Americans everywhere will celebrate the 4th of July today. Almost every single one of them support a system far more oppressive than the one we originally rebelled against.
What if today's Americans lived around 1776? They would be demanding:
-More centralized power in the hands of the monarchy
-Less individual liberty and more authoritarian control
-More taxation with little or no representation (to "spread the wealth," stop people from smoking and eating fatty foods, etc)
-Imprisonment of those advocating secession. That's "treason," after all.
In other words, modern Americans would have strongly opposed the original revolution. Yet they have the nerve to celebrate it anyway, despite ruining and overturning everything it was meant to correct.
The modern United States is not a land of freedom, but a slave pen, thanks to the very sheep who will be celebrating this holiday with such enthusiasm.
Keep that in mind while you're munching on your beer brauts.
Now, if only you'll start thinking so clearly about your Christ-hatred.
ReplyDeleteHey Ilíon,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by and commenting. I hope we can see more of you here in the future.
I don't "hate" Christ, I just don't have any reason to believe God once walked the earth as a man.
By the way, I should point out that Cork joined Skeptical Eye as contributor last month and this post is by him (though I of course agree with it).
ReplyDeleteAh, I didn't even notice that the post wasn't made by you.
ReplyDeleteOn the Christ-hatred thing, your response isn't how it looks to me ... but, of course, I do realize that I can be wrong. And I do realize that, try as one might to always consider each individual person as an individual, it is inescapable that we will group one another into categories.
SE,
ReplyDeleteIs this post -- which was made by you -- *really* one which reflects the attitude of one who doesn't hate Christ? Does this really reflect the attitude of one who "just [doesn't] have any reason to believe God once walked the earth as a man?" Or is it better explained or understood as the attitude of one who has no intention of taking the claims of Christianity seriously?
There is a difference between making fun of silly things that Christians do -- we do it all the time -- and making fun of Christ himself or of Christianity itself.
I had noticed the other day some older post or other (though I now realize it might not have been posted by you) which seemed to me to be at odds with our mild discussion in my "Ghost Story" thread (which was about the impossibility of 'materialism,' and thus the impossibility of a "simple" atheism, rather than about the truth of Christianity). I thought I recalled some older post or other which is explicitly at odds with your statement that you "just don't have any reason to believe God once walked the earth as a man," but then I saw this newer one I've referenced. So I thought, why go looking for an older, vaguely remembered post (which may not even have been made by you), when this newer one is adequate to my point?