In God We Trust

In God We Trust:  We must never forget this. We must never erase this motto from our shields. Why?

Trust is about faith. Faith is a moral conviction. As such, it is best cultivated by work, not by prayer. Work cultivates us and makes us strong. Strong men have the courage of persuasion. Strong men are courageous. Courageous men are not evil.

Evil is the product of weakness and fear. Fear is the father of deceit and violence. Many politicians speak about fear, some speak out of fear: fear of repercussions in their own party, fear of being scorned, fear of losing their warm seat in the House or the Senate…

Faith will set you free – not because you pray, but because you do your duty and follow your conscience. Slaves to a regime may have no conscience of their own – and none at all when their “masters” have none.

It is surprisingly liberating to abandon yourself to servitude: political or religious. It is easy because the loss of the pesky reproachful and suffering Self is perceived as a relief: relief from the pain of responsibility.

Like a child for whose negligent act the parent, supervisor, teacher must be held liable, so does a follower of an ideologue-demagogue or false prophet feel vis-à-vis reality. Alas, Faith is not something you place in “the other” – Faith is something you have within you, you treasure and show but never sell or loan or barter with.

How can you tell a false god, false prophet, or a demagogue from a real god, prophet, or statesman? The former will ask you to desert your Self and give away what you have for some larger abstract good, some generic idea of equality or humanity – or a “paradise” with virgins etc. He will ask you to abandon reality and enslave yourself to Him. Do you think that the conscience of this false Prophet is better than yours? Do you think that he (or she, indeed) has one?

On the other hand, a true statesman (though he may seem to act like a demagogue, because he will ask for your support and claim greatness in your name) will never ask you to forsake your soul and conscience for some abstract impalpable larger good. No. He will ask you to go home to your family, to work hard, be a good man or woman, mother and father, and help him restore the country.

Faith is a matter of persuasion in that what we do corresponds to our moral conviction. Every hard-working man is a man of faith. Struggle cultivates the Soul. If we persevere, work hard, improve within and provide without, we shall overcome our weaknesses and fears. Every human being has weaknesses but none is fundamentally evil. Evil, on the other hand, is fundamental in itself: it eviscerates the Good within.

I pity them who have been deprived of the Good within (their conscience, their Soul) by a false prophet. I pity them whose Good within has been eroded and rotted away by an ideologue or demagogue prophesying some imaginary “New World Order” in which we are all equal and there is no poverty and suffering. I pity them who have nothing left but void within, for it is that Good-less Soul-less void which the demagogue and false prophet fill and indoctrinate, injecting it with tenets of some false faith, perverted religion or political ideology.

Imagine what all those young men “fighting” for ISIS and praying five times a day could do for humanity if they studied and worked hard! It is harder to work and be a good human being than follow a “prophecy” and play with guns. It is harder to be an ordinary man or woman tackling the sufferings, pains and misfortunes of everyday existence, than rise above it all and, with a scornful grin, postulate a “New World Order.” Do you think this false prophet – this “politician” – is a real savior? Like Jesus?

Who is like Jesus? Who truly partakes of the Savior? The ordinary man and woman who craves no fame. They who bring up their children to be good human beings, like themselves, and good citizens of their country: In God We Trust because we trust in ourselves and believe in our inherent goodness!

Ah, but being good in ordinary life is much harder than playing with guns, listening to an Albag’o’ghadi speak about virgins and paradise. It is much easier to forsake one’s responsibilities and duties, and grant the prophet-politician power over you – the sugar-daddy Big Brother Allah Akbar power.

Why does the left not feel the need to define evil, set out a strategy and fight? This goes beyond Obama’s sympathizing with the Islamic background on his paternal side. The general take-care-of-me mentality is the same in the left’s secular world as it is in the world of religious fanatics who seeks some kind of allegiance, standing and recognition: Do I have to kill “to belong?” Do I have to cast blame in order to become a member of this party? Do I have to steal from “the rich” to be admired? Do I have to steal to win?…

But false prophets are not men (or women, in the context of Democrat candidates) of religion or persuasion. They might wear the cloth of the party, yes, but – change the background, change the circumstances – and you will tell the chameleon. As to the others: a veil over your face will not cover reality and a bandana and a mask on your head will not make you a brave warrior!

They call it “faith” because there is that void within, which begs to be filled. To believe is as human as to err. Do away with God and Christmas and you will do away with your humanity!

Terrorism is only a step further: it has already done away with humanity, self-reliance, self-love and self-esteem. They want to become “martyrs,” because it is noble to “sacrifice” yourself for the higher good… There are two problems with this: martyrs die in order to prove a cause, make humanity better. One can think of Jesus as a martyr – or Socrates. No great dictator-prophet-tyrant or any of his followers have ever become true martyrs. Killing innocent people will not make anyone a martyr. It will make you a despised felon who will end up splattered on the street and your body? Well, no-one has claimed it so far…

Now, compare that to Jesus, whose drop of blood, shadow on a blanket, cup and everything he touched and said – are sacred and hollowed by us all. No, I am not a Christian, but I am a Human Being. As such, I have Faith. Jesus and Socrates are my heroes. They make me strive and fight, stay humble, yet aspire to higher ends, trying to become better every day. I do not pray – my whole life is a prayer! I am not religious, but: in God I trust.

The “martyrs” of totalitarianism, the “martyrs” of theocracy… they are the opposite of heroes. They are cowards, followers, weaklings. They shirk the pain and suffering of ordinary life, where true heroism lies. Pain and suffering are inevitable parts of human existence: we come to life screaming in pain and we leave it weeping and wailing in pain. The pain is never less – it is only up to us how we handle it and manage to fight the devil within which tells us to try painkillers, drugs, ideologies, false prophecies and gods. “They will set you free,” the devil whispers.

“In God We Trust,” we must respond; because we believe in ourselves and we know that we are free when we are free to fight our own pain and suffering first – without pointing fingers and blaming someone else or trying to succor someone else’s weakness. “Ah, but life is hard,” someone said to Voltaire. “Compared to what?” replied he.

In God We Trust. Without God, we are slaves: slaves to whims and fickle fortune, slaves to a demagogue, tyrant, false prophet… Yes, serving a demagogue is just as enslaving as serving a false prophet. Martyrdom is slavery above all others – it is nothing but fondness of death! Dying for a cause is only justifiable when you cannot live for one! Dying for a cause is only meaningful when it is not the end in itself, when you do it because you enable others to survive, when death is the means to life – when it does not foretell doom but gives birth and prevents destruction. Martyrdom for the sake of being a martyr does not come from faith or courage but is born out of fear and borne by fear.

No hero wants to be a hero. A hero wants to do the right thing when asked for help, when needed. A martyr – well, a martyr wants to be a “martyr.”

Such martyrdom is Godless, immoral, full of sentiment, feelings for an “idea.” This “idea” is not even an idea – it has become an icon, some untouchable miraculous image of Big Brother, Big Bagh’a’daddy who does not even inspire anymore – he only commands and you must obey, pray, obey, call slogans, obey and die! From a loss of perspective, from drowning in feelings, martyrs are born.

I saw a crowd of followers clapping their hands and nearly weeping over a demagogue. They were teeming with feelings: they shouted “I hate this and that” and cried out loud for “social equality, eternal peace and justice…” “We fight for peace!” they yelled, and: “Spread the wealth!” I saw them all too willing to give away their powers, freedoms, religion… Lost in the soul-less crowd, they turned into slaves and sheep. Their Faith? Their Conscience? That of the Demagogue…

I saw a crowd of followers raising their hands with clenched fists, crying: “Death to America!” and “Islam on Earth!” They too detest wealth and want equality – equality under one Tyrant. Lost, soul-less, sheep who would not recognize God if He knocked on their door.

Now, you might think, is that not noble and admirable, to cry so for a cause? Is it not noble to drop on the ground wherever you are five times a day and profess yourself a slave to the Icon? The ultimate cause is surely noble and grand: universal religion, world peace, world equality… Ah, I like ideas – you can do anything you want with them: you can scrap them, throw them away, you can realize them, improve upon them, make them into causes, and you can also rule over nations by ideas, with ideas, wielding them as swords – and killing with them too!

I watch them professing their faith. Yet, these followers of a noble “Other” have somehow, along the way forgotten about their own Souls, about the true God. They handed over their selves to the demagogue, the prophet, the one who subjugated and enslaved them on promises of paradise. They do not work – they clap their hands and shout slogans. They do not care about their children or their parents and grandparents – they kneel and pray five times a day to the “savior.” They are but slaves. They want but to follow and die in their master’s service.

Aye, it is easier to follow than to lead. It is easier to depend than to provide. It is easier to dissolve your Self in a crowd of weaklings, absolved of all personal responsibility. You must hand over the responsibility with your courage and moral persuasion – and feel good about it! It is like a drug addiction too because you “hand yourself over” to your prophet-demagogue and believe him (or her) that there will be no more daily struggle to live and provide – everything will be taken care of by universal equality and justice – or some magical transformation of the Self you lost into a soul in paradise…

Thus, ultimate weaklings are born every day, weaned on icons and images, bread on promises and taught how to become martyrs for a higher cause. Lack of responsibility leads to loss of conscience. Loss of conscience means no concept of morality. Good becomes evil, evil is seen as good. No-one even speaks of a justification, Mr. Kerry, because there is only one cause and all means are subjected to it. Evil is absolute.

“But I have my faith. I have my Allah, my Savior, my Demagogue…” they cry.

No, you do not! All you have is the empty idea, the bubble with you inside. All it takes is a needle-prick of reality and – whoosh! – you are gone!

Thus, when we say “In God We Trust,” we mean (and do) much more than profess adherence to some religious tenet. It is the motto of our country, because all morality is founded on faith, and faith is more than sentiment, belief and abandonment. It means more than entrusting ourselves to the “other,” whatever this “other” may be: God, Allah, Prophet, Politician. We must never lose ourselves in the flood of emotions produced by faith. We must never forget that it is the faith within not the faith without which makes us strong. When I enter a Church, I know that God connects with me because I have faith – He may give me courage, forgiveness, reconciliation… but not faith.

For US, common Americans in heart and soul, Faith is purposeful and pragmatic. It injects us with moral credo and ethical persuasion. We know well that if we improve, if we stay moral and good, if we fight for what is right and cultivate our inner courage and persuasion – not that of some prophet or preacher or demagogue out there – then we will have lived a meaningful life, life filled with love, learning and God!

That is where true happiness lies. That is our sole purpose on Earth. In God We Trust – because we are human and we believe that our exceptional, unique Country is, and always will be, the Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave!