I think your interpreting the facts through your foregone conclusions.
We all filter things though our conscious mind. We form our worldview from our observations. This enables us to interpret the world and make sense of it.
We should be always check ourselves and periodically modify our worldview because as we age we change and of course the world is also constantly changing. I would be surprised if anyone had a static worldview.
I experienced a paradigm shift when I accepted Christ (25 years ago). I expected that this would color my perceptions and make me more conservative, but it didn't. If nothing it entrenched my left wing views. I could see the unfairness in the world and now I saw that Jesus had a heart for the weak, poor and down-trodden, like I did.
Many American Christians have bought into conservativism for reasons that escape me. They see Christ as a conservative while I see him as a radical. If he was conservative then the establishment surely would not have rejected him. When I read scripture I see Christ attacking the establishment of his day, the Sadducees, the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. He attacked their self righteous hypocrisy, their uncaring attitude and self centered lifestyle.
I see conservatives today in that same place. They want to keep their traditions, their privilege and their way of life. They insulate themselves from the common people and have lost touch with reality. They see others in terms of their own reality. They view the common people as losers, deserving of what they have got out of life. They think that everyone can be like they are if only they worked harder. This of course is a great deseption which they try to keep alive.
God made enough to go around. He did not make people poor. He did not make others to want more that their neighbor. That comes from the human heart and temptations of Satan. We unequally distribute God's bounty. We set up systems of government and economics. We entrench in law the unfairness that comes from our desire to promote our interests over someone else's. In God's world we will all be winners.
As a leftist, I think that we can right some of the wrongs. I think that the laws we have were made by the landed and the rich. They came out of the medieval era. They favor their position. Anything that the common man has got they have had to fight for and in many cases die for. I don't think that there is any rule that God made which gives the rich the right to exploit the poor.
I think that common people are the majority, but that the legal, economic and political systems were set in place long ago and that they guarantee the success of the privileged class. They have succeeded to create a fiction that there is no class system in America and that anyone by virtue of hard work can succeed. But to succeed is to lose the common touch and to become like them.
Mussolini said that "fascism should be correctly called corporatism". Living in a society which is based on corporate success is by his definition fascist. Corporations do not have a vote in a democracy, but by owning the media and by controlling the economy they get the only say that matters. They dictate who runs, who succeeds and ultimately who you will choose. They give media access and slant it in the same way that they do in a fascist state. They crown the next "Prince" in the way that would make Machiavelli.
Corporations control the the judicial system as well as the economic and political. Judges at the highest level are appointees of the political. Judges are chosen for their friendliness to the agenda of the administration which is friendly to the agenda of the corporate masters. Lower down judges are elected in the U.S., but the political process is marred because it gives preference to those who can raise the most money and are therefore friendliest to those with money, the wealthy, including those with the most money corporations.
Democracy is a delusion and a sham. It exists only to give legitimacy to the wealthy class. When we served our medieval masters we had no such delusions. We had few rights, but at least we know where we stood.
To the corporate masters it does not matter who is elected in the end. They know that whoever is elected will come hat in hand for money. They let the hopeful know where they stand and there is an unwritten contract that they will work within the parameters they set out. The candidate knows that failure to deliver is not an option for the corporate masters. It is therefore just a question of who is able to best sell themselves to the public.
I personally believe that there are even more insidious forces at work in all western democracies. I think there is a whole network of influential people functioning in all areas of expertise dedicated to a common purpose. I think that they are secretive and work behind the scenes for a common purpose. These people know who each other is and that is enough for them. We are not to know who they are, but you can count on one thing that if they are in a position of power then they are either directly involved or are being manipulated. As Christians we are told that Satan is the prince of this world. Centralization of wealth and power plays into his hands and we would be remiss if we discounted either his power or desire to manipulate the world.
Satan is subtle. He lures us and beguiles us. He uses illusion and deception as tools. It would be a mistake to think that democracy, communism or capitalism is good in and of itself.
I challenge myself and it often takes me into places other people do not want to go. I can be accused of being alarmist or extreme, but I don't think that I can be accused of being ill-informed or asleep at the wheel. I do not buy into the party line and I probably won't because I think it is based on lies and deception. Until I know better I will keep my guard up.
Blessings,
Dunamite
