China's Reply to the American Myth

-China’s Reply to the American Myth Chi Hao Tian Speech published for PLA readers 2005. ‘In discussing this issue let us start at the beginning. As everyone knows, according to the views propagated by Western scholars, humanity as a whole originated from a single mother in Africa. Therefore no race could claim racial superiority. However according to research done by most Chinese scholars, the Chinese are different from other races on earth. We did not originate in Africa instead we originated independently in the land of China….The Project of Searching for the Origins of the Chinese Civilization currently undertaken in our country is aimed at the most comprehensive and systematic research of the origin, process and development of ancient Chinese civilization….Therefore we can assert that we are the product of cultural roots of more than a million years, civilization and progress of more than ten thousand years, ancient nation of five thousand years and a single Chinese entity of two thousand years. This is the Chinese nation that calls itself. ‘descendants of Yan and Huang’ the Chinese nation that we are proud of. Hitler’s Germany had once bragged that the German race was the most superior on earth, but the fact is our nation is far superior to the Germans. During our long history, our people have disseminated throughout the Americas and the regions of the Pacific Rim and then become Indians in the Americas and the East Asian ethnic groups of the South Pacific.’…..and later he goes on to say… ‘Today I would like to talk about the lessons of German and Japan. As we know Nazi Germany also place emphasis on the education of people, especially the younger generation. The Nazi party and government organized and established various propaganda and educational institutions such as ‘Guiding Bureau of National Propaganda…all aimed at instilling into the people’s minds the idea that German people are superior and convincing people that the historical mission of the Arian people is to become the ‘lords of the earth’ that ‘rule over the world’. Back then the German people were much more united than we are today. Nonetheless German was defeated in utter shame, along with her ally Japan. Why? We reached some conclusions at a study meeting of the Politburo (As former Defense Minister this man speaks from the top level at this time) in which we were searching for the laws that governed the vicissitudes of the great powers and trying to analyze Germany and Japan’s rapid growth. When we decided to revitalize China based upon the German model we must not repeat the mistakes they made. Specifically the following were the cause of the defeat of Germany and Japan. First they had too many enemies all at once as they did not adhere to the principal of eliminating enemies one at a time; second they were too impetuous lacking the patience and perseverance required for great accomplishments third when the time came to be ruthless they turned out to be too soft therefore leading to troubles that resurfaced later on. Our Chinese people are wiser than the Germans because fundamentally our race is superior to theirs’…..Take response to war as an example. The reason that the United States remains today is that it has never seen war on its mainland, the enemies would have already reached Washington before congress finishes debating and authorizing the President to declare war. But for us, we don’t waste time on these trivial things. Comrade Deng Xiao Ping once said ‘The Party’s leadership is prompt in making decisions. Once a decision is made it is implemented immediately. There is not wasting time on trivial things like in capitalist countries. This is our advantage’….. And on and on it goes with a discussion as to why German being Christian couldn’t make decisions which China Not being Christian can easily make and super weapons in development needed to kill off 100 million Americans so China can rejoin with it’s American Indian peoples and gain there –‘Living Space’. Jesus said: The standards of judgment you see against others will be the standards which are set against you’ Matt7:2 In the post before this one we read some of the most racist nonsense ever written which was being studied and believed by the ‘Aristocrats’ of New England in the mid 19th Century at Harvard, Yale and other elite institutions. Yes we can look at the work of Adolf Hitler in the early mid 20th Century destroying Germany and the tens of millions of people who died as a result of those Race Ideologies- But the fact is that in Chinese, Koreans, Japanese as anyone who has lived with them and studied their language and culture can attest- you have the currently most racist peoples on earth. And so when last week of October 1950 the Superior American Army came up against the Chinese army and defeat turned into a rout with one of the survivors of that poorly told event in human history telling me that he was part of a group of men of a hundred of whom only ten survived… Or a similar thing happened only ten days earlier as a sign again on the Chinese border but that time with Vietnam with the French loosing most of their men in the abandonment of Cao Bang. What I am attempting to do here for you as a reader is not to debate which of Noah’s sons has the superior racial group- and trust me I do have opinions on that topic… But rather to show that if we sow into these ideologies then there is an appalling harvest of death when wars are fought as was the Korean and Vietnam wars on the basis of a belief that Europeans are superior as a race to Asians –Koreans or Chinese. Yes I totally agree with Chinese Defense Minister Chi Hao Tian that China will when they decide to; Invade USA and yes at least 100 million Americans will die in that long predicted by many event. But for us reading this again I ask- Do You Have Faith? Will you for the continuation of your family in the earth do what so ever irrational thing which is in your heart to do? My father wanted us as a family to go and live in another city- And yesterday I turned on the TV showing the results of the election and there was a spectacular result showing up for one of the minor parties in that city- Why? Well yes we have a family member there doing that! While my effort was to move the entire family back to our home town in 1990 the Biblical Jubilee year for the year long relaxing do nothing much reclaim our family lands holiday of the Torah. Faith!

God Bless America- Is USA special?

God Bless America!- Is USA special? In the second chapter of Time Life’s 1965 ‘The United States ‘ the Oxford University historian Cunliffe has tossed around competing ideas to show that neither one thing or the other may be correct- and concludes his chapter in much the same way; ‘Dualities or unities? Frontier or seaboard? Redskins of paleface? The range of choices remind us of Turner’s ‘subjective history’. There is not final answer….in the present climate of opinion consensus explanations are more in fashion than the other sort. The Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger Snr has maintained that there is another pattern of American history- a cyclical movement (This is caught by the Torah cycles of seven and fifty years) in which periods of conservatism alternate regularly with radicalism. If so, the recent conservative phase (up until the early 60s) with its revulsion from ideology may have induced historians to read the same mood into various episodes of the past with greater or less justification. Another recent tendency should be noted. Now that America is an established and even and old nation. Scholars have become concerned with the shortcomings of traditional American thought. They believe that the United States was more lucky than chosen and ought to understand that the luck may be running out. As for the past, they would have America grasp that the country was never as exceptional as its citizens liked to think….’ P36 The United States. Time Life World Library. So is luck running out? My own view of USA is based upon my childhood fascination of the big block Chevy V8 engine millions of examples made which I could hear firing up three blocks away from my house and rushed to examine. Or which powered the home built ‘special’ which easily passing everything on the back straight throwing sand far and wide as it cornered took the title at the summer beach racing car club meeting whose roar could be heard miles away on race day. What later disturbed me as I became a car factory worker myself was the sheer excess and impracticality of American engine and auto design. Big, simple, brash, excessive, loud the vehicles handled badly and were easy to crash or roll and used fantastic amounts of hard to obtain fuel as if the stuff- Oil- would last forever. And yes in 1973 going into 1974 USA’s oil reserves did run out so that there was no longer excess supply to pump and the world oil price took off- with currently oil regularly selling on the crude market at over 100 dollars a barrel. Luck? Faith? Stupidly? Well the expansive joy with which American men took to the utterly insane current sport of Drag Car Racing, or how easily tiny ‘where?’ New Zealand dominated the Can Am big block V8 sports car racing of the 1970s illustrates to me all those three things happening at once. Yes Luck Is Running Out! So then work on the other two- Stupidity- If you are reading this don’t be as stupid as you normally would be in reacting to what I am telling you! And Faith! Yes do what has never been done before- why? So that in the days ahead Your family righteous will survive! God Bless America!

Myth becomes Religion?

Myth becomes a Religion? 2003 was a deeply perplexing time for those America based evangelical and Pentecostal believers who did not support President Bush and his ‘God Ordained’ ‘Mission Accomplished’ preemptive invasion of Iraq. How it had come to a place where to be a Christian was to have the assured values of hating Islam and Muslims as a replacement for the earlier hatred of Godless communism; and to assure that the US military had become an extension of God’s will! And how in such a patriotic environment was it possible to point to some other view of religion while attempting to retain deep and genuine love and respect for fellow believers who would have literally supported Adolf Hitler because much of what USA and American Christianity had embraced had a very similar feel and structure to the support Hitler enjoyed from European Pentecostals in the 1930s. Or turn this completely around. If in August –and it did happen- August 1939 the German Nazi Party at their Party Congress replaced the Bible with Mein Kampf and Jesus Christ with Adolf Hitler- Then had likewise Americans along the way replaced the same Bible with some other documents and Jesus crucified by religious authorities of his day for upsetting things- Replaced him with the US President? And the definitive answer to that speculation then in practical terms comes down to for us a reader to –What is Jesus quietly saying in our heart that we should be doing at this time? And what by contrast would our Senior Pastor of our Mega church be telling us to do- or what would it be acceptable as a US citizen to do or not do. Let me give you an example of this. Jesus said ‘unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die it shall not bring forth fruit’ and so after a profitable and full forty years of Christianity coming from a family continuously active in that religion since before Muhammed was even born… I realized that the best way for me to die and to test God to see if something new could be born was to go to the local mosque says some things in Arabic which I didn’t disagree with and thus die. So coinciding with the Ramadan 1998 attack on Iraq I did that and thus was firmly in place to accurately assess if when 9/11 happened there was any credible threat to my nation and to watch both sides of the intelligence game from an insider point of view. And as an added bonus be able to think middle eastern when it comes to language and religions coming from those places . Crazy? Well ask Abraham why he went to sacrifice Isaac? Have Faith- Do it and live! Love paul The most remarkable characteristic of the American political system is not its houses of representation or government machinery although they are indeed noteworthy- But the faith and fervor that this machinery inspires in the American people. However defective the institutions of the country may be, they will always have defenders: Indeed nations can only function if their institutions command a least a degree of popular assent. There is nothing exceptional about the attachment of the citizens to the public order inherited from the past. What is exceptional, when one considers the American phenomena in its living reality, is the religious trust that this order commands from Americans. The explicit spontaneous and exuberant character of this faith is manifest constantly. Millions of American children salute the flag the Stars and Stripes each morning at the start of the school day…. P49 Alan Clement The United States 1965.

Exporting the American Dream?

Exporting the American Dream Within the Anglo-Saxon circle, Americans are not as a general rule better citizens than Englishmen or Canadians. Yet even the most apathetic or under-privileged among them do not imagine that they could live under a different system-even thought they might violate their own laws or suffer cruelly under them. …Fundermentally the American system does not appear to be a mere triumph of human ingenuity in the face of great troubles and difficulties. It is more than a success, more even than a miracle; it is to paraphrase Lincoln, the achievement of a superior destiny placed by the Almighty into the hands of his ‘almost chosen people’ to spread ‘a great promise to all the people’s of the world in all time to come’. One might almost say the vocation of the American people is to go from one Promised Land to another, not only to move out of the Original Paradise of the Founding Fathers but to proceed towards the Eternal Paradise of mankind, gathering under a third Biblical Testament. This feeling of predestination and of self-wonder, served by unchanging rites and rhetoric, has astonished even the most sympathetic observers of the American republic, from Alexis de Tocqueville to Sir Denis Brogan. The certainty that American institutions are the best in the world- even when some of their defects are acknowledged- expresses itself in an ‘American Creed’ and prolongs itself in an ‘American Dream’ p49-50 Alan Clement US correspondent ‘Le Monde- in ‘The United States’ After reading what we have read here- You might wonder where around the world has USA managed to find places which wanted to emulate the American Dream? Is this dream a fantasy or Myth or has indeed there been actual nations places which have seen what USA has achieved and tried to gain and establish for themselves as well what USA has given to humanity- This third great Testament sent down from heaven for mankind. And yes I am not the least bit mocking for as a honest historian I have found two young idealistic leaders wishing to rid their nations and people of tyranny who have sought to gain the American system so that the old colonial rule can be overthrown and the American model be set up. And the two examples I have managed to find from the pages of history are young Ho Chi Min in Vietnam and Fidel Castro in Cuba. Now you may not be of a mind to believe me- so I quote another American historian here in the first instance; “In the fall of 1945 Japan defeated…in the meantime a revolutionary movement had grown there, determined to end colonial control and to control and to achieve a new life for the peasants of Indochina. Led by Ho Chi Min the revolutionaries fought against the Japanese and when they were gone held a special celebration in Hanoi in late 1945, with a million people in the streets and issued the Declaration of Independence. It borrowed from the Declaration of the rights of man and citizen in the French Revolution and from the American Declaration and began ‘All men created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights among these Life Liberty and the pursuit of happiness’….the Vietnamese listed their complaints against French rule …Between Oct 1945 and Feb 1946 Ho Chi min wrote eight letters to President Truman reminding him of the self determination promises of the Atlantic charter and in one of the letters sent to both the UN and Truman said ‘Two million Vietnamese died of starvation during winter of 1944 and spring 1945 because of the policy of French who seized and stored until it rotted all available rice…three fourths of cultivated land was flooded summer of 1945 which was followed by severe drought of normal harvest five sixths was lost’ p469-470 People’s history of USA. And while a similar story can and could be told of Cuba’s desire to overthrow a very corrupt and incompetent dictatorship I lack the details but do know enough that US Army people fought on the side of Castro because as loyal American citizens they saw that was the right thing to be doing…. Yes if USA has a system of government which has been sent down from heaven- Dear Reader rest assured the God of History has been and will hold USA to account!

Reassessing Torah

Re assessing Torah In Matthew 19 a Jewish upstart from Nazareth creates a legal ruling if we were to accept it (On the subject of Divorce so I guess we will ignore it) which is over and above the Hebrew Torah and again if we were to accept it would make this nobody Jew (Who soon after was crucified) the ultimate legal judge. Now the reason why this intrigues me is that when I read in Hebrew looking up and considering every word the Torah I did not find a final for all time complete everything you need to know document- Rather the books from Exodus to Joshua including an Arabic contribution by Balaam- they read better as a travel dairy and community record with legal discoveries and rulings emerging when the subject or events make that relevant with the most interesting Hebrew word- translated by others as ‘Judgment’ better describing ‘decision making’ putting the power back in the hands of Torah readers to go on and live their own travel adventure knowing that the process is ongoing; Rather than as silly Americans would have it-10 Commandments down on the court house wall. Thus just as Einstein comes along when previous centuries of scientists had postulated that the universe operates on Unchanging Laws and it is up to science to find and then use those laws- No! This kicked out of Germany by Adolf Hitler Jewish Professor says the universe is ‘Relative’. OK Definitive and final; or Relative and relationship with the creator of the universe, with a Jew from Nazareth who uses the sacred name as if he is it? You can see here the capacity for quite a good religious argument. So what? Well in much the same way Alain Clement goes on to show how the American people have treated their own ‘sacred’ Constitution in much the same way that Orthodox Jews have as being unmovable and eternal- when we outside observers are more inclined from a wide ranging view of human history and cultures to see potential flaws in USA and the faith put in their system as being delusional! You see the capacity here for a good political argument. Well you the reader can decide! USA forever? Still as a result opposite to that which actually took place in the United States might be expected, for what restraint could and abstract form of legitimacy exert based as it was on antiquated texts and outmoded institutions? Raising the question, however only serves to underline that it is totally irrelevant in the American context. For an American the Constitution is not the product but the source of Legitimacy. It requires no justification. What derives from it is legitimated, not merely legal, and therein resides its uniqueness. The Constitution is not just an historical document doomed to obsolescence, not the text of a ‘social contract’ subject to repeal, but the manifestation of a Revelation, the same time the Tables of the Law and the Ark of the Covenant, the final justification of an all encompassing system.

Life with Mr President

Life with Mr President In the much studied by me 1963 National Geographic magazine article Disneyland and Disney studios there was a mechanical working model of President Lincoln as an example of America’s greatest President in the process described in the previous posts whereby the American political system which we outsiders see as being deeply flawed is ordained as a religion sent down by God. Therefore somewhat randomly I tackled a chapter in journalist David Remnick ‘The Bridge’ and came across some valuable deconstruction in ‘To the Whitehouse’ of how President Lincoln following on other slave owning Presidents held personal views which were are different to those who see the American Civil War as being fought for the ending of slavery. Instead an examination of Elizabeth Keckley’s book ‘Behind the scenes of thirty years a slave and four years in the White House’ gives valuable insight so that as historians we can reconstruct what really went on and how the American political and business system really operates. And of particular interest to me is the ‘buried’ Biggest and Most Important battle fought in July 1863 in New York -70,000 involved; which must be for genuine historians the lens through which we view dysfunction to strip away myth and structure; Reality of Empire State- Capital of the World- founded by Peter Minuit –American Empire from New York. ‘If Lincoln grew, the abolitionist Wendell Phillips said –it was because we have watered him. For Lincoln The Union came first. As he wrote to Horace Greely; (Special Note: Horace Greely the Editor of New York’s The Tribune was so influential in New York that the view of Greely expressed at the time ‘employment of the greatest possible force in suppressing the mob’ is part of the story line which still captures people studying that event; But Greely attracted a mob of thousands intent upon hanging Greely singing ‘We will hang old Greely to a sour apple tree and send him straight to hell’ Greely narrowly escaping with his life when the mob attacked and set fire to his newspaper building Evening of July 13 1863) ‘If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing slaves, I would do it.’ It was only late in 1862 that Lincoln determined the military necessity demanded that he put forward a proclamation of emancipation. But he neither denounced slavery as a moral travesty nor liberated slaves in states loyal to the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation was the cagiest of historical acts. The resulting document Hofstadter notes ‘had all the moral grandeur of a bill of lading.’ Even in August 1863, nearly a year after Emancipation Douglass (Fredrick Douglass a black man) remained deeply distrustful of Lincoln calling him a ‘genuine representative of American prejudice’- and with reason. In the early summer, there were draft riots in New York.(See note above) White protestors, many of them Irish were furious that they were made to fight for the rights of ‘niggers’ as they invariably put it, and hundreds of men rampage through the city, torching black owned houses and charities and lynching blacks from city lampposts. It took four days for the Union troops to quell the rioting. In the end there were a hundred dead and hundreds more injured. (Conservative estimate -2,000 killed 8,000 wounded-H. Asbury 1927 ) And to Douglass’s dismay. Lincoln so feared any further insurrection from whites angry at conscription that he refused to declare martial law or even prosecute the rioters…. ‘ p569 The Bridge-Life of Barak Obama David Remnick A Knopf 2010 www.theartofthecitynewyork.blogspot.com That blog gives more details quoting H Asbury ‘The Gangs of New York’. Tonight on the TV- Hong Kong has tens maybe hundreds of thousands protesting but China refuses to cover the story! The largest most significant popular event in USA history- is still being downgraded as a non event in the Obama book! Unless we deal with reality we are doomed to see a repeat- Watch out New York- It will happen again, Worse? End?

One man is as good as another? What a strange idea!

One man is as good as another? What a strange novel idea! ‘They clothed these ideas with a written Constitution which may be one of the supreme political works of man and which certainly the supreme political work of any committee in history. These ideas permeated the whole society. The result, particularly when expressed with popular uneducated credulity could be offensive and baffling. Nineteenth century English writers who visited United States found the day to day expressions of those ideas irritating. They contrasted, in their books and articles, the manners of the Americans at common tables of their rooming houses with their fantastic confidence and pretense of pitying superiority. It was not just that Americans were brash and uncultivated. They possessed a true pride, and it was this pride that visitors like Charles Dickens found intolerable. Mark Twain, particularly when abroad, singularly exemplifies this pride. American ministers of the Court of St James found themselves unabashed in the presence of Queen Victoria, even though they alone refused court dress. A tobacco chewing drummer in dry goods felt and expressed equal of the heaped-up nobility of Europe and made it plain when he came across them. He or his fathers had crossed the Atlantic to get out of the rut of privileged society and the glittering edifice of kings bishops and title folk, of formal manners and insecurity, and dammit, he was in a country where the son of a African student could become President and what do you think of that? It was heady stuff. And it is still working’ P11 Time Life World Library ‘The United States’ –one minor adjustment to the text! On that historic day April 27th 1841 two tiny ships cast loose from Gravesend Lower Thames cutting forever the physical tie to Olde England and by mid September had arrived twelve thousand miles away at Nelson New Zealand. And when I went to my Nayland School reunion where I was the youngest first day student in 1961 –the reunion organizer speaking in the native Maori language excited me telling us that his ancestor Richard Ching and 29 year old laborer was aboard Will Watch a 200 ton vessel jammed with 45 precious souls who established from their landing Nelson New Zealand. And why am I telling you this? Well the Ching family has never produced a Prime Minister- sons of a poorly educated laborer- conceivably no threat to anyone. Yet wander around Stoke Nelson looking at the monuments and the reoccurring name to be seen is –Ching. Jesus said the meek shall inherit the earth- and yes in the case of the Ching family there throughout in Stoke Nelson New Zealand- Jesus is right! And why am I saying this? Well you see we from those first ships arriving in Nelson in 1841 when we had to live native style –eat native style to survive and then go on to thrive in a new land- We have been keeping an eye on those mentioned above; kings, bishops and titled folks with formal manners and their insecurities; and we have been bench marking ourselves against those ‘better folks’ to see who in the end is the winner. And so one hundred and one hundred and seventy years to the very day after Richard Ching the uneducated but hard working laborer saw the ship slip her moorings from England. I can declare as far as Who is the Lord of the Manor of a place called Stoke Nelson where Richard Ching settled? – Ching family Are The Winners. The Meek Do Inherit the Earth! Regardless of our ‘station’ in life- I too writing this am a humble day wage laborer- Regardless of where we are or where we come from in the end if we have the quality- our descendants will..

Changeover of Empire

Change over of Empire I am currently- or at least when I get back to it- reading of the remarkable and unexpected rise of two major world empires both interacting with each other- Persia (Current day Iran) and Greek Empire and my source books to understand and think about this are Tom Howard’s ‘Persian Fire’ and my own hesitant attempts at translating and understanding the Hebrew of the book of Daniel in the bible. Thus there is as found in the next quote from Patrick O’Donovan’s article ‘The Practical Idealist’ some of the wonder and puzzlement of both Cyrus and Darius in that they had managed to overcome the sophistication of the great in a sense eternal –Head of Gold- Babylonian Empire. And the text of the first five chapters of Daniel reflects this wonderment because just as Secretary General Joseph Stalin had commissioned and written for him personally to read- The Hitler Book. So these chapters are commissioned for Daniel to write explaining the very heart of his interactions with Nebuchadnezzar and then Nebuchadnezzar 3rd in what became the unexpectedly easy fall of empire- with Tom Howard providing the political logic of the Daniel-Darius interaction seen in my current work in Daniel chapter six where Daniel having engineered the support for Darius so that international trade- Jewish Bankers- operating out of olde Babylon can continue doing what they do best in empire and business confidence is vitally safeguarded… Daniel gets thrown to the lions utterly distressing his patron and his appointed President…. I’m getting side tracked into my own thoughts here. The issue is- How did sophisticated Europe lose world empire to brash young USA- Empire State making New York self proclaimed Capital of the World? ‘Behind the brashness there lay the idea that this place was different, that they were unique. At least one English novelist, a Trollope recognized this fact. In a curiously unread novel ‘The American Senator’ he set an American Politician against English country gentlemen. The politician is made uncultivated loud and ignorant. He is a figure of fun tolerated by rural apparatus of squires vicars gamekeepers and workers who know their place. His ideas his clumsiness make nothing but trouble for the rigidly settled and indeed beautiful community. He is humiliated in the end by that effortless superiority. And yet at the book’s end it is clear he is the possessor of an idea and a propose far higher than that of any of his opponents hosts and tolerators. There was and still is an element of the sense of inferiority in the feeling that led to over assertion. The American might feel that the stranger was corrupt and he sturdy and self reliant and free. And there remained the facts of European wealth and power that were not affected by American successes. (The deal which went wrong causing the Oct 1929 stock market crash was in Trans Atlantic steel ownership; And by the end of 1929 the world economy no longer had Europe able to feel superior of American Successes. Take for example the entry of USA into WW2. Rooservelt waited until that historic day -7th of December 1941 when of course as you well know the game changer of the entire world war occurred –On the advice of a Tokyo German spy Comrade Stalin was able to transfer his Siberian forces into Moscow and that history changing day the German forces began to be pushed back- And on that day Japan giving the excuse- USA entered the European War to by `1945 reign supreme in Western Europe having first mid 1941 already frozen all European monies in US banks this European wealth not available to Europe’s elite until 1948! Thus in the first decades of the 20th century the power was shifting in the world economy) There was persistent contempt Europe so often showed America. There was the conviction –quite untrue- that the American ‘plain minded, common sense village honesty approach to international negotiation cost them dearly at every diplomatic contact with the outside world… Today (1964) with the experience of power and the sight of their national doorstep crowed with supplicants, the sense of inferiority has almost gone. It only remains for America generally to discover, as whole heartedly as Europe has the splendor of cultured tradition. The idea because it is a human one and left to humans to execute has proven imperfect. It has however led to the nearest approximation to democracy in the world and this in one of the largest states of the world. And because a very real freedom went with this democracy, it imposed no single discipline but allowed the survival of anomalies and contradictions. Such survival are evidence anywhere of a basic freedom. Too often in the past the sophisticated European looking in on America saw an uproarious history the indifference public decorum and use of loose language in high places – and dismissed it all as rather vulgar. That at least has changed. Europeans now recognize that the United States has the most subtle and complex political system in the world… ‘ (Again we must see this text as rooted in diplomatic discourse of the year 1964 and in fact those next seven years leading up to the removal from office of President Nixon and the Oil Shock of 1973 are in fact the very high point of the US political system. The New Deal of the mid 1930s was still in place and the span between Rich and Poor not as fantastically great as it now in the 21st century has become. Workers in USA were still receiving a wage capable of getting them an auto and having family holidays and owning a detached house…While a book such as ‘The Wrecking Crew’ Thomas Frank 2008 charts before the collapse of the financial system the inherent corruption of a dysfunctional political system. As to what was or was not happening in 1964 in the US political system I defer to the judgment of later to become New Zealand’s Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon visiting on a US State Dept scholarship where he in his book ‘The Young Turk’ marvels that given it’s conflicting complexity the US political system worked at all- and was pessimistic about it.) p 11/12 Time Life World Library- The United States. I may come back to this but I found another book for the next series of posts;

F J Marquis de Chastellux- The Prophet

F J Marquis de Chastellux- The Prophet Two hundred and ninety years ago a French aristocrat was so keen to fight in the American Revolutionary wars that he re-enrolled in the French military- then as a profound intellectual visiting the 13 American Colonies fight Great Britain at that time for independence his thoughts are recorded and preserved in his journals and subsequent books such as ‘Discourse on the advantages and disadvantages which result for Europe from the discovery of America’ (To which the native American Indians would rightly reply ‘We never knew we were lost and would have actually preferred it if you had remained in Europe’) and ‘Travels in North America’. Thus working in the military as a liaison officer diplomatically working between different languages and cultures this observer was doing exactly what we are here attempting to do in this blog: To see if there is some flaws in the fabric of the American Empire and so here just over a century after the first Europeans were beginning to develop and exploit the opportunities found in Eastern side of a vast continent we have someone of exactly the same mind as us critically asking- What will happen and what will cause it to fail. And he shares the conviction of this author and expresses that in his own words- that the differences he sees between different parts of the Eastern Seaboard will remain and the foundations of communities he sees will endure despite say in the case of New York- that place going from a few tens of thousands of people to 10s of millions found living there over centuries. Now my source material is an essay about this remarkable man including some of his writing and the book ‘Abroad in America’ actually came from the American Embassy where our Palestinian friends go to throw shoes or clamber up onto the roof to pull down the American flag and of course raise the Palestinian one. Then the book it appears went to the Teachers College library and finally it was a throw out from the Auckland University and hence I now have it! So lets stop chatting and get on with the task of seeing what was happening nearly three hundred years ago –one hundred years after the first European came.

Superficial women

Superficial women Among the many observations our French aristocrat makes are these ones; ‘I have often had occasion to observe that there are more ceremonies than compliments in America. All their politeness is mere form, such as drinking toasts to the company, observing ranks, giving the right of way, etc. but all this comes only from what has been taught, none of it arises from feeling; in a word, politeness here is like religion in Italy, all in practice and nothing in principle’ It was for me an Oscar winning performance of acting: The scene in the movie where the acclaimed actor Leonardo Dicaprio moves into a ‘bucket shop’ ‘boiler room’ operation of selling for fifty per cent commission cheap and going to be worthless stocks. And his sales pitch is just like that which is described in the above quote from nearly three hundred years ago- for the person handing over the money- convincing, yet the smugness and the corruption revealed in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ maybe indicates a superficial ness and perhaps insincerity of an actor just saying the right words in the right way. Look I honestly don’t know! I would as a matter of principal never hand over money to an American businessman. If I need to purchase goods from America I always work through a local middleman and that way the come back is on someone I know and trust- But what about American women- what does he have to say about them? ‘Unmarried women were allowed to be high spirited and even publicly affectionate towards men but married women were expected to be plain dowdy and domestic’ ‘American women are very little accustomed to give themselves trouble either of mind or body; the care of children, that of making tea and seeing the house is kept clean constitute the whole of the domestic province’ Again I have little direct experience of observation to go on. But when in Hong Kong my wife and I visited a friend of hers at a missionary base where in a governors mansion rented from the governor for a dollar per year a number of young single American missionaries could be seen. And in the cramped women’s quarters I was stunned to see small suit case sized make up bags as prized possessions or the next year at Bible College we again watched similar American women turn up made up for breakfast. Now with my wife spending maybe less than a hundred dollars on those sorts of things in 50 years- the obsession with superficial appearance is indeed deeply puzzling. But it goes deeper than that. What he seems to be telling us that American women he observed aspired to being empty headed! Contrast that with the conduct of our French aristocrat’s mother. Daughter of the ruler of France and the person who developed within him his wide ranging and deep love of life and observation of it- Our author wants to respect women to talk with them- and instead they are in his experience just shuffling around dowdy, looking after the children making cups of tea and saying nothing worth repeating to us! Our author is a prototype feminist. I as your blogger come from generations of feminism- we seek out and marry the smartest most dynamic women we can possibly find- and then give them lots of space to develop even to our own detriment. So USA what is going on? Are the comments timeless?

Differences among American colonies

Differences among the American colonies Aside from the prophecy which we will deal with next is these from 300 years ago observations about the places the French visitor went to. And to be honest with you he really didn’t have much to see- He writes of travelling from Hartford to Litchfield and not seeing a single habitation travelling through ten miles of woods while now days you… But of New England he says it is peopled by colonists seeking religious freedom thus having revolted out of principal against despotism. ‘New England …imposed upon it citizens a barren soil necessitating constant labor, was in its geography and heritage more prone to equality. Then of New York and New Jersey he said by contrast, had been settled by individuals concerned with economic well being, and had revolted only out of necessity (On this one hundred later in the American Civil War there was constantly throughout that conflict almost equal support for both Southern and Northern interests and in particular that support even with newly arrived poor Irish was a calculation as stated here ‘concerned with economic well being’ and they only supported one side or the other ‘out of necessity’) While Virginia which was settled by soldiers and gentlemen had preserved its ‘prejudices of nobility’ and had revolted out of pride. Such differences were reinforced by climate, soil, size of landholdings, the place of trade in the economy and other factors. (We have predating Karl Marx by a century the application of economic geography and history to understanding in a wide context the differing reactions of populations) As a result the legislators could not simply create a new society, they could only modify what history and conditions had bequeathed them.( A point well made by O’Donovan in a previous post- seen before this one) The laws of Virginia in the midst of the revolution, might be democratic, but the ‘very spirit of government will always be aristocratic’ (And these days as we know the ultimate Aristocratic Institutions are based in Virginia –such as the CIA) Pennsylvania, settle be diverse peoples with diverse traditions, and governed patriarchally by propertied wealth in a spirit of ‘the greatest tolerance and the most complete liberty’ never had resolved its identity, contained to many contradiction and as a consequence, was more attached to the individual than to public liberty (The best example of what he is saying here is the success of the New Yorker John D Rockefeller in the critical Post Civil War period being able to gain control of the American oil industry and become a billionaire as a result) More inclined to anarchy than to democracy’. And saying that these observations which he was making even as USA was in her Revolution were- foundational for the different regions- he said ‘In fifty years the spirit and traces of these original characteristics still would be operative’ ….Was he right? USA –Was Chastellux reading you?

Castellux Prophecy

Chastellux Prophecy ‘His conviction that laws and constitutions must be adapted to the particular structure of a society led Chastellux to fear that the effect of any imbalance between socio-economic power and political power (Business vs ordinary people) a condition he believed would produce constant discord. He saw during the Revolution, the constitution of each state tended toward full political equality, and he agreed that this was necessary as long as the war with Britain lasted. Furthermore, each American might realistically aspire to a near-equality with his fellow countrymen, because new land was available on the frontier… This is what he said; ‘All this is very well for the present moment, because every citizen is about equally well –off, or can become in a short time; but the success of trade and even of agriculture, will introduce riches among you, and the riches will produce inequality of fortunes and of property. Now, wherever this inequality exists, the real force will invariably be on the side of property (Later writers would use the word –Capital examples of that being Stock Exchange, Banks, Investments…) there will always be a contradiction, a struggle between the form of government and its natural tendancy; the right will be on one side, and the power on the other, hence the balance can only exist between the two dangerous extremes of Aristocracy and Anarchy’ What this prophecy is saying is- First there is for USA- The Frontier. As long as there is The Frontier there is place where a person of family aspiring to find success and wealth and a place to live and have land can go. But the reality of US history is that by the 1930s The Frontier –There was still Hawaii and Alaska- But the Frontier had gone as California filled up and the final frontier industries of Aviation, Electronics and Film making reached their limits. What he said was that when the population overwhelmed and ended an expanding frontier then it would increasingly become a contest between the people with their Political government and the Economic power of Business held by a small number of people whom he described as ‘Aristocracy’ while a better word for them would be ‘Billionaires’ and those holding tens of millions or more in wealth. The top one percent of American Society vs The rest and the balance would be lost. Or put this prophecy another way- The 1776 Revolution he saw could only succeed as long as there was more land and resources to be discovered and exploited- then the ideal of Equality could have some measure of reality. But the American Dream- Revolution of 1776 would collapse when the ability of ordinary people to find and develop their own wealth was gone- then it would be the super wealthy vs those missing out on that wealth. That is what he saw- that is his prophecy. Now the tide turned for USA between the years 1971 and 1974. Richard Nixon’s historic win of 1972 was The Apex of the American Dream. Thereafter with USA peaking out in its ability to find and produce its own Oil- the frontier moved to Arabia to Japan and then to China- but the wealth was increasingly in the hands of other and the resources exploited coming from beyond America- By the financial collapse of 2008 USA was creating Toxic Debt and there after began to print increasingly worth less and less money- but will we see the final words of this prophecy?

Ending America's Slavery

Ending America’s Slavery Earlier we saw the regional analysis of the Eastern Seaboard of USA during the American Revolution and frank and honest opinion that parts of the newly emerging USA were already ‘aristocratic in nature and government’ and his view that the regional characteristics of a place would not easily change. Therefore despite his view that slavery of black people was wrong and should end he did not see that happening easily and he wasn’t looking for a political solution or populists democratic methods which because of the time when he lived were beyond his thinking. The book ‘Abroad in America’ page 11 has this to say; Chastellux did not believe that it (slavery) would or could disappear rapidly. His analysis of slavery centered on its function of providing higher status to poor whites (Some of the worst outrages that occurred in the five days in 1863 when New York went out of control was the burning and lunching of New York Negros by extremely poor recently arrived Irish who considered that the Negros was the cause of the problem coming north from the plantations and taking the jobs which the Irish believe belong to them) in the essentially aristocratic regions of the United States, and he believed that this created a powerful community of interest in favor of keeping slavery going. Eventually he wrote, it would fall beneath the weight of reason and humanity, as education progressed and the contradiction of slavery to the American ethos of political equality became insufferable. And on that his analysis proved to be correct and despite the fighting of a Civil War essentially with the racial attitudes and actions of what he saw as the ‘Aristocratic Southern States’- Slavery continued in USA until the words …. ‘weight of reason; weight of humanity; education progressing; And Contradiction of Slavery to the American Ethos of Political Equality- Yes when finally Dr Martin Luther King pointed these things out- Yes about 180 years after Chastellux predicted slavery of blacks would come to an end- In the mid 1960s it did! But the reason it took so long- Again despite there being a terrible ‘Civil War’ fought a century before it did finally end- The reason it took so long is found in the first part of his analysis ‘The status of poor whites’ and ‘Essentially aristocratic regions of the United States’ –what happened in the 1960s was that the actual economies of the Southern States changed. Political changes took place. Mechanization replaced the hand picking of cotton. New industries located to the South. The power of some of the Southern Aristocrats was broken or influenced in new ways- then and only then did change happen. Thus while I have enjoyed reading and discussing this important to America French Aristocratic prophet of the early 1780s in style and method he and I differ- Not as to message. He believed ‘Reason’ would triumph- I don’t. Rather having watched a famous Jewish prophet from Bethlehem get crucified and seen Martin Luther King get shot- I know that change comes when we fearlessly lay down our lives and walk with Jesus confident that he can change sinful man.

Aristocracy Too

Aristocracy Too! I’ve switched back to Time Life –The United States and O’Donovan writing only fifty years ago with no knowledge of what Chastellux had written we get confirmation; ‘How does one generalize about a country that is furiously democratic, whose origins lay in a conscious rejection of the European edifice of King, bishop, nobleman and subject- and which yet retains one of the few surviving genuinely exclusive aristocracies of the world? That this should be even though to be so is an offensive heresy to most Americans. But in a dozen cities like St Louis, Boston, Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and even Washington you find them flourishing, less mobile than even the French aristocracy, less showy and less tolerant than the British. They are synonymous with ‘society’. They tend to play a considerable role in public service, and they provide more than their share of Senators and Congressmen. They are not easily recognized by strangers since they share the regional accents of America. Yet there they are, an impenetrable, cultivated nucleus whose chief aim is neither wealth nor power- though they usually have both already- but the preservation of their identity: The bloodline. All over America there are these small camouflaged citadels of purest snobbery.’ P12 ‘The Practical Idealists- P O’Donovan –The United States Time Life 1965. I have a remarkable book which as soon as I saw it in ‘Hard to Find’ I knew I had to purchase it. Undated ‘A Wonderful Time’ by Slim Aarons –Harper and Row New York. And our photojournalist has devoted his life to getting photos of this Elite American Aristocracy who were genuinely shy about having their photos taken in this late 1950s period. It shows the two Cushing boys – Freddie and Howard and their sister Minnie surf board under her arm surfing at their private beach by Newport’s most exclusive club. A whose who of names including a former English King and his American wife, Salvador Dali, Phillip Van Rensselaer, Senator John Kennedy catching the eye of the photographer at April in Paris Ball and in New York an impressive line up of named children waiting for a dancing class including Stephen C Sherrill and Austin Hearst. But my favorite for children who are the same age as me at that time is of Mrs Cabot and her children Henry Bromfield Cabot 3 standing on the bonnet of the sports car and his sister Camilla smirking at younger brother Andrew Hull Cabot on the boot with mum door open in the middle- mansion behind. For the photographer the most important photo he has included where he has battled with poor light to get a grainy image – is the 1958 Debutante Cotillion in the main ballroom of the Copley Plaza. Attendance at these events as those familiar with New York’s founding Queen Carol Astor – Attendance at these balls marks acceptance into the utterly exclusive club of American Establishment. But the recreations shown are varied and diverse. Fairfield Country Fox Hounds, Newport to Bermuda race and of course the America’s Cup gatecrashed but upstarts Australians….Ah!!! Queen’s Birthday at Bermuda’s Government House, Bath and Tennis Club at Palm Beach, Gulf stream Polo Club, Palaces at Acapulco Laguna Beach Bowling Club, Skiing in Vermont and on it goes- Venues changing but the family names never dying out. Take just one example to close. I mentioned in connection with New York a Dutch family – Van Rensselaer whose arrival as land owners is spoken of in Phillip Shorto’s ‘The Island at the center of the world’ New York story of the 1620s… But another author told of an armed insurrection when the hundreds of surf-tenant farmers on the vast Van Rensselaer estate broke free from hundreds of years of servitude and rebelled against a European system which the 1776 Revolution was supposed to have ended! I’ve never been to USA- but all is Not free as we are told… Am I right?

Patent Nonsense of men being equal

Patent Nonsense of men being equal! The Declaration of Independence begins with a statement which never has been self evident to any human being who has lived life in the day to day real world- ‘All men are equal’ And we have seen as both our learned authors deeply puzzled by what they encounter on travelling to American are worrying about the eternal fate of an empire built upon this myth of equality and what will happen when reality catches up. With the highly prophetic Chastellux looking forward and working out that only as long as USA has an endless frontier so that any aspiring person can by their own efforts experience success of finding and developing land and business- find some measure of equality with those who have obtained the wealth and land at an earlier time. Then our current author painfully is watching the bloody fighting and violence of a Racist South of USA in 1964 and the march of Dr King and his people to Washington- while for our French Aristocrat it is the reality that because there will be poor white Americans the slavery situation which utterly mocks equality will not easily go away. Thus the question which these prophets are quietly raising and which I joining them raise for you in the context of the largest and most bloody battle fought for one week in the streets of New York in the American Civil War –is when will this inevitable break down of the myth of equality break down ending the absurdity of the untrue foundation of the un wise Declaration of 13 rebelling colonial states against the wise rulership of King George and his beautiful German wife. ‘The original idea that bore America did contain certain fastidious and aristocratic undertones. But it also implied a sort of working egalitarianism (This big word means –equality) And this egalitarianism as the English tradition weakened has grown to be one of the accepted principals of American life. It is sought more passionately than in Russia (where their 1917 revolution was so that people would receive equal reward for their work) It is more often broken than observed, since it appears to be, like most ideals humanly unobtainable. It is not applied to economics. But it is this reaching out towards equality which first meets Europeans at the docks and makes America seem genuinely foreign. It has a myriad of ways of expressing itself. There is the elaborate camaraderie of the politician which has reduced indiscriminate friendliness to an almost 18th century formality, the first name (shortened to a single syllable) the arm on the shoulder, the warm handclasp and the mock humble announcement of his own name. There are waitresses being so carefully insolent to customers that the social roles are almost reversed. There are bus drivers being surly and impatient, taxi drivers didactic, telephone girls intimate, and the whole pedestrian population of New York apparently dedicated to conveying the impression that you are unwelcome and who are you anyway? All this hostility expresses the idea that ‘I’m at least as good as you are’…. And you remember that you are in an alien country that pays a great deal more than lip service to its towering ideals; Men born equal- but are they?’ p14 P O’Donovan last words added.

Bible Translation Comment

Bible Translator Comment Early on and it defines my style and approach to religion –The Bible- life; I discovered that the key Greek word in the heart of a tiny eighteen verse book found at the end of the Bible just before Revelation- that the key code heart- fracture point of that book and Demon Casting Out Pentecostal Religion is ‘epi timeo’ Not REBUKE but instead a more literal and primary ancient –‘highly respected’; Therefore one word- such as with King David ‘meek’ entirely changes the meaning tactics and outworking of our religion. So what exactly is going on in the heart of a heavenly conflict between the two principal angels in the heavenlies over whether or not the sinful-flawed body of a murder- Moses: can be transferred for eternal life in heaven? (And I would say that here Jude and St Peter as well are having access to ancient Hebrew books which alongside of St Paul I say with him; ‘we do not accept as part of the book’ - but that doesn’t undermine the theological issue at stake here in the slightest!) Well it goes to the heart of the surliness of New Yorkers and the stroppy behavior of waitresses which our author encountered in the past passage. Or more importantly the stunning stupidity born of racism of the officer who first entered Korea taking soldiers from Japan; The opinion of Col Ayres of Task Force Smith was ‘We will be back in Seoul by the weekend’ as soon as the inferior ‘gooks’ encountered the superior American Army ‘Those commie bastards will turn and run when they find they are up against our boys’ Thus the Might of The American Empire- Can ‘God’s General’ with their quite frankly these days weird spiritual anointings, with noise technology and bluster ‘Overcome The Enemy’ or is in fact Jude telling us that meek humble loving respectful acceptance of God loving even Satan is how Lucifer God’s one time highest level heavenly authority is turned as he cannot face the utterly in this case genuine respect and open forgiveness that God still has for him. One word makes quite a difference! And at the heart of the patent nonsense of The Declaration of Independence about man being equal evidenced in the American Revolution and subsequent world and civilizational empire is this one word ‘Epi Timeo’ and what it actually means in our dealings with people. And as the ‘patronage’ mechanism by which any and all –not the least bit equal- aristocratic systems work. Theology does in fact matter- And taking various cultural approaches we can find ten different solutions for any theological problem- as a translator it comes down to the most basic and concrete ancient unmovable meaning of a word. And to illustrate exactly that take the name of a current US President. In the East Africa volume of the same Time Life World Library I am working from here with The United States, the American diplomat author tells us that in East Africa the word ‘Barak’ means someone anointed and ordained for leadership but as in the case of Barak Obama Senior- it can be lost. However every Arab or Hebrew speaker knows that African interpretation of the word is quite secondary and derived meaning. In fact Eid Mubarrak- It is our most blessed time of rejoicing in Islam –meaning blessing. But for the Bible translator- and within two weeks of entering Islam I was told the meaning of this very word by an Arab elder- the word is the sound a camel makes when it goes down on it’s knees and first usage in the bible is Gen 24:11 and last usage in Hebrew is Dan 6:10 both meanings being kneeling down, hence the story by Jesus about the camel kneeling and complaining as it goes through the eye of the needle city gate. Thus the fracture point of 20th century military strategy and tactics happens in chapter 33 of Col Lawrence’s ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ but only when he hears the camels complaining as they go down on their knees –Only then does From High Heaven vital insight flow into his mind which would when applied by Chairman Mao ensured the defeat of superior American technology in East Asia until 1975. Yes words matter when they change our hearts. I believe in Aristocratic behavior but only on the basis of genuine respect!

2008 Collapse and America's Richest man

2008 Collapse and America’s Richest Man. John Jacob Astor when he died was said to have acquired in wealth on fifteenth of the entire Gross Domestic Product of USA (GDP) or as Virginia Cowles in The Astors 1979 says ‘It represented one fifteenth of all the money in the United States invested in such industries as cotton, wool, leather, flax, iron, glass, sugar, furniture, hats, silks, ships, paper soap candles wagons- in every kind of goods that the demand of civilization made indispensable’ But whatever the actual amount of wealth represented, the fact was that in 1848 JJ Astor was the richest man. So how did he do it? And more precisely how did he cause 160 years later the collapse of the money system in his beloved New York- Empire State and of course as we all know-Capital of the World? Well to fully understand what he set up and did for the American Continent and for New York you would need to be a Columbia University Professor in Economic Geography with strengths in the Marxist understanding of Economic history. From the end of the American Revolution up until the Irish Potato famine starting as a frontier woodsman skin buyer this remarkable man intuitively understood the politics of how to get trade through New York out of the Great Lakes region rather than the more natural trade flow through Montreal. And purchasing those skins from ripped off American Indians for a dollar to be on sold for 100 times that amount into the luxury goods markets of London and Shanghai …. And if the story just ended there I would maybe consider this man worthy of respect for his hard work and brilliance. But what happened next?- Well maybe in the end the final blame lies partly with a New York Jazz playing Jew whom the Republicans put in charge of the banking system- Young Allen Greenspan. Because if when he was going to the Synagogue he had the opportunity to study and understand the Torah- well he appears to be a slow learner and not to have understood its essence. You see Allan is quite wrong when he says in his autobiography ‘The Age of Turbulence’ 2007 “The presumption of individual property ownership and the legality of it’s transfer must be deeply embedded in the culture of a society for free-market economies to function effectively” and “People generally do not exert the effort to accumulate the capital necessary for economic growth unless they can own it. Ownership, of course can be quite conditional. Do I own a parcel of land outright?.....” Therefore ignorant of his own Torah and lacking respect for the basis of sound sustainable economics that comes from the Hebrew Torah- this Jew is as lost when it comes to the buying and selling and acquiring of land as was JJ Astor at the beginning. And yet Astor proved the very point of the Torah inalienable. So the Astor family proved that by building a totally a NY castle and called it after their German village- Waldorf Astor Hotel- the only real land which they as a family needed. But as soon as the money from the skin trade flowed in Astor spent it on buying up Manhattan Island as an ‘Investment’ and while Astor didn’t invent that idea of buying land as an investment; He as the richest man created an appalling culture utterly distressing for those who suffer as a result of ignoring the Torah’s imperatives when it comes to land, debt, and oppressing the foreigner –Which in Astor’s day was fellow Germans and Irish. At one time Astor and his son owned three percent of Manhattan Island – No not to gift to the growing city for public enjoyment and the betterment of mankind- rather land under some of the most dangerously squalid –highest death rates in the world- Tenement housing in Lower East Side and following the city as it developed. Now the actual details of that the two Astors did are lost because they deliberately burnt their papers ; But they did develop some of the most amazing leases as Cowles relates. ‘By the end of the 1820s a twenty one year lease had become standard Astor policy… all the tenant erected , their own houses and were responsible for repairs and their own taxes…But more often the fine print read that the compensation (for buildings and improvements) would take the form of and extension of the lease at a reasonable rent say for a further ten years. But sometimes it stipulated that the tenant had the right to remove his building if he did so within the ten days of the expiration of the lease!’. Now readers can do their own research into what developed in New York in this critical period when desperate Europeans crowded into New York… But it was JJ Astors Grand daughter in law- Carol nee Schermerhorn who on becoming the social Queen of New York created that part of the Aristocracy for that location- cementing in solidly the way that destructive to true economic growth and sustainable economics and good banking practice –Investment In Land took hold across USA and the world resulting in the toxic debt of 2008 and collapse as a result. Just as the millions arrived into New York so in the 20th century human population took off going from 2 billion to over 7 billion and in ignoring issues of morality, sustainability, and never trading in land which does not rightfully return to it’s enduring family/tribal owners –Torah style… Well appalling conditions developed in New York so that by mid July 1863 the city went out of control and the worst battle of the Civil War took place coming out of the terrible exploitation and misery experienced in tenement housing… Was that 1863 event a prophecy against the New York elite and showing their systemic failure in trading in misery which will destroy America? And why is it- I ask this question on behalf of heaven- Why is it that when Empires totally collapse oft times the land reverts back to jungle or desert littered with the debris that mocks that empire? You see better than New York as a trade port for North America are the cities of the St Lawrence. And in the centuries to come that will be seen as history marches on following the looting burning destruction abandonment of New York- Testimony of the failure of The Richest Man.

The Strongest Myth of them all

The Strongest Myth of them all ‘A Chosen people, the American claimed. This confidence in the American mission is no where better expressed than in the mid-19th century historians Bancroft, William Prescott and John L Mortley. Their attitude is summed up in the title of a pamphlet published by Mortley in 1869: ‘Democracy, the Climax of Political Progress, and the destiny of Advanced Races’ They believed that history was providential. It was the story of liberty, and America was in the lead. Inferior races and creeds yielded, as they must to the superior. The white man was stronger-militarily, intellectually, morally- than the colored races (On this as a Bible Translator I do enjoy the racial put down inherent in Hebrew which takes the word for the White Races- Japheth – and from the use of the word ‘opening’ which in Arabic and Hebrew uses the last two of those three main letters describes Japheth as a word for ‘stupid’ and another four letter word beginning with c which women has as an opening) The Northern ..or Anglo-Saxon Teutonic- peoples were stronger than the Southern- Latin, Mediterranean, Celtic- Protestantism was stronger than Catholicism. Democracy was stronger than any form of government. The United States was white Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Democracy and therefore represented the highest stage of universal history. The embattled farmers at Lexington in 1775, Bancroft assured his readers, ‘fulfilled their duty not from accidental impulse of moment.. The light that lead them on was a combined of rays from the whole history of the race…” In such language we perceived the cumulative driving force of American pride, with its amalgam of religious democratic and acquisitive energy and its sublime confidence in what Emerson called the ‘unsearched might of man’ These enthusiasms were the cemented of the Union. American patriotism was spontaneous and strong… Native Americans and immigrants –including an ever larger proportion who were not Anglo-Saxon and were not Protestant –both subscribed to the American creed with an almost religious fervor. The items of faith were spelled out by George F Train in 1858: “Young America considers the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Washington’s farewell address, Yankee Doodle, and the Bible, divine institutions. Life Liberty and Happiness are in his words the Book of Life” America is on God’s side and God was on America’s. On a previous blog maybe www.calvinismrulesusaok.blogspot.com I have attempted to show how nearly four hundred years ago in both Dutch and English New England settlements the false teaching of being special and chosen even above the Jews had taken hold and this quote from chapter two of The United States by the historian –Marcus Cunliffe shows the strong and powerful delusions that have gotten the USA empire into a succession of mid to late 20th century military defeats and increasingly leaves the people of the Empire in Decline open to being mocked by Chinese, Russians, Arabs and others who have in their own ways discovered the weaknesses of that empire. Look the best I can do for you if you do in fact consider that because you are white Anglo-Saxon- not Celtic Irish Catholic or Italian- If you do genuinely believe that you are God’s Chosen and God is on Your Side- Well the best I can do for you is to remind you of over 6 million very special European Jews equally chosen by God- yet they died in Holocaust. In the end for all the three great derived from Abraham religions- Islam Jewish and Christian –Salvation comes by faith. And righteousness equally is the product of faith. Therefore- Yes have a vital self worth belief. But unless you actually get out and do things without money just because in your heart you knew it was the thing to do- Otherwise- You too will die in Holocaust. In 2001 the big event was the publication of a book worked on by thousands of Jews so that the book could be defended in court. ‘IBM and the Holocaust’ tells how a New York corporation still active with computers allowed the holocaust to take place. And the IBM motto is ‘Think’ So if 70 years ago primitive machines could send religious people to their deaths- Well I guess the situation has just gotten 10,000 times worse. Without real active doing unusual things faith- You reading this will as cynical secular Jews who made it to Palestine called it; ‘’lambs to the slaughter’. Yes have a triumphant myth belief. But then in broken humility do what God tells you to do! –Do It and live.

Scottish Independence Vote

Scottish Independence Yesterday the Scots in Scotland down to sixteen year olds voted 55 to 45 percent not to leave their ancient and difficult alliance with England to become independent. And as someone in New Zealand relating to both England which my grandfather having fought for England in the Great War and thus visiting where briefly educated at Oxford University; The Royal Fling Coup taught flight theory- before brave fliers went out to invariably have their light craft crash in an uncontrollable spin or worse- have the engine cut out at maximum revs just on the point of attempting to take off- Where was I got lost there- England: Home: well yes there was in those who went back- having established something better here in New Zealand- we began by the start of the 20th century to see that we could and would and had achieved a greater level of comfort, government, social unity, and new style for ourselves at the ends of the earth than could ever be achieved in England the Mother Country. And the quotation that follows tries to explain the process in America’s Virginia colony leading to the ill advised and illogical 1775 and 1776 Declarations of Independence signed by 13 rebellious colonial territories- Well a much better process is what we saw in Scotland yesterday- Put it to the vote- And Yes England will/has acknowledged in the case of her relationship with Scotland, with New Zealand that while we have an ancient alliance there are differences and the outer parts of our union work better when there is freedom given for us to grow in different ways…. What if- What if there had been No American Rebellion of 1776. You see unknown to the author of the quote which you will be reading next was what happened in New York in July of 1863. The terror of USA spinning completely out of control actually happened in the very worst conflict fought in the American Not Very Civil War- happened in New York and with better military leadership and political leadership of the mob from the Lower East Side of Manhattan the entire fabric of the Union could have in that potential victory been remade for the interests of New York business and their Southern Slave owning interests which is what the war was all about. That is the bigger unexplored worthy of a 1200 page novel- or series of novels- Historical Revision –‘what if’ of American history- You know on the Monday night of that conflict fought in New York there were a number of serious fires burning out of control as the mob set fires and stopped the under equipped Republican Supporting Bowery Boys; Brave firemen from getting to the fires –And supernaturally massive thunder storms deluged across the lower parts of Manhattan and the city was saved. And then going back to the rebellion against Great Britain developing out of the bit of paper written by Thomas Jefferson which famously has the small g for ‘natures god’ to justify that- the largest British naval invasion up until the Falkland War was into New York harbor. New York was in that period burnt over by another out of control fire- devastated and would have been abandoned had it not been the foremost location. While the British lost that war because of a technical issue in their ship building causing their ships to sink of their own accord- leading to their generals not being able to by force of numbers defeat General Washington’s local ill equipped men. ‘For America was born of revolution of a republic set against a monarchy. It was composed of men who broke oaths to assert their wishes. It used armed insurrection and occasional personal violence. But having suffered it’s revolution-seen in England of the time more of a rebellion than as a fundamental turning over of the old order- the new country set its mind to avoiding if possible, a repetition of the excesses of revolution for all time (One of the many ironies which comes from this is in Vietnam where in 1945 American officials arranged for Harvard aircraft to overfly the Independence celebration of Primer Ho Chi Min where the Vietnamese used the American Declaration of Independence as their template for pulling away from French colonial rule- but then turning against the Vietnamese and supporting the re-entry of France into Vietnam USA became heavily involved in the Vietnam War of her own making of immense ongoing cost to both USA and Vietnam the relationship devastated by the lives lost in war) It was an act of reason and an act of will, and this one calculated act of creation was in fact the sweetest and most reasonable and most fecund act of revolution in history (Is the author speaking ironically knowing who will read what he writes?) It was a revolution incited and planned by Northern merchants and intellectuals (And the ‘business side of the equation is fundamental to understanding American policy and politics) It was conducted largely by country gentlemen of Virginia by established magistrates, by clerks intoxicated by the 18th century (The Age of Reason- A Deist Theology that kicked God up to heaven so man would decide his own reasoned logical scientific way) by the solid leaders of small communities. But what emerged was not a new naked country struggling to find an identity and a way of life. It was an English revolution (England herself had had a very bloody one of those in mid 17th century and we still close to England know about that because the issues of the Cromwell Parliament and the Restoration of Charles 2nd still work in the way that England operates or we breaking that operate in New Zealand) approved by Englishmen at ‘home’, conducted by Englishmen subject to the same intellectual influences that beat on England. In fact the United States came into being fully grown. It already the heir of great traditions with which as much claim to Chaucer and his peers as any Londoner. Its leaders were not raw colonialists. In fact they had amongst them a group of men among the greatest of their time, not singled voiced- they even divided on some fundamentals- but a rare and marvelous coincidence of reluctant revolutionaries of thinkers and doers that could not have been equaled in any country of the time (You have to see the year this was written- 1964 and what had happened to the British economy and where Britain was getting export opportunities and the politics of the USA-Great Britain Alliance to see why the author is ‘all gush’. No one in the future will ever write of the relationship in the ‘rebellion of 1776’ like this again So Enjoy!) If there was an act of God, then this was it, and the United States started with spiritual capital that has not yet been spent…..they believed that tyranny was the ultimate evil was avoidable- and they included the mindless mob in their list of tyrants. They believed in real freedom, if properly established and properly protected, was possible and that under this freedom man would achieve his highest good. They believed that government was a moral act. They believed in a permissive society- always accepting the essential checks on the innate beastliness of man. They believed that their country had no ambitions except to cultivate its own estates; (This last line has considerable difficulties for the geo-political realities of North America in 1776. Vast areas were under effective Native Indian American ownership and control. The Russians, French, British and Dutch had or would have or in the past had control of areas of colonial interest. The international slave trade was an essential part of the economy. So who was ‘they’ and really did those who had the land in 1776 continue to hold ‘their estates’ or did they lose their lands? Or as slaves working those estates- gain anything from that effort? And finally the vast land had been exploited would the Americans move on to attempt to gain other peoples lands and resources such as –say Iraqi oil in 2003?) –which were admittedly vast enough to satisfy any imperial power. (Part of the American Myth of Innocence is that USA has never had an empire or acts as an Imperial Tyrant. But just exploring the geo politics of North American in terms of economic trade and money flows- One State of the Union called herself the Empire/Imperial State and even by 1930 had a building called that. New York Empire State- later claiming the title as ‘Capital of the World’- we see Empire State succeed by the now collapsed World Trade Towers as the –well in my current tourist guide- Must See place in USA.) … With life liberty and the pursuit of happiness came the stern obligations and careful limitations. All this was an afterthought to their English rejection of England. But it was the sort of thought put into practice that England could not have achieved.’ Page 10/11 Patrick O’Donvan as found in ‘The Practical Idealists’ Time Life World Library 1965.

Time Life World Library

Time Life World Library America –The Practical Idealist by Patrick O’Donovan Now it is possible to tell the character of a country from its myths at least as well as from its economic statistics or its current politics. The myths may be largely true or false. But they serve to enshrine, as nothing else a nations view of itself. They serve to shore up the individual, to dignify the routine vulgarities of government and to put gloss on ugly necessities. And the essential American myth is one of vernal innocence. America sees itself set apart from other nations by its primal innocence, by its good intentions and by its dedication at home and abroad. It is the only nation in the world that has set itself the conscious goal of doing good. That the United States is often wrong, misinformed, self deceiving or even perverted by some current emotion is beside the point. Under God and above all it means well. Americans believe that they have something that no other person has. And in believing this particular myth of moral dedication they are probably justified. Furthermore, most of them vaguely believe that it came as a gift of divine power, which in politics at least is always left dogmatically undefined. This myth in practical terms also means that to Americans, America is still a young and inexperienced country. This part of the myth is dying, dying now of the patent impossibility of fitting it to the facts. It is still expressed occasionally in an almost insulting difference to the European humanities. But like all potent myths-and this one is more potent that the glory of France or the Inherent Right of the English to govern- it contains at its heart a colossal truth. Comment: Americans live in a self contained continent. I live on a tiny recently inhabited by non Maori people group of islands at the bottom corner of the world- So we New Zealanders manifest insecurity- while by comparison we have always been impressed by the massive levels of bombastic boastfulness of Texans-American preachers who come to tell us not much that we ever needed to hear but do so with amazing levels of confidence- we lack! And living in their own Continental Universe of the world’s greatest ever collection of wealth and technology it is easy for people in America to believe things which the rest of the world think is stupid- But how-How would I tell you as an American reader of this that what you believe- lacks reality and more importantly lacks God sustaining it? The critical thing which these first two paragraphs present for us is to what extent does the God of heaven stand behind current USA. And my own internal answer to that question is the utterly respectful verse in Genesis 10 about the man who creates the religion in the Bible which from Genesis 10 to Revelation 18 stands in competition to the True Religion of God’s People and in Daniel first five chapters there is a contest going on between the two- But once again such high levels of respect for a man who other prophets sees as a virtual Anti Christ- but who Daniel must respectfully address and inform- Heil Hitler- as to the meaning of his dreams. That balance is exactly what I am struggling to communicate in this blog. Yes I can blow hot as a prophet of Doom And Gloom- the words of Prophet Jeremiah Wright –which are used against him even if in time they prove to be true! But instead I want to tell you things like Daniel so that if you have a heart for the True God you can pull away from the False God of the Myth of America. What is true?- and this author has it in his spirit-And I agree with him- that the past 400 years since Dutch and English arrived in New England has been a unique time in human history and some of what has come out of USA can be eternally dedicated to God. And for my own super literalist view of the Hebrew bible some of Israel’s tribes have been developing themselves in USA prior to a return to the middle east in difficult days when such biblical migrations such as the first Exodus- take place as the bible tells us-including the A380 Jet aircraft seen by Isaiah in Isa 60:8. But the facts are in human history- Only a tiny remnant avoid Holocaust. That is the facts of history. Study and see if what I say is true. But on balance we in the outside of America world see more negatives than positives-good, innocence, and dedication to making the world a better place. We see more greed, bullying, self delusion, plausible deniability. So I do leave the last word to Jesus; USA the standards you used to judge the world are now being used to judge you. Matt 7.

Lights Cameras Lawyers- Peter Huck article

Lights Cameras Lawyers- Hollywood plays hardball in fight against threats such as Kim Dotcom-Peter Huck 19 Sept On January 20 2012 the Hollywood studios suffered perhaps their most humiliating setback in a century of lobbying the US Congress. The film industry had invested huge effort in two measures- The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act both which were assured a passage….But this time the content lobby met it’s match. The Young Turks from Silicon Valley including the heads of Face Book, Google and Twitter unnerved Congress by spearheading a protest collecting 14 million signatures…and hacker group Anonymous crashed the Department of Justice website…on the same day as Hollywood’s defeat. New Zealand police responding to US charges of criminal copyright violation staged their infamous dawn raid on the Coatsville mansion of Kim Dotcom whose Megauload made him Motion Picture Association of America enemy number one….. these days MPAA represents industry giants Walt Disney, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. Founded in 1922 to neutralize censorship the organization has cultivated Washington access by appointing insiders….The current MPAA President was a Democratic Senator for 30 years. And while Hollywood leans towards Democrats Dodd shows the MPAA savvy by reaching across the aisle and is not shy about telling Washington what it wants. … One Dreamworks Studio founder J Katzenberg is a major Hollywood player donating 3 million to Democrat political action committee in 2012 and pursuing other donors to stump up with 30 million. …Fighting piracy is an obsession with the MPAA which claims copyright worth one trillion and 5.4million direct jobs to the US economy in 2012. ‘Today the US Copyright system is a cornerstone of a vibrant economy that in unparalleled in the world’ says MPAA which claims loss of 6 billion a year to copyright pirates…..But does this hardline approach benefit citizens in the nations say involved in the TransPacific Partnership TPP talks? ….given the secrecy that cloaks the TTP talks it is unclean whether fair use will guarantee innovation in the digital era where emails, texts tweets posts, blogs on UTube and other websites have lead to an explosion of content creators and content consumers. Forwarding someone’s email may infringe copyright. Sampling music may trigger legal demands for huge damages. According to press reports the TPP was delayed last year in part because Hollywood wanted tougher anti piracy language. The draft intellectual property provisions leaked by Wikileaks-95 pages of dense heavily footnoted legalese dated August 2013…. TPP would set up extra national tribunals to supersede local courts and hold hearing in secret ‘If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent, if you farm or consume food, if you are ill, or one day might be ill the TPP has you in it’s cross hairs’ thundered Julian Assarge speaking to a packed Auckland Townhall at an event put on by Mr Dotcom….. : So you can see from this wide ranging article- Things done by the very highest levels of the US Government involving the President and Vice President- are upsetting other people around the world. When USA claims to safeguard the world’s freedom and to champion freedom- well other nations are forming a very different opinion about that! Lots to think about as we examine our own hearts. And on a personal note. I used to listen to New Zealand gospel radio. Where they tried to do a lot with not much money. But a few years back Andrea Crouch gave Radio Rhema all his music to play –Copy Right Free. When or if Brooklyn Tabernacle from New York are prepared to do the same- we as a nation will take that church to heart and work with and for them. Or else- well when New York burns and is looted will Brooklyn Tabernacle go to hell because they copy righted everything they ever did with the music God gave to them as a gift? Lots to think about- And yes no copy right applies to anything I publish! paul

The Myth of America-Introduction

The Myth of America. Introduction. I have been privileged to have come across a number of learned authors who on visiting USA have attempted to understand and write about what they have discovered. All these intellectuals and learned writers have found things which they didn’t like or which didn’t in the context of Non America-Anti America- Didn’t make sense or they didn’t like. Hence out of almost a frustration they have been forced to come up with what has upset them and made them –Anti American. Or as President Bush famously put it speaking about a 9/11 event; ‘It is because the hate our freedom’ And simply because we do not hate US freedom- in fact see things which are disturbingly not free- or which we do not wish to emulate- writers over the centuries have written. And there is a remarkable relevance in these observations from things which were said say by Charles Dickens over 150 years ago or the third post from half a century ago- Patrick O’Donovan –an Oxford Scholar writing the first chapter in the Time Life World Library 1965 ‘The Practical Idealists’ Thus therefore because what these learned ‘Prophets’ are saying of USA in a sense now forms a judgment as to why the True God has rejected USA and she will as many prophets have seen her cities burning and her non Native American migrant peoples dying in large numbers and some being taken into slavery and captivity- because such a negative Doom and Gloom point of view is just so serious- And Totally Biblical- Well we need to see what those without that conclusion as to what would happen- what those innocent of the consequences of what they were recording as prophets, intellectuals and journalists- Can we see some deep logic ? What has honestly got me started on this was an article in the New Zealand Herald Business Section about what we as the nation of New Zealand are up against from the current Democratic White House endangering our own intellectual freedom and our own culture. A situation- well let me conclude this introduction with a few lines from the article which should explain our frustration with the current US President and the conduct of his government with in this case the US Film Industry: