The Darkness

(Source)

In that time the people were divided into three camps. Two of those camps were diametrically opposed to each other, they hated each other with a passion not seen since early in mankind's bloody history. For each of those camps there could be no compromise, no reconciliation, and, if things came to a head, no mercy. The hatred was palpable, when those two groups were in proximity, the intensity of that hatred was visceral, beyond all human understanding.

The third camp couldn't understand the vehemence, the screaming disagreements between those other groups. When did we become so divided, so bitter, so unreasonable, they asked themselves.

The sages told tales of long ago, when bitter warfare swept large sections of the planet. The innocent and the guilty alike perished. First in their hundreds, then their thousands, then, as time moved on and science and industry provided more and more lethal weaponry, there came a time when people died in millions. Numbers beyond the comprehension of rationality. Bodies beyond counting.

Only after long, bloody, and merciless fighting would it all end. There would be no neutrals, no bystanders, the third camp was always drawn in, sometimes reluctantly, but pushed and prodded by forces beyond human ken, the fighting grew until all were involved, until there were no safe places anywhere. You took a stand, or you perished, unmourned, unlamented.

Eventually the fighting died out, much like a fire which has exhausted its fuel. One camp would lie wasted, the other barely still standing, but relieved that it was over. Wondering what it had all been about in the first place.

The third camp, those with no abiding passion for the "great" issues of the day, would go back to the lives they led before the conflagration, if they could. Many, if not most, would be haunted by what they had seen, what they had experienced, what they themselves had done.

Always the two opposing ideologies would reform, in different guises perhaps, but always in opposition. Waiting, biding their time until they could go at it again.

One camp, perhaps, represents good, the other evil, perhaps they are both, in some respects, evil, mirror images of one another. Those in those two, non-neutral, camps have those who seek power over others, and those who, for one reason or another, rabidly and irrationally support those who seek the power.

That third camp is where goodness lies. They do not seek power, they wish to live in harmony and work together for the betterment of all. Always the two other camps seek to seduce them, draw them into the power struggles and the passionate hatred they have for anyone not like them.

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The Thirty Years War was started over matters of religion. Then the fighting continued to rage long after nearly everyone forgot why it started. Roving bands of mercenaries lived and fought for no other reason than there was no one left to pay them. So they roamed, looted, and murdered their way across Central Europe. The dead amounted to 20 to 40% of the population of the various German states.

The French Revolution began basically because the French Crown had bankrupted the government through support for our own revolution but also due to many other bad economic decisions. The poor had no work, no bread, the nobility had too much of everything. Madness erupted when Louis XVI lost his head, literally. The other European kings would not stand for that. How dare the French peasantry rise up against their betters? War broke out, France was invaded, the people rose up. This all led to the rise of Napoléon.

This man perhaps started out with simply a drive to preserve France, to preserve the Republic. But power and its perks and trappings is a great seductress. In the years following, millions died. From the disease-ridden islands of the West Indies to the ancient towers of the Kremlin, armies fought, while soldiers died in their thousands the civilians died beside them. Ravaged and ruined by the conquering hordes sweeping back and forth across their homelands.

In the middle of the 19th Century political and economic differences in the Western Hemisphere tore a new nation apart. Brother took up arms against brother, spurred on by those whose only interest was in their own power, their own profit.

Americans slaughtered each other in their thousands and at the end of it all, what really changed, a cynic might ask. People exchanged one master for another and tried to move on.

World War I broke out and again Europe was drenched in blood. World War II followed and the horror, the devastation encircled the globe this time. One group destroyed, their nations shattered, only to lead to two opposing camps once more.

Always there is one group seeking power, seeking control of their fellow man. They want, they need, they demand.

Where does it end?

Will it ever end?

I see darkness ahead, the world again plunged into chaos. The last bastion of freedom stands on the cusp of violent introspection once more. Where will it lead? If we fall, who will follow? There is no one out there who can stand against the eternal raging tide of evil. It truly is up to us, there is no one else. If we fall, a new dark age will descend. There will be decades, if not centuries, of misery and terror. Freedom will be gone from this good Earth. Can it, will it ever arise again?

Being involved is important, this coming election is critical. Don't be distracted by the media circus, the new sensations which they throw at us everyday. The distractions, the circuses, are intentional. They don't want us to think, to reason, they want us to follow the crowd, to go with the flow. Go along to get along.

Don't fall for it, think, choose wisely.

Even though it may already be too late.

Truly though, I don't think God is done with this nation yet. But we have to show ourselves worthy of our past and worthy to shine as a beacon of hope to the rest of the world. I have hope.

But I also have fears. Time will tell.

It has all happened before


What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)