AN EVER PRESENT COLLECTION OF MADMEN (& WOMEN)

There is a proposition that I hold closely to in my worldview and one that I take every opportunity to teach about to Conor. I believe its biblical equivalent might be found in 1 Peter 3:15.

The proposition is this: ideas have consequences.

Simple but profound and I am reminded of it not on a daily basis but almost on an hourly basis. In conversations like the one I had at the beach today to the short video I watched on YouTube about the state of 'intellectual' being at Yale university:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK4MBzp5YwM

........worth a watch if only for an insight into the coming apocalypse of which Trump, even if successful in 'draining the swamp' (which is doubtful given the open warfare ranged against him) represents merely a short hiatus rather than a solution.

Back to the idea of ideas having consequences...
I was talking to Conor today about some of the consequences of collectivism, that insidious ideology that has gained traction within our society and is most vividly displayed politically in Australasia in Victoria under the Andrews oligarchy and in South Australasia under the Weatherill oligarchy.

However this idea has gathered force all around the Western world due to faulty history teaching or a complete lack thereof, the collapse of higher education as evidenced in the video above, to constant indoctrination throughout TV and many Hollywood movies as well as the now unmasked main-stream-press which acts as a 5th column undermining everything vaguely of Judeo-Christian/Western value within our society.

Collectivism takes many forms within our society, masquerading as something benign and 'huggable', perfect for the emotionally superficial, metro-'fluid'-sexual culture of our contemporary society. Unfortunately it is also rather prevalent within Christian circles also masquerading under different guises, such as; seeker sensitive, holisticism, etc etc. In fact on the 'other side' of that idea lies that one contained in numerous articles and books warning against the 'fundamentalists' of Christianity, how the History of Christianity is as bad if not worse than Islam and that the 'new fundamentalists' of Christianity are the same as the Taliban. And by fundamentalists they mean those who believe in the bible as it is written and that it is the inspired and true word of God.

But back to the idea I spoke to Conor today about the dangers of collectivism and its consequences.

The Russian revolution is when the Marxists seized power in a bloody coup and quickly 'cleansed' the country of possible opposition. By 1929 the Bolshevik party had cemented their power and viewed any 'success' as contrary to the collectivist ideology:

Collectivization was a policy of forced consolidation of individual peasant households into collective farms called “kolkhozes” as carried out by the Soviet government in the late 1920's - early 1930's.

The Kulaks were a hardworking group of farmers who had been around since the time of the Czar, they shared their knowledge and techniques with each other and as a consequence became rather successful.

Success of course angered the Russian oligarchy as it does all collectivists, and Stalin decreed that the Kulaks were to be exterminated, which Stalin did, killing around 3 million of them actually:

On 27 December 1929 Stalin officially announced the forthcoming 'liquidation of the Kulaks as a Class'. Dekulakization consisted of the expropriation of the richer peasants' households that were officially labeled 'kulak' and the expulsion of their members from the village.

Now to arrive at the point of my lesson for Conor about ideas having consequences....:
Obviously the ideas harboured by the Marxist collectivists had serious consequences for the Kulaks as a group of people, but the death of these farmers and the division of their lands as per the collectivist 'vision' for farming (see also Zimbabwe, Venezuela and currently what is happening in South Africa) also had consequences for the ordinary peasants (everyday people like you and me) of Russia.

Official figures are hard to come by obviously as the Russian government of the day like many failed states in the world today, they prefer to keep statistics a state secret, but the estimates are that multiple millions of ordinary Russians died in the famines (1930 and 1932-3) that followed as a result of the slaughter of the Kulak farmers.

Ideas most definitely have consequences as does the idea of 'no idea'....to paraphrase Burke; "all that is necessary for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing."