Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

@Soliloqueen is actually on to something important here. The phrase "original sin" is not found in the biblical text itself, but it does usefully name various historical interpretations that are part of theology of various forms of Judaism and Christianity. In other words the first question you have to ask is "which tradition of 'original sin' are you talking about?"

The Jew's certainly understood (and do to this day, though remember you have to specify which tradition) the consequences of the sin of Eve/Adam to be inherited, passed on through the generations, and even asked Jesus about this directly "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?..."

Within Christianity one of the first major theological distinctions between the Greek East and Latin West centers on this source/place/importance of personal guilt. Starting with St. Augustine (who the liberal Protestant theologian Paul Tillich said with hardly any exaggeration: "Augustine is the beginning and end of everything the west has to say") , who not incidentally is the first major Church father (i.e. theologian) who could not read Greek (meaning he was quite isolated, relying on Jerome's sometimes mistranslation of the biblical texts themselves, and not being able to read all the theologians who came before him) a forensic understanding and meaning of the Genesis story and its consequences comes to the fore. Before Augustine (and continuing after him in the East) 'original sin' is not framed as a forensic problem, and the telos of the biblical story of humanity beginning with creation, the fall, the second Adam (i.e. Christ), the Cross, redemption, resurrection (of all) and the 'restoration of all things (as Paul pust it) was not associated or thought of in terms of legal sanction and personal guilt. The 'anthropological pessimism' of Augustine became the foundation of western Christianity, and of course western Christianity is the foundation of what we call 'western civilization' today. However it did not have to be this way, and was not so in the Christian east.

 

What isn't accounted for in any of these analyses is the degree to which people take responsibility for themselves. The degree to which people stepped up over and above government mandates, or skirted government mandates. A government's general attitude interacts with a population's general attitude in this sense.

So let's consider Sweden. Their COVID death rate is 5-6 times higher than their Nordic neighbours.

A more local comparison, USA's COVID death rate is 3 times higher than the US, despite the US having a vastly larger number of ICU beds.

Government lockdowns may not temporally correlate with COVID cases, many analyses show this. But that does not mean lockdowns have no effect. The correlation between 'high lockdown' countries and lower deaths is far too strong.

 

Most Western countries never even attempted really full lockdowns. The US response was of course very patchwork because of federalism and differing approaches by state, but even the most strict states never really approached being fully locked down, and of course other states didn't even try. Half measures are probably better than no measures, but they were never going to be highly effective, and it's not surprising there wasn't a bigger difference between states given that "high lockdown" states were not really high lockdown anyway, and of course they were usually right next to states that didn't really lock down at all

 

And I'd argue that's because every pro-lockdown US state still has a good proportion of anti-lockdown peanuts who skirted orders. And because every anti-lockdown US state still has a good proportion of people who would take precautions far and above government mandates.

And, all of your lockdowns were never as strong as even Canada's weak lockdowns. Your reward for all that 'freedom' is three times our per capita death rate; doesn't really sound worth it to me.

 

I live in DC, I saw plenty of places go out of business. But on a global scale, the lockdown here was not total in any sense.

 

I'm a peanut, lets start quoting The Princess Bride. "Anybody want a peanut?"

 

If you don't think leaders can set the tone in this respect, then I don't know what I can say. The tone in the US was political division from day one, thanks to Trump. Idiots like de Santis taking the ball and running with it, making it worse.

Whatever the case is, I hope all the extra deaths - ~600,000 extra people versus the death rate in Canada - were worth the 'freedom'.

 

As someone who lives in FL, DeSantis is popular since he didn't lock down the state. As stated previously, he will easily win reelection this year thanks to the "peanuts." In matter of fact, I see a crap ton more of Canadian license plates on I95 than last year.

 

thanks to all politicians and all media. US politics and media has been political division for many, many, many years. This is not new, is not due to one "leader" or another, is not due to one party or the other. Our current situation has evolved over time, and the media (both traditional and social) fan the division flames to get eyes.

 

As others have said this is wrong. Maybe you will take it from me because I otherwise support your analysis and a non-liberatarian prescription when it comes to virues, vectors, and vaccines. Let me fix the above for you:

"The tone in the US was political division from the day one, meaning from the Founding Fathers, and legally imbedded in the Constitution. Thanks to Patrick Henry and the Scotch-Irish, the majority of American's are individuals first, second, and third, and really only politically align, communally, when it directly effects their pocket books and/or personal comfort."

I could append more to this such as "...thus people dying in hospitals are not my problem and not all that influenced by my behavior...American's don't suffer for their neighbor, only for themselves and only when/if they choose to do so...", but I would probably be accused of mere cynicism, though you and I would disagree.

Trump and DeSantis are just expressions of the American character and are not unique/new in any way, shape, or form.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with this.

But in those first few weeks, imagine if Trump hadn't said "It's just a little flu". Imagine if he hadn't lied to deliberately down-play the risk, and instead took it seriously. He went down the wrong path, and tens of millions of people followed him.

 

First, I can imagine a world where there is Peace in Palestine, Christ is not risen, the sun orbits the earth, and Trump/DeSantis and the majority of Americans are not who they are and don't believe what they believe about The Good, but that ain't the world we actually live in.

Second, your on record in this thread as a full on supporter of the sexual revolution and an unquestioning believer in its alleged goods (for the individual and society). I don't know much about the Canadian character, but you strike me as a full on individualist and libertarian, just a slightly different flavor - your "French" vanilla ice cream as opposed to American "old fashioned" vanilla ice cream.

The American health bureaucracy, which is a diverse public/private partnership, actually did pretty good by focusing on rapid vaccine development/deployment and rational communal response (i.e. masks, social distancing, lockdowns/restrictions of 'non-essential' activities, etc.). These things saved countless lives. However the latter were always going to be an uphill battle against the very character of American self understanding and history. So what your seeing now is very predictable, this myth/legend being built up that these things were "ineffective", "a lie", and "a conspiracy". This myth will become part of American hagiography, and will be taught to American school children a couple of generations from now alongside the legend of tea being poured into Boston harbor.

 

Personally, I don't think it would have changed a thing. The people that believed it was "just a little flu" would have believed that no matter what Trump said. The reality is that nothing like this has happened in the US in our lifetimes. Every prior global scare has either died before hitting our shores, or never really amounted to much from a big picture standpoint.

People have a "it won't happen to me/us" attitude that is only changed by experience. Otherwise he's just the guy holding the "world is ending" sign that we pass on the streets.

 

Perhaps related to the Canadian character, pandemic response, and traditions of 'The Good', here is an example of the consequences of what some are calling 'soft totalitarianism', wokeness, and 'social credit' systems:

https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1483871069383573508

(warning: I only link this for the video, and know nothing {nor care} of the blogger's and commentators opinions)

These children are being formed in the image of Pavlik Morozov, a hero of the USSR who as a small child ratted out his parents to the Bolsheviks and was in turn "martyred" by them. Like I said, I might not be a very good Classical Liberal or libertarian, but give me their village over the progressive one any time any place...

 

I'd say that's about on par with people ratting-out those that have abortions in Texas. Or those that rat-out gay people to their schools.