A Time for Choosing
Has always been a binary choice between good and evil
“A Time for Choosing” was the name of a famous speech by Ronald Reagan delivered during the 1964 presidential campaign for Barry Goldwater. It was the speech that starkly pointed out the communist rabbit hole America was going down in the mid-60s and subsequently launched Ronald Reagan onto the national stage as a serious conservative political force. Although Berry Goldwater lost his bid for president, the speech also kicked off a revival that pitted the free and open West against the “evil empire” of the Soviet Union. For those who wish to hear the speech in “Great Communicator's” own voice, here it is a link to A Time for Choosing.
After the defeat of the USSR in 1991, one would think that the binary choice between freedom and tyranny would become as obvious as choosing between an ice cream cone or a swift kick to the groin. However, the specter of Khrushchev lives on as Western societies are now awash in cultural Marxism. As a result, we have arrived at a new time for choosing.
What Ronald Reagan was alluding to then, and many current commentators are pointing out now, is that an overt Marxists takeover is permeating Western societies. The Marxists desire to frame this takeover as a righteous equalizing of relative goodness over relative evil. Goodness, that is, being manifested within the eye of the politically strong and not the eye of our Creator. This political ideology forces individuals into opposing camps of “with us” or “against us.” To be sure, this choice is not between good or evil in an eschatological sense, it is merely a choice of standing with or against politically dominant forces.
Sadly, Ronald Reagan’s dire predictions of an Americanized version of Marxism has manifest. Like it or not, we in the West, are witnessing a battle for our soul. Like everything else in Marxist ideology, they are after the fickle “collective” soul of society. Those who oppose the Marxist insurrection do so in protection of their individual soul. So, we are indeed at a time for choosing. Because the time is late and these several species of Marxism have already infiltrated our cultural institutions, our business institutions, our religious institutions, and our educational institutions. The battle lines have been drawn and the cultural Marxists desperately want their detractors to lay down the “sword” in exchange for peace. But as Ronald Reagan said in his iconic speech:
“Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation." And they say if we'll only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he'll forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer - not an easy answer but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right.”
Determining what is morally right is precisely what is omitted from Marxist theories. At least, determining what is morally right from a Biblical worldview. Moses descended the mountain with ten very simple rules that comprise God's directive on morality. If one wishes to get more granular, Plato laid out the four virtues of Justice, Prudence, Temperance and Fortitude, and tied those concepts to operating a just and moral city state. However, the Marxists we'll have none of that universality. For their entire argument of social justice falls apart if just one of God's commandments slips through the cracks.
The Marxists cannot allow comparison to the Divine. Quite the opposite, their entire ideology relies on comparing two things to each other. For instance, comparing the bourgeoisie to the proletariat. Or comparing one desperate group to a “normal” group. Or comparing one neighbor’s bank account to another. The Marxist is in a constant state of comparing two things and commanding that they be equalized. This is done in the complete absence of the four cardinal virtues of Justice, Prudence, Temperance and Fortitude. More especially, it is done ignoring God's covenant Commandments. Well, it ignores the first nine. The Tenth Commandment, “Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbors,” Is not ignored, it is perverted. Equity, to a Marxist, means precisely coveting thy neighbor’s things and using the power levers of government to ensure its equalization.
Politically, the battle lines are being drawn, and we all are approaching “the time for choosing.” When that time comes, the choice will be between that which is good and that which is evil. No matter how popular the desired result of equity, no matter how much pressure financial institutions place on businesses to conform to ESG standards and, no matter how hard the directors of institutional DEI departments push equity in the workplace, One will have to choose between the security of complying with that that is antithetical to God's Tenth Commandment or take up the mantle of persecution that befalls all who chose the path of righteousness over a relative good. The choice one makes will be recorded by history and more importantly, measured by the One, Who judges all. We may practice Fortitude to stay true to our quest for goodness, Temperance to stay our tongues of hateful statements, Prudence that our quest is for Good in itself, and Justice that she be administered with a blindfold.
Marxist ideology does not come at us like an assailant wielding a big club. It progresses like the slow drip of a faucet that overtime creates a torrent. Marxism spreads like a virus and requires healthy hosts for its very survival. Its inoculation does not come from a government mandated jab to the heart, but from the heart of an ever-loving God and in His ten simple rules for personal governance. Ronald Reagan further pointed out the slow creep of Marxism in his 1964 speech:
“Now it (Marxism) doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed to the, or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? And such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments' programs, once launched, never disappear.
Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.”
After all, is not Marxism merely the result of a Cyrenaic Hedonist philosophy that concludes that the ultimate pursuit of the individual is pleasure? In that ideology, work, accountability, and delayed satisfaction are evil social constructs. For one to carry on the full measure of pleasure without pain born out of honest toiling, one must have a “sugar daddy” to support them. What better way of achieving a Marxist “kept” status than being nestled securely into the bosom of government? As long as citizen factions are willing to choose the relatively short-lived gilded cage, leaders will gladly broker Marxism in exchange for the lucrative political power that derives from such an evil arrangement. We have certainly arrived at a time for choosing and I pray we choose wisely.