First, they came for President Trump and since I sometimes disagreed with him, I did nothing.
Then they came for Republicans and since I was not a member of that Party I did not object.
Then they came for conservative media and I did not speak out.
Then they came for Trump supporters and I remained silent.
Then they came for me because there was no one left to speak for me.
(Adapted from Martin Niemöller’s poem “First they came…”)
Several of my readers have asked me what I’m going to say about the January 6th riot at the Capitol. Perhaps they missed the end of last week’s essay “Wise Men” where my opinion was succinctly stated in the last paragraph. If you want to read last week’s essay, go to the archives at https://www.knoxfocus.com and read what I actually thought. Going to the source was what journalists used to do before “news” became political propaganda and morphed into “fake news.”
Actually, there are greater issues than the Capitol riot. A few hundred fools and knaves, out of the more than a quarter million Trump supporters at the Washington protest, unlawfully invaded the Capitol. The wackos who entered the Capitol or who scuffled with police will be found, prosecuted and go to jail. Again, I make no excuses for these miscreants. But, on the other hand you should not ignore the Democrats who were silent for eight months during the riots, looting, destruction of businesses and violence of 2020. Kamala Harris excused these riots as did Pelosi who brushed off any condemnation with the cavalier comment, “People will do what people do.”
And even more important than President Trump’s November 3rd defeat, in what I perceive as a fraudulent election, are the repercussions of hate and the exercise of raw power which now endangers all of us. We saw idiocy at the Capitol with the shirtless guy sporting a bearskin headdress and horns. And we saw hatred at work with the punitive impeachment of President Trump by the Democrat Congress. Lord Acton once said, “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The Democrats, allied with the media and Big Tech, now control everything and their blood lust has morphed into excommunication.
By the high Middle Ages Kings and Popes vied for power. Kings had armies and argued they were chosen by God to reign. However, the Pope controlled the soul’s access to heaven which could be removed from a rebellious individual, even a King, by excommunication. This threat brought one French king literally to his knees as he crawled penitently through snow to have the bull of excommunication lifted by the Pope. Martin Luther was excommunicated and this ushered in the Protestant Reformation. Henry the 8th refused the Pope’s control, was excommunicated and then established his own Church of England and made himself the papal equivalent.
Unfortunately, We the People who disagree with the secular Popes (Democrats, media, RINOs, Big Tech) don’t have the power of a Luther or Henry the 8th and are now being systematically excommunicated or purged in the parlance of Stalin, Mao and other totalitarians. Everyone should be terrified by these new “pontiffs” who mandate politically correct groupthink and, like Orwell’s Big Brother, demand you love your inquisitors and fearless leaders.
Excommunication is proceeding under the guise of public safety and manifests as censorship, banning, shaming, terminations of employment, divestiture, shunning, even doxing and gas-lighting. During Mao’s Cultural Revolution I remember seeing penitents standing before threatening crowds bowing and begging for forgiveness for “incorrect thought.” I’ve seen religious groups turn their back on apostates, even family members. AOC, one of the new “papal scions,” now crows that the government should reign in the media, in other words, the so-called alternative media which are not the sycophant mouth pieces of the Democrat-socialists.
In George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984,” the infamous quote, “Big Brother is watching you,” has actually become a reality with Big Tech’s “Surveillance Capitolism,” a term coined by Shoshana Zuboff. Her 2019 sentinel book and the Netflix’s documentary “The Social Dilemma” sealed it for me. The Big Tech of Google, Twitter, Amazon and others of Silicon Valley is dangerous, anti-democratic and is 2020’s Big Brother. And even more terrifying, the Tech-Lords are allied with the Democrats, the media, BLM, Antifa and Washington’s ruling class. In 2020 we learned this cabal even controls the election process. The ruling class of Washington will never lose another election.
So, what should we do about the purges? A friend of mine coined the phrase and admonition, “Get informed, get inspired, get involved.”
It takes work to be informed. I listen to the left and the right. I read widely and so should you. Then, I believe you should use your own observations and apply common sense rather than intoning the surrealistic dogma of political correctness, CNN or the knavish Pelosi.
It’s sometimes tough to “speak the truth in love” as Paul advised. It’s tough to resist the mob and refuse “going along to get along.” It’s human to think this moment is unique, but we post-moderns don’t have it tough like those during The Great Depression or the soldiers in landing crafts heading for Omaha Beach on D-Day. I am fortunate that I have enough and cannot be bought or fired, at this point. And I have a voice at The Focus. In fact, if this column disappears you should get ready because they will soon be coming for you.
I recommend you network with others by email, text, snail-mail or phone. I realize that all of these means of communication can be monitored, but at this point they can’t suppress us all. I reject both violence and hatred. Yoda, the master of the misplaced modifier, said of hatred “A path to the dark side, it is.”
Lastly, I’m maintaining my new year’s resolutions to focus on Jesus, teaching and offering encouragement to others. Hopefully, there are elements of these perspectives in this weekly column.
I’m reading biographies this year and daily proclaiming Psalm 118:24 as I endeavor to increase my faith, virtue and knowledge (2 Peter 1:5). I’m enjoying retirement, helping with grandkids and working on the second novel of my science fiction trilogy. Stay tuned!
