That’s Uvalde, Not Valhalla
In Norse mythology there is a majestic hall ruled over by the god, Odin. The victors who die in combat travel to Valhalla led by Valkyries to be with Odin. It could be likened to a Norse heaven that was taken up and popularized by Richard Wagner, the Germanic creator of the world famous four opera cycle, The Ring. He was a true 19th century celebrity, a close friend of Fredrich Nietzsche of philosophical fame, and greatly admired by Adolf Hitler. Surrounded by the finest art and the musical strains of Wagner, one can imagine Goebbels, Göring, and Uncle Adolf sitting in a circle enjoying the finest brandy and cigars the Reich could steal. Hitler himself, however, was a teetotaler and a vegetarian—I’m sure he was quite woke to environmental issues as well. So much for refinement.
Nietzsche had a permanent work room in the Wagner household and spent a great deal of time with Wagner and family. Both men, Nietzsche and Wagner, had become associated with Hitler because of Nietzsche’s Superman/Ubermensch concept based on the rejection of God which left no moral structure. Therefore, the world by default would be run by supermen—those with the “will to power.” Deep in the Germanic spirit was both the idea of superior warriors receiving special rewards in heaven or an imaginary abode for victors. This, joined to Wagner’s tendencies toward antisemitism and the Fuhrer concept, made for a tasty foundation for the National Socialist Party. If there was anything that the German Fatherland despised, even in themselves, it was defeat.
I have been humored recently by the reports and clips from the panel discussions and pronouncements coming from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland held in January. They are engaged in what is called the Great Reset, the build back better program after the Great Transition. Davos deities might be a better label considering some of their assumed sovereignty over all the earth. If there was ever a group that could bring back Wagner’s dream of Valhalla, it would be this phalanx of despots. Davos men and women, rich, out of touch oligarchs, billionaires, politicians, educators, and bureaucrats, gather to be the dream weavers they are. They are a gathering of “Bond Villains,” an alumni of agnostics who know it all. They remind me of the villains from such Bond thrillers as From Russia with Love, Gold Finger, and Doctor No.[1] You Only Live Twice was not invited back because delegates were not willing to restrict themselves to only two lives. They all have one thing in common—to create a utopian world with no disease, pollution, war, nuclear weapons, bad weather or bad people. Particularly, bad people, those who don’t make much money, the poor, the non-university educated, the seriously religious, and those who wear t-shirts with writing on them and have guns in their homes. They are almost entirely anti-second amendment for the United States which really means citizens should not have guns. They, the enlightened ones, have all the guns. Everyone knows that in a good world, only highly paid security guards have guns to protect the elite because elites are smart, and without them, the world would be like, you know, the world.
Funny thing, they call out conservatives for being racists, bigots, and suffering from various phobias. They advocate we all become like Europe—the whitest, most tribal, divided place on earth. They talk about unity, but what they really mean is the populace is forced into compliance. It seemed the most exciting highlights from the gathering was the plot to vaccinate the entire human race against their will, if necessary, because what is human will put a roadblock to human happiness—come on, just think about it. The issue was how to gain compliance. What was not considered was asking people if they would like the various vaccines. The discussion was how to marshal the good force of governments and worldwide organizations like the World Health Organization. You know, organizations that are not compromised, and are not the serfs of China or the Gates Foundation. One of the clips I viewed was the grand announcement that now total biological surveillance could be achieved via a chip that could be placed in every person. Just think what this could mean. They, and they means them, could track your carbon footprint. Imagine swallowing this new Pfizer pill that is a homing-data-collecting device tracking everything about you—your medications, your food, etc., and storing it in a special Cloud. Dr. No could spend his days devising a plan for your life.
Everything a person puts into their body could be tracked for their own good. Of course, the state would administer the judgment of what should be done with non-compliant outliers. The Ministry of Truth could take care of that. Wouldn’t it be great if Winston Smith of 1984 fame would once again need to hide in the one little corner of his apartment where he could read and write and think without being watched by “Big Brother?” Speaking of Winston Smith, how many fingers is Bill Gates holding up? I know it looks like three, but in due course, you will be convinced it is four. He may be late—the Lolita Express ran into some bad weather over the Mediterranean. All utopian scenarios are plagued with questions: “Who decides what is mis-information, what is true, who gets to choose, who is sovereign, and who has the final say?”
The Davos community and other elite groups inherently know that their dreams would need to be crammed down millions of unwilling throats. They are working on a way to erase the human “gag response.” That is why they can’t use the democratic process to achieve their goals—it must be done by fiat—and since God is not available to do their bidding, the government is left to bring their citizens into compliance. You do remember citizens, don’t you? It used to mean something to be a citizen of a country. There was a common language, common values, secure boarders, and a process with standards to become citizens.
Somehow, and for some reason that escapes me, these utopians believe that Government is benign, and inherently good, that it hasn’t been marred by sin, that it hasn’t been cursed—we just need to go through a few rough spots and we will be fine. They believe that somehow government has become nice and this could have something to do with their thinking that they are the government, that they hold the levers to power. Honestly, after many of these leaders have verbally accosted big government, big corporations, and big tech for the vast majority of their lives, they now, suddenly, believe world governments and leaders have gotten religion. This all keeps me thinking of a man of experience who faced utopian efforts that led government to force compliance, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He penetrated the madness when he wrote, “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”[2]
A major oversight of the Davos community is the over emphasis and panic on climate change, aptly renamed, after global warming fell on hard times. I think it is fair to say that humans pollute and because we live on the planet—we have an effect. And that effect has been to use up what is on earth and many cases to abuse it. I think it is a concern, but not a crisis. I could write more about this, but your eyes will glaze over and I will fall asleep. Let me put it this way, the earth is temporary and people are eternal. I am guessing, since the Davos community has written a sovereign God out of the script, that they believe the earth is eternal and people are temporary. Short term analysis through a telescope could lead a person who only considers what he or she can see or surmise from their limited senses and tools, how they could to reach this temporary conclusion. Of course, the Davos Volk think the destruction of the petroleum industry and the investment of most resources in green energy is a small price to pay for the lower standard of living that would bring to the entire world for at least a generation if not two or three generations—it would be like the old Baptist hymn, “It Will Be Worth it All” Of course, their standard of living will be unaffected. They can live above and apart from the chaos unless they need to leave the fortress for bread, or milk, or vermouth.
Uvalde is our world, not Davos
We do not live in a Davos world. It is a fake world with bad ideas that always have failed and will continue to fail because they have forgotten God. They have dismissed the truth about the human being. We are fallen, blinded to our own sins, and over-confident, even illusionary about our mental capacity to fix anything that is essentially broken. We live in an unjust world, a broken people who need saving. Humanity is overboard and we don’t need instructions on how to swim—we need a life raft. We live in Uvalde, Texas, not a temporary artificial community of elites who would destroy each other if they were forced to share a room at the Motel 6. Our world is unjust, filled with joy and horror, suffering and achievement. We have heroes and villains, cowards, and the mentally ill. Technology and instant global communications are funneled at high speed onto our devices and into our hearts. A serious state of anxiety has set into the American mind. The shooting at the elementary school in Uvalde has brought out the best and worst of individuals. Many take the easy road and talk about access to guns. It seems that some people want to blame guns, gun laws, and still others, mental illness. These are all valid inquiries if they can be done with some balance and objectivity.
There is a central question that is starting to be asked which, I believe, will lead to possible solutions: “What kind of young men are we forming in America?” This is the question of the hour, because these shootings are being done by young men who are lonely, alienated, and often without strong familial support. But other questions come into play. Questions that we do not yet have permission to ask. Why do advocates of changing gun laws or even the Second Amendment refuse to discuss the black on black gang shootings in our major cities like Chicago or New York? The tragedy among the poorest and disadvantaged people in our country is a true crisis. What about the fact that law and order is on the decline and is created by corrupt or misguided District Attorneys in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia? Their refusal to prosecute basic law breaking is some sort of societal engineering experiment that, once again, forgets God and the realities of the human being. There is a general malaise at the local level that is discussed by people of all persuasions and on which we have uniform agreement. People feel less safe, life in general is in decline, we pay more and get less—our leaders are failing us.
I want to be clear. I am not a gun owner and I have never fired a gun except at a carnival. But I think it is instructive to cite the reason the Second Amendment was placed into the Constitution. I must admit I am no expert on this matter. The developers of the Amendments to the Constitution were wise and they contemplated what could help America survive where so many empires had fallen. They realized that what destroyed most empires was success. As soon as a country or nation succeeds in eliminating its foreign threats, it begins to tinker and refine itself. The United States motto is E Pluribus Unum, “From many one.” The potential destroyer would be unity, at the expense of pluralism. The Fathers asked themselves, “What if the Federal Government became so strong that people followed it without question? That would lead to a monarch, a ruler, and one government rule. This, to some degree, is what lay behind requiring two forms of state representatives: two Senators from each state regardless of population with six-year terms provides a slower, less volatile body than Representatives apportioned by population and who serve two-year terms.
The Electoral College is a way of protecting the interest of the smaller states and the little person, and which gives everyone a voice in a republic. The other kind of fail-safe was the sovereignty of the individual and God given rights along with states’ rights. Each state would have its own government, interests, and disagreements with the Federal government and with other states. Today we have Red States and Blue States. This is actually a good thing in that the division creates competition and tension. That is the reason the Founding Fathers created the Second Amendment—so that each state could form an armed militia. The idea was clear to them but much less clear to us today. They asked the question, “What can we do if the Federal Government gets too powerful and attempts to infringe on our rights?” We need to keep our guns, that is the only way we can defend ourselves. They, along with their ancestors, had plenty of experience with this problem. I don’t believe that most of us think the Federal Government is going to run rough shod over its people. At least that was the consensus prior to our experience with Covid 19. Everyone reading this has lived through it. But many can now imagine how various authorities have abused their power and, if allowed, will continue to do so. I don’t need a gun, I have no plan to purchase a gun, but I insist on having the right to get one if I need it.
So, it really isn’t unity that makes the United States a great place to live, work and play. It is tension that creates change and improves life. We find unity on the essentials, acceptance and disagreement on the non-essentials, and an attitude of charity on everything else. Here is the most in-depth question to tackle. “Why in the 1950s when there were more guns per-capita in the United States were there few mass shootings? Why was law and order a normal part of the daily experience of Americans? What is the difference between that world and the one in which we now live? The difference could be told in a simple story. [3]
I was around five and Susie Stabler was maybe a year or two older. We lived near each other and one day we decided to steal a popsicle from the local grocery store. The owner knew us because we would often come in on an errand for bread or to get candy. The barber shop was next door and our houses were a little way down the alley. We devised our plan. Susie would distract the man at the counter, I would open the ice cream freezer and grab a cherry popsicle, and we would make a run for it. I grabbed the popsicle, threw a rock on the counter, and ran. We shared it and then returned to our yards on that hot humid day acting as though nothing had happened. My Mother asked me why my tongue was red. I hadn’t planned on that. I finally confessed, and my Mother marched Susie and me back to the store where we confessed our sins and I paid for the popsicle with the 5 cents that I now owned my mother. I was grounded for a week—no TV, had to go to bed at 7:00 PM in the summer while it was still light outside, and she took my crystal radio set away so I couldn’t listen at night. This is possibly the difference.
[1] Thanks to Andrew Klavan for idea on Bond Villains
[2] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Men have Forgotten God: 1983 Templeton Address, National Review, December 11, 2018.
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States