I planned to do other things this evening, but got caught up in this discussion at Larry James’ blog. He started by re-posting on why we should not be content to always have the poor with us, citing Deuteronomy. It went from there to the question of who are “the poor” anyway? As best I can tell, his answer seems to be that the poor are victims of a conspiracy by the CIA to pad the profits of American companies. I’m not really sure, though. I need to read the book he recommended to find out.
When I expressed skepticism, he turned to our common Harding University background and criticized our alma mater for engaging in “conspiracy theories” about Communism. To that, I responded by explaining that there actually was a conspiracy of Communist traitors in the U.S. government, which more than justified Harding’s prominent anti-communist activities in the 40’s and 50’s. By the way, Harry Dexter White, one of the members of that conspiracy, was also involved in forming the World Bank and International Monetary Fund — two institutions that the CIA allegedly uses to keep third world countries poor. So the conspiracy comes full circle!
Larry, it is interesting that we come from a similar experience to different places. What is more interesting to me is the tendency of folks on the both the religious left and the secular left to attack their own tradition and heritage — the seeming eagerness to think the worst of their country, their religious tradition, or even their alma mater. In the last few months, I have seen this attitude over and over again on various Harding alumni blogs.
Check out this post for more on this tendency in left-of-center Harding alumni, and the links above for the full discussion at Larry’s site.
{ 5 } Comments
The democrats of our world certainly have their imoralities (pro-abortion, to name one) but check out this Bush-Fish picture on this link and see how obsurd the Republican righties are (and how fitting that one them is on a Hummer.
I have not studied modern expressions of communism, such as the old Solviet-Union much, so I don’t know a lot about communism. However from what I do know, I agree that there are serious problems with it. Mainly because it is a forced tryany style of government. And I suspect that it simply was a ruse to keep its elite leaders wealthy while the common people starved.
With that being said, there is a serious problem with our form of Capitolistic government that runs counter to my understanding of scripture. When a large coorporation can run all of the small business competitors out of business and then pay its own hired help (esp. the non-educated labor) minimal wages while the select few at the top of the coorporation chain soak up hoards of money, there is something wrong. Or even worse, the cooporation makes its product over seas in a sweat shop where the labor is paid an “insult of a wage” while the company sells its product for a rediculous price.
My only problem is I do not know how to go about fixing such a problem other than speaking out against it, which I am afriad it does not do much.
Rex, it worked for Jonah.
I think that, as usual, you totally misunderstood Larry’s point in order to reaffirm your own ideas. Oh well.
I suggest you reread Larry’s comments after rereading the passages themselves (i.e. in their full context, not just the soundbytes).
Chris,
I don’t think he misunderstood Larry at all. Extremeist was right on target with his comments.
How about dealing with the substance of what he said.
{ 2 } Trackbacks
[…] Prompted by the discussions about Harding University, Americanism, and anti-communism here, here, here, here, here and here — I recently went looking online for more information about Harding’s National Education Program (NEP) and found a gold mine of videos at the Prelinger Archives. […]
[…] BACKGROUND: Good Night and Good Luck, The Poor, The Communists, and Harding Permalink TrackBack […]
Post a Comment