Don't Inhale
“Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.”
Psalm 146:3-4 NLT
Mo Udall was a democratic congressman from Arizona. His autobiography, Too Funny to Be President, is delightful and filled with often side-splitting tales about his life in Congress. Once, when asked how the effect of the rarefied air in Washington’s corridors of power had on, him he answered, “There is a simple way to avoid its dangers, don’t inhale.”
Udall’s quip never rang more true than today, January 20, 2021, Inauguration Day. There is some pomp and circumstance, but because of COVID19, there was no parade, no balls, and no crowd. On the back steps of the capitol a platform has been built covered with red and blue carpet. American flag banners hang from the walls. It is a beautiful site, one familiar to us who live in a democratic republic. Famous people from all walks of life descend the stairs with appropriate introductions and music; a ritual to be treasured. The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court administers the oath of office to the Vice President and then the President. Both will commit to defend the constitution of the United States against all foes, foreign and domestic. The band will play Hail to the Chief and the new president will give a speech. Usually, that is it. By the end of the day, the new President and all of America can go to bed and rest assured that the country is safely in the hands of a person who intends to bring unity and healing to a divided populace after a tough election battle.
But there is something different about this transition of power. Washington DC is locked down, and it's not about COVID19. There are more soldiers in the nation’s capital than are presently in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. More soldiers than were guarding Washington during the Civil War. The party who didn’t want a border wall built had a wall built around the ceremony to protect them from an imaginary threat that lives in their minds. Congress has now identified as victims when, in fact, their decisions and their intentions are about to drive the chasm between left and right even deeper.
There is no reason to believe a word of what any of the victors say about unity and peace. They have lost credibility. Big Tech is censoring. Big Media is corrupt, has taken sides, and can’t be trusted to be a truth detector or hold their favorite political party accountable. However businesses, including the sports and entertainment industry, are full bore into punishing, canceling, banishing, reeducating, and reprogramming anyone who disagrees with them. My friends, this is untenable. There is no unity when people’s disagreements are pushed further underground. Truth commissions, and companies not willing to sell some guy’s pillows because he had a different political view, is horrifying and should frighten any person who knows anything about true tyranny and dictatorship. You may have heard it said from Lord Acton, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This is it. This is a group of victors who have inhaled, and they are high on the power. Let us pray they get sober very soon or our country will explode and walls with barbed wire and the National Guard will be commonplace.
There is a solution, at least for those who claim to know God and have confidence in the wisdom of scripture. It appears in part at the top of the article:
“Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them”
Psalm 146:3-4
Don’t wait or, frankly, waste your time and energy expecting that anything that happened in Washington DC today will improve your life. Regardless of what party is in power, they will fail and disappoint. Half of the country is in serious disagreement with the other half. That is not likely to change very soon. We may be able to agree on some superficial things like roads should be passable, water should be clean, medical care should be first rate, and people should not steal, kill, lie, etc. Actually, I’m not sure about stealing, killing, and lying because we kill the unborn with lusty approval, and stealing and lying are commonplace. But this is a war of ideas, of worldview, of epistemology (how we know what we know). We live in a media driven society. We have been trained by television to think in sound bites; television is incapable of serious discussion and thought. No one will watch it, at least not enough people for long enough to make any money. And if you can’t make any money at it, television won’t show it. We are a nation educated by reading millions of fortune cookies. Sayings, proverbs, quips, tips (i.e.: we are ignorant). In his brilliant book Amusing Ourselves To Death, the late Neil Postman pointed out that education had become entertainment. He presented three commandments of the television and electronic age.
Thou shalt have no prerequisites. In other words, sequence and context are not important to the presentation.
Thou shalt induce no perplexity. He said a difficult and complex argument is the superhighway to low ratings, therefore, not presented.
Thou shalt avoid exposition like the ten plagues visited upon Egypt. In an image medium, prerequisites, perplexity and exposition need to be entertaining. Therefore, why engage in them. [1]
This has only gotten worse since the days of Postman. What has changed the most is the unreliability and objectivity of those who decide what is on television or the images and messages in the media. Most have not thought things through or can’t define their worldview because they have not been taught how to think, do research, or communicate effectively in English, or on the printed page.
There is hope however, in that scripture is a viable option as a source of Truth for our society. Presidents take their oaths on the Bible. The new President brought a very big one. We all need to open it , read it, meditate on it, and live it. Read the remainder of the Psalm 146:
“But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
Whose hope is in the Lord their God.
He made heaven and earth
The sea and everything in them.
He keeps every promise forever.
He gives justice to the oppressed
and food to the hungry.
The Lord frees the prisoners.
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
The Lord loves the godly.
The Lord protects the foreigners among us.
He cares for the orphans and widows,
But he frustrates the plans of the wicked.
The Lord will reign forever.
He will be your God, O Jerusalem,
Throughout the generations.
Praise the Lord!
There is something for both the left and right in this psalm. It speaks to the wide variety of human needs. One thing we can agree on is that something went wrong with the world, that there is a solution, and God as Creator has better ideas than we do about how to fix it. Washington may call it public policy, God calls it redemption or salvation. And finally, in the end, there will be justice for all. It is also not arguable that we all return to the earth as dust and then receive judgement. If there is no prospect of judgment before an impartial and perfect judge, then what is the point of any justice at any time? It makes no sense and there is no reason for belief in it or reason to expect it. Justice is built into every human being. And that fact alone is reason enough to believe in a personal, all knowing, all powerful God.
If you were born and raised in the west, everything you believe about right and wrong, what life is and what humans are for, all comes from the Bible. Freedom of speech, for example, is a God given right. Government’s role is to ensure that all citizens enjoy the freedom to speak their mind without fear of retribution. Do you think that is what we have now? Do you think that is what students in high school or in college enjoy? Of course not. They are afraid to speak. And more every day are not allowed to speak. Utopian dreams always end the same way, in dystopian tyranny, with reeducation camps, concentration camps where the wayward can “concentrate” on their thought crimes, and where they can be reprogrammed. Far-fetched? Not long ago I would have said yes, that’s far-fetched. But not today. It's real, and it is coming soon to a business, a school, or an employment agency near you. So once again …
“Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.”
Psalm 146:3-4 NLT
Don’t inhale.
1 Amusing Ourselves To Death, Neil Postman, pages 2364-3126, Kindle Edition, 1986
