Frank Louis
Are we "lucky" Mr. Obama or were we "blessed"? (And I do mean, "were.")
By Frank Louis
Yup, that is how we do it 'round these here parts..."eating great food, watching a little football, and reflecting on how truly lucky we are." Yup, just lucky as all get out's how "typical" folks I know would put it. Sir, have you ever thought this nation may have, at one point, been blessed, and not just lucky?
I came across something written by Robert Byrd (Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va) around Thanksgiving in 2009. While he did sound a little like our current president: "Thanksgiving is one of America's most beloved holidays. It is a day devoted to turkey, family gatherings, football games, parades and the beginning of the Christmas-holiday season." He did go on to say: "But it also should be a day devoted to giving thanks to God for our many blessings. It always has been."
He also quoted George Washington's 1789, "Thanksgiving Proclamation" in which President Washington designated a "day of public thanks-giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness." Byrd's press release continued "At President Washington's request, Americans assembled in churches to thank God for his blessings." Heaven forbid!
Byrd, in this short statement continued "During the American Civil War, following the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln asked the people of the United States to set aside the last Thursday of November "as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father." "In the midst of a Civil War of unequal magnitude and severity," President Lincoln proclaimed, the country should take a day to acknowledge the "gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy." How uncivil!
President Obama, are you unaware of the greatness bestowed on this nation by God, through this nations initial and continued reliance on Him over the years as the sole creator of the universe. Where else did we receive the freedoms to humankind that the founders found to be "truths" that are "self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Yo', it did not say anything about this being "luck!"
Luck might be considered winning a cake at a raffle or getting the four corners at Bingo, but even these I would attribute to a higher power. Nope, I'd say "luck" has nothing to do with it at all.
Fact is, we have diligently tossed aside every semblance of recognition of a higher power in the world ever since we began to worship irreverence as the new intellect. While the history of this development of disorder can be traced back further, in the 1950s and 60s, the "beat poets," the likes of Alan Ginsburg making statements like: "Democracy! Bah! When I hear that I reach for my feather boa" were touted as thought in its highest order. What genius I'll tell you, just great!
According to Wikipedia:
The origins of the Beat Generation can be traced to Columbia University and the meeting of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, Hal Chase and others. Though the beats are usually regarded as anti-academic, many of their ideas were formed in response to professors like Lionel Trilling and Mark Van Doren. Classmates Carr and Ginsberg discussed the need for a "New Vision" (a term borrowed from Arthur Rimbaud), to counteract what they perceived as their teachers' conservative, formalistic literary ideals.
Let's don't forget the role Harvard played in all of this with the likes of Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert: "Turn on, tune in, drop out." That's right, no "absolute truth" (oxymoron that this statement, in itself, is), after all, what makes up the meta-narrative but snippets of nothing? Does this "evolution" of thought have anything to do with explaining the current economic crisis through the Black Swan Theory rather than as the crime it is? I think so.
I too came within millimeters of digesting fully this postmodern, deconstructivist philosophy as a result of having grown up in middle class, modern America and attending universities. You know, the nation George Washington and Lincoln were thanking Almighty God for. But when I was a young man, the early days of this nation seemed like ancient history contrasted to buying the latest Iron Butterfly LP, 60-second hamburgers and questioning the Vietnam War (that I served in). Isn't it funny how today's citizen somehow considers something people in the past never even dreamed of (IE: the internet) as a "right." Oh those "99 Percenters."
Postmodern thought was fine in a work of art, philosophy class, or perhaps even in some buildings here or there (although they surely do not age well) but it surely has no business in the law, economics, or just feeling "lucky" at Thanksgiving; none at all.
Look through the evidence yourself. You have Alan Greenspan and others calling their economic models "flawed," while other PhD economists from the same institutions that brought us the beat generation (and this economy) and the other elements of this nation's downfall all toss around wordy justifications as to why this is all happening while nobody admits they were wrong! The book of Romans makes mention of mans wisdom being foolishness to God. See how that truth fits the postmodern paradigm and the meta-narrative. We can vote in 2012. Pray for guidance.
© Frank Louis
November 29, 2011
Yup, that is how we do it 'round these here parts..."eating great food, watching a little football, and reflecting on how truly lucky we are." Yup, just lucky as all get out's how "typical" folks I know would put it. Sir, have you ever thought this nation may have, at one point, been blessed, and not just lucky?
I came across something written by Robert Byrd (Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va) around Thanksgiving in 2009. While he did sound a little like our current president: "Thanksgiving is one of America's most beloved holidays. It is a day devoted to turkey, family gatherings, football games, parades and the beginning of the Christmas-holiday season." He did go on to say: "But it also should be a day devoted to giving thanks to God for our many blessings. It always has been."
He also quoted George Washington's 1789, "Thanksgiving Proclamation" in which President Washington designated a "day of public thanks-giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness." Byrd's press release continued "At President Washington's request, Americans assembled in churches to thank God for his blessings." Heaven forbid!
Byrd, in this short statement continued "During the American Civil War, following the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln asked the people of the United States to set aside the last Thursday of November "as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father." "In the midst of a Civil War of unequal magnitude and severity," President Lincoln proclaimed, the country should take a day to acknowledge the "gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy." How uncivil!
President Obama, are you unaware of the greatness bestowed on this nation by God, through this nations initial and continued reliance on Him over the years as the sole creator of the universe. Where else did we receive the freedoms to humankind that the founders found to be "truths" that are "self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Yo', it did not say anything about this being "luck!"
Luck might be considered winning a cake at a raffle or getting the four corners at Bingo, but even these I would attribute to a higher power. Nope, I'd say "luck" has nothing to do with it at all.
Fact is, we have diligently tossed aside every semblance of recognition of a higher power in the world ever since we began to worship irreverence as the new intellect. While the history of this development of disorder can be traced back further, in the 1950s and 60s, the "beat poets," the likes of Alan Ginsburg making statements like: "Democracy! Bah! When I hear that I reach for my feather boa" were touted as thought in its highest order. What genius I'll tell you, just great!
According to Wikipedia:
The origins of the Beat Generation can be traced to Columbia University and the meeting of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, Hal Chase and others. Though the beats are usually regarded as anti-academic, many of their ideas were formed in response to professors like Lionel Trilling and Mark Van Doren. Classmates Carr and Ginsberg discussed the need for a "New Vision" (a term borrowed from Arthur Rimbaud), to counteract what they perceived as their teachers' conservative, formalistic literary ideals.
Let's don't forget the role Harvard played in all of this with the likes of Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert: "Turn on, tune in, drop out." That's right, no "absolute truth" (oxymoron that this statement, in itself, is), after all, what makes up the meta-narrative but snippets of nothing? Does this "evolution" of thought have anything to do with explaining the current economic crisis through the Black Swan Theory rather than as the crime it is? I think so.
I too came within millimeters of digesting fully this postmodern, deconstructivist philosophy as a result of having grown up in middle class, modern America and attending universities. You know, the nation George Washington and Lincoln were thanking Almighty God for. But when I was a young man, the early days of this nation seemed like ancient history contrasted to buying the latest Iron Butterfly LP, 60-second hamburgers and questioning the Vietnam War (that I served in). Isn't it funny how today's citizen somehow considers something people in the past never even dreamed of (IE: the internet) as a "right." Oh those "99 Percenters."
Postmodern thought was fine in a work of art, philosophy class, or perhaps even in some buildings here or there (although they surely do not age well) but it surely has no business in the law, economics, or just feeling "lucky" at Thanksgiving; none at all.
Look through the evidence yourself. You have Alan Greenspan and others calling their economic models "flawed," while other PhD economists from the same institutions that brought us the beat generation (and this economy) and the other elements of this nation's downfall all toss around wordy justifications as to why this is all happening while nobody admits they were wrong! The book of Romans makes mention of mans wisdom being foolishness to God. See how that truth fits the postmodern paradigm and the meta-narrative. We can vote in 2012. Pray for guidance.
© Frank Louis
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