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Why Putin is Right About America

954801_blogBy Selwyn Duke

As perhaps history’s most famous atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche understood that the death of Christian morality would usher in moral relativism and social breakdown. This truth is now largely ignored in an increasingly atheistic West, but it has found an unlikely — and, some would say, incredible — ally in Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Making the traditional concept of virtue a recent but recurring theme of his presidency, Putin has of late criticized the West for being decadent and godless. As the Washington Times reported this past Tuesday, “‘Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values,’ Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent keynote speech. ‘Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.’”

Oh, how the worm has turned.

Read the rest here.

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7 responses to “Why Putin is Right About America”

  1. Dmitry Chernikov Avatar
    Dmitry Chernikov

    Putin’s definition of conservatism is the best I admit I’ve ever seen: it “is not that it prevents movement forward and upward, but that it prevents movement backward and downward, into chaotic darkness and a return to a primitive state.”
    But even with this best possible understanding, conservatism fails as an ideology. For the only way to avoid sliding backward is to move forward. This is true of every area of life. A business that stops growing will inevitably shrink and disappear. A body that is not improving through exercise will decay and die. Skills not practiced continually wither away. A person who is content with his existing virtue is in grave danger of sinning. Even the Catholic faith and morals have not stagnated but been developed throughout the ages. (The Church administrators have known better than to interfere with holy doctors who sparred over theology, natural or revealed.)
    In short, “traditions” must be perpetually improved, lest they be forgotten.
    Moreover, establishment conservatives fall far short of Putin’s ideal. They do seek to stop economic progress. They conserve only their own power and status and hate all competitors, actual and potential, who would, if let free, challenge their vested interests. A libertarian then is someone who stands athwart the past, yelling “Begone!”

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  2. Dmitry Chernikov Avatar
    Dmitry Chernikov

    Or (to prevent an obvious objection), yelling “Get better!”

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  3. Robert Berger Avatar
    Robert Berger

    Christians have absolutely no monopoly on morality and virtue, and being a Christian is no
    guarantee whatsoever that you will be a good person . “Moral relativism” is nothing but a
    convenient strw man created by today’s Christians and it presupposes that there are some
    liberals who think that there is no such thing as right and wrong and who think that anything
    should be permissable, wich is ludicrous .
    It’s nbot that there is no such thing as right and wrong . It’s just that matters of morals
    and ethics are often not clear cut and there are many shades of gray rather than black and
    white right or wrong .
    How can someone like Putin, who is fostering bigotry against gay people in Russi in the most shamelss
    way, claim to be moral and virtuous ? If he does, he is a total hypocrite .

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  4. Philip France Avatar
    Philip France

    “Moreover, establishment conservatives fall far short of Putin’s ideal. They do seek to stop economic progress. They conserve only their own power and status and hate all competitors, actual and potential, who would, if let free, challenge their vested interests.”
    Your statement is utterly false. Establishment conservatives promote economic progress by opposing unnecessary taxation and oppressive regulation. They also do not stay in office until their deaths like the corrupt Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert “Sheets” Byrd. I cite, for example, Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. Michelle Bachmann, two vastly popular Congressmen (and woman) who stepped down without controversy.
    I respect the Libertarian viewpoint but I oppose the Libertarian Party. Support for Ron Paul enabled the defeat of Gov. Romney and left us with four more years of the Marxist Obama. Shame on you.

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  5. Dmitry Chernikov Avatar
    Dmitry Chernikov

    There is an easy way to distinguish between liberals and conservatives. Left-liberals have many and varied ideas on how to improve the human condition. Unfortunately, those ideas fail to effect the desired improvements and actually make things worse. For that, the liberals are hated by the conservatives, in many ways justly.
    Unfortunately, the conservatives themselves are completely sterile and have no ideas about how to improve anything. They wallow in hatred of the left and have no positive platform. American conservatives may be standing athwart History yelling “Stop!” but they are yelling “Stop!” to both bad and good things alike. They simply cannot tell one from the other.
    We have a perpetual battle between those who try (perhaps, inadvertently) to ruin the world and those who merely want to freeze it the way it is and prevent any and all progress. Libertarians agree with the liberals on the ends; disagree on the means; disagree with conservatives on the ends.
    The Democrats are the stupid party, always bothering people with perverse moralizing and bad principles.
    The Republicans are the evil party, having no principles at all, whether good or bad.
    (The fact that in common understanding, and according to Medford Stanton Evans, these labels for the parties are reversed is itself stupid and evil.)
    We might call the skirmishes between the right and the left a conflict between pure order – suffocating, unscrupulous, immoralist, and intolerant of any improvement – and pure chaos – foolish and destructive that despises and rejects the contributions to society of its natural elites. Both are barren and fruitless on their own. There is never an inner peace on our politics, a union of proper change-amidst-permanence.

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  6. Philip France Avatar
    Philip France

    “American conservatives may be standing athwart History yelling “Stop!” but they are yelling “Stop!” to both bad and good things alike. They simply cannot tell one from the other.”
    Once again, your proclamation is utterly false. You do not supply any examples of why you believe that your statement is so.
    “The Republicans are the evil party, having no principles at all, whether good or bad.”
    This is an outrageous lie! What is evil about Mitt Romney? Michelle Bachmann? Rick Santorum? Scott Walker? Rick Perry? Dr. Ben Carson? Name ONE Republican Party platform issue that is even remotely evil?
    What is unprincipled about defense of our nation’s Constitution? What is unprincipled about cutting tax rates? What is unprincipled about opposing oppressive regulation?
    On social issues, what is unprincipled about opposing the murder of (mostly black) babies in their mother’s wombs? What is unprincipled about opposing the undefinition of marriage? What is unprincipled about opposing the enviro-fascist movement and the AGW lies and hysteria?
    Please desist with these ridiculous drive-by accusations.

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  7. Philip France Avatar
    Philip France

    The previous comment was in reply to Dmitry’s remarks.

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