Posted on 10/20/2020 8:52:33 AM PDT by BagCamAddict
Paul Harvey: "If I Were The Devil"
Text of audio below.
Text of audio below.
Text of audio below.
If I were the Prince of Darkness, I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I’d have a third of its real estate, and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — Thee. So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first — I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: ‘Do as you please.’
“To the young, I would whisper that ‘The Bible is a myth.’ I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is ‘square.’ And the old, I would teach to pray, after me, ‘Our Father, which art in Washington…’
“And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I’d pedal narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.
“If I were the devil I’d soon have families that war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions — just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.
“Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges promoting pornography — soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. If I were the devil I’d make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.
“If I were the devil I’d take from those who have, and give to those who want until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.
And what do you bet I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I would caution against extremes and hard work in Patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on the TV is the way to be. And thus, I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the devil I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing.
"Paul Harvey, good day.”
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If he had mentioned abortion, gun-grabbing and globalism I would have been even more impressed.
Not that I recall, but I listened to him less and less because his show was on at the same time as Rush Limbaugh, and I kind of switched to Rush.
If he did move left, it might have been from competitive pressures to differentiate himself from Rush.
Anyway for many, many years he was the only reliable conservative voice on the radio, at least nationally. I imagine there were conservatives on local radio, but with the "fairness doctrine" I don't know.
Paul Harvey was so gentle and understated in his conservatism that he was able to squeak past the Fairness Doctrine.
I remember listening to that way back then in 1965 on my lunch break.
And now you know the rest of the story.
I don’t think those things were much of an issue, back then as they are today.
Either way, he was right then and it’s scary how right he was.
And now you know......the rest...of the story.
Sometimes I think the Devil does not have much to do, just point us in the general direction, and we do the rest, then we blame what we’ve done on the Devil....
And when we think the Human Race can’t go lower, we find he has dug a hole in the basement and jumped in.
King James Bible
13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Genesis 6
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
He just pokes you in the general direction he wants you to go in and people do the rest.
Ecclesiastes 9:3
This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.
Abortion wasn't legalized until 7 years later. Globalism mostly came about with affordable personal computing and the internet: late 80s. Gun-grabbing became a thing towards the middle and end of the Vietnam war; but you have a point, he really might have nailed that one to the door as well! The rest of it is so spot on, it's incredible.
“Abortion wasn’t legalized until 7 years later.”
But I thought the whole point was how well he foretold the future.... :-)
Much of what he was foretelling was already bubbling below the surface, or were persistent human problems that he feared would get out of control, as they now have. Remember, the international communist party goals were read into the Congressional Record in 1963, and were well known by conservatives before that, and he was writing in 1965.
Even so, there were some things that were just unthinkable, widespread legalized abortion being one. As to gun control, the first notable school shooting, Coumbine, wasn’t until 1999. That’s when the debate really heated up.
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