After a wonderful, enjoyable 4th of July, I am now feeling not so giddy. Why, you ask? Simply because of this: the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, decided to erase April 14 as a paid city holiday from its civic calendar. The reason is because this was the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, its most famous son.
You see, Jefferson was a slave-owner. Forget everything else you know about him –third president of the United States, inventor, founder of the University of Virginia, author of the Declaration of Independence, etc.–this renaissance man was a slave-owner. And he probably pulled at a little girl’s pigtails when he was six years old. Or something.
The totality of his life, his massive historical legacy, his sheer brilliance, all must be forgotten. Because some acolyte of Pope Kaepernick says so. Yeah, makes perfect sense to me.
I’m going to be talking more about this in the short video below. I intend show how the violent stupidity that is racking our land is ultimately self-defeating. It is nothing short of an American iconoclasm and like the earlier, Byzantine one, it will not end well. Nor will it be fondly remembered. Instead, it will be the next generation’s neoconservatism and anybody associated with it will swear that they were never part of it.*
Yours Truly has been preaching about this iconoclasm for several years now (although this is the first time that I have been inspired to call it by such appellation), what with the taking down of Confederate statues and flags and such. My initial, visceral reaction to the taking down of the Stars and Bars and assorted Confederate statues throughout our country and other assorted Dixieanna was one of revulsion. This includes innocuous things like the forced ending of Paula Deen’s business empire and the erasure of The Dukes of Hazard from the airwaves. Such Orwellian tactics should grieve the soul of decent men everywhere.
As an American of Greek descent, I have seen dozens of statues of the greatest heroes of my ethnicity still standing tall and proud in the land of my father’s birth. And have known for decades that these men all had serious flaws –as did the civilization from which they sprang. As an Orthodox Christian, I have prayed in literally scores of churches on whose walls are the icons of saints, none of whom (thank God!) were perfect. And as a Southerner, I knew and respected the rectitude, resolve and martial prowess of the great heroes of Dixie. I knew that many hated slavery but regardless, their homeland was being attacked. As you will see from this clip below, Col Robert E Lee said it best:
And as an American, I also knew that my own country –my true motherland–was born because of an illegal rebellion. One predicated on a tax revolt against the legally constituted authority. No less a personage than Benjamin Franklin knew this. It was he who said “If we do not hang together, we will hang separately”.
But what I read about yesterday is simply the final straw. Jefferson was no saint but his words in the Declaration of Independence are among the most stirring words in the English language that I can think of. That is, if you believe in Liberty. (Perhaps therein lies the rub?) If the “elites” who control the levers of our culture cannot come to his defense, then they should not be surprised when the rest of us rise up and put them in their place. At the very least, they should expect the mockery and contempt which we continually heap upon them.
I do not know how or by what means we will take back this country from this evil, blighted and stupid kakistocracy which rules us, but do so we will. Or else America will continue along its death-spiral. It’s going to be one or the other.
*In the interests of full disclosure, I will admit that I was taken in by Francis Fukuyama’s ideas about democratic liberalism being the “end stage of history”. He was manifestly wrong and so was I. At some future date, I will speak about my pilgrimage to Istanbul twenty years ago and what started my questioning of the established liberal paradigm.
George,
If a person doesn’t love our country and our Founding Fathers, then leave. The Founding Fathers owe absolutely no apologies to anyone for anything. They are the greatest men in world history- bar none.
It’s rather unbelievable, but the United States was fortunate at that particular point in time to have been blessed with men of such calibre all in one place.
Despite their heterodoxy, it was indeed providential.
Uk going same way.
Dear George,
You probably remember the “AGAIN” Magazine, published by Conciliar Press of the Evangelical Orthodox Church. Vol.6 No.1 was dedicated to Thomas Jefferson.
The article “HERO OR HERETIC?” was written by Terry Somerville(*), Assoc.Editor, AGAIN (pp.16-18).
He writes:
“…certainly no one has contributed more to the establishment of this nation than Thomas Jefferson.” (p.16)
“The purpose of the article has not been to drag the honored name of Thomas Jefferson through the mud, but rather to caution Christians not to honor him for the wrong reasons. Those who have much to teach us about government and politics sometimes have very little to show us about spirituality.”p.18)
To illustrate his views on Christianity, suffice it to mention a few short parts from the article:
“Thoroughly disgusted by what he viewed as the ignorance of the apostles and the corrupting imfluence of St. Paul, Jefferson set out to purge the Gospels of the errors of their authors. In this mind, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were more often than not guilty of ‘expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves’ ” (p.16)
“Jefferson is quite consistent with this wholesale butchering of the Holy Scriptures” (p.17)
If we tell the whole truth about Bartholomew we must certainly do the same about Jefferson.
(*) T.Sommerville has been co-author with Weldon M. Hardenbrook:
Missing from Action: A Powerful Historical Response to the Crisis Among American Men Paperback – May 1, 1996
Ioannis, I am completely aware of Jefferson’s privately-held religious beliefs. Even as an Anglican he was clearly a heretic.
As an Orthodox Christian, a conservative, traditionalist, quasi-libertarian, I care not a whit about what anyone believes in the theological realm. He will have to answer to God Almighty for his beliefs I imagine. What I do care about is what he wrote about Liberty and how he comported himself as chief executive. I give him a solid “B” in that department.
Having said that, I have absolutely no qualms about calling Jefferson out for lazy thinking regarding the nexus between Christianity and Liberty. A devotee of Natural Law –and this much is clearly evident in the Declaration of Independence–Jefferson should have known that concepts likes “Nature’s God” and “inalienable rights” can be traced in a straight line back to St Thomas Aquinas and other natural law theorists.
Like the scientific method (which was first propounded in Franciscan monasteries during the High Middle Ages), the concept of absolute truths is the emanation of the divine Logos which created the cosmos and permeates it. That Jefferson couldn’t (or wouldn’t) see it does no mitigate against the fundamental truthfulness of it.
Thanks very much, George!
He might not have been a founding father. But Chesty Puller put it best:
“Our Country won’t go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won’t be any AMERICA because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race!”
It was ever thus.
Likening these things – i.e. pulling down statues and abandoning public holidays – to a new iconoclasm is quite apt.
The name Thomas isn’t in their cross hairs just yet, but (even if only figuratively speaking) it will be
Thomas Jefferson was the last President to come to the defense of Christians against the Muslims.
Good point!
Even more reason for them to ban the holiday
Yeah, and in 2009 Brookhiser rewrote history in WSJ by making it look like it was muslims not Greeks who fought with the USA in Lybia
Thanks, George.
You might want to proof/edit your title. I’m not sure. Did you mean “insanity” or perhaps were coining a word that is a combination of the words “insanity” and “inanity”? Lol.
That too!
No mention of the Sage of Monticello is complete without evoking the image of Jefferson chasing Sally Hemings from room to room.
Mr Barker, I too, believed Fawn Brodie’s allegation about Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Soon, I will refute that handily with recourse to contemporaneous documents as well as DNA analysis. This refutation will take form in a video format.
Long story short: only Miss Hemings’ last son, Eaton (she had six children) bore any trace of a Jefferson “Y” chromosome. This child was most likely fathered by Jefferson’s brother Randolph or one of his two sons, both of whom were seen whiling their free time in Hemings’ quarters.
You believe that the Russian fleets saved the Union from the British (Stanford’s Thomas A Bailey counters the Russian fleet saved itself from defeat by the British by hiding in Union waters) yet at the same time you are a vile hypocrite because you endorse Putin’s agents reviving Dixie.
Regardless of the intent of these Russian ships, the word was put out that they were there as a tripwire should France and Great Britain decide to send men and materiel to the Confederacy (which they supported, though not diplomatically).
I love these occasional discussions about the “Russian fleet”. A few months back, somebody posted about how the “Russian fleet” was “in sight” of the domes and towers of Constantinople during the First World War, but the British fleet would not let them take the prize. Perfidous Albion and all that.
I laughed out loud at the thought of the “Russian fleet” vis-à-vis the British fleet back then. As well as the thought that the Brits should have let the Russians ‘take’ C’pole…
So, yes, the Russian fleet and the Confederacy, vs. the British fleet. Daydreams and fantasies are fun, though. This one would be a subset of Lost Causism; far out even for that genre.
Why shouldn’t the British have let Russia take Constantinople? Britain and Russia were allies in a war against Germany and Austro-Hungary. Turkey was allied with the Central Powers against both Russia and Britain. Why can’t Greece retake Constantinople after 500 plus years of Turkish rule? It is perfectly all right for Jews to get a homeland after 2000 plus years, even if they have to displace Arabs who had nothing to do with their plight. Or am I an anti- Semite for bringing this up?
Not at all ES! Like me, You’re being consistent.
my points exactly.
ES, if we “gave back the land” to every conquered peoples, there would be no extant governments anywhere to speak of, certainly not in any European country depending on how far back one goes. England, get rid of the Normans; have them give back all of the land and property stolen from the Catholic Church and faithful Catholics. Or go pre-Roman. Which tribes get the booty?
There is no end to such things as they are virtually infinite regressions. Any stopping point is arbitrary.
From one point of view the establishment of a Jewish homeland just means all the other nations are anti-Semitic because they did not want Jews in their own country. Liberia comes to mind. Many condemn the establishment of Liberia as a racist act. Why is it not a racist act when Jews are concerned? But that is just a thought experiment. The acts of terrorism carried out by political Zionists before the establishment of the Jewish state against Brittan got rewarded and legitimatized. Some would say the Israeli government has maintained the same approach to Arab and Christian minorities ever since.
Why have not other Muslim countries made “Palestinians” welcome, creating and maintaining sordid “refugee camps” instead.
A whole slug of second thoughts. From a strict historical perspective, peoples get conquered and subjugated all the time. It is part of the ebb and flow of nations and civilizations as even the video game “Forge of Empires” knows.
Some day in the not too distant future the white (depending on how one defines “white”) Anglo-Saxon invaders of the territory of what is now know as the United States will be displaced and subjugated. That process is already underway. It is a slow moving revolution that is going on. Much like what happened over centuries several times in China.
At the least the population will tend to get browner and browner as a low melanin concentration in the skin is a regressive trait I believe. So what happens when everyone is brown and there is still an elite ruling class? Obviously, some are more equal than others.
What happens when faith is largely displaced to the recesses and corners of society — do we get our own Christian homeland? Wouldn’t that be fun.
Race is a strictly arbitrary and stupid distinction among human beings. It is largely a product of social Darwinism. Money and power are equally arbitrary but the fact is than only a tyrannical government can create a culture without hierarchy and even then, it is actually impossible.
When we create enemies and fight them, we become more and more like them. We did not have concentration camps, unless you count Indian reservations, in the US until we fought Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. We did not have government intelligence services spying on US citizens until we fought the Soviet Union. Yet another reason for confederation over nation states.
“In the course of justice, none of us should see salvation”.
I think you mean recessive trait.
Tim, yes indeed. I meant recessive trait, notwithstanding those who truly do think that being white is regressive. Thank you for your correction.
Well, I’m not progressive anyway…..
Tim, in case you thought my comment hyperbole: Actress Rosanna Arquette took to Twitter to apologize to her followers for being “born white and privileged…
Now that is self-hating racism if ever I heard it. What’s next–one drop of white blood bars you from entrance into the finer establishments, schools, jobs, etc.
Maybe a revival of Show Boat on Broadway with an all black main cast and with Richard Sterban of the Oak Ridge Boys as “Joe” instead of Paul Robeson?
Of course if she really meant it, she would change her name, give away all of her money and go get a job at Wal-Mart.
Well, the Brits spent a lot of effort in the decades before WWI keeping the Russians from taking anything in that part of the world, and points East.
On the other hand, a Soviet Constantinople a few years later would have been interesting!
Why can’t the Greeks take Constantinople? I don’t know; didn’t they try in the 1920s? Should they try again?
As for Greeks, Turks, Israelis, Arabs, and every other people, for that matter, the ‘good old rule’ seems to apply still:
“The good old rule sufficeth them, the simple plan;
Let him take who has the power,
and let him keep, who can.”
“Rob Roy’s Grave”; Robert Burns
You are right, Tim,
In the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, the Russians were about 12 miles from Constantinople with the Turks in flight. The British and the French had fleets nearby and they sent a message to the Russians that if they took Constantinople, the allies would declare war on Russia. There was a popular pub song of the day that was the warp and woof of the English peoples mind regarding the matter.
Macdermott’s War Song
The “Dogs of War” are loose and the rugged Russian Bear,All bent on blood and robbery has crawled out of his lair…It seems a thrashing now and then, will never help to tame…That brute, and so he’s out upon the “same old game”…The Lion did his best… to find him some excuse…To crawl back to his den again. All efforts were no use…He hunger’d for his victim. He’s pleased when blood is shed…But let us hope his crimes may all recoil on his own head…
Chorus:
We don’t want to fight but by jingo if we do…
We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, and got the money too!
We’ve fought the Bear before… and while we’re Britons true,
The Russians shall not have Constantinople…
The misdeeds of the Turks have been “spouted” through all lands,But how about the Russians, can they show spotless hands?They slaughtered well at Khiva, in Siberia icy cold.How many subjects done to death we’ll ne’er perhaps be told.They butchered the Circassians, man, woman yes and child.With cruelties their Generals their murderous hours beguiled,And poor unhappy Poland their cruel yoke must bear,While prayers for “Freedom and Revenge” go up into the air.
(Chorus)
May he who ‘gan the quarrel soon have to bite the dust.The Turk should be thrice armed for “he hath his quarrel just.”‘Tis said that countless thousands should die through cruel war,But let us hope most fervently ere long it shall be o’er.Let them be warned: Old England is brave Old England still.We’ve proved our might, we’ve claimed our right, and ever, ever will.Should we have to draw the sword our way to victory we’ll forge,With the Battle cry of Britons, “Old England and St George!”
(chorus)
Found on: https://hubpages.com/politics/Is-America-Guilty-of-Jingoism
Yes gingoism indeed. No one doubt that in fighting it’s way to the Pacific Imperial Russia did things it should not have, but pace. UK, Spain , USA France etc etc in their quest for Empire .And Belgiun in the Congo!!!
But with 19c Ottoman Turkey we are taking about empire in decline holding arbitary rule over it’s Christian subjects and as in 1877/8 in Bulgaria committing mass slaughter of Christians. And Uk took away Russian protection of Armenians with horriffic results.
Nikos, to prepare for one of my deployments to Afghanistan ten years ago as an Orthodox U.S. Army chaplain, and knowing in advance that a Bulgarian contingent would be in the Kabul area among the Coalition Forces, I read the classic novel renowned in Bulgaria by Ivan Yazov, Under the Yoke. Written in 1888 and published a few years later, that novel is a marvelous, inspirational tale of the failed Bulgarian insurrection in 1876 against their Ottoman Turkish overlords. One of the principal characters is an Orthodox priest. Yazov reveals the horrors that the Muslim Turks inflicted on the Bulgarian Orthodox rebels and civilian population in retribution.
Ironically, the next year brought another Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). The imperial Russian Army under the great Tsar Alexander II, liberator of the serfs in 1861 (a full year, by the way, before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the American states not in rebellion), almost succeeded in liberating both the subjected Bulgarians and “the Porte” (i.e., Constantinople) from the Turks. As you intimate, the Brits and the French prevented that most happy outcome based on their own imperial “balance of power” ideology. Just think how different the subsequent history of Europe, the global Orthodox Church, and perhaps the entire world would have been if the Western powers had not impeded the Russians from accomplishing one of the most important goals of imperial Russian foreign policy: liberating Constantinople from the Turks!
By the way, the commander (a lieutenant colonel) of that Bulgarian unit in Afghanistan was astonished that I had even heard of Yazov’s novel, much less read it! And he did something that an American commanding officer never could: he ordered all available Bulgarian troops who were not on special missions to attend my Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Vespers services.
Fr, very inspiring to hear about that lite colonel and how he could get his troops to chapel for Orthodox services. I’m afraid now in the US military this would be impossible, or at the very least it would vex the officers who make up the tranny contingent.
We are all hypocrites at times. I don’t think George ever said that Putin’s people should restore Dixie. I may have said it. What I think I said was, IF the US can interfere in Ukraine’s affairs, why can’t Russia help the South rise again?
Fr, agreed! The Russians can redeem themselves by coming to the aid of the South this time.
talking of RACISM and hypocrisy, INDIA. with caste which is class and race ( often the same) together and has been carried over to Indian emmigration in West. UK certainly. I came across it in my staff.
In India the darker dravidians ( very often Christian too) are the lower caste and the Dalits or so called ‘ untouchables’ are the bottom caste that clean toilets etc . The Aryan lighter lot are the higher castes.
But of course all this about Hinduism never mentioned by these liberal fools and virtue signalling pseudo freedom warriors. As for apologies for being white, I awaiting the apologies from Ruanda, from the zulus and bantus for their wars of extinction against other tribes, and west African coast tribes for their part in slave trade and for iroquois 17c war of extermination against Hurons and all other such inter amer-indian wars, etc etc. KOLOKITHAKIA as we say.
Deeper understanding would say we AS HUMAN BEINGS ALL IN NEED OF REPENTENCE, so back to the CHURCH. But that not a message the o’ rourkes and rest want to hear lost up their rears.
The trouble with the o’ rourkes of this world is that they never have had to suffer ever, apart from as a human being in Terms of life and death. And even there money helps, as they say!! And so it’s a game really, as use of spanish moniker, Beto when suits, but obviously not at Harvard!!!!!.
Also his assumptions of the most dangerous liberal assumptions, that of continual progress without effort.
Which is why, Niko, I never accede to the blame game or engage in victimology. My answer to those who do so? “Get over it!”