Of prophets, patriots, demons and the three C’s – Santa Barbara News-Press

Speaking of prophets, theologian Paul Tillich asked, Is it a sign of patriotism or of confidence in ones people, its institutions and its way of life, to be silent when the foundations are shaking? Is the expression of optimism more important than the expression of truth?

The three Cs climate change, critical race theory and COVID-19 are not what they purport to be.

The threat/crisis presented by each to our socio-economic and body politic are being exaggerated for nefarious reasons. That is, the climate is always changing; no culture, empire or civilization was ever without some form of racism, prejudice and bigotry; and mankind will ever be afflicted with various diseases, plagues, viruses and infections.

There is, after all, nothing new under the sun.

Accordingly, the three Cs do not warrant their prescribed remedies.

Ergo, we do not need to abandon nor destroy the following: our energy sources and economy for climate change; our constitution and institutions in the name of critical race theory; or our personal and economic freedoms for COVID.

America is mortally threatened by the three Cs due to a dearth of critical thinking skills, abandoned historical values, our compromised institutions of church and state, and an atrophied spirit of faith and freedom.

The following prescient warnings speak to our dire situation.

For example, the Brannon Howse documentary (via Janet Levy in American Thinker), Brainwashed in America, is concerned with the 12-step process of brainwashing aimed at affecting a Marxist revolution in America. (Brainwashing is defined as a method that manipulates and modifies a persons emotions, attitudes and beliefs to induce them to give up basic political, social and religious beliefs and to accept contrasting regimented ideas.)

The documentary observed the following: 1) removing principled leadership; 2) encouraging the questioning of values, convictions and the American worldview; 3) presenting revisionist history that portrays the free market system as oppressive; 4) propagating moral relativity to cloud the distinction between right and wrong; 5) extolling consensus and collectivism while declaring individualism dangerous; 6) focusing on emotions over facts, reason, and context; 7) fostering anxiety, confusion and social turbulence; 8) concealing the ultimate agenda.

The documentary also observed these trends: 9) using trusted individuals and institutions to enhance credibility; 10) using informants to zero in on those who dont comply; 11) rewarding compliance and punishing dissent; and 12) winning public trust by manufacturing chaos to lay the groundwork for a benevolent-seeming rescue.

In The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan wrote: I have a foreboding of an America in my childrens or grandchildrens time when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when our critical faculties decline, unable to distinguish what feels good and whats true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites, lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

Finally, theres this from Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged: When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing. When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors. When you see the men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws dont protect you against them, but protect them against you. When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice.

You may know that your society is doomed.

Andy Caldwell is the COLAB executive director and host of The Andy Caldwell Show, airing 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays on KZSB AM 1290, the News-Press radio station.

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Of prophets, patriots, demons and the three C's - Santa Barbara News-Press