Wednesday, August 09, 2006

The Course of History – The Hinge

Some context first. Read these posts: Necessity of the Moral Law Extinct Brontosaurus Christianity and Western Civilisation Existential battle for Western Civilisation Existential Battle for Western Civilisation – The detail So well put by Malcolm Muggeridge. Malcolm Muggeridge was a noted journalist who witnessed the enormous changes that the West experienced in the twentieth century. This is the man who took on Walter Duranty, the fraudulent journalist who now inspires the New York Times journalistic style. This is the man who, realising the stupidity of socialism, went right. This is the man who was party to an MI6 operation to rip apart a German spy ring in Brussels and in a fit of pride took credit for it. This is the man who, late in his life came to know Christ. This is the man who is responsible for some of the most piercing analysis of Western society in the twentieth century. Through his innate pessimism he makes one of the most high-level and profound summaries of twentieth century geo-polity:

We look back on history and what do we see? Empires rising and empires falling, revolutions and counter-revolutions, wealth accumulating and wealth dispersed, one nation dominant and then another. Shakespeare speaks of 'the rise and fall of great ones that ebb and flow with the moon.'

In one lifetime I have seen my own fellow countrymen ruling over a quarter of the world, the great majority of them convinced, in the words of what is still a favorite song, that, 'God who's made the mighty would make them mightier yet.'

I've heard a crazed, cracked Austrian proclaim to the world the establishment of a German Reich that would last a thousand years; an Italian clown announce that he would restart the calendar to begin his own assumption of power.

I've heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as a wiser than Solomon, more enlightened than Ashoka, more humane than Marcus Aurelius.

I've seen America wealthier and in terms of weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so that Americans, had they so wished, could have outdone an Alexander or a Julius Caesar in the range-scale of their conquests.

All in one little lifetime. All gone with the wind.

England part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy.

Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy.

Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades.

America haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keep her motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate.

Behind the debris of our self-styled, sullen supermen, there stands the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone mankind might still have hope.

The person of Jesus Christ.

Manny Is Here: The Course of History – The Hinge

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

The Course of History – The Hinge

Some context first. Read these posts: Necessity of the Moral Law Extinct Brontosaurus Christianity and Western Civilisation Existential battle for Western Civilisation Existential Battle for Western Civilisation – The detail So well put by Malcolm Muggeridge. Malcolm Muggeridge was a noted journalist who witnessed the enormous changes that the West experienced in the twentieth century. This is the man who took on Walter Duranty, the fraudulent journalist who now inspires the New York Times journalistic style. This is the man who, realising the stupidity of socialism, went right. This is the man who was party to an MI6 operation to rip apart a German spy ring in Brussels and in a fit of pride took credit for it. This is the man who, late in his life came to know Christ. This is the man who is responsible for some of the most piercing analysis of Western society in the twentieth century. Through his innate pessimism he makes one of the most high-level and profound summaries of twentieth century geo-polity:

We look back on history and what do we see? Empires rising and empires falling, revolutions and counter-revolutions, wealth accumulating and wealth dispersed, one nation dominant and then another. Shakespeare speaks of 'the rise and fall of great ones that ebb and flow with the moon.'

In one lifetime I have seen my own fellow countrymen ruling over a quarter of the world, the great majority of them convinced, in the words of what is still a favorite song, that, 'God who's made the mighty would make them mightier yet.'

I've heard a crazed, cracked Austrian proclaim to the world the establishment of a German Reich that would last a thousand years; an Italian clown announce that he would restart the calendar to begin his own assumption of power.

I've heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as a wiser than Solomon, more enlightened than Ashoka, more humane than Marcus Aurelius.

I've seen America wealthier and in terms of weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so that Americans, had they so wished, could have outdone an Alexander or a Julius Caesar in the range-scale of their conquests.

All in one little lifetime. All gone with the wind.

England part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy.

Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy.

Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades.

America haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keep her motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate.

Behind the debris of our self-styled, sullen supermen, there stands the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone mankind might still have hope.

The person of Jesus Christ.

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