Posted on 06/08/2021 7:16:33 AM PDT by rebuildus
I’ve been watching documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ classic series The Civil War , and I’m loving it! Since coming to the South, my interest in the horrific fight between Americans has increased dramatically.
I’ve also read Bill O’Reilly’s / Martin Dugard’s book Killing Lincoln, which I also enjoyed immensely.
Watching The Civil War, I heard Frederick Douglass quoted many times, which piqued my interest too, so now I’m also reading his autobiography! I definitely highly recommend this one. Too many have white-washed Slavery with an image of happy slaves joyfully singing spirituals. This is the other side, from the perspective of an ex-slave.
In times past, I may have watched The Civil War with a jaundiced eye, suspect that it originally aired on liberal PBS, or that Ken Burns is probably a liberal.
But I’m watching it with an open mind, and though I’m sure some people may tell me that it’s biased and is missing this or that key fact, I find it even-handed, and just as important–HUMANE.
In our mad desire to “win” in the political and cultural arena, I find a severe shortage of humanity among us (“right” and “left”). No, I will not equate the two, and pretend that humanity is equally lacking in the two sides. Many leftists are out of their minds with rage and destructive impulses. Yet, I see too little love on the right side of the spectrum as well.
That’s a problem.
As I watch The Civil War, I’m constantly struck by the good and bad on BOTH sides:
The North stood against the evil of Slavery (that’s a HUGE mark in their favor). Yet, life in northern cities could be de-humanizing, particularly in contrast with more natural and healthy rural living, which the South personified.
And the destruction of states’ rights, which Lincoln started, opened the door to today’s full-on ASSAULT against these rights. Yet nobody can rationally say that any state has the right to sanction the buying and selling of human beings against their will.
The South had a healthy distrust of the corrupting power of the federal government. Unfortunately for them, this distrust was so great that it impeded them from coming together sufficiently within their OWN government to maximize their chances for winning the war.
That so many Americans were essentially okay with a system that treated other Americans as PROPERTY is unsettling, to be frank. Of course, things have not changed all that much: the WHOLE country (North and South) permits the slaughter of unborn children in the womb. So are we any better than the slave-holders?
My point here, is that our hatred for our fellow man blinds us to the GOOD that resides within him. If the North and South COMBINED the good aspects of each, there never would have been a Civil War, and Reconstruction would have gone much better for all concerned, particularly the ex-slaves.
This principle is true of virtually EVERY division we have: black vs. white, right vs. left, rural vs. city, vegan vs. carnivore, “internal” vs. “external” martial arts, calisthenics vs. weight training, etc.
Tribes rule what was once the UNITED States of America, and this same phenomenon is playing out worldwide.
Rise of the “Tribal Chiefs”
Everywhere we see the rise of “tribal chiefs”–those who benefit via money and power from fomenting DIVISION amongst us. We see it all over the Internet–“influencers” who get clicks by insulting people who don’t agree with them.
You probably watch some of them. We all do.
Think about it–is this really productive? Does this place us in a more or less united position? Many of the people doing this call themselves “Christians.” Is this Christian?
Tribes are typically led by “chiefs” who are charismatic, have a way with words, are bold, and insatiable for attention. They cater to our worst instincts. It reminds me of one of my favorite old quotes…
"The palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise"--Thomas Paine
Tribalism is killing our unity, and thus killing our nation and the civilized world. We must overcome it or perish!
I believe healing starts when we recognize the part we are playing in this deadly game. This site will continue to promote the best in natural health, success, and freedom, and it will continue to point out those who are enemies of these, but it will not indulge in gratuitous insults to build our readership.
And I have no illusions–we will not ALL unite. Only those of goodwill, despite our differences. But I believe that will be enough to save our countries, or at least to safeguard those of us who trust God’s grace and the power of a people united.
Patrick Rooney is the Founder of OldSchoolUs.com. He communicates clearly and fearlessly during perilous times about natural health, success, and freedom. To reach Patrick, email him at info@oldschoolus.com.
Got a real Mensa member writing this "piece"...
Told my GF this past wknd..I believe that we are in a UN-declared one now.
This author doesn’t realize that it’s already started.
There’s no kumbaya at this point.
The Marxist Left keeps painting this clash as a “Race” issue. Some on the Right even espouse similar concerns as they don’t want to give the Left something else to brickbat them with.
It isn’t. Not even close.
It’s a CULTURE WAR. Marxit/Thug-life Culture Vs 1st World Civil Society.
Until we recognize that, we will continue to lose ground.
“The North stood against the evil of Slavery (that’s a HUGE mark in their favor).”
Did they? Or did the North stand against the expansion of slavery into new territories; places they did not want black people to live, free or slave?
Lincoln’s decision to levy war against the states was controversial at the time and remains so today.
If prayer and repentance doesn’t increase soon, we’ll have one whether we need it or not.
Tell it to the Left.
The War Between the States was just that; a war between the states.
The current Americans versus liberals conflict is something completely different.
It’s coming. Don’t know when, but I’m sure it’ll suck big time. But I also know that if we don’t fight when that time comes, we’ll essentially handing the keys to the kingdom over to the Marxist left. And in appreciation, I’m sure they’ll kill us quickly.
Some dissident intellectuals say that Northern mill owners already had strong economic relationships with southern cotton planters, but that slavery had been going out for 10 years before the war because slave owners had to support slave people past the time they could work. Trade was already internationalized, it centered on England, where they couldn’t keep up demand for their overproduction, and they were controlling Ireland where they could starve the people, during the potato famine there was an agricultural surplus & English soldiers were there to guard the food. William Wilberforce’s idealized opposition to slavery was criticized by commoner intellectual William Cobbett as hypocritical. Meanwhile, there was the spirit knocking religion of the Fox Sisters in Hydesville NY, 50 years later Harry Houdini’s career was debunking seances, up to 4 million of the most upwardly mobile northerners were into seances, the spirits, who were demons, would influence them into free love, abortionism, “we have a moral duty to stop an unloved child coming into the world”, Margaret Sanger practiced spiritism 50 years later. If the South had the moral burden of The Peculiar Institution, the North had the moral burden of its murdered children.
I despise Ken Burns. He is the original CRT pusher. Every “fantastic” documentary he did had whole segments on the poor oppressed blacks and how awful we all are in the US.
Plus, the docs are BORING. Good Lord, how slow, dirge music, monotonic narrative.
Most overrated producer ever.
Someone needs to tell our side that, because uh...we ain't doing a damned thing but believing in false CIA run operations in the name of Q and getting up and going to work every day.
Exactly.
Wars are not the start of a conflict, rather the ending.
If only Patrick Rooney had sent that column to Adolf Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini, there wouldn’t have been World War II.
\sarc
The problem I have with it is that it almost completely ignores the Christian abolitionist movement. There would have been virtually zero calls to free the slaves without the growing Christian abolitionist movement making it the number one issue to deal with. The 2nd Great Awakening is THE BASIS of the abolitionist movement -- THE BASIS of slaves being free. And I don't recall a scant mention in the docuseries that it was when the atheists were pushing Darwin's horribly scientific racism book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
To me it's fascinating that that book was published in 1859, the very next year the Christians won the 1860 election in the U.S. (Lincoln), then months later in 1861 the Civil War began.
Bet this man doesn’t have a clue about the Tariff of Abominations.
His reading material on the War Between The States could’ve been recommended by Hillary, Obama, or the NEA.
Samuel L. Jackson says “Check out the big f****** brain on Patrick!”.
No sympathy for democrats or their propagandists.
Your best book for where that Darwin thing went with his cousin Francis Dalton, into all kinds of skulduggery, from eugenics (to Hitler) and deliberate dumbing down (to Thomas Dewey & dyslexia), is a free download, Paolo Lionni’s “The Leipzig Connection” (Prussian dumbed down universal mandatory schooling) https://archive.org/details/TheLeipzigConnection
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