This Is God's Country

A lot of times we think things are new when they are not. There were no good ol' days. 

Under a dictatorship the Big Business, made possible by advancing technology and the consequent ruin of Little Business, is controlled by the State - that is to say, by a small group of party leaders and the soldiers, policemen and civil servants who carry out their orders. In a capitalist democracy such as the United States, it is controlled by what Professor C. Wright Mills has called the Power Elite.

This Power Elite directly employs several millions of the country’s working force in its factories, offices and stores, controls many millions more by lending them the money to buy its products, and, through its ownership of the media of mass communications, influences the thoughts, the feelings and the actions of virtually everybody.

- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited 1958

While I would not call our system democracy or capitalism, we all need to understand that the whole system, America the Beautiful as the song calls it, has a Potemkin village kind of beauty in its veneer. 

But ugly is what is really there. It was ugly in 1958, in 1858, and the ugliness is still there. Like the Eagles song Hotel California, "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." I am mixing my metaphors here as I have always advocated leaving the system behind...just look at the subtitle to the blog, "Leaving Babylon the Great." 

We are all stuck in Babylon. Even if you emigrate to New Zealand, you will find Babylon there. But each of us can strive to leave it in all the most important ways. You may be forced to be in the system--just refuse to pay your taxes and see what happens. But you can refuse to be of the system. 

This is oddly enough why I try to blog every Friday about food and health. I refuse to eat the food of Babylon. I want something different. As Huxley mentioned, Babylon controls the media, so it tries to control even our feelings along with our thoughts. This is why I do not watch much television. This Is My Country! This is also why I talk about religious matters. Most churches have been co-opted. If you think I am wrong, on a weekend around July 4, go to church with an open mind and listen. 

This is my country! Land of my birth!
This is my country! Grandest on earth!
I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,
For this is my country to have and to hold.

Do these lyrics sound familiar? Have you heard it sung in church? But have you heard this section from Jeremiah 7 preached and related to the modern situation in the US? 

8-11 “‘Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you’re swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market—and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, “We’re safe!” thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Temple, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I’ve got eyes in my head. I can see what’s going on.’”God’s Decree!

Is this God's country? Not so much.