By Samuel M. Frost, Th. M.
I first mentioned the corona virus in January on this very blog. Since then, with the luxury of time, I have spent about two to three hours a day on the matter (my wife, Kimmy, forgives me). There are credible sources on You Tube that are having an impact on political matters concerning this current pandemic. They are being felt by all of us. One of the greatest things about our country, made up of immigrants originally from all walks of the blue marble, is the freedom of speech. We came from a religiously and politically oppressed theater in the West. Our revolution (and, yes, it was a revolution) was first and foremost concerned with “inalienable rights” given to us not by Government, but by “The Laws of Nature, and Nature’s God”. To know what that phrase meant, hallowed in our Declaration, simply read Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part III, Chapter 5 (1759).
I bring that up because we are currently facing something that sprang from the exact opposite in terms of government: Communism. The Cold War is declared, “over”. The East Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union disbanded and is now simply, Russia. China – and by China I do not at all mean the Chinese people – is, however, found on a great deal of items in your home. Right now I am wearing a pair of glasses that say, “Made in China.” What happened? When did this start? Well, one would have to go back to Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. From that point onward, America began its long “open markets” trading with struggling Communist China under Chairman, Mao Zedong. I blogged about this in Part 1 briefly. What is now coming to light again by young Americans searching the internet with free access (not censored by the Government, as it is in China) is that Communism was not dead after all. What Stalin through Gorbachev could not do, China has done. To understand this, one must understand a German Rationalist by the name of Karl Marx (and his pal, Vladmir Lenin). Well, skip that for now, but understand this: Communism is thoroughly atheistic. To the core. The idea that “rights” came from “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” is, was for Marx and his fellow intelligentsia, laughable. It was the idea that a Divine Benevolence (left intentionally vague in terms of theological acumen, but asserted by our Government in terms of Ontological Reality) governed the whole world by “Nature’s Laws”. It also fostered the idea of the individual as a person in and of him or herself that is first and foremost accountable to themselves in terms of their pursuits. From this we get the phrase, self government.
University of Cambridge Professor, Gareth Stedman Jones, in his critically praised work, Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion (Belnap/Harvard, 2016) notes the growth of the idea of the individual and the State. The Romans viewed its peoples as a commodity to exploit. They were “citizens” of the State (the polis in Greek). They belonged to the State and were expendable. Much like the Feudal system and the peasants who worked the land for the Landlord, peasants were not regarded as much in terms of anything but accruing wealth for the owner. I am being extremely brief and most likely far too general historically speaking, but you get the point. With the collapse of the Roman world, and the spread of Christianity (itself a slow and centuries long, painful road), civil society gradually arose which ‘encompassed the unmediated relationship of the individual to God, freedom of individual judgment, subjectivity, the self-interested pursuit of personal goals, individualism’ (p. 114). And, in case some of my readers think I am quoting from a bias author, it is well known that the great German Philosopher, George Hegel (who taught Marx), praised the reforms of Father Martin Luther, the German Catholic Priest who sought to correct abuses of his Roman Catholic Church clerics. Hegel (who spoke a great deal about China) taught that Luther’s initial theological protest against particular Catholic doctrines turned into one of the greatest developments of the modern world: the focus on the individual (see Hegel’s famous, The Philosophy of History, pp. 431-ff, Batoche Books, 2001, from the lectures of 1830-31). The Bible became the “peoples book”. The world would never be the same. Authority could now be questioned and thrown off.
Stedman notes, however, that many intellectuals did not share Hegel’s view. ‘[F]rom Machiavelli onwards the Christian religion was deeply implicated in , if not wholly responsible for, the genesis of civil society. Christianity detached the notion of a person from that of a citizen.’ Further, the atheist Ludwig Feuerbach, another student of Hegel, lamented that the Christian idea of the afterlife was “a replacement for the ancient idea of the citizen. But already in the eighteenth century Gibbon and Voltaire had highlighted Christianity’s contribution to the decline of ancient political life and the fall of Rome. Rousseau pushed the argument further by blaming the combination of Christianity and commerce for the decline of patriotism, and by attacking Christianity in particular for its otherworldly preoccupations’ (op. cit., pp. 114-115). In other words, Christianity is irrelevant to the survival of the State and its Citizens. It’s emphasis on the individual has caused great harm to the Social Fabric.
Alright. So how to tie this altogether. It is becoming increasingly documented that the corona virus originated from Wuhan, China. This is not really debated. The question that is debated is how? In a documentary published just a few days ago, and receiving a near million views, the evidence is quite alarming. I recommend that every soul in America view it (linked here). This is not conspiratorial, and no one needs to wear a tin foil hat. I don’t do conspiracies, and I dismiss those who do as quacks. Two “theories” are on the table in terms of origin: genetically altered viruses in order to pursue a scientific understanding of how viruses work, and how can they be transmitted, and vaccines for them. The second is a deliberate attempt to alter viruses for germ warfare. If a nation could alter a virus for human to human transmission, and have the vaccine “in case of” an outbreak, well, one does not have to do the math on that. The fact is that this virus did come from Wuhan, China. The other fact is that the Communist Party of China (CPC) covered up the initial outbreak. We find this hard to believe because how can a government exert such control over its people? Really? After all we have learned from history?
Several lawsuits are being filed. Michael Moore of Florida has filed one. Larry Klayman filed one. Senator Rick Scott of Florida is urging Americans not to buy anything with “Made in China” on it. The World Heath Organization is being defunded because it basically dropped the ball. Taiwan has produced evidence that it warned WHO about corona-virus in late December, but was ignored. WHO did not issue a “pandemic” level threat until March 11th. Shit is hitting the fan. And more is coming. The American individualist who has not yet surrendered to the “it takes a village” perspective of life demands an answer, not spin, and will not be quieted for the sake of possibly “offending” someone.
Now, what does all of this mean? Well, for starters, this virus is serious. Real serious. One can dismiss the talks about “empty hospitals” and “this is a red flag effort”, etc (more conspiracy theories). Fact is, until we can investigate the source, we will not entirely know. The CPC holds the keys to that, and they are not budging. Cui Tiankai, the Chinese Ambassador, says that “racism” and “xenophobia” exhibited by emphasizing the “rumors” that this pandemic started in Wuhan, China should not be tolerated. Since when did naming the place of origin become racist? Ebola is a river in Congo, Africa and is the name given to the Ebola Virus. Is that racist? The Hong Kong Flu, the Spanish Flu (which didn’t even come from Spain!), are merely names. They do not reflect the people. The enemy here is not the people, or the region of the beautiful country of China: it is a government; a Communist government; a Communist government that a lot of people in China would like to see go. The individual has a right to question the CPC and demand answers.
Mao Zedong was a committed Marxist, but he was not totally on board with Karl. Nonetheless, he did believe strongly in Nationalism. That’s kind of hard for us to understand. Nationalism, like the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or ‘Nazi’ for short, is rooted in its understanding of its biological genetics of its people. The Germans, or Aryans, were viewed as a distinct race. The Chinese, also, see (or at least Mao saw them that way) themselves as a distinct race. In America, there are a multitude of ethnic races living as one Nation or People. An American person looks like an Asian, or a German, or an African. One can think back to the covenant of Moses with the Israelites. What was never intended by that covenant was racism, but that’s what it became in the eyes of many Israelites. Unless you were of Israelite descent, you were a Gentile Goy. For Mao, Marx’s idea, borrowed from Hegel’s thinking that history is progressing towards a Supreme Good, is that Communism is a determined and inevitable development of the forces of history. Hegel talked about the Spirit. Marx talked about the classes (he had no room for Spirit). Both held to the inevitable outworking of history in terms of social justice and equality for all in this world, in this life. The CPC clings to this idea and sees itself as the eventual Bringer of Socialistic Justice and Equality to the Globe. Hence, by opening the markets and inviting Capitalist revenue ventures, The CPC was not looking out for the Globe, but looking out for the CPC in how it can make inroads around the globe through financial means to spread its dominion. Made in China. And we bought it, hook, line and sinker.
There is one problem. The belief in the Individual against the Collective State. We are currently watching this play out in the media. It runs something like this: “How long is this shut down gonna happen? I have made plans for the Summer, and by God I ain’t gonna stay in my home for 3 more damn months!” In retort, one will hear, “But we have to think of the community and the people and their health.” At what expense? The vast majority of the world public will not die from corona-virus. The vast majority that get this virus will recover after a few bad rounds in the bathroom. The vast majority in America are under the philosophy of Individualism. We’ll take our chances, God controls the outcome.
See, Americans are an amalgamation of several philosophical, theological and political views. Government does not arrest you for being a Marxist, or a Socialist, or a Theocrat. You can pretty much believe that the world is flat, that Paul McCartney was not really Paul McCartney, or that Stanley Kubrick was involved in filming NASA astronauts in a studio made to look like the moon surface. The individual right, against the politburo, is a sacred right. Yeah, sure, wash your hands, don’t stand so close to me, and sneeze in your arm (and don’t forget the hand sanitizer), but do you have to cancel watching Tom Brady wearing a Tampa Bay Buccaneer uniform in September? But, deeper than this, there runs a psychological aspect concerning the question of the unfortunate folks who will die from this. One does not have to be uncaring, but will take the chance of facing death for another person at a disadvantage. But, in this case, you may be the one spreading the very thing that kills the other. There is a clash of ideas going on here. There is also a clash of how far can Government go when it comes to telling its people what they can and can’t do in every day matters of culture and daily life. The final issue, and at this point, a crucial one, is upon what basis can Government do what it is now doing? Here we are back to the question of origin and why this happened in the first place. If maleficence is to blame, that is, if this could have been stopped or contained, then answers are demanded and the source-problem needs a radical solution. The Individual demands it so that he or she can maintain their freedom from bad deals made by bad politicians for bad gain with what I consider to be an evil Government theory: Communism. What Communism is showing us is that Communists are committed patiently to time (history). It takes a great deal of time to run the globe eventually. If we wake up to what has been going on for a long time and recover what it means to be an Individual with inalienable rights, then perhaps we will truly recover as a nation of all nationalities. If we succumb, recover, and go back to ‘business as usual’ with Communist forces, then it’s just a matter of time when “rights” will be defined by whoever tells you who and what you are.
Vigilate et Orate 