In the not too distant past, we learned and heard that ISIS or Daesh was a death cult. A label placed on this organization by our press and media. I have taken the time to look up and see if there is a formal definition of the term “death cult” and the most objective definition I was able to find is, “a fringe religious group that glorifies or is obsessed with death” courtesy of lexico.com. I think we can see why this descriptor was applied to Daesh as they spread their death and destruction across Syria and Iraq. They left nothing but death and destruction in their wake. I will submit that the German Nazi Party in the first half of the twentieth century, the Soviet Communist Party, the Maoist Chinese Communist Party and Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge could also be defined as a death cults. Though they would never consider themselves religious groups they based their power by preying on the fear of death in human beings. They not only threatened death but implemented and carried through with their threats. In the process they were responsible for the destruction of much of Europe and Asia which included tens of millions of deaths.
Yesterday morning as I woke up to the news of rioting and looting in Philadelphia ostensibly because of another police shooting of a black man the concept of death cult rummaged in my mind. These rioters and looters paid no mind to the fact that the black man shot was wielding a knife and coming at police officers. This and video footage showing the police officers actually backed away from the assailant in an effort to defuse the situation. Now we have yet another city run by Democrats in the throes of rioting and looting that will drain the life out of that city. I say this will drain the life out of the city because I can imagine very few of the businesses will want to reopen once the smoke clears, the glass is cleaned up, and the insurance claims are filed. Let us not forget that business is the life blood of communities, states, our country, and our way of life. I say business is the life blood because it is business that generates the wealth that funds and feeds our communities and even our governments. Business is the ultimate expression in freedom and innovation. Freedom because we have choices with who to do our business seeking out the best value for our money and innovation because the successful businesses will innovate to provide this value for the least amount of cost to the business owner. This so that they can number one pay for their expenses and number two profit from the sale of their product or products. These profits, in turn, are used to seek other services or goods supporting yet even more business. Like a healthy freshwater lake when water is flowing in and water is flowing out the water of the lake retains its vitality and is capable of supporting life.
Since I have started on the metaphor of lakes, I must point out that death occurs even in healthy lakes. Unfortunately, death is still a part of life especially in the material world that we live in. Eventually all biological beings expire and on top of that all biological processes generate waste. Even in the healthiest of mountain lakes biological processes continue and death occurs. What I will submit for the sake of my current argument, however, is the introduction of fresh water to the lake and subsequently the free flow of water from the lake allows waste products to easily flow out and at the same be replenished by and diluted by the fresh water flowing into the lake. All the while life continues and flourishes. However, in the unhealthy lake water typically does not flow out as freely or fresh water into the lake is completely shut off. When the water is not allowed to flow out the lake will eventually become brackish, swamp like, and otherwise much unhealthier for normal oxygen breathing creatures to survive. Likewise, when fresh water does not flow into the lake the lake will dry up and eventually die.
Likewise, from the bodies of ideas and politics, I believe, can be drawn comparisons to the examples of fresh water, brackish or dried up bodies of water. I will submit that the societies with the freshest of ideas continually replenishing the existing bodies of ideas lead to the healthiest societies and in parallel the freshest of political institutions are characterized by the free flowing of ideas in and out of the body politic of these societies. It is when the flow of ideas into the body politic is shut off or restricted that the body becomes brackish, polluted, suffocating, oppressive and unable to support healthy life. Or, in the extreme case, when the ideas are allowed to leave without any fresh ideas to replenishing the body politic the body politic has entered a death spiral that will inevitably lead to the body drying up completely leaving nothing behind but dried up brittle crusty sand.
Currently in our country we have huge out of control media conglomerates and internet behemoths who seem intent to shut out ideas counter to the opinions of the intellectuals and or ownership of these organizations. All the while, at least in the case of the internet behemoths, they enjoy the protections of law. In the case of media, they seem intent to quash any news counter to the narrative the intellectuals who fuel their opinion. This while they claim to be objective purveyors of news. They have, in fact, almost seem to have doubled down on their claims and efforts to suppress and stymie the conservative message at every opportunity despite being called out and proven to be carrying out their seemingly nefarious actions. I will submit to my readers that because of this suppression we as a nation are precariously close to witnessing the death of the bastion of fresh thoughts, ideas, speech, and all other freedoms. We are precariously close to watching “the swamp” expand its poisonous life draining ideas and norms to the rest of the country.
Speaking of poison, I come back to the topic of the death cult. Let me remind you that the most objective definition that I found for the term death cult is, “a fringe religious group that glorifies or is obsessed with death”. I would submit that it appears with the suppression of opposing ideas in most of the media, the internet behemoths, the constant rioting and looting in democratically controlled riotous cities, and the obsession with Covid and their subsequent desire to shut down all business that the left is under the control of a death cult. No, they will never admit they are religions but as I have written about in the past, socialism is a religion. I say they are a religion because they expect blind servitude based on faith in the party or progressive ideals and have no proof to back up their claims of social utopia. So we have a very powerful group of people in this country who seem intent to usher in the death of the US Constitution and will use death and our fear of death in the guise of Covid 19 to bring death to our economy. Additionally, they use the death of black men to stage and support riotous looting behavior which in turn brings about the death of businesses which are the hallmark of lively prosperous communities. I see nothing positive or prosperous coming out of this except more death and destruction and this alarms me. This alarms me because I enjoy and give thanks for every day of life, the food that supports life, the means by which I have to support life, and for those in my life who I love. I also miss the freedoms to move freely in society without fear of retribution for not wearing a mask, attending live worship, sporting and music events, and all other manner of life sustaining group activities in which the free exchange of ideas, discourse, and social interaction occur. All the groundwork for the death cult to flourish even more seems be laid and the outcome cannot be good for any of us.