The Bare Necessities
By Erik Rush (01/08/07)
You wouldn't attempt to go for an hour without breathing, a week without taking fluid, or a year without eating, would you? Of course not. You would languish and die. Highly undesirable, unless you were a zealot, fanatic or hunger striker. It's also highly unlikely you'd decide a straight lifetime diet of peppermint patties, malt balls and beer was a good idea.
A person or society that completely eschewed mental development wouldn’t do very well either. Most people wouldn’t advocate a system in which children weren’t required to attend school, where education and learning were actively discouraged. Every day we see the results of such practice in the form of individuals and subcultures who have essentially lived on that basis, knowingly or not.
So we know that in order to flourish as entities and as societies (nations), we must nurture ourselves physically and mentally. Thousands of years of history and the medical breakthroughs of the last hundred years have shed light on the former in particular.
We’ve gotten away from some very basic wisdom, and I believe that this encapsulates the malady from which our society suffers. During the epochs during which we were (in theory) more ignorant with regard to physical and mental health issues, the observant could tell that poor diet and ignorance just wouldn’t do in the long term.
Surprisingly, they also appear to have been less ignorant than we are today vis-Ă -vis the third component of human well-being: Spirituality.
We see this in action in many parts of Europe, relative to where we could be in another ten or twenty years. Most European nations are years ahead of America in terms of having abandoned spiritual principles, and years ahead in social degradation.
In areas of the world where hatred for America is prevalent, one can see where the collective spirituality has been given over to malevolent influences, whether they be invisible entities which deceive and apparently feed upon human misery, or those of the flesh (such as “the state”, or despots).
We also see the reverse in action in repressed nations and parts of the Third World, where people – despite abysmal conditions, some brought about directly as a result of their beliefs – not only live with dignity, but thrive and enthusiastically share their faith.
It was long-held in many cultures (and until recently, our own) that a person’s physical, mental and spiritual maintenance and development was of the utmost importance. Learned people today and in ages past maintained that these ought to be prioritized in the reverse order to bring about development of a well-rounded, well-grounded individual; healthy spirit, the mind and body will follow. The West has turned this paradigm upside-down: The body must be beautiful (aesthetic vanity), mind must be sharp (intellectual vanity), and spirit – well, that’s just a quaint comfort for the weak-minded.
Indigenous peoples in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and New Zealand demonstrated these principles as they understood them; they knew that when the spiritual life of even one individual was out of whack, it was of grave import to the entire tribe. Some of the remedial methodology is considered primitive or barbaric by modern Western Standards, but again, I did say they demonstrated these principles “as they understood them”. Their reverence for the Creator and His Creations was undeniable.
Despite the rhetoric of the far Left, history has repeatedly illustrated the sorry fate of cultures which gravitated away from such principals. It is true that elements of the Left lay claim to belief in spiritual principles, but in general:
1. Said principles usually prove to be arcane and retrograde, and
2. Individually, said “adherents” are usually as hypocritical as some followers of Judeo-Christian dogma with whom they are at war; indeed, many of their eclectic choices demonstrate a tendency toward seeking that which just happens to be in accord with their own arrogance, capriciousness, ego-gratification and self-interest.
When I write about issues spiritual and religious, I usually make it a point to address the “religion versus spirituality” question. One reason for this is the alacrity with which those on the Left quick-draw the tired old “horrors perpetrated in the name of religion” argument – one which invariably has Christianity squarely in its crosshairs.
One can justify almost anything in the name of religion, and any religion can be perverted by those powerful or numerous enough to do so. The Left’s condemnations of religion in this area are only testimony to the fallibility of all humanity – nothing more.
This religious perversion is presently evident in the case of radical Islam, but it wouldn’t be the first time such a thing has occurred on a large scale. The Pharisees of Christ’s time were very religious, but vehemently legalistic and hardly spiritual. The Crusades had more political overtones than religious ones, and very little spiritual basis or justification. Finally, all we need do is turn on the brainsucker box (the television, if that got by you) to witness money-motivated or politically-beholden mail-order “Reverends” plying their trade to millions of Americans and our picture is complete.
Spirituality in its basic form is acknowledgment and seeking of something greater than oneself and the material world. Religions ought to be utilities borne of spirituality rather than cultural and political movements or social clubs. This is why the Left is so dedicated to the eradication of true spiritual religion, which gives humanity the power to endure or accomplish just about anything. This even includes the toppling of evil regimes. It stands to reason that lack of true spiritual religion – upon which America’s foundation rests – might bring about the reverse.
The United States of America was established by people who sought to create a nation bereft of religious oppression. There were atheists among the Founding Fathers, and when diverse Christian denominations and later, people of other faiths began arriving they were welcomed, grudgingly by some because people aren’t perfect.
We are currently under attack by people who obscure constitutional lines as well as moral boundaries, but this is simply propaganda that must be treated as such. Inasmuch as they are dedicated to reviving religious oppression, what we truly face is far more than a constitutional crisis; it is a battle between good and evil, quod erat demonstrandum.
Hence, the enemy’s footsoldiers, captains and generals deserve no more quarter than they are giving us.
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