In an earlier piece, we described how atheism became the official state religion of America. This was a direct and intentional result of the infamous school prayer decisions of the early 1960s (Engel v. Vitale; School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp; and Murray v. Curlett). These soon led to the banning of anything even remotely “religious” from public life.
School Christmas and Easter vacations became winter and spring breaks, respectively. And “Merry Christmas” became “Happy Holidays.” In fact, the effete “Holidays” greeting became so pervasive that during a Christmas MASS a few years ago, a fellow parishioner greeted me in that manner during the Sign of Peace gesture. Yes, I did remind her that it was still OK to say “Merry Christmas” in a Catholic church.
For what it’s worth, this ridiculous incident occurred at a conservative parish.
The second component of the modern liberal psyche is guilt. Consider these two definitions from Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, as both apply:
a: the state of one who has committed an offense especially consciously : culpability<his guilt was written in his face>
b: feelings of culpability especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy : morbid self-reproach often manifest in marked preoccupation with the moral correctness of one's behavior
Key to those “imagined offenses” would be people who have accumulated great wealth, and feel unworthy of it for any reason. I suppose an offense not imagined would be to have gained great wealth whereby harm was directly inflicted on the public. An example here would be the Sacklers and OxyContin.
Presumably, the Sacklers’ massive philanthropy would assuage their guilt. Ironically, their political contributions tended to favor conservatives, but that is easily explained. Their guilt was already taken care of. They needed to support those politicians in favor of less regulation.
You will immediately think of any number of privileged celebrities with outsized fortunes, who support liberal causes. The so-called “Hollywood Left” has been well-established since the 1930s. In the simplest sense, the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) set the stage for socialist elements to be opposed to religion, even if the so-called “fascist” elements supporting the Nationalists were also socialist by any rational definition.
In some cases, guilt can lead to pure self-hatred. And, self-hatred can lead to a penchant for more widespread destruction. How else can you explain the ruinous abortion, economic, energy, pandemic, and climate policies being foisted on us by our current brood of vipers?
Please understand that there is precious little goodwill in any of these policies. Nor should you try to explain away these failures by mere stupidity or bad judgment. Evil intent is more like it, and God knows we have seen that played out on a daily basis, whether in Maui, the vaccine injuries, or the medical fellow-travelers who supported the Sacklers—for a not so small fee.
Well said. "Professing themselves wise, they became fools."