|||
Picking up where we left off in the last blog…. More on the history of collectivism posing as socialism, liberalism, progressivism et al.
In the televised debates for the Democrat Party nomination in 2008, candidate Hillary Clinton called herself a progressive. Thank you for your occasional honesty, Hillary, but some of us knew that all along. You are a collectivist, along with your husband, and all of the Democrats on the platform in 2008.
(And ditto in 2012, 2016 and 2020, and they all keep going further Left while the Lying Legacy Media then chooses one such as Joe Biden and calls him a moderate or middle-of-the-roader! Lies, lies and more lies!)
The other choice given to voters in 2008 was Sen. John McCain, who is a progressive Republican. Let me rephrase that. John McCain was a progressive member of the Republican Party—he is not a small “r” republican in the true sense of the word. Sadly, many members of the Republican Party have strayed far from the ideals of a Constitutional republic. Those false republicans are now accurately labeled RINO’s—Republicans In Name Only. As we observe what they do vs. what they say, it is clear that they are, in fact, collectivists.
At some point in the plunge towards collectivism, the elites, the advocates for communism, begin to get bold and sometimes they come right out and confess or rather, they proudly boast of their plans and goals. Because at that point, they feel they are far enough along that no one can stop them. We have reached that point in the past decade.
Hence, now in 2020, we have seen this so many times in American politics, that one would have to have one’s head firmly buried in the sand to miss them. One of the most glaring examples is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her insane “Green New Deal.” You are familiar with it, no?
It includes the ideas that we are all going to die of climate change with 12 years unless we do drastic things right now, such as banning private automobiles, air transportation, and even banning the consumption of beef—while at the same time blaming the poor cows for contributing to climate change by flatulating! Talk about insane!
…Which, of course, they are not. They are simply collectivists boasting of how they seek to strip us of our rights under the name of “saving the planet!” Any American with common sense would think the Green New Deal to be totally wacky, but did you notice a few weeks ago how Speaker Nancy Pelosi actually tried to slide the whole enchilada into the CARES Act (the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act”).
When I originally wrote this lecture, I cited two then-recent examples of the socialist-progressivist-collectivists openly proclaiming their goals. Unless you live on Mars, you are familiar with the Lying Legacy Media beating the drums and calling for massive changes to be made in your lifestyle due to so-called “global warming.” Of course, they no longer use that term because the science simply does not support it, so now they call it “climate change.” And who can argue with that?
There is no doubt about climate change because anywhere you go on this divinely designed planet, the climate changes on almost a daily basis. We call it “weather!” So, example #1 is concerning a letter to then President-elect Obama in January 2009 from James Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Hansen is one of the most vocal proponents of changes in your lifestyle due to changes in the climate.
In his letter, Hansen calls for a so-called “carbon tax.” Upon hearing that term, most people would wonder, what in the world does that mean? Well, perhaps we will explain it in detail later because unless things turn around soon, this tax is going to happen.
What it means for you and me, of course, is another push towards collectivism by taking more of your money and shackling us with more rules on what we can and cannot do. In his letter, which was released to the public—and I am quoting an editorial now “acting either out of boldness or desperation, Hansen reveals the environmentalist-left’s true goal: a collectivist redistribution of wealth…
“Hansen and his ilk never seem to question whether the government should be involved in behavior modification. They believe so zealously in their cause—establishing an egalitarian society where conspicuous consumption is limited to the few who make the rules—that they have no misgivings about using the police power of the federal and state governments to beat society into shape.” {Investors’ Business Daily, 1/5/09}
Yes, beat us into their mold, their vision of socialism. Collectivism always results in force and compulsion. In regard to this coming carbon tax or with whatever nice-sounding name they eventually pass it, not only will taxes on everything skyrocket in order to supposedly save the planet, but your gas, heating oil and electric bills will also skyrocket—something that candidate Obama was actually quite upfront about because he promised that it would happen if he were to be elected.
Looking back now from the spring of 2020, we all saw how the coal mining industry was nearly completely driven out of business and how pipelines and domestic oil production were likewise hampered and delayed for many years with volumes of new environmental regulations.
President Trump acted quickly to reverse as much of that as he could, and he has been so successful that the cabal have now unleashed what they hoped would be the death blow (literally) to Americans and American society. I refer to the present temporary shutdown of America due to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. (See my other blogs for more details on that.)
But not only that, plans are afoot to put new gadgets in our homes (Think “smart meters.” Beware of everything labeled “smart,” from cars to refrigerators, TVs, etc. ) whereby the utility company—operating under orders from the government—will remotely turn up or down your air conditioning, or turn off your electric power for a few hours every day if you are judged by the bureaucrats to be using “more than your fair share.”
And what should we expect in changes to our lifestyle when it comes to traveling? Well, much higher gasoline prices, to be sure. And a bill has already been introduced in Congress to lower the national speed limit once again to 55 mph…
Which reminds me…(grinning) Have you ever noticed how anyone driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? Yeah, I noticed that, too.
Now, example #2 of where the collectivists believe they are unstoppable and so they come right out and tell us what they are going to do. I am going to quote a few paragraphs from a column in Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) dated February 4, 2009. This concerns the views of Robert Reich who was the Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton and who is now was a professor of public policy at UC-Berkeley and an economic adviser to former President Obama.
Almost before the euphoria of the Obama inaugural wore off, Reich openly began to denigrate “white male construction workers” as being too privileged, so therefore they should not be the recipients of taxpayer-funded stimulus programs to rebuild infrastructure such as roads, bridges and levees.
Quoting IBD now, “In other words, the long-term unemployed and government-defined perpetual victims will be up on the bridges and levees, patching and constructing, while the guys who know how to do the work will be sent off to join the ranks of the long-term unemployed, all for the purpose of leveling. [leveling: making everyone equal, creating the Orwellian Animal Farm, the egalitarian society—JWB].
“In Reich’s worldview, it’s groups that matter and individualism that is the enemy. Quoting Reich, ‘The American myth of the triumphant individual may have outlasted its time,’ Reich has explained. ‘The story of the little guy who works hard, takes risks, believes in himself and eventually earns wealth, fame and honor’ is outmoded.
“ ’Instead, (Reich talking) ‘we must begin to celebrate collective entrepreneurship…’ In place of individuals who ‘buck the odds’ with ‘drive and guts,’ Reich argues for a world where the central planners right the wrongs, determine the production, distribute the rewards in a ‘fair’ manner, i.e., with [quoting Reich] ‘only modest differences in income,’ and knock the rough edges off anyone who doesn’t demonstrate sufficient obedience to the collective.
[Reich asserts that] ‘Success can be measured only in reference to collective results,’ [and he] warns against an economic system that encourages ‘individualistic endeavor.’ [Reich thus warns us against following biblical principles. Much more on that later in this series of blogs.]
The correct ideology, according to Reich: ‘We need to honor our teams more, our aggressive and maverick geniuses less.’ In short, it’s not unlike the Cuban model—a nice photo of Fidel goes to the top cane-cutting team and any Bill Gates types are sent off on an inner tube to Key West.” [End of quoting the brilliant column by Robert Reiland in IBD].
Well, speaking of the Cuban model, that pathetic nation is a perfect example of the glories of collectivism. January 1, 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s communist regime. And while the oligarchs that run Cuba through Castro celebrated their workers’ paradise, the fact is that a once-prosperous Cuba was turned into a basket case in just five decades. {IBD 12/31/09}
According to Jorge Salazar-Carillo of Florida Atlantic University, the inflation-adjusted gross domestic product of collectivist Cuba is a mere five percent of what it was in 1958, the year before Castro took over.
An economist at the University of Pittsburgh, Carmelo Mesa-Lago, described Cuba as a “major failure.” He stated: “Cuba is unable to increase food production to meet its needs and now imports 84% of its food. Cuba produced 7 million tons of sugar in 1952. This year, it’s 1.5 million tons. This is the result of [an] economic policy of collectivization, [and the] killing of individual incentive, [along with] inefficiency, [and] constant changes of policy.”
Back to Reich. He is the same Robert Reich that I wrote about a couple years ago in a private letter to SKM monthly donors, quoting Reich’s very words regarding what is essentially his advocating for euthanasia via national health care. Let me give Gary Bauer’s take on the same material in a column titled:
A Death Panel Confession
We’ve all heard of death bed conversions, but a leading liberal luminary has been caught on tape making a death panel confession. Sarah Palin got pilloried for suggesting that government-run healthcare would lead to “death panels.” But in a 2007 speech at the University of California at Berkeley, former Clinton Labor Secretary and Obama economics advisor Robert B. Reich essentially admitted that Palin was right.
Reich began his address by telling the audience that he was going to deliver a speech about healthcare as if he were an honest candidate who “did not care about becoming president.” Reich continued, “In other words, this is what the truth is…” Are you sitting down for this? Here’s an excerpt: [quoting Reich]
“…particularly you young healthy people…you’re going to have to pay more. …And by the way, … if you’re very old, we’re not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life… It’s too expensive…so we’re going to let you die. “Also, I’m going to use the bargaining leverage of the federal government … to force drug companies and insurance companies and medical suppliers to reduce their costs. What that means, less innovation and that means less [sic] new products and less [sic] new drugs on the market which means you are probably not going to live much longer than your parents.”
End of quoting Gary Bauer and Robert Reich.
However, do you suppose that when Reich himself needs topnotch medical care or pain amelioration that he will have any trouble procuring it? Of course, he won’t, he will be able to obtain the best care available because….as George Orwell informed us, “Some animals are more equal than others.”
Alright. With that, I think we have a good understanding on the meaning of collectivism, no matter how they attempt to disguise it. So, let’s turn to our Bibles now—Revelation 17. Here we will begin to lay some Scriptural groundwork to understand God’s perspective on all this—God’s prewriting of history.
Thus far in this series, I have quoted only one verse from this passage, and that was verse 5. And that was in conjunction with my relating to you how, when I was in my late 20’s and working for the John Birch Society back in the late 1970s, that I came to realize that those people who are generally invisible to most Americans, those who comprise what the JBS labels the Insiders of the collectivist conspiracy, and whom others now label the cabal, the elitists, the Deep State, the Illuminati, etc.—that they are the very people and organizations whom the Bible identifies as Mystery Babylon. …or at least are part of it.
And I will put a sharper edge on that in the chapters to come. In other words, I will expand upon, delineate, and further define just who and what comprise Mystery Babylon, both in the past, and in our present era, because it is much broader than the Insiders of the JBS. So now, to lay the foundation for our study of the entity known as Mystery Babylon, we read the following, from the pen of John the beloved apostle.
Revelation 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
We will pause here to inform some readers who may not be very familiar with the book of Revelation: One thing we have to realize right from the outset whenever we are reading in the book of Revelation, is that it is utterly full of symbolism. In other words, it is coded language.
Some of the interpretation of the coding, however, is given to us immediately, but still, there is much more left for us to figure out on our own. But, keep in mind, if we are followers of and believers in Jesus Christ, we are not really on our own because Jesus assured us that we will be guided in our understanding by the Holy Spirit. Let’s proceed as now John—and we—are given the interpretation of some of the code.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Alright, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. The angel has explained it and so now we have Mystery Babylon all figured out, don’t we? …Uh…you don’t? Well, as we see, even with the angel explaining some of the symbolism to us, we still don’t see it clearly, do we?
One of the reasons is because the angel explained the meaning of one symbol with another symbol. For example, in verse 9, the angel explains that “The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.”
Okay, are we supposed to look for a woman sitting on seven mountains? When we put it that way, it is rather ludicrous, isn’t it? Because how could one literal woman sit on seven literal mountains.
Therefore, we can use our God-given faculty of reason and we can tentatively conclude that this isn’t about any particular individual female of the human race, nor is it about seven particular mountains. It isn’t about North Carolina’s Mt. Pisgah, nor is it about Mt. Hood in Oregon, nor Mt. Everest, nor Pike’s Peak nor Mt. Etna, nor the Matterhorn, etc., nor any other particular literal mountain.
Remember now, I said this was a tentative conclusion. I am not going to get dogmatic and draw a definite conclusion about the seven mountains at this time because I am very well aware of the eschatological position of the preterists and others who see the seven mountains as representing Rome, because Rome was founded in a valley surrounded by seven hills.
And thus, the Seventh-Day Adventists and others identify the woman as the Roman Empire followed in history by the Roman Catholic church. Well, we are going to have to wait to delve deeply into that passage, join us in the next one!
