It's tempting to ask why America doesn't seem able to find the moral high ground in the same way that New Zealand does. The answer may be nothing more than the size of our respective populations. A more apt comparison would be with individual states or regions instead of the whole country, since half of of our states are
smaller population-wise than New Zealand, under five million people. Include the array of racial, immigrant, religious and regional minorities in America and any such comparison is clearly misguided.
Even so I find myself yearning that we as a nation seem to have lost the kind of integrity that led to participation in two world wars, the Marshall Plan and the kind of post-conflict impulses that made Germany, Japan and Vietnam into allies. It also must be said that the
inflows of foreign immigrants to America is greater by far than any other country in the world, and has for many years. As history's most audacious experiment the US is still a work in progress. There was a time when I would have specified "experiment in democracy" but the
democratic part of our heritage is not as neatly settled as smaller places.
That said, I refer the reader to the Vox link above. America may not achieve the kind of moral integrity now proudly displayed by New Zealand, but that country's reaction to the Christchurch massacre is a noteworthy aspirational example.
The 74-page manifesto that the alleged shooter is believed to have posted online shortly before carrying out the attacks is titled “The Great Replacement.”
That’s a clear reference to the writings of a controversial French philosopher Renaud Camus. As Sarah Wildman, who interviewed Camus for Vox in 2017, explains, “Camus argues that European civilization and identity are at risk of being subsumed by mass migration, especially from Muslim countries — it’s a concept he refers to as the ‘Great Replacement.’”
This idea is a cornerstone of white nationalist ideology around the world, and it’s a theme that runs through the alleged shooter’s entire manifesto, which provides the best insight we have so far into his alleged motives for the attack.
“This crisis of mass immigration ... is an assault on the European people that, if not combated, will ultimately result in the complete racial and cultural replacement of the European people,” the manifesto states. “Mass immigration will disenfranchise us, subvert our nations, destroy our communities, destroy our ethnic binds, destroy our cultures, destroy our peoples.”
The author explicitly states that his reason for carrying out the attack against New Zealand’s Muslim community, many of whom are immigrants, was to “most of all show the invaders that our lands will never be their lands, our homelands are our own and that, as long as a white man still lives, they will NEVER conquer our lands and they will never replace our people.”
It’s a horrifying message of hate. But it’s also, just looking at the numbers, absurd. Remember, Muslims make up a minuscule 1 percent of New Zealand’s population (and in Australia, where the shooter is actually from, Muslims make up around just 2.6 percent of the population).
Yet the myth of an impending “cultural replacement” persists — and was evidently strong enough to compel the author to commit mass murder.
But New Zealanders, with their expressions of unity, just delivered a powerful blow to that myth.
The students and bikers and indigenous Maori who performed hakas to honor the victims; the police officers and TV news presenters who donned headscarves in solidarity with their Muslim neighbors; and the thousands of other New Zealanders who showed up for Friday prayers at mosques across the country sent a clear message: The Muslims in our community are not invaders. And they’re not “replacing” anything.
They’re New Zealanders. They’re us.
“He was hoping to divide us,” 52-year-old Christchurch resident Bell Sibly, who wore a headscarf to the memorial to show her support, told NDTV on Friday. “And instead, he’s brought us all together in one big hug.”
Terrence McCoy's story in the Washington Post seems to be the last in a series. I didn't read the others but the one at this link is excellent.
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A few others, however, will find this link deeply offensive, so to them I apologize in advance.
Read & see what I mean.
"This is how cults work. They gradually alter people’s brains, attuning them to a singular voice, and weaponizing them against any dissenting opinions. To their manipulated minds, efforts to reach them with objective truth become acts of aggression against the one they see as divine—and trigger an ever-more passionate affection toward their leader. They will defend (even to relational death with people they once loved) that one person.
This is how cults work. They gradually alter people’s brains, attuning them to a singular voice, and weaponizing them against any dissenting opinions. To their manipulated minds, efforts to reach them with objective truth become acts of aggression against the one they see as divine—and trigger an ever-more passionate affection toward their leader. They will defend (even to relational death with people they once loved) that one person.America is in a cultic crisis, and Trumpism is the cult. There is no other way to approach these days.
When you believe one man above Science, above our Intelligence agencies, above former CIA directors and retired generals and revered journalists—when you believe that one man above even your own eyes and ears—you are fully indoctrinated.
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The goal of Red Letter Christians is simple: To take Jesus seriously by endeavoring to live out His radical, counter-cultural teachings as set forth in Scripture, and especially embracing the lifestyle prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount. This post is spot on.
Christianity takes on many forms in this county. What I term American Christianity is a unique form of Christian expression that has come to the fore over the last 150 years and which, I assert, has little to do with the basic tenets of what I’ll call Faithful Christianity.
- Faithful Christianity seeks peace and reconciliation between individuals and nations. American Christianity espouses confrontation and preemptive war.
- Faithful Christianity turns the other cheek. American Christianity carries a gun.
- Faithful Christianity treats the foreigner among us with dignity and respect. American Christianity denigrates the foreigner and labels him or her criminal.
- Faithful Christianity offers forgiveness. American Christianity assigns blame.
- Faithful Christianity offers mercy. American Christianity seeks revenge and retribution.
- Faithful Christianity serves the needy among us. American Christianity builds l$160 million temples to its ego across the street from homeless shelters.
- Faithful Christianity stands in awed silence at the birth of Christ. American Christianity turns Christ’s birth into a multimillion dollar vaudeville show complete with singing, dancing, and a Santa sleigh suspended on cables from the roof of the sanctuary.
- Faithful Christianity frees itself from the material world in order to follow Christ. American Christianity fully embraces American consumerism.
- Faithful Christianity submits to the cross. American Christianity wraps itself in the flag.
- Faithful Christianity does not judge the lives of others. American Christianity condemns that which does not conform to its ideology.
- Faithful Christianity confronts the power structure in pursuit of justice. American Christianity wields power to oppress others.
American Christianity is the antithesis of the teachings of Christ and the life to which Faithful Christians are called.
American Christianity is the religion of Constantine.
It is the religion of Rome.
It is the religion of empire.
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A fetal heartbeat bill finalized by the Georgia legislature is the most recent of several state responses to the addition of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Abortion opponents, anticipating a reversal of Roe, are eager to advance their anti-choice agenda to the final stage, making abortion in any form a criminal offense. So
heartbeat bills have appeared across the country.
Legal protections for abortion are limited but by no means wide open. There are endless variations among the states, but following Roe the generally accepted moment of legality was "viability", meaning the point after which a developing fetus becomes viable -- able to survive outside the womb.
When viability occurs is a matter of medical opinion and can vary from one practitioner to another, but it clearly falls somewhere between conception and delivery, typically at about 22-27 weeks. Forty weeks is considered full term.
In many cases a fetal heartbeat can be found even before a pregnant woman knows she is pregnant, so making abortion illegal prior to that point may be an "undue burden" (legally) so the future of this legislation has yet to be determined. They will not take effect until appeals clear the Supreme Court.
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I left this comment at a post by one of my Facebook friends...
This morning I heard a discussion of Uber and Lyft both making plans for an IPO, despite the fact that neither is thus far showing profitability. The appeal of their piece of the market is more about the future, their *potential*, than what's happening now. The comparison was made with early Silicon Valley ventures that showed little results in the beginning but later exploded -- see Facebook or Amazon, for example.
As they talked I thought about driverless cars and remembered that both companies (as well as some of the legacy auto manufacturers) all have plans for fleets of autonomous vehicles.
I doubt we will see it in our lifetimes but I imagine a time when privately-owned cars will be collector's items (much as classics are collected today), but with most people relying on fleets of autonomous electric vehicles they can summon when needed and returned to the fleet when they're done. (Remember when soft drinks recycled glass bottles? Few people now alive remember collecting discarded pop bottles for extra money.)
In my case, I decided years ago to look forward to the day when one of my kids decides I'm too old to be driving. Pride will not stand in my way when I say "Here are the keys, kids. All I want is that you provide transportation when I need it."
My wife's Grandpa was the example I decided to follow.
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The New Zealand Jewish community decided to shut its synagogues on Shabbat for the first time ever in an act of solidarity with the Muslim community in the country in the wake of the slaying of at least 49 people at two mosques in Christchurch.
“For the first time in history synagogues in NZ are closed on Shabbat following the shocking massacre of Muslims in Christchurch,” Tweeted Isaac Herzog, head of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
“The Jewish Agency and the NZ Jewish Council stand in solidarity with the bereaved families. We are united in fighting violent hatred and racism,” he said.
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NPR pledge times have some of the best content. (Same for public TV, btw.)
This program last year was/is an absolute winner. A little over a half hour, but the first ten or fifteen minutes will grab your attention.
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Signing off for today. Anything I want to note between now and midnight can go into tomorrow's Notes.
