Wednesday 23 December 2020

Justice and the US Election

When I was growing up my Step-Father would say:

"Justice not only has to be done, it must be seen to be done."

Justice is not just about rules and procedures, which are important, but it goes much further than that. The outcome must also seem fair and above board. Both the process and the outcome must be above all but the most technical criticism. Criticisms that while they may be valid do not in any way cast doubt on the honesty of the outcome. 

On the 4th November 2020, the United States Presidential election was held. Since then the outcome has become controversial. The Democrats and their supporters like to say that the Republicans and their supporters are simply poor loses. But there is much more to it than that. Critics of the outcome are not making technical criticisms, these are not criticisms that case no doubt upon the honesty of the outcome. In fact quite the opposite. 

There have been criticisms of the outcome in seven states, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. That is not the normal state of affairs after an election. President Trump received more votes than any other Republican candidate in history and he lost?

Is that possible?

Maybe, maybe it is possible, maybe this election has been fair and above board, maybe the criticism is simply sour grapes. However that does not solve the problems that have arisen. The truth is that a large number of people, myself included, are not convinced by the outcome. It is not simply a case of not liking the outcome, that happens in quite a lot of elections and most of us are used to that. No, so much of this smells funny, so many of the irregularities in American elections have come home to roost and all in one election. fake names on the electoral rolls, multiple names, names being on multiple rolls, dead people being on the rolls. Then we have mountains of ballots being found in the dead of night. Did the voting machines work correctly, or did they change votes?

If a women marries and changes her name is she on the rolls, once or twice?

If she lived in three different places under her maiden name and three under her married name, how many times is she on the rolls, once or six or somewhere in between?

These are legitimate questions, questions that are being ignored by the political process, the courts, the media and by Democratic supporters. All of this is already having consequences. The language of government is legitimacy. If you have a system that states that the legitimate government is the one that received the most votes and the vote is considered illegitimate then how long can that system go on?

Even if the critics, myself included, are wrong and the election was fair and above board, the failure to take our criticisms seriously is a major mistake. It can not fail but to make a President Biden seem illegitimate. If he has been elected fair and square then there would not be the any reason not to investigate the outcome. To prove that it really is fair and above board. Instead we have been informed that it is all a fait accompli and that we all just have to accept the outcome. Even if justice has been done, it most certainly has not been seen to be done.

The consequences for this are big and they are going to get bigger, the 2020 Presidential election truly was a watershed election!


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Thursday 17 December 2020

Relativizing Doctrines - The Unintended Reformation - Second Chapter Review

Chapter One - Excluding God


This chapter is really all about how reason/rationalism played such a big part in the Reformation and how it's promise failed. Protestant's made the argument that Catholicism had departed from the word of the bible. That they had invented ceremonies and traditions that were to be found no where within the bible. Which to many made them think that they were being lead down the wrong path. 

Catholics pointed out that while that may have been strictly true in parts, these things had been done for good reason. Everything that had been done had been thought out, over centuries, they were not simply random thoughts that had been plucked out of thin air. But those arguments mostly feel upon deaf ears. Protestants felt that they had been lied to. They sort to find their own theological reality through the bible but without most of the theology that had come before. The question was asked, how is that possible?

The answer was that reason could make it possible, the Catholic problem was that they had allowed superstition to take over their worldview. Protestantism could remove that superstition and replace it with theology straight from the bible. Words that came straight from God's mouth and that could now go directly to the Protestants eyes and ears, without being muddled by Priests. 

But this idea failed, it did not lead to a new and uncomplicated faith, instead it lead to ever more claims about God and about the bible. This failure began in the 1520's, the first decade of the Reformation!

Which has continued ever since and in fact continues more than ever today. Before the Reformation there had been a central authority that could be appealed to, or who could arbitrate between competing claims. In the Protestant world that was not only not available but was explicitly rejected. Reason would find a way, if not today, then maybe tomorrow, but one day God's word would be made clear and then it will have all been worthwhile. But over time these competing ideas lead to a place that no one, Catholic or Protestant wanted, it lead to the idea that maybe no one was right.

Maybe reason couldn't work in theology, but it could in science and in other areas of knowledge. Slowly, very slowly, over many centuries theology was pushed aside as being more trouble than it was worth and in it's place other areas of study took over. Reason has been used by nearly every Philosopher in the last five centuries as the base upon which their work begins. But we are no nearer to answering the Life Questions then we ever were. We have constant claim and counterclaim. Truth itself is no longer respected, reason has not lead us to a place that reason should have. 

But this idea that reason will answer our questions remains. As I read this chapter I realised that I was a product of this same way of thinking, I am using reason to try and find answers. I wasn't expecting to find myself in the book!


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Friday 11 December 2020

The Ninety-Third Month

 I need to write more, earlier in the month I was posting every day, I posted something for 11 days straight. But I feel that many of those posts didn't get the attention that they deserved. Which discourages me from writing. 


My best day in the past month was the 14th November when I had 246 visitors, my worst day was the 27th November when I had 55 visitors. In November I had 3075 visitors, this month I have had 972 visitors. 


My visitors by country over the past 30 days.

United States
1.73K
Australia
595
Germany
180
United Kingdom
151
Romania
99
France
78
Russia
50
Canada
49
Belgium
38
Italy
37
India
34
Philippines
23
United Arab Emirates
20
Sweden
20
Argentina
19
Netherlands
18
Singapore
15
Ukraine
10
Austria
9
Other
206

Monday 7 December 2020

Democracy and it's failings - Melbourne Traditionalists Podcast - Episode Sixty Eight

Democracy is often held up as the perfect political system, in this episode I talk about it's failings. How it is a feminine form of government and how seduction and bribery form an inescapable part of it.


Length: 30 minutes

Click on the link and enjoy!




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Friday 4 December 2020

China Problems - Melbourne Traditionalists Podcast - Episode Sixty Seven

 More on China and Australia's declining relationship, this year has been quite bad and it keeps getting worse. I also talk about Covid-19 and the most recent Australian heatwave.


Length: 26 minutes

Click on the link and enjoy!



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