and the basic gospel seem to be readying themselves to accept the approach of the full onslaught of the antichrist and his persecution of the faithful." – Michael Bresciani, March 2018
The Democrat party has nominated many Presidential candidates from the Heartland, but they ran or ruled as New Yorkers and Left Coasters. Mondale barely won his homestate in Reagan's 49-state landslide, and George McGovern's campaign manager admitted:
"We were always subject to the pressure from the cause people. We reacted to every threat from women or militants, or college groups. If I had it to do all over again, I'd learn to tell them to go to hell."
© Curtis Dahlgren
October 15, 2018
"People may be interested in avoiding reality or rearranging it, or obfuscating it, but it's there in the wings." – Errol Morris, film maker
THE WATERS HAVE BEEN MUDDIED; 50 Shades of Grey. It's all in the eye of the beholder? That is a very shaky foundation for a society. As RenewAmerica columnist Michael Bresciani put it in March:
"To hope and pray for revival in America and the world is indeed a noble and worthy aspiration, but it may simply be an extravagance. What is going on today does not invite revival, but rather judgment."
That, in a nutshell, has been my reason for writing about 750 columns since September 9, 2003. This week's piece is a compilation of some of the best quotations I've posted over the past 15 years. For example, in 2011 I quoted a college professor from bygone days who would open the first day of class with the same questions every year, including:
"Will a lonely dog follow you down the street? Can you look into the sky at night and see beyond the stars? Can you look an honest man or a pure woman straight in the eye?" He told his students that unless they could answer yes to all his questions, they were not very well educated. A few examples more:
- "Educate men without religion and you make them but clever devils." – Duke of Wellington
- "Few things could be culturally more deplorable than that today the average college graduate, who fancies himself educated, should never have read the book of Job, should be unfamiliar with Isaiah, and should hardly be able to identify those mighty men of valor, Joshua, Gideon, [etc] . . This is a forgetfulness of our cultural heritage that is as serious in the life of nations as is for the individual the loss of personality attendant upon neurotic disease." – anon, (Leaves of Gold; An Anthology of Prayers, Memorable Phrases, Inspirational Verse and Prose from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern")
- "Learning is not wisdom . . The student who has to cram through a school or college course, who has made himself merely a receptacle for the teacher's thoughts and ideas, is not educated; he has not gained much. He is a reservoir, not a fountain. One retains, the other gives forth." – J.E. Dinger
- "Historically, the university has usually allowed two schools of thought, except under totalitarian governments or philosophically monolithic faculties, where such choices are deemed 'divisive.' But the word 'division' does not equate with something deplorable; normally it referred to 'academic freedom,' which may be going the way of the dodo bird." – C. Dahlgren (August 2011)
- "The Father of his Country in his farewell address seemed to be the voice of prophecy, foretelling events and warning us of the evil to come. It is well known that there have always been those amongst us who wish to enlarge the powers of the General Government, to overstep the boundaries marked out for it by the Constitution." – Andrew Jackson, on George Washington
An American-born painter was in England painting a portrait of King George III, who asked what General Washington planned to do now that he had won the war. "They say he plans to return to his farm," he was told. King George said:
"If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world" (it was such a contrast to history's kings who had killed to get power and killed to keep power).
EVEN OUR IVY LEAGUERS DON'T GET IT: America was the exception to the rule. What the Founders saw as "starting the world over again" they see as "founded upon slavery," blah-blah-blah. How many slave holders were there? What percentage of the population of the colonies were they? Not much! Washington and Jefferson didn't assemble their slave holdings; they inherited them – and it was illegal in Virginia to free them. Could they have sold them? Maybe but the better slave owners didn't trust slave buyers. And, by the way, England and black Africans were intimately involved in the slave trade, not the colonies in general. And the Constitution's authors provided the Amendment process that resulted in the official freeing of the slaves, after heroic efforts by selfless white soldiers.
I have had it up to my vestigial gills with the millennials' mantra that America was founded on "genocide." Are you kidding me? There are unthankful people in all age groups, but the 20-somethings are ingrates deluxe! Even native Americans must know that today's America is still the world's last best hope.
"It is our sins that have made the Barbarians strong." – a Roman, during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire
America does not collect colonial territories. We paid for Alaska fair and square. I don't think of the Commonwealth as another Roman Empire either. The British "empire" was more like the concentric circles of a great global tsunami that hastened the development and well-being of millions, nay billions of people. And, providentially, its language was swept around the world. The sun never sets on the English language, to say nothing about their basic religion.
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national Morality can prevail in exclusion of Religious principle . . Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation?" – President Washington, farewell address
- "True religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt the whole fabric cannot be stable or long lasting." – Edmund Burke
P.S. Speaking of shaking, Abraham Lincoln said that he often felt like a man on a high wire over Niagara Falls, with midgets trying to shake both ends of the wire. President Trump must feel the same way. America has one last chance to get things right, before the great Beast arises to attempt world rule. If you think great Power over one nation is dangerous, just "imagine" someone trying to rule the whole world again! That is corrupting Power to the ultimate degree. And that is what the Ivy Leaguers desire: some kind of a world government.
PPS: "The church that is remaining faithful to biblical principles and the basic gospel seem to be readying themselves to accept the approach of the full onslaught of the antichrist and his persecution of the faithful." – Michael Bresciani, March 2018
The Democrat party has nominated many Presidential candidates from the Heartland, but they ran or ruled as New Yorkers and Left Coasters. Mondale barely won his homestate in Reagan's 49-state landslide, and George McGovern's campaign manager admitted:
"We were always subject to the pressure from the cause people. We reacted to every threat from women or militants, or college groups. If I had it to do all over again, I'd learn to tell them to go to hell."
© Curtis Dahlgren
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
