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| Totalitarian Britain? | |
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| Topic Started: Friday, 8. May 2009, 19:50 (580 Views) | |
| SeanJ | Monday, 11. May 2009, 20:17 Post #31 |
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Administrator
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I don't believe that there is one in the English speaking world. Australia is a possibility, but I don't know enough about their system to offer a sensible comment. Sean Edited by SeanJ, Monday, 11. May 2009, 20:17.
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| Bob Crowley | Tuesday, 12. May 2009, 04:22 Post #32 |
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Totalitarian states don't allow the citizens to oust them unless there are external pressures. Nazi Germany had to be violently destroyed, Soviet Russia had to be forced to an economic standstill, Franco's Spain had the EU and other democracies pushing against it, aparthied South Africa was embargoed for years. There is a chance where there are "free" outside powers. But what's going to happen if the whole world becomes a totalitarian state? There would be no outside powers. |
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| Bob Crowley | Tuesday, 12. May 2009, 04:34 Post #33 |
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Forget it. We Australians have a concern for the underdog, which is probably an outgrowth of our convict origins, but there's a lot that is wrong with our system eg. a push for abortion on demand, a loss of the egalitarianism that was once a strong aspect of our culture, huge debt (government and private), etc. If there was a revival here, then I could see the church taking a strong root here, but I could hardly see Moslem Indonesia brushing that off without a challenge at some stage. My own crystal ball gazing tells me God intends to hand Australia to the Japanese down the track. In line with my old pastor, we both felt that we Europeans have been put here in a "caretaker" role between the tribal Aboriginals and the next, probably Asian, stage. When I was a kid, Asians were still comparatively rare - now I live near a suburb called Sunnybank which is almost a little China. We haven't been allowed to become a dominant nation or culture as the European settled USA has for example. We have 20 million people - Indonesia has 140 million or more, China and India both well over a billion each, Japan has probably close to Indonesia's population, and most Asian nations have populations larger than ours. China and India have cities with almost the equivalent of our total number. Which explains why we always hitch our foreign policy to a stronger partner - first Britain, now the USA, next ??? I don't think there is a country anywhere where there is a push in the right direction overall. What I do suspect is that God is going to use the Moslems to destroy the church / state division of the West. Islam has no such division, and I don't see why, if the Church is God's imprimatur, He should play second fiddle to the secular state, as happens now. But I think it will be a violent process. I still think the twin images of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the image of the Holocaust survivors indicates the sort of world we're heading for. Both Scripture in Revelation and Mary at Akita echoed the same sentiment - 'The living will envy the dead". I might sound a bit morbid, but then when you've seen your father scream his head off, and you've had an accurate, if discouraging, pastor tell you certain things, and events of the time seem to be heading where you thought they were heading, it's a bit hard to get enthusiastic. |
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| Ned | Tuesday, 12. May 2009, 16:29 Post #34 |
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That magazine article talks about a 'new soft totalitarianism' - I think that they're right. The 'establishment' don't need to tell us WHAT to think - they only have to tell us HOW to think, and what we will think is a foregone conclusion. I don't have a television, but nine out of ten households do. The TV licence costs £142 a year, and payment is enforced by the BBC's own, and unaccountable, nationwide force of plain-clothes police. £142 a year is a lot of money for poor families, and so it is only human that they then watch as much TV as they can, so as to get some value for their money. Again, if they pay a lot of money for their licence it seems false economy not to get a pricey large TV-set. The result is a nation that's being brainwashed. |
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| PJD | Wednesday, 13. May 2009, 07:54 Post #35 |
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Another point, for religious, might be the question (given the powers that allowed the credit crunch to happen, and given the recent scandal regarding 'expenses') - has the moral obligation of obedience to the temporal authority been seriously diluted? And deeper still - has 'conscience' been adjusted/re-informed in that respect. PJD |
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| Ned | Wednesday, 13. May 2009, 18:38 Post #36 |
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I'm not quite sure what you mean there, PJD ? But I do know this - a couple of months ago someone was trying to tell me that because of the recent changes in our society the right and duty of setting out the moral code had passed from the Christian Churches to Parliament and the courts. And he argued that the Churches no longer had the right even to give directions to their own members if this went counter to the directions of Parliaments and the courts. This was in regard to such issues as sexuality, abortion, marriage et al. Incidently this bloke was not a hippie - he's a 59-year old, recently- retired, happily married man with two university degrees - though, yes, he had worked in Local Government. It's a lot more scarey than people realise. |
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| JRJ | Wednesday, 13. May 2009, 18:45 Post #37 |
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The situation is very similar in the US, except we pay the cable television company which then pays the taxes, which of course increase the price of the service in the first place. Our mainstream media have a virulent anti-God, anti-person and pro-consumerism ideology and they are expert at brainwashing. They seem to be winning the hearts and minds of the people. Ridding our home of television was one of the best decisions we ever made for our family. We do watch a few shows on the internet via our broadband connection. |
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Jennifer hubby's dinosaur blog | |
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| PJD | Wednesday, 13. May 2009, 19:40 Post #38 |
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"though, yes, he had worked in Local Government." That may partly explain his attitude Ned. "It should not happen that certain individuals or social groups derive special adfvantage from the fact that their rights have received preferntial protection. Pacem in Terris (65)" PJD |
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| Bob Crowley | Thursday, 14. May 2009, 01:50 Post #39 |
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In Australia we don't have a television tax, as the Australian Broadcasting Commission is paid from general taxes. As in most Western nations however there is a bias against the church, unless the church is involved in doing something for people eg. social services, helping the poor. I suppose this might be part of the Australian character. Personally though I think you'll find a lot of the anti-God stuff will disappear or become muted if God decides to start playing rough, as I think He already intends to do. I suspect His patient "Mr Nice Guy" is going on hold for a while. If we want cable TV, then we have to pay for it. There are still a handful of other "free to air" TV stations to choose from, which of course derive their revenue from advertisers and other sponsors. Having said all that, I have a suspicion God is going to use one of the "Free to Air" stations to get His message across. But time will tell. If I'm correct, then it won't be long before that particular station finds out God has a spiritual enemy. In one sense, while we may not trust the media, a lot of their journalists have a certain amount of guts. I lifted this off a news item - "Brussels, June 28 - The worldwide journalist death toll has risen sharply this year with 100 lives lost within six months, threatening even the record level reached in 2006. According to figures compiled by the International News Safety Institute, 83 journalists and 17 other media professionals have died covering news stories between 1 January and 26 June, compared with 68 at the same time last year. INSI recorded a total of 168 casualties in 2006, the worst year ever. " |
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9:18 AM Jul 11