As I see It: America’s Terminal Crisis of the Spirit?

KJV Only ^ | February, 2007 | Doug Kutilek

[fgoodwin]

As I see It: America’s Terminal Crisis of the Spirit?

http://www.kjvonly.org/aisi/2007/aisi_10_2_07.htm

Doug Kutilek

Nineteenth century British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) is credited with saying, “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” (Cited from The Biblical Evangelist 38:1, p. 15)

Is there a more dead-on description of an apparent majority of Americans today--characterized by the anti-war party in the Democrat-controlled Congress? To many, perhaps most, peace at almost any price--as long as it requires no sacrifice, self-denial or personal inconvenience--is the greatest good for the greatest number--or at least for ME. This is a perspective that at times is hard to distinguish from cowardice.

This is the fruit of the indulgent “I’m entitled’ philosophy that first became widespread as the baby-boomers began reaching college age (and draft-eligibility) around 1964, was fed throughout the Vietnam War era by the media and the philosophy of rebellion and anarchy fostered by institutions of higher “learning,” and now yields its full harvest as the boomers assume broad control of the reins of society and its diverse institutions. Having grown up with almost unlimited indulgence by parents who didn’t want their children “to do without like I had to during the depression,” these who history will likely describe as “The Worst Generation” have developed the notion that society “owes them”--whatever they want, whenever they want it, with no obligations, no duties, no responsibilities in return. The epitaph of the boomer generation will surely be, to quote the words of Solomon, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.” (Ecclesiastes 2:10a) And in retrospect, the boomer generation will look back with regret and sigh, “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done, . . . everything was meaningless and chasing after wind.” (2:11)

How very much in contrast does the present viewpoint differ from that verbalized in John Kennedy’s inaugural address on January 20, 1961, just before the boomers “came of age”: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” (quoted from “To the Best of My Ability”: the American Presidents, edited by James M. McPherson [New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2000], p. 431).

Yes, I have no doubt that these were not words of Kennedy’s own composing--likely they were written by Ted Sorenson, Kennedy’s usual ghost-author and speech writer; the point at issue is the perspective expressed by these words--one which the great majority of Americans were then in agreement with,-- regardless of who actually composed them. Such a commitment resonated in harmony with the attitude of most Americans then alive.

Further, it is indeed true that Kennedy failed to follow through on this pledge when he first had opportunity to so and thereby show the world that he meant business. I speak of the Bay of Pigs fiasco in April 1961, when Kennedy utterly failed to pay the price, bear the burden, meet the hardship, support the friend (Cuban nationals seeking to overthrow dictator Castro) and oppose the foe in the name of liberty. Promised American military support was at the last minute completely withheld when it could have made a decisive difference. The result--thousands of Cubans seeking to free their country from Castro’s tyranny were either slaughtered on the beaches or captured and tortured in the prisons.

And greatly emboldened by Kennedy’s--and America’s--demonstrated lack of will, the Russians scarcely more than a year later begin installing long-range missiles with nuclear warheads in Cuba, resulting in the famous “Cuban Missile Crisis” of October 1962 during which we came within a hair’s breadth of all-out nuclear war. A show of weakness and lack of resolve in 1961--a public demonstration that the pledge of January 20, 1961 was just so much political rhetoric--invited the aggressor to attempt yet further aggression. And so it always is and will be in this world which is in actuality “governed by the aggressive use of force” as Limbaugh has rightly observed.

Fast forward to today. The greatest encouragement to the jihadists, talibani, al- qaedans, and other America-haters to continue their violent assaults on us and our freedoms is to show--as the rhetoric-spewing heirs of Neville Chamberlain in Congress and media have continually done for many months--that though we do have more than sufficient material, technology and manpower to defeat the terrorists, we do not have the will or the resolve or the commitment to the task at hand. This communicates most effectively the invitation to the terrorists, “Keep fighting because you can and will defeat us; we lack the requisite character to resist you.”

Recently, I visited an old-growth cypress swamp near Charleston, South Carolina. Massive bald cypress trees, as much as a thousand years old, five feet or more thick and reaching 80, 90, perhaps 100 feet into the sky were commonplace on every hand. They had weathered 1,000 years of winds and rains, of floods and hurricanes, and every extreme of climate that a millennium could bring. And in spite of the worst that Hurricane Hugo could do in 1989 by ripping the tops out of many of the trees and toppling not a few of those nearby, those that remained appeared prosperous and strong. But a closer examination revealed the truth that more than a few were victims of heart rot--the inner wood, laid down hundreds of years ago and that had supported the top for centuries--was largely, even in some cases nearly entirely rotted away, and the externally massive trunks were in reality just hollow shells, a foot or less thick, concealing an empty heart. From the hollow base, it was possible to look all the way up through the middle of the tree to the sky above. Though to all external appearances these venerable giants seem ready to endure another thousand years of whatever may come, but fatal heart rot is foreshadowing their approaching end. When the next major crisis comes, they will topple with a colossal crash into the swamp, never to rise again.

One truth that history demonstrates with regularity is that great civilizations are almost never conquered from without; they collapse from moral and spiritual rot from within. And they do so when they have all the outward signs of prosperity--a veneer of well-being that conceals the fatal heart-rot beneath. But their collapse occurs in a moment, and their fall is great, momentous, and permanent.

[polymuser]

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Thanks for the post.