Are we witnessing the end of America as a superpower?
In 2024, America narrowly averted a civil war. (It is doubtful that Trump’s supporters would have accepted the result if Trump lost. See the last 30 minutes of the documentary ‘Trump Vindicated’, "Kash Patel on The Deep State and Who's REALLY Been Running the Country" on BlazeTV, and Ben Shapiro's "The Greatest SCANDAL In Modern Presidential History"). America is deeply divided.1 Fortunately America has a robust electoral system. (Though the rules for selecting a nominee could be augmented by a Star voting system or a modified Borda system of voting.2 See here. If you don't understand why America's founding fathers set up the electoral college, see the YouTube video "Do You Understand the Electoral College? | 5 Minute Videos | PragerU".)
Will America come out on top regarding the trade war with China?
The following was put together prior to Trumps re-election.
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“...to try too hard to make people good, is one way to make them worse; ...the only way to make them good is to be good...” ~ George MacDonald
Start being good. Start being honest, kind, brave, compassionate, fair, and just. If you're an American, don't be one of the crowd. Think for yourself.
‘Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.
2 ‘Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, 3 and do not show favouritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.
4 ‘If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it. 5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it.
6 ‘Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. 7 Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.
8 ‘Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.
9 ‘Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt. (Exodus 23:1-9)
Try to put Jesus words into practice. If enough Americans do this, America will not be destroyed.
America, you have forgotten the values that made you great. You have exchanged truth for a lie. You have sown to the wind. And if you do not open your eyes and learn to judge fairly, you will reap the whirlwind. Wake up America! Stop sleepwalking to your death. Open your eyes.
“’The sophists’, Plato says, ‘fabricate a fictitious reality.’ That the existential realm of man could be taken over by pseudorealities whose fictitious nature threatens to become indiscernible is a truly depressing thought. And yet, the Platonic Nightmare, I hold, possesses an alarming contemporary relevance. For the general public is being reduced to a state where people are not only unable to find out about the truth but also become unable even to search for the truth because they are satisfied with deception and trickery that have determined their convictions, satisfied with a fictitious reality created by design through the abuse of language.” Josef Piper, Abuse of Language—Abuse of Power, 1974. (Emphasis added)
The only way to break free from this matrix of lies (most don’t even realise that they are in this matrix) is to be fair minded enough to treat those who hate you kindly and give them a fair hearing. As we judge we will be judged. Does this mean that if we judge unfairly God will judge us unfairly? Not at all. It simply means that if we condemn unjustly, we will be justly condemned by the just judge for judging unjustly.
"ASSUME THAT THE PERSON YOU ARE LISTENING TO MIGHT KNOW SOMETHING YOU DON’T."
This is rule 9 in Jordan Peterson's book 12 Rules for Life. If American's can take this rule to heart, they might save themselves a civil war.3 (The Republican Party is not what it used to be 20 years ago, and the Democrat Party is not what it used to be 20 years ago. A wise voter would watch all the speeches at the DNC and RNC before voting.)
What about the Church? Should they be doing anything politically? Yes and no.
No, Christian leaders should not endorse political candidates or politicians (as any scandal will embroil the leader who endorses them).
Yes, Christian leaders should give clear teaching on the issues the Bible touches, such as treatment of the poor, abortion, sexual sin, etc, which will help Christians to discern who they should be voting for. (But the leaders need to distinguish between red pill issues—what the Bible actually teaches—and blue pill issues—the fashionable issues of the time.)
“In 1983, theologian Francis Schaeffer grew alarmed by evangelical groups concerning themselves with fashionable issues like “unjust structures” and inequitable wealth distribution rather than sinful human hearts. He had no doubt he was seeing capitulation to the spirit of the age. And he had no doubt where such socialist, utopian thinking would lead: Here the gospel has been reduced to a program for transforming social structures. This is the Marxist line. It does not mean that those who take this position are Communists. But it does mean they have made a complete confusion of the kingdom of God with the basic socialistic concepts. In back of this stands the Enlightenment idea of the perfectibility of man if only the cultural and economic chains are removed . . . But think further what this means theologically. What has happened to the fall and sin? [Evangelicals for Social Action] seem to be saying that changing economic structures is the means of salvation for modern man since only this deals with the basic “causes of the disease.” Ironically their program is not radical enough! The basic problem is that of the fall and sin and the heart of man. The basic problem is much deeper than social structures, and by not recognizing this[,] ESA ends up with an understanding of salvation which is very different from what the Scriptures teach.” — from Shepherds for Sale by Megan Basham (2024, HarperCollins)
The temperature in America is rising. The left is convinced that conservatives are intolerant hateful individuals, and conservatives are convinced that big tech is trying to censor them. (It certainly looks like conservatives are being censored. See Ben Shapiro Testifies at the House Committee on Alleged Big Tech Censorship.)
If you sincerely believe that there are people who hate you and are out to destroy you, listen to their speeches, read their books, then you’ll be in a better position to counter their harmful rhetoric. (Don't simply repeat what others are saying they have said. Honest people often spread lies because though honest—many of them are foolish. Believing a lie to be true, they spread it.)
An example of such lies are the lies that have been spread about racism in today's America. America has a long history of racism, but the lies that are being spread today serve no good purpose. They only increase tensions and lead to more racism. (See Shapiro’s interview with Vince Everett Ellison in Oct 24.)
"...the sincere controversialist is above all things a good listener. The really burning enthusiast never interrupts; he listens to the enemy's arguments as eagerly as a spy would listen to the enemy's arrangements" (G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World, 1910).
If you are quick to condemn, you will not be able to see clearly. You will misinterpret what is right in front of your eyes.
“To give truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation.” ~ George MacDonald
“Stop seeing what you know, and start knowing what you see. This is not about you needing more information. It’s about the fact that you have been programmed to interpret it in a way that does not give you the ability to process that information in a way that because you can’t process it dialectically, you will be positioning your issue for destruction.” - Stephen Coughlin (How the Marxist Dialectic is Attacking You: An Introduction to the Dialectic with Stephen Coughlin)
Some people are only interested in power. Treating others the way they like to be treated is not part of their belief system. They target individuals, institutions, and groups for destruction. They will try to dig up some dirt to place on their target, and if they can’t find any dirt they will twist the truth or simply make things up. If whites stand in their way, they will target whites. If blacks stand in their way, they will target blacks.
A good example of an attempt to destroy someone’s reputation with no regard for the truth is Clarence Thomas. See Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words and Crusade Against the Supreme Court | 6.29.24.
The only things we really need to know about these people are who are they targeting and why?
It's pointless appealing to the idea of fair play when dealing with them. They do not judge everyone by the same standard. (Once they have their target in their sights, anything goes. If they have to label little old ladies as domestic terrorists, they will—anything to silence those who stand in their way. See Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky.) Trying to reason with them is a waste of time (though, as already mentioned, we must give them a fair hearing and carefully exam what they are saying). The only thing they respect is power. Like the Nazis, Communists, and terrorists of every kind, they believe the end justifies the means.
It is time American's got serious about dealing with these people.
“If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, 17 the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. 18 The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, 19 then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you.” Deut 19:16-19
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” ~ Plato
For more on this see JAMES COMER ON BIDEN CORRUPTION | Verdict Ep.191.
If America avoids a civil war, it will be a miracle. (A large percentage of Americans believe the 2020 election was stolen. The last 30 minutes of the documentary ‘Trump Vindicated’ does not prove the election was stolen, but it does prove that the election system is riddled with holes. If those concerns are not addressed, civil war is a likely outcome.)
America is now on a knife edge.
But will the pendulum swing too far the other way? Time will tell.
1. See The Morning Wire episode “The Rise, Impact, and Potential Decline of Woke Ideology 12.28.24.” The episode is described as follows:
“We explore the origins and societal impact of "woke" ideology and how to dismantle it with Eric Kaufmann, author of The Third Awokening.”
But not all the divisions are as great as many people imagine. See the interview with Batya Ungar Sargonon on Triggernometry “How Elites Betrayed Working People.”
2. The danger with the plurality system of voting (first past the post) and ranked choice systems of voting (the preferential system) is that it is relatively easy for an extremist to win if there are lots of candidates running. First past the past is used in the UK and the preferential system is used in Australia. These systems are very dangerous to a democracy because in a close election it can make it relatively easy for a radical with a strong base to win in their electorate and gain the balance of power.
If a candidate receives more than 50% of the first preferences (primary vote), they would be elected under the proposed modification to the Borda system. Such a system may not result in the best candidate being elected (which is highly subjective anyway), but it would stop extremists being elected much of the time. See here.
3. If you’re on the left and you want to know what conservatives are up to, read Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America by Ted Cruz. If you are on the right and you want to know what the radical left is up to, read Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky
The following was put together before the Trump verdict.