Posted on 01/07/2025 7:01:25 AM PST by Starman417
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
Since that quote was first published in 2017 by G. Michael Hopf in Those Who Remain, it has become one of the most oft-quoted phrases in the conservative universe. (I’ve quoted it several times.) That’s because it perfectly captures the current state of Western civilization.
I’ve experienced a good bit of that Western civilization. I’ve had the good fortune to have lived over a quarter of my life outside of the United States. I’ve lived in Cuba—albeit on a rather well-known American base rather than in the Communist part—Italy, Germany, and France. I do not say good fortune because I think living in America is bad. On the contrary, living outside of the United States has given me a perspective on America that I’m certain I wouldn’t have had I not lived outside her borders for as long as I did.
I spent most of my time outside of America in Europe. The thing that most attracted me to Europe is the history, or, more accurately, the physical manifestations of history. From the Colosseum and the Vatican in Rome to the Louvre and Mont-Saint-Michel in France to the Heidelberg Castle and the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, I simply can’t get enough. Europe is covered with countless monuments, most of which long predate the United States.
Many of what I call monuments to history aren’t actual monuments at all. Most are structures built for a function, and most of them were created to either celebrate Christ or were created by men impelled by Christianity. Of course, Christianity is, like everything crafted by man, imperfect. Still, overall, the civilizations grounded in Christianity have created more freedom, technological advances, and prosperity than any civilization in human history.
As it relates to America, as much as leftists want to argue that America was not founded as a Christian country, they’re simply wrong. Christianity infused virtually every element of life in what became the United States and the Europe from which its founders came. While one can make the argument that men like Franklin or Madison may have been “deists,” the reality is that they were very much part of the penumbra of Christianity that infused the colonies.
240 years on from America’s founding is where Hopf’s good times / hard times construct comes in. As Western civilization gets farther away from Christianity, the worse it becomes.
To repurpose a Winston Churchill line, Christianity is the worst form of religion except for all the others which have been tried. At its zenith, Christianity accomplished much. The Christian world ended slavery around the world. It brought us functional manifestations of individual liberty and democratic institutions. It freed men from the farm and sent us to the moon. It’s done much more, from the mundane to the magnificent, and driven prosperity across the globe.
At the same time, whether it’s Al Sharpton, televangelists, or the anti-western Communist currently running the Catholic Church, Christianity has, and has had, its share of charlatans, hypocrites, and grifters. But so, too, has every aspect of human life.
This is where Hopf meets Voltaire. Voltaire said, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” That is exactly what has happened to Western civilization. As a Christian-powered prosperity has flourished in the West, the belief in Christ has collapsed, and many of those weak men of whom Hopf writes have invented their gods.
In this case, the gods they’ve created are communism, environmentalism, and victimization, usually in concert with one another. Of course, the only reason the adherents of those philosophies have had the luxury to pursue them in the first place is because of that very prosperity Christianity and its world created.
Just as the Communist Manifesto was written by a despicable grifter who lived off the labor of others, today’s leftists argue that everyone has a “right” to healthcare, housing, and food, among other things. Unlike the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, however, every one of those things requires someone else to work with pay for others to provide those “rights.”
Today’s environmentalists have the luxury of pushing for “green” energy only because actual, functional sources of energy exist to allow the grift to continue. They can pretend their preferred energy sources are “green” only because leftist governments and media ignore reality. Like leaders of other cults, they command their followers to ignore what’s right in front of them. Whether it be child slaves in the Congo, trillions of wasted dollars, “green” equipment that can’t be recycled, or infrastructure that doesn’t provide the promised energy, nothing can move them from their green mantras.
At the same time, the victim mindset has taken hold because leftists have no more understanding of human nature than communist philosophers do. Life is unfair. There always was and always will be inequality. It doesn’t matter if it was the Roman Empire, the Han Dynasty, the Soviet Union, or America today; inequality has always existed, and different groups were/are disproportionately represented in the various classes.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
Amen.
As a practicing Jew, I need Christianity so the muslims don’t murder me.
https://floppingaces.net/2025/01/07/as-christianity-dies-in-the-west-the-west-itself-dies/
I think this is the proper link. The link provided is to a story about Trump.
Crap...thanks for that. Argh!!!!
...the gods they’ve created are communism, environmentalism, and victimization, usually in concert with one another. Of course, the only reason the adherents of those philosophies have had the luxury to pursue them in the first place is because of that very prosperity Christianity and its world created.
Just as the Communist Manifesto was written by a despicable grifter who lived off the labor of others, today’s leftists argue that everyone has a “right” to healthcare, housing, and food, among other things. Unlike the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, however, every one of those things requires someone else to work with pay for others to provide those “rights.”
BTTT
It’s the West that’s dying, and lack of Christianity is a root cause not an effect.
Judeo-Christian ethic defined the West.
That ethic is God-fearing.
In my view, abortion determines whether one fears God or not.
I do not see how anyone can be God-fearing if they advocate abortion or even if they passively accept abortion.
Evil must be resisted in any time and any place.
I’m not a Christian because I don’t believe that a guy riding around on a camel 2,000 years ago was the son of God.
John 14:6: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Matt 10:28: And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Rom 10:1,9: Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
A camel? You dismiss something you have absolutely no knowledge of.
Bookmark
I understand your perspective, but respectfully decline.
That’s right.
Well said.
bump
“A guy on a camel”, that’s what you know of Jesus, really?
You are right after all, don’t believe anything from ‘a guy’ you know nothing of.
Of course you do.
The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
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