By Karla Fetrow
Last Days Philosophy
Once the hold -your -breath waiting period for the end of the world went by, it became evident that instead of going out with a bang, the world was going to thrash around for awhile and possibly die a long, slow death from mortal wounds. This has obligated the dooms day prophets to switch their morbid chant from immediate shut-down to End of Days.
There is some merit to the fervent prophecies of the Bible wielders. As a secular society, we have a tendency to leave religion out of the equation when we polish our banners for war, yet in every way, the war in the Mideast is a convergence of religions. Broken into the simplest language, we have the power struggle between the Sunni and the Shiite; both Muslim, both with their share of extremists. But that’s not all! We have a Jewish nation that has not been getting along very well with its neighbors and we have Christian nations pushing up out of Africa and adding their voices as emerging countries.
When Politics and Religion Mix
It becomes even more complicated when religion and politics mix. Politically, many of the religious opposing forces are also the ones struggling to obtain or maintain government power. This is a little difficult for secular society, especially in the Western World, to wrap around. Politics have been politely refrained from religious classification, and neatly divided into such party labels as “socialist”, “democratic”, “republican”, “communist” with little thought as to battling it out with different religious sects.
However, the Western World is dominated by a Christianity that had its own religious split in the sixteenth century that lasted over a hundred years. What started as a disagreement among a handful of religious scholars and the Roman Catholic Church soon escalated into a political struggle as princes not only reject the Roman Catholic teaching, but seized Church land and outlawed the Roman Catholic faith. The 124 years of war that converged on Germany left the country in ruins. 
The battles became further complicated by the Peasant’s War of 1524-1525. Not only had they accepted Protestantism, they wanted some land reforms and more economic advantages. The princes straddled their fences; using Roman Civil Law in an attempt to control them, even though they had broken away from the Catholic Church. The result was wholesale slaughter of the peasants whose only back-up was the encouragement of Protestant religious leaders, some nobles and enlightened scholars.
The Break into Secularism
The bloodbath horrified enough people to begin contemplating a secular society where politics were carefully separated from religion. The majority of the thinkers who began shaping the ideals of religious freedom within a governing framework were not atheists, but Christians. Their intellectual labor lit that novel spark termed “the Age of Enlightenment”. The elegance and philosophic politics of that era laid the ground work for many of our Constitutional freedoms.
The New Christendom
In the book, “The Next Christendom”, Phillip Jenkins takes a positive view of the emerging African Christian nations bordering the predominantly Mid-Eastern countries. He points out that Muslims and Christians have been living side by side in that region of the world for centuries and that culturally, they are very similar. Only their religion separates them. At the same time, he visualizes a rebirth in Christianity.
The new Christianity, he states, will be based on a far more spiritually grounded faith than the Christianity of a Western civilization that has by now, become so influenced by secular viewpoints as to have lost much of the early basis for its religious doctrine that had been established on miracles and supernatural activities. The New Christendom will be a people with strong beliefs in mysticism and spirituality.
Christianity and Global Politics
Jenkins believes the Christianity rising up from the emerging countries will not only have a positive effect on Western religion, but will greatly influence developing global politics. Part of the change will be due the policy making of the Christian dominated southern hemisphere countries and part to the inevitable migration of Southern Christians into Western culture. Their decision making will be more closely related to the teachings of Jesus Christ, with an emphasis on compassion for the poor, resulting in better programs for coping with poverty and greater employment opportunities for the disadvantaged.
The Latin American communities, predominantly Roman Catholic, are an example of religious based political doctrine. Many of these countries, which had once experienced severe economic disparity, are now engaged in socialized programs which improve the educational base of their citizens, provide low-cost health care and seek to create a higher quality of life through improved living conditions, fair wages, benefits and laws that are friendly toward small and medium sized businesses.
What Secular Society Could Lose
The Next Christendom could also move in another direction. Laws could become instituted that hamper a woman’s ability to work, make divorce difficult and limit the free expression of opposing religious viewpoints. This possible direction into law-making based on restrictive Christian doctrine is already reflected in some of the current political trends. At the same time that gay rights and the woman’s movement are gaining broad-based acceptance among voters and legislators, the voices of opposition are also increasing in their momentum. Military personnel complain of an inability to practice a non-Christian religion or no religion at all. Lobbyists campaign for creation theories to be taught in public schools as an earth science although many of the fundamental statements made by creation theorists are not supported by geological evidence, but by Biblical text alone.
When Morality Enters the Equation
Secular society has kept a balance between religion and politics for several hundred years in the Western world, as a developing awareness that moral choices are based on an inner ability to separate right from wrong, and not the dictations of a specific religion. However, when we look at modern morality, we begin to wonder how far we’ve pushed the boundaries. Beyond sexual permissiveness, we see a self-indulgent society with more interest in buying a second car than in whether or not poverty line children should receive free school lunches. We see a corporate machinery that has removed the human equation from its ledger and presented a spread sheet of ways to make the greatest amount of profit and increase company assets.
The moral factor that has struck rebellion in the emerging countries is the question of whether an elite group has the right to institute a government and make laws that favor the financial prospects of one sector of society only, creating an uneven distribution of wealth. Many of these countries have gone through a series revolutions over the last hundred to one hundred fifty years. Beginning first with the over-throw of colonialism and monarchies, they have suffered at the hands of wealthy dictators and ruthless tyrants. Financial assets and resources remained tied within the purse strings of a few. Their struggle has been one of finding a balance between stimulating their economy through industry and trade and spreading the prosperity it initiates among their people.
Many developing countries have chosen to nationalize their natural resources and limit corporate development. Anti-capitalist policies have not agreed well with the US Government since the Cold War. Although the argument for US intervention in global conflicts is the liberation of the citizens and the establishment of democracy, historically it has never placed itself in the middle of a revolution unless it looked like the guys that were going to win were fighting for a socialist government. It has benevolently supported a number of ruthless dictators, both within the Latin American countries and the Mideast, as long as they signed agreeable US trade agreements.
Moral questions grow steadily more urgent in the Mid Eastern countries. There has, in fact, been chemical weapons used in a number of instances, such as the invasion of Iraq into Iran during the eight year war the began in 1980. Yet retaliation has been the use of depleted uranium weapons and drone strikes. Religious factions struggling to gain the government seat are further split by political alliances and nationalism.
With Change on the Horizon
The Mideast has becoming a converging point for three of the world’s greatest religions and an arena of seething politics. What is settled in the Mideast will have a global impact. Western society with its Christian influence will be tested as to its true ability to share borders and advance equal consideration for Muslim nations. Christian religion itself, may change as the African and Latin American Christian nations spread their influence into a spiritually lacking Western Christian world. This influence could create a more restrictive society, or it could follow a more religion more closely related to the original text, with tolerance for all belief systems and a greater interest in humanitarian principles.
What is settled in the Mideast has no expiration date. It is an answer that will arise out of chaos, when the human condition can no longer bear the blood letting. What is settled will also be left to each of us individually. The conflicts in the Mid East are reflected in our own conflicting viewpoints. Power struggles to influence the shape of government politics result in name calling, finger-pointing, accusations, distrust and deliberate sabotage of the political process. The gap between fundamental Christians, traditional Christians, atheists and agnostics grows wider.
Neighbors turn against neighbors over party loyalties and irrelevant issues. Individual states rumble with threats of succession, random acts of violence explode in the streets, and the prisons swell from the growing numbers of those who are not in compliance with the law.
Opening Up to a New World
We have reached a stalemate in our ability to thrive as a democratic country and to stand by principles of natural liberties. We recognize the need for change, but the recognition has not yet been applied to listening to new ideas, mutual cooperation and adjusting our viewpoints to accommodate the views of others. We have not accepted that we do not know all the answers. In this Armageddon that spreads out its flames of anger and discord, there is no single entity, no particular belief system, no political ideal that will extinguish the fires of our scorched world.
The change must begin within us, individually, as we evaluate our moral and ethical considerations. We are a global society, connected by instant communications. Each day we learn new information. How we use that information will make a difference in the structure of the new world.
Each day brings us a new opportunity to learn tolerance and understanding of other races, cultures and religions. Each day gives us the opportunity to go past our differences and discover the delightful areas where we are the same.
We advance deeper into chaos as our various differences clash and collide in a contest of wills, yet in the gloomy setting of a world in conflict are the future thinkers, philosophers and revolutionary leaders. From out of the destruction of Mid Eastern conflict, there may arise, as it had in war-riddled sixteenth century Germany, a new enlightenment, a new ideal and a more equitable vision for the world.
L. A. Breaux 
Subversify Staff
I find it interesting that Jenkins would postulate a kinder and gentler Christianity coming out of Africa. While it’s true, the north east part of Africa has been home to Christians and Muslims living side by side for centuries, the main part of Africa tells a different story and a somewhat scary one at that.
Missionaries from Evangelical strains of Christiandom have made inroads in the west, south and mid countries of Africa spreading a message of exclusion, self hatred and in many cases child/female abuse that results in needles murder. All in the name of Christ. I don’t find that gentle. I find it extremely abusive. Missionary churches, most of them American based giving necessary money, medical care and education but only if you commit to burning the “witches” in your family or sending you young people to America for “education” which end up being slavery.
It is something to work for to hope for a spiritual awakening. However, for this to happen spiritual abuses need to stop. We need a plan with how to deal with such abuses without getting to the point that we hate the religion and that is a tough thing to do for most people.
Grainne, I found many of Jenkins views curious at best, and certainly the role Christianity will play in the Mideast. This is sort of a fledging article for its theme, as I’ve been tip-toeing around Mid Eastern politics for awhile, especially since I don’t feel I have a field of expertise in any of the issues. Does any American, really, or anyone with a western cultural viewpoint?
What we don’t understand, by all practicality, is better left to neutrality. However, with extremism undermining Western trust, and a middle ground that gets swept into a tidal wave of propaganda, how long before side taking will inexorably draw western countries into the action?
I see several problems. Even though we have a tarnished, corrupted democracy, the ideals of a secular society are still quite strong. If secular society sees its position threatened as a guiding force government, would it remain long out of the affairs in the Mid East? If Christians view Mid Eastern nations as threatening the Christian brethren, would they be persuaded to take harsh action? http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/28/3716578/beleaguered-syrian-christians.html
Are the secular and Christian nations prepared to accept the political format the Mid Eastern countries ultimately choose for the foundation of their government? It may be completely different than anything we have yet imagined, simply for the differences in experiences, their decisive use of their natural resources and choices for trade agreements. The religious differences, in my opinion, will be minor compared to the political/ cultural presentation of the emerging Mid East.
I do get what Jenkins says about the positive effects religion has had on some of the developing countries. I have said many times the Latin American countries have a more socialized view of community, and I will say it again as I believe it is a fundamental difference that is necessary for Western culture to understand. Their socialization is strongly influenced by their religion. Their religion was founded on strong family values, compassion for the poor and neighborly care. Each Latin American revolution is one that strives to arrive closer to the ideal of economic and social equality.
The threat to secular government, however, is practically nonexistent. Even though an estimated eighty percent of the population is Roman Catholic, the people are quite tolerant of other religious views. The remaining twenty percent include a more or less equal mix of Protestant religions, including Jehovah Witness and Latter Day Saints, Jews, Buddhists and atheists. They are not persecuted or treated any differently than anyone else solely because of their religious or non-religious views. Nor do I see a threat to the woman’s rights movement as Latin America has many woman leaders.
To date, Latin America has chosen a position of neutrality in the Mid East. I believe it too is waiting to see what type of policies emerge from the struggling countries. I believe it will remain neutral as long as possible, preferring to keep good trade relations open with the Western countries, Russia and China.
Very nice. Although there is technically no power-struggle between Sunnis and Shias, except for whatever the west is trying to create. Iran and Iraq are predominantly Shia countries, whereas the rest of the Muslim world is Sunni. The divide between Shias and Sunnis is rooted in a dispute over succession. The Shias were people who followed Mohamad’s cousin and son-in-law Ali after the prophet’s death. The Sunnis chose to follow some other guy. Whereas Ali was a spiritual leader and the husband of the prophet’s daughter Fatima, the other guy, Abu Bakr, was a statesmen and a politician.
Mohamad’s 12th generation descendent in the line of Ali was a young man named Mahdi, who disappeared from the face of the earth, with the promise of returning before the End. All 12 of the Shia Imams lived under the harshest conditions imaginable, constantly persecuted by the ruling families, practically all of them were murdered, some of them under horrendous conditions, like Imam Hussein, who Iranians cry for every year. Iranian veterans of the Iraq-war claim that Imam Hussein led them to victory over the combined forces of Iraq and the west.
I’m not going to take sides, but I will note that all Sunni countries have become western puppet-states that never excelled at anything throughout their histories. Whereas Shia Iran is the only free Muslim country today, it was the cradle of Islamic arts and industries and it led the world in scientific discovery for generations, until the Mongols destroyed everything in favor of the Europeans. Shia Iranian thinkers were so plentiful in the middle ages that people from all over the world flocked to Iran to take part in the learning. The father of modern medicine, Avicenna, the father of modern Chemistry Al-Razi, and the father of modern Mathematics Al-Biruni were all Iranian Shias. They were practicing real science centuries before Europeans pulled their heads out of their asses. Hmm… I guess I took sides a little bit.
Oh shit. Al-Biruni was the father of modern anthropology. Al-Khawrazmi was the mathematician; the world algorithm is named after him. He invented Algebra.
In order for a western person to understand Islam, a comparative study with Christianity is necessary IMO. I’ve always felt Islam is what Christianity would have been like had there been no “Churches.” A mosque is not a church, rather it is a community center. Mosques are operated by normal, average people, rather than by priests. They employ, as in they pay a salary to a ‘mullah’ which is an Islamic scholar who has been initiated into the Islamic mysteries. Iranian mullahs are predominantly trained at Qom (Iran) and Najaf (Iraq) institutes.
What the mullas do at a mosque for a few hours every day is to for example provide councelling. Specifically, someone who needs money for his wife’s surgery but can’t afford it, would naturally take his case to the mullah, who would be expected to represent God’s justice, fairness and generosity on earth, as in he would be compelled to pull whatever strings he could to help the poor man in need. Or if someone needed confidential advice, the mullah (who was literate before the average man was in Iran) would provide it in a spirit of brotherhood, morality and sincerety, for free. If a man is hungry, or if his wife and children are hungry, but he doesn’t want to go begging, he would go to a mosque where he would never be denied a meal. The mullas also give talks and lectures about the illuminati, the zionists, the situation in Palestine and what it means in a global context, America and how it has succumbed to degeneracy and corruption, the world bank taking over Greece, Christendom falling to demon-worship and promiscuity, etc. etc.
The reason mullahs occupy many positions of power in Iran today isn’t because they set up a corrupt system of control and manipulation two thousand years ago, like the Catholic church. The mullahs were ultimately responsible for kicking out the imbecile American-backed king Mohamadreza Pahlavi, and so they took over the task of running the country. Whoever was with them during the long decades of covert and overt operations which eventually led to the Islamic Revolution, whether cleric or average person, later took up a “sacred responsibility” in terms of developing their oppressed, rural, undeveloped nation whose population had been forced into ruralness and peasantry because of the decades of ruthless outright-theft of their resources by western colonialism.
Just as the wave of development, pushed on by the huge impetus and energy created by the revolution, was beginning to gather momentum, Iraq attacked Iran. Saddam Hussein’s western allies assured him that Iran was quite weak and disoriented, and in a state of chaos and upheaval, and that he could easily take all of it for himself and annex it to Iraq. They promised to help him in any way they could, and even went as far as giving him chemical weapons which he used on Iranian civilians. But even after 8 years, Saddam Hussein and his American “friends” couldn’t subdue Iran. They only managed to murder countless brave Iranian boys and men who took up arms to defend their friends and family. They also channeled into war, what should rightly have been a movement to develop Iran, because the people who went to war with Iraq were the same people who had brought about the revolution in the first place.
After the war, Iran’s military equipment (which had belonged to the previous king; state of the art arms and technology provided by the US in order to ensure Iran’s (and America’s) hegemony over the middle-east) were all spent, outdated and broken. The country’s cash reserves were all gone. But still Khomeini stuck with it. He built a stone foundation on which Iran was later developed. Iran is the only developed/advanced place in the world where US authority means dick today, because the mullahs were aware and smart enough to declare the US a bully and its forced globalization (as in, *forced* you-have-to-let-my-corporations-take-over-your-country) an entirely illegitimate proposition. And the people agreed.
Looking at other Islamic countries, one notices that Muslim clerics and religious schools are quite oppressed by the western-installed dictators, who are trying to push the people away from Islam and towards western liberal ideologies. Islamic clerics in these countries hold not even a fraction of the power that Iranian mullahs do. The pressure on religious schools existed in Iran long before the 1979 revolution, as western powers had early-on tagged them as threats to western ploys for plundering the country. The Tobacco Rebellion and the Constitutional Revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries respectively, were very clear hints.
The Shia clerics have historically always acted in a spirit of justice, and in the best interest of Iran and its people. Only time will tell if the current generation lives up to their predecesors’ reputation.
Peter, I sincerely thank you for your observations. There is such an enormous need for communications based not only on surface information, but historical background, cultural persuasions and the internal dynamics of each emerging nation. Islamic contributions to mathematics and science also created the groundwork for modern geology, with accurate hypothesis concerning flood plains, erosion and the formation of mountains.
I find your comment concerning Christianity very interesting. It’s really too bad that the Roman Empire decided to embrace the Christian religion and turn it into the machinery for continued conquest, completely altering the context of the original teachings. The missionary objective, which has not changed substantially since Colonial days, was one of conditioning the “heathen” to give service to the king. The hierarchy of kingly service has changed through demographics and type of government seat, but the objective remains the same; one of power and control through religious indoctrination.
Time is definitely the crucial element as this convergence of religious and philosophical ideals clash against each other, creating a necessity for new policies that uphold basic human rights. Personally, I believe the clash will continue until we arrive at a new enlightenment as “winning” only means suppression and suppression eventually leads to rebellion. I also believe the enlightenment will either originate in the Mid East or in Central America.
I especially want to thank you for your explanation of the role of the mullahs. That is wonderful! It adds a whole new dimension to the conflicts, one well worth examination and common sense reflection.
Consider this then. Aside from Iraq, which I’ll talk about in a moment, Syria is the only country that is closely allied with Iran in the middle-east. Syria has been completely destroyed in this civil war. Before the US attacked Iraq, Saddam Hussein had become aligned with the Ayatollas in Iran in their support for Palestine, and the resistence against Israel, which they believed had entered the middle-east for sinister purposes having to do with tales about biblical lands, and zion, and greater israel, and the endtimes and such. And seeing as how these white immigrants from Europe and America who were coming to populate Palestine were all generally very racist towards the native brown population at the outset, the Iranians, Saddam and Assad were all agreed that if the Zionists could enter the middle-east by force, then force could and must also be used against them to throw them out. Saddam used to joke that he’d capture Tel-Aviv and take it for himself.
Iraq has been completely destroyed. A thousand people died there in bombings and shootings this year. Syria has been completely destroyed and fallen to chaos. Libya has been in a state of civil war for a couple of years now. Egypt is being torn apart. There is civil war in Nigeria. Sudan was split up. All these and the many others are examples of what Israel, the mob boss, and his brain-dead bitch tough-guy, America, are doing to the world to make a profit.
Now, consider that Iran has been refusing to give up its nuclear _rights_ for years, and that the US (on behalf of Israel) had been demanding that it do so. Note that Iran is being asked to forefeit its lawful rights which all signatories of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty enjoy. A treaty which Israel has not signed. Now this year the Israelis disarmed and levelled the economy of Iran’s close ally, rendering Syria harmless and its borders open to all kinds of Israeli Al-Qaeda CIA activity like Iraq. Their goal had been to get the US involved, effectively plunging Syria into total chaos like Egypt and Libya and most of Africa. But the US had refused to do so. Then, incidentally, the US government had to shutdown because of a lack of funding. And now the Iranians and the west are again sitting at the negotiating table. They are telling the Iranian negotiators “Ok. Look. If you don’t want your country to fall to chaos, rape and bloodshed, if you don’t want your economy to be destroyed and subverted towards guns and civil war and the repaying of mandatory jewish bank loans, take the goddamn motherfucking offer!”
Today on news that negotiations were moving forward, the dollar fell to under 30,000 Rials in Iran. It had reached over 40,000 Rials a couple months back.
Peter, the significant message in your statement concerning was “Their goal had been to get the US involved”. The US did not become involved for one reason only. The citizens of the United States adamantly said “no!” Putin’s compromise suggestion was a way of allowing the US Government to save face in the midst of so much embarrassing opposition. It was a historical moment, as I believe it was the first time the American people refused to automatically go to war when the government stated it needed to be done.
The government didn’t shut down from lack of funding. It shut down because of the petty power plays of political parties; parties that refused to work together to solve their differences and knuckle down toward finding solutions for a country that has become so conflicted over minor issues it has become divided against itself. The funding crisis has simply been stalemated and will rise to the surface again in a few months.
For too long the American people have allowed corporate entities to have their way in shaping law because of the convenience it brought them. As long as the US was affluent because corporate monies were channeled into the economy, there were very few people who protested US International policies except a few activists who were generally very unpopular. Now the corporates are moving out of America, lock, stock and barrel to set up housekeeping in the emerging economies with their same greed driven agenda. Their only real interest in the US is to turn the American youth into cannon fodder. The US citizens are acutely aware of this. There are only two ways young people can earn a decent income; either by joining the military or acquiring a degree in finance or economics so they can serve the corporates in finding ways to increase profit and minimize the costs of labor.
I’ll be the first to admit the US has a long ways to go in terms of mending its highly abusive International relations. America is seeped in an ignorance resulting from long-term, self-serving attitudes. The majority of Americans, however, are weary of war and want only to begin rebuilding their collapsed infrastructure. It’s a small step, but an important one. How can anyone assume to be a peace-keeper whose own house is in complete disorder?
quote..”The government didn’t shut down from lack of funding. It shut down because of the petty power plays of political parties; parties that refused to work together to solve their differences and knuckle down toward finding solutions for a country that has become so conflicted over minor issues it has become divided against itself. The funding crisis has simply been stalemated and will rise to the surface again in a few months.”
karlsie, there is no such thing as political parties in positions of power. Politicians are trained by the elite in order to run the affairs of their subordinate nations. This is clearly stated in the protocols of the learned elders of zion, which was written before the first modern politician graduated out of college.
In ancient Babel, an entity sprang up which was called a temple in those days, but which was essentially the first bank. The bible refers to this entity as Babylon. Babylon invented money and it invented war, these are historical facts you understand. Jesus did all he could to kick Babylon out of his country. Mohamad drove Babylon out from the Middle-East completely. Both Christianity and Islam were Anti-Babylon religions. They were a renounciation of money and profit and usury and debt.
But from god-knows-where, a bunch of white-skinned, brown-haired Jewish people showed up in Europe around the 11th and 12th centuries. These people brought with them Babylon. They started lending money to everyone all over Europe. They ended up with the Vatican as their debt-slave. From that day on, Christianity become a religion of war and colonialism and world domination. Babylon founded the country of the United States of America. Babylon entered the Middle-east again in our contemporary times.
This big bank, singular, spawned Wall Street and Hollywood and the US Federal Government and every other major corporate entity in the world. Everyone in the world is in their debt today, every actor, every politician, every college graduate, every home-owner, every business owner, etc.
Babylon profits from war more than it does from any of its other businesses on earth. And it owns all the businesses on earth you understand, as it is getting a percentage of interest on every cent made by every business in the world.
Babylon, the bank, is what shutdown the US government. It is they who dictate American policy and global policy. It is they who want to dominate Iran, which is free of debt and usury and corrupt banking-slavery. It is they who blew up Iraq, and are offering the blood of thousands of Iraqis to their goddess Ishtar every year, in their original homeland. It is they who set up the country of Israel.
If you believes that America is a free country where democracy is real and politicians (and not kings) hold power, and that TV and Hollywood isn’t total-brainwashing-propaganda, and that the US economy is an authentic system whereby average people can get rich, you are totally wrong.
The warmongering demon (not-person) Netanyahu, who has been trying to sabotage peace talks between Iran and the west for the past 30 years, is the spokesperson for Babylon. Did everyone see him on Face the Nation?
Let me point out the irony here. I’m gonna merge our two discussions.
On the one hand the average American believes that he or she is not responsible for the actions of his or her Government, in the sense that, if the US government is hunting down and killing brown people in the MiddleEast, the brown people should refrain from disliking America and Americans, and they should think twice before talking shit about America and Americans in general, because that will easily get them labelled a racist and as such excluded from any serious intelligent debate. The average American believes that his or her Government’s actions do not reflect the beliefs and behavior-patterns of him or herself, but rather, that they reflect the designs of certain corporate entities.
On the other hand, the average American is the most patriotic, nationalistic person in the world today. The average American takes pride in his country, in his land of freedom and democracy, and he or she believes in earnest that their country and government is probably the best in the world, if not the best itself. The educated American refuses to believe that his or her country has been infiltrated by a bank whose owners are somehow related to the MiddleEast, Israel-someplace. Perhaps if it was Europe or Russia or some white country, the average American could believe it, but Brown People? Not a chance. Little do the American people know that Israelis today all came from Europe and America in the past 80 years. But hey, let’s not get into this. The irony…
So, if America is truly a democracy and not a scam from some temple of Ishtar in Iraq 6000 years ago, it must be said that the majority of Americans must have voted for the wars that America has entered all over the world. This is not surprising as most Americans are so patriotic and believe so deeply in doing what is right and good for their country, that they will agree to anything if they are told it is to protect their freedom and their republic. So, in a sense, the average American is the very reason that the Government has to go to war. The average American wants shitloads of material things, and at an affordable price so that you can throw it away at the end of the year and buy a new one you know, and that the government cannot provide short of stealing oil from Iraq and by stealing ipads from its Western Asian Tech-colonies which it acquired after it nuked Japan and invaded and took over Korea. You see, the American government has no money or power to do anything. In order for Iraq’s oil to be transformed into money, or in order that slave-labor in Japan and South Korea yield awesome technology that more slave-labor in Taiwan and Vietnam will assemble industrially into a product that can be sold on the American market for cheap, a bank has to come in and fund the project and manage it to make sure their investment returns to them. So, this bank where all the money is, is the true American government, not the patsies that are shown to people, who are all so in debt to the bank that they could lose everything if they made one bad move, or they could lose their lives like JFK.
People in the MiddleEast are living with much less material “stuff” than people in America. And people in Africa are living with still less, they have nothing at all. Now, I do believe that you and Grainne are very good and kind and moral people, karlsie. And I do believe that many people in America choose to live right, and that many people in Iran and Africa live with more material garbage than the average American. But this is not the general trend. The average American eats more than any other people. The average American can buy a pair of good sneakers every year, he could even buy 2 or 5 or 10 in one year. The average Iranian can buy a pair of sneakers every 2-3 years. The average African cannot afford western brand-name merchandise at all, except for guns.
Before we got completely lost, all I really wanted to say was that if America is a democracy and the majority vote is the law and rule, then it is not in any moral or ethical sense inappropriate to hate America as a whole. And if America is not a free country, and the average American is nothing more than a slave to some ancient shadow corporation entity, then it should be ceded that racism against and hate against America is pert. Who then deserves to be hated for America’s crimes? The corporations? The banks? The world bank? The Jews? The Christians? The Atheists? The aliens? Who should we all be uniting against?
It is my belief that we should be uniting against crimes against humanity everywhere we find it. The U.S. should not get a pass. I do not believe that the citizens all are enslaved, neither do I believe that everyone is “for” what the government has decided. It is a hard question. Surely you see that there are people who are good. Just as there are very real people in Say North Korea that are good and not for the seemingly crazy regime. And I say seemingly because who really knows what goes on day to day in people’s neighborhoods without being there?
I favor working for peace. I know so many people do not or feel there is a limit. It is this that is the saddest thing about humanity.
If the majority of Americans aren’t “for” the nation’s policies, that means they are slaves who have no say in their country’s affairs. If the majority are in favor of what the USA is, then the majority of Americans are cruel and heartless criminals who share the responsibility for all the blood being shed by American soldiers, perhaps moreso than the soldiers themselves. If the majority of Americans have a problem with their country hosting the largest arms industry in the world and the largest nuclear arsenal, all they have to do is vote it out. If they are in favor of it, what do you want me to say? That they are good people, but they support the killing of innocents all over the world? If you did not _think_ yourself an American, your viewpoint would be much different, Grainne.
How can we claim to work for peace when our houses, our cars, our businesses are owned by the very thing that causes war?
Let me put this very simply. Let’s say I received a loan from a bank to start me a business. The bank wants me to pay it back eventually, but almost twice the amount that they loaned me. Where am I going to get this money? From other people, where else? Now let’s say that the United States of America has got this enormous collective debt, and no matter how much money is in circulation inside the country, it will never be enough to pay the banks’ interests. Do you understand? It is physically impossible, there isn’t enough money. How is the interest on the debt going to be repaid then? There is only one way. (Don’t take my word for it, research it.) That way is to *take* (read: steal, achieve by force, acquire without paying for it) from other countries. The reason the United States of America is constantly at war is partly because every single American (and hence the collective nation) is in debt. If no interest were being charged on this debt, then the United States’ domestic economy would suffice in repaying it. But as things are now, it is not possible. So, the choice that the American politicians are left with is: a) tell the people to give up their homes, cars, businesses, etc. b) go steal some shit from Iraq and Afghanistan and Mexico and Africa so that everyone in the United States can continue to live according to a much higher standard than everyone else in the world.
The United States is afforded some leeway on this issue as long as its military continues to clear out the middle-east in favor of the bank’s owners’ new pseudo-country, Israel. As soon as Israel’s demands are not met, World Trade Centers start blowing up, and Government’s start shutting down. Just wait, soon Netanyahu will be relaying to the US politicians his masters’ wishes to attack Iran immediately. He will visit the US, meet with Obama and simply say “It’s time.” Then we will see if the US politicians have the balls to refuse. This time, refusal won’t resulting in planes crashing into the Pentagon or the Government shutting down. It will result in the bank plunging America’s fake economy into an abyss, the only escape from which will be to go fight more wars.
The American who feels pride at the achievements of his nation, who feels deserving of the higher standard of living, who feels that “we are better, smarter, more powerful, and we drove out the native americans, we’ll drive out everyone else too, that’s the way of nature, the way of the world” is 100% responsible for the lack of peace in the world. If at least Americans would wake up and realize that they are all slaves, things would be much different.
The average middle-class American lives a lifestyle that is considered very luxurious almost anywhere else in the world. This middle-class lifestyle is only possible because of the banks, otherwise no one in America would have the cash to buy anything. So, in a very real sense, the American people are directly responsible for all the wars that are started by America. I don’t say these things because I hate America. I hate America because of this. Because if I had continued to live there, I would have had Iraqi and Afghan blood on my hands.
The difference between Iran and every other country in the world today is that in Iran if you want to buy a house, you pay cash for it. If you don’t have the cash to buy something, you don’t buy it. The Iranian economy has no Zionist-Babylon banking system engaging in parasitic middlemanism. The Iranian economy is the people’s economy. Everyone owns their house (if they’re a homeowner.) If they can’t afford to buy a house, they have to rent. If an Iranian doesn’t have the cash to start a business, he will not start a business. This is a “real” economy.
The west doesn’t like Iran because Israel doesn’t like Iran. Israel doesn’t like Iran because the Rothschilds don’t like Iran. The Rothschilds don’t like Iran because Iran doesn’t want them turning Iran into a pseudoeconomy like every other place on earth.
Peter, I understand what you’re saying; I really do. My problem is, this understanding is still in its developmental stage. Not so long ago, I didn’t even know anyone from the Mideast. I didn’t know any Muslims. I only knew the US was in conflict with the Mideast, but I didn’t know why. “Why” is a question I asked so habitually from the time I was a young girl, my mother once threw up her hands and told me, “look. I’m not God. I don’t know all the answers”. I didn’t buy the hype surrounding 9/11 for one moment. My perception was that a statement that emphatic meant there was a problem that needed solving.
It took Internet social networking for me to begin untangling the knot concerning American social behaviors and their relationship toward the Mideast and Africa. It took communicating with individuals from other countries. It took several years of these communications to realize that Israel, which I had once considered a small, brave country; a perception I had received by reading James Michener’s book, “The Source” in my teenaged years; was actually a bully, bristling with arms. This was when I asked the question, “why do we support Israel”, and you, along with a few other better informed people, pointed out the power of the Rothschild’s and the banks. I am still internally digesting this information, just as it took a lot of research and digestion to write my first article on the Mideast.
It will take me awhile to establish a paper trail for further articles on this subject. Nailing into place the facts that go along with the information is very important for communicating with an American society that is more reactive than questioning. I have five siblings. I think these siblings are highly representative of America as a whole. Two are of the “my country right or wrong” attitude. Their opinion of me is very low. Two would rather not talk about politics at all and indulge my rants without expressing opinions. One quite equally calls just about everybody a “rat bastard”.
To his credit, those he leaves out of the rat bastard club has nothing to do with race, religion, or ethnical considerations, but simply individual merit. His friends circle include Inupiaq’s, Yu’piks, Athabascans, blacks, Chinese, Mexicans and a few other dark-skinned people. By the family value percentages, he represents about one-sixth of the American people. It is this one-sixth that would be persuaded by rationale and presentment of facts. It’s this one-sixth that could begin to tip the scales just as an enlightened few finally persuaded enough people to end the war in Vietnam and the noxious invasion of Latin America. It won’t be easy. There will still be the one third who blatantly trumpet their patriotism against all evidence of US wrong-doing. There will still be the one-third who will hide their heads in the sand, pretending there’s nothing wrong. But change is necessary. The world is being destroyed as much by war as it is by environmental waste.
Google “Samson Option” karlsie. It’s very relevant to your article title here.
I just did the Google search as you suggested, Peter. Wow! That is a lot of food for thought. It may take me a little while, but you can bet another article will be coming as soon my brain can begin compiling the words for it.
Another thing worth pondering over, in my opinion, is what would happen if Iran developed nuclear weapons. I’m sure Grainne watched the new season of always sunny, so I’m gonna refer to the episode “Gun fever too: still hot” where Dennis and Dee discover that it’s a good idea for everyone to be armed, ’cause then nobody can harrass and threaten anyone with a gun. (Of course Mac and Charlie discover the exact opposite, as in, it’s a better idea for nobody to be armed, ’cause then nobody can threaten anybody.)
Anyway, the west keeps threatening Iran with “military options” which they insist are “on the table” every time they go to negotiate a nuclear deal. (some negotiating, huh?) In order to put this into context, Pakistan and India (which are by all standards much less civilized and much less peaceful countries than Iran) both have nuclear weapons, so there is no precedent for telling Iran “you can’t have them” as even North-Korea has them. Why on earth shouldn’t Iran?
I think Iran would never nuke Israel for 3 reasons, a) They believe Israel is the holy land from where Mohamad ascended to heaven, and b) they want the land handed back to the Palestinians. (ie. they _don’t_ want a barren nuclear-wasteland handed back to the Palestinians.) and c) they would suffer retaliation the likes of which the world has never seen. Any amateur political analyst can see clearly that if Iran were to use a nuclear weapon as an act of war, the whole world would unite to rid the world of the “rogue nation” with its “crazy ayatollahs.” So, clearly, the west *cough*Israelsbitch*cough* doesn’t want Iran to be able to defend itself, or in other words they don’t want Iran to have deterence capabilities. They want Iran to be helpless and defenseless.
I believe a nuclear Iran will guarantee peace and stability in the MiddleEast. The Israelis know this. The Israelis profit from war. The Israelis have vowed to destroy Iran before allowing it to become nuclear. RT was reporting today that the Saudis are working with Mossad against Iran. Press TV (Iranian news outlet) was reporting the same thing a week ago.
The Kings of Saudi Arabia (The Saud family) and the Kings of Israel are the two richest entities on the earth. They are demanding that blood continue to spill in the middle east, as a form of sacrifice to their gods.
I don’t wanna derail the discussion, but I think it’s important to point out that any occult practicioner who has engaged in blood-sacrifice knows that a single drop of one’s own blood, offered to a demon or a god in a mood of peace and serenity can fuel the demon to accomplish acts of great “magic” that defy all logic. This is what all magicians and sorcerers have done, from Eliphas Levi to Aleister Crowley to Criss Angel. Now, to spill the blood of hundreds of thousands of people in a mood of fear, war and devastation can result in unimaginable feats by the gods and demons who feed on it. What the Israelis are doing in the Middleeast is so dangerous that it’s incomprehensible, it’s inconceivable. It’s madness. The only established big-time esoteric order in the world is Shia Islam, based in Iran. These are the only people who know what Israel is really doing, they are the only people who have been begging the rest of the world to wake up. But it’s been totally futile. Who is going to believe that by killing millions of people in pointless wars all over the world, the Zionists are feeding their demon-lord YHVH who has promised them Zion? Who is going to believe that Zionists were responsible for WWI and WWII? A bunch of brain-washed zombies who get all their information from TV and Google? Please. We’re doomed.
I’m sure you guys heard about that incident a few years back when a US drone crashed in Iranian territory or was captured by Iranians (depending on who you ask.) Then a while later the Iranians were claiming that they were able to reverse-engineer it, and soon after this they revealed some video-footage of the alleged drone they had built. Many ‘experts’ in the west were quick to point out that it rather looked like it was made of wood and plastic, and the whole thing was dismissed in the western media as a joke. Now the Iranians have revealed another alleged drone, a more sophisticated one they claim. This one looks like it could be made of cardboard, I swear.
In sharp contrast to the USA, NATO and by extension Israel (because Israel has everything the United States has) who are in the habit of constantly bragging about their military might (think the Transformer movies, the GI Joe movies, that movie Battleship with the actor from the John Carter movie, and countless other movies where the US military wildly exaggerates its capabilities while at the same time waging an advertising-recruitment campaign against the dumbest, least priviledged sect of American youth, also think all the war games that the United States engages in every year, and all the nuclear bomb tests that it has performed in the past, in addition to its actual, succesful nuclear-annihilation of 2 Japanese cities, etc.) Iran has demonstrated a tendency to downplay its military capabilities. For example, Iran officially claims that it has missiles that can reach Tel-Aviv, which the west officially finds dubious at best, when the reality is that their missiles can probably also reach New York and Los Angeles. Because you know, the arms industry knows no nationalities. They will sell technology to anyone who has the cash. Iran has shitloads of cash. Incalculable, I tell you.
Of course I can’t believe that the real experts in the west (the ones whose opinions make a difference) really believe that Iran is making fake drone-models to show on TV to brag and boost its own ego (like the US military does) I think they know exactly how much money the Sepah (the Revolutionary Guard Corps) has and how much equipment they’ve been able to get their hands on in the past 30 years. Remember, Iran’s oil was only embargoed a short while ago, before that Iran sold trillions of dollars worth of oil, which poured into the Iranian economy for three decades. Billion dollar industrial developments became commonplace all over Iran, in oil and gas, in iron and steel, in construction, and in the Sepah.
Iran has two Armies, each with their own completely-separate navies, air forces, ground forces, etc. One is the Artish (the regular army) and the other is the Sepah Pasdaran Enghelab Eslami (the army of the protectors of the islamic revolution.) These organizations recruit an estimated (my estimate) million young men every two years, in which time the men serve as conscripts. The conscription, aka mandatory military service, entails a couple of months of getting up early every day, jogging, learning how to use guns, learning how to march, etc. After this, depending on their level of education and the skills that they have, the (mostly) young men are sent to provide service to their country, based on their rank and abilities. One might become a tech-guy for a rich subsidiary organization of the Sepah, another might become the driver at a poor “regular army” military base in the middle of nowhere, others still may have to serve their time at a police station, or standing in the middle of busy city-streets all day ensuring order, etc.
Anyway, all I wanted to say was, when I think of the military might of Iran going against Israel and the United States, I can’t conceive of a scenario with a happy ending. Iran is nothing like Afghanistan, Bosnia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, etc. (BTW, since we’re on the subject, the word Iraq is derived from biblical Erech, from the ancient Babylonian city-state of Uruk. Iran on the other hand is a Farsi word which translated to English would read “Ireland” as the -an at the end is equivalent to -land, so Eyre-an is “land of the Eyre” (pronounced Ear) the people we know as Aryan today. The similarity in the names is purely a coincidence, albeit a peculiar one.) No. If Iran gets dragged into war, all hell will break loose. This act today in Lebanon, this bombing of the Iranian embassy where 20-something (very likely) totally-innocent people lost their lives, this act caused countless wives, children, mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers, cousins, friends of these people to really hate Israel and the United States (if the US is the police of the world as it claims, and if it is really a righteous world leader as it professes to be, then it should not allow Israel to commit such acts as inciting civil war in Syria, giving chemical weapons to barbarian rebels, bombing Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, and assassinating scientists in Iran.) So, you understand when we have real venom towards the American people who are allowing this to happen, and the Israelis who are actually making it happen simply by existing (as their existence, their whole economy is based on imperialist-banking, war and arms, all headquartered in the United States). By killing innocent non-combatant Iranians, the Mossad and the CIA are trying to provoke Iran to retaliate. The US economy, the Israeli economy, they *need* war. Without it they will perish. They are going to drag Iran into a war no matter what, Netanyahu has publicly vowed to do this.
Iran can never be ruled by foreigners. Many have tried during the past thousand years. An history shows that they were always kicked out and replaced by Iranians, the latest example being the islamic revolution. In the current anti-American anti-western atmosphere that dominates the country, there is no way the people will tolerate a NATO presence on their soil like the Afghans and Iraqis enjoy to this day (you know, private “security” like Blackwater. I hear they’re worse than the US military.) there is no way a western infantry could ever take and hold any Iranian city worth holding, and there’s lots of them, some of them make cars, some make steel, some gas, oil, etc. and all of these working together make a country with a good and solid economy, if the US hopes to “take” Iran, then they can at best hope to take the country totally destroyed, and well over half the population dead or as prisoners, in which time Iran will launch its entire 33 year stockpile of ballistic missiles against every strategic western-allied spot on the map. The beauty of the Iranian native-built missiles is that once they are in the air, they split up into three separate missiles, each going a different path. It will be very difficult to intercept literally hundreds of thousands of missiles flying all over the place. Iran’s missile-strength is the reason the United States has been developing and expanding a missile shield. (and not because they fear the communists in Russia or China, which aren’t really communists anymore) If any target is guaranteed to get hit in such a strike, it would be Israel so close to home. The whole country would be turned to dust within 24 hours. But then again, no one of note actually lives in Israel. All the rich people who control shit from behind the scenes are safely hiding in their palaces in the United States, while a bunch of poor Jewish immigrants are going to be exterminated because they have been pitted against Iran, for no reason at all.
All kidding aside, Israel is nothing compared to Iran. Without all the aid they get from the US, Iran would capture Tel-Aviv practically in a single night.
I forgot to mention a third Iranian army, the Baseej. Unlike the other two, this one does not take conscripts. The Baseej is a paramilitary force composed entirely of volunteers. They number at a few million strong, men and women. The Baseejis hate the US and Israel almost as much as I do, and they are armed to the teeth. When Israel attacked Lebanon a few years back, many Baseejis volunteered to be shipped to Lebanon to fight against the Zionists. There are stories among the IDF (Israeli army) about the horrors they encountered in Lebanon, where unknown combatants would seemingly materialize out of nowhere and slaughter Israeli offensive-troops by the hundreds. The Israeli soldiers who survived pretty much all suffer from PTSD and nightmares today.
The point is, whereas American soldiers get payed to go to other countries and kill, rape and destroy, Iran has millions of soldiers (more like warriors) who volunteer to join the resistence against Israel and the USA without receiving anything in return, except the glory of having fought for freedom and what is right.
Today there’s some gathering in the Imam Khomeini Complex in the heart of Tehran. There’s thousands of armed green-beret commando police stationed all over the place. I counted at least a hundred when I was out for my morning run. They all looked like they were hoping that some Zionist traitor/spy would try a shooting or bombing so they could rip his flesh apart with their teeth and drink his blood.
There’s no way I can exaggerate how much the Iranian armed forces despise the USA and Israel. They see the USA (and its liberalism) as the source of all evil on earth today. They see the USA as the perpetrator of immorality and corruption among Muslim countries where crime was unheard of up until a few decades ago. (This is a historical fact. There was practically no crime at all in Iran before the western-Jewish media started broadcasting its poison on the simple, innocent minds of Iranian youth. Today, Iranians have to steal, lie and cheat in order to be able to afford western brand name products, which the media tells them is what they _must_ buy.)
But all things considered, I don’t think there is anyone in Iran who hates (I mean really HATE) the USA and Israel and the Zionists who own the American media more than I do. If I ever get the opportunity, and I really hope that I do, I will gladly incite massive flames of hatred against western materialism, and the 300 million American materialist-consumer-sheep (not-people) who have single-handedly destroyed the world. There can be no peace as long as there is a United States of America, and I make it my business to convince everyone in Iran of this truth.
Right before the Islamic Revolution in the winter of 1979, 1 US Dollar was exchanged for 7 Iranian Tomans. In those days Iran was a totally underdeveloped third world country with no remarkable economy of its own. Tehran was a United States (Zionist, big business, big bank) colonial outpost where an inept military dictator (the son of a powerful military general) ruled over the country as king. The west had forced Reza Pahlavi into exile so that his son Mohamadreza, who possessed none of the wit or cunning or sheer strength of character of his father, could rule in his stead. (kinda like George Bush Sr and Jr, but a bit more pronounced in this case)
Tehran in those days had many movie theaters, bars and cafes, and brothels, which were the city’s main “industries” aside from the bazaar, or the merchant’s quarter of the old city. Pretty much everything in Iran came from the United States and other places back then. There was next to no domestic product, everything was imported, and “exports” were limited to the resources which the United States mined and took away for free. Other than Tehran, the only other very affluent part of the country was the oil-producing Khuzestan, the ancient province of Susiana. Everything was high-class luxury in the cities of Ahwaz and Abadan in those days. There were a lot of foreign managers, workers and engineers living in the cities, they made up the entire upper-class population. Even the whores and brothels there were much more high-class than in Tehran, only the most beautiful women for the foreign masters is how it was in those days.
Today Iran is an industrial giant compared to 1979. And yet, 1 US Dollar is hovering around 3,000 Tomans these days. If the world economy were genuine and authentic, and not a bank-manufactured total-sham, Iranian money should have been worth less before the revolution when the nation’s economy held practically no mass, and not today when Iran has become a developed industrial nation. The United States (backed by the big banks) are artificially creating conditions (sanctions, embargos, and outright cheating and lying, etc.) whereby Iranian currency is devalued. This means that the average Iranian person, even though he works just as hard (harder) than the average American, can barely afford to buy foreign-made products. Whereas people who are in the Iranian industries have to raise the prices of all products that contain any imported material in order to continue making a profit. So, Iranian industries are forced to rely entirely on domestic materials. Many businesses went bankrupt during this last round of sanctions. On the other hand, Iranian people are being bombarded by American movies and TV shows, all the newest and the best stuff that people have to pay to watch in the US, is broadcast on satellite-tv over the middle-east, for free. Absolutely no charge, you can watch all your favorite shows and movies. There’s channels that just show TV series (new and old) back to back (with practically no commercials in between) and there’s other channels that show movies (again with almost no commercial interruptions.) The Iranian young person is a moron. He looks at what people have in movies and tv shows and he wants them too. He wants nice clothes, a fast car, a nice apartment, lots of pussy, etc. But he looks around and discovers that he can’t afford any of those things, and yet the movies tell him that everyone in the US can afford them, and it’s true, everyone in the US can afford to have (rent) their own place. In Tehran, 5 young men earning minimum wage can afford to rent a single-bedroom 100 square foot apartment in a shitty southside neighborhood, if they want to be able to afford food and transportation. In the US, everyone can afford to fuck hookers, or to drink alcohol, or to smoke pot. In Tehran, the average young person can’t afford to pay 100,000 tomans to fuck a whore when he only makes 500,000 tomans a month. He can’t afford to buy booze or pot or cigarettes and still have enough money to buy clothes, good food, etc.
This unfair exchange rate has caused a great percentage of the Iranian population to fall below the poverty line. Under these conditions, it is only natural that many in Iran will resort to swindling, stealing, lying, embezzling, etc. in order to be able to put good food on the table, in order that their children can wear nice clothes, in order that their wives can drive nice cars, etc. There is no way for an Iranian making an honest living to rise above the lower-middle-class poverty line.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmudiyah_killings
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