Like many I was horrified on so many levels by the news of the fire which engulfed the iconic Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
The thing that makes me truly sad is that my first reaction to the news wasn’t basic human safety concerns. My first reaction was to jump to the political ramifications and ask cui bono?
Who benefits from this?
In this hyper-politicized world every act has an agenda. And with so many false flags, failing governments, simmering (or actually boiling) culture wars and rampant ideological insanity it is nearly impossible to dismiss them.
Meanwhile, one of the great symbols and repositories of human achievement was nearly destroyed by either carelessness, neglect, malicious intent or a sinister combination of all three.
And people were cheering this.
While I’m lamenting my cynical initial reaction there were people all across the globe cheering the destruction of an integral part of human history.
That should frighten you.
It shows just how deeply ingrained the current divides are.
It shows how fallen and corrupt of spirit the culture has become.
It’s religious significance is secondary to this. If it was just an expression of the rivalry between Islam and Christianity that would be regrettable if understandable.
What’s worse to me is descendants of those that built Notre Dame cheering this event because they’ve been inculcated to hate religion of all forms by their Marxist education.
They’ve been effectively immunized against feeling anything but contempt for themselves and their history.
History is history. It doesn’t have an agenda. It exists, for better or worse, to remind us that who we are today is the sum total of who we were then.
Marxists fundamentally believe in creating a man without a history, without connection to his past to mold him into the New Soviet Man.
Argue with me about this all you want Bernie Bros, Corbynites and Richard Wolff acolytes, this is the point of this French post-modernist “life is an absurd simulation” nonsense. It’s simply an excuse to justify the inherent envy at the core of all Marxist thought.
And yet, for as much as I despise Marxism in all its forms, if instead of Notre Dame the Gulag History State Museum in Moscow burned up I would feel just as sad.
I no more want to see statues of Confederate Generals removed or the Stars and Bars wiped from our collective memory than I want to see anyone ever be sold into chattel slavery.
Because a people without a past, incapable of facing the evil they’ve done, is a people on a path to self-righteous crusades that far exceed any horrors previously committed.
Think about the insane atrocities of the 20th century and then remember it was done in the name of creating a better human.
People without history have no context. They are unstuck in time having to relearn lessons which our ancestors built monuments to remind us of what we’re capable of for better or worse.
While the French government took years to raise €12 million to renovate Notre Dame despite having the highest tax rate in the world, private donations to rebuild it topped $1 billion in the first 48 hours after the fire was put out.
This is gratifying in a way that is almost beyond words. And it makes a mockery of the statist arguments for government to replace private charity and private property.
If the French, themselves to birthplace of this post-modern and most sinister form of Marxism, had left even a smidge of capital for their people to enjoy maybe we wouldn’t be mourning/cheering Notre Dame today.
Architect working on the restoration interviewed!!
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2019/04/18/800-year-old-oak-doesnt-burn-like-that/
I am reading an essay, “When in the Future They Look Back on Us” by Doris Lessing, a witness to both 1st & 2nd world war. She grew up in Southern Rhodesia, which after a horrific war between black and white became Zimbabwe, the blacks having wrested control from their white rulers. When interviewing both sides of the warring parties after it was over she noted that the fighters were abashed by the fact that they enjoyed the carnage. Wars occur because there is some release, the barbarian lower brain takes over and provides some liberation for its participants.
This is something the human race doesn’t like to own up to — our barbarism. Calling it evil and trying to hide it doesn’t make it go away. Tom’s essay comes to the very conclusion that he tries to condemn. He is using the tragedy to damn the Marxists. No form of government at present is superior to another. They work well for a while, and human nature being what it is, corruption sets in and it all goes to hell. The two main culprits are greed and power-lust.
Marxusm is an ideology that interprets the entire world jn terms of power. It seeks to justify both greed and power-lust through dehumanization of our experience by saying it’s all meaningless and absurd.
What allows that corruption to grow is this desire to do good, as Gandalf said so eloquently. I don’t see marxism as a political system but rather an anti-humanist philosophy of envy and weakness
A cultural tragedy indeed. However I can’t but wonder at the hypocrisy displayed by many who ignore French complicity in the destruction of the far older Alleppo mosque and other Syrian churches or the recent Ukrainian shelling of the church at Gorlovka. I also see that France has suffered several hundred attacks on churches over recent years. We are regressing back to barbarism or did we ever leave it?
I am a Marxist, Tom, and this is my take on this tragedy. It’s in Norwegian, but Google will help you: https://steigan.no/2019/04/notre-dame-og-kulturarven/
All good points but I’d like to nuance the second and first to last paragraphs. A lot of talk about the Arnault and Pinault families’ donations in the context of the 2003 Aillagon law providing a 60% tax reduction up to 0.5% of the total turnover, a generous ‘defiscalization’ as it were. In the face of harsh criticism, it seems that both families have promised not to take advantage of this reduction and since the donations will be made by the family foundation or they have already reached the limit of 0.5%, they are probably telling the truth. Not sure if this reasoning applies to other big donations.
hi I am standing here in Trump world vision and I am thanking you for making Brexit clear and calling Marxist for what they are , my field games are the study of eternity as the path of human life to continue this incredible being I am Alive what is the beyond to do to keep this life alive alive alive yes at the UNIVERSITY the true sanctuary city gjmars.tumblr.com with in the mind of life…
A word about Marxism and its offspring, communism/socialism: communism works well in devastated countries where the whole becomes more important than the individual. Russia, once the serf system was eliminated never evolved and became progressively more oppressive and so was defeated. But China and Cuba benefited greatly from it, and they were wise enough to evolve and adapt. These are not systems Americans at present can appreciate, but its people don’t suffer as much as Americans do. Libya would benefit if communism was instituted and attention were directed toward getting it back on its feet.
But as in all things, there is an expiration date on all forms of government, as Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
Luhrenloup, a simple clarification.
All politics is about ONE thing only, who has the stealing rights. Examples abound for REALLY serious money these days.
1. The Clinton foundation, 1-2 billion for pay to play.
2. Bush junior and senior Iraq wars, for the weapons manufacturers, Cheney’s contractor pals. Trillions.
we slaughtered 500,000 children, and 5,500 of our guys with the 1-2 million civilians for NOTHING.
3. Obama passes $150 Billion of folding paper money on pallets to Iran. Who got the skim?
His $100 Mill. to the Paris climate accord scam, which Trump cancelled. Books for him and his wife good for many tens of millions. Now living in a multi million guarded house after being a starving lawyer.
4. The $21 TRILLION, repeat, Trillion missing out of the Pentagon carefully documented.
5. Libya was a wonderful functioning country under the benevolent dictator until the USA went in to steal their gold out of their bank,and steal all Qaddafi’s overseas cash as the CIA was running guns out of Benghazi to Syria for cash.
6. Afghan war now on for 18 years for cash from heroin business, and $400 / gal. diesel delivered.
7. new minted freshman congress critters go from starving bartenders, to $160,000 / yr. salaries, free offices health care, AND, $5,000,000 annual expense accounts with NO monitoring.
I could go on and on, but you now have the facts which can be verified if you wish .
Gee, you forgot about the horror America is inflicting on Venezuela on a day to day basis so it can get at its oil. They are starving them out, keeping them in the dark without means of communication, their ships are blocked . . .
Hey, Ursel, I know what’s going on. I always get this treatment when I first start posting on a blog. The guys give me a figurative tap on the shoulder. Now, now little lady . . .
A word to the wise, stop aligning yourself with whatever is current on one side or the other and maybe formulate your own ideas about governments and their purpose.