Orwell, Vonnegut, and the Beatitudes

Found this link today and thought I'd drop it here: Presidential Countdown Clock. I'm bookmarking it as a reminder of just how much longer we have left in this dumpster fire—assuming, of course, the Constitution holds and the next election is actually free and fair. Fingers crossed.

If you'd asked me 30+ years ago what I thought the future of this country would look like, this is not what I would've pictured. Somehow, we’ve landed in this bizarre, Kafkaesque mashup of Orwell and Bradbury, and honestly, it’s surreal. The fact that so many people blindly voted for this mess still blows my mind.

Now, I’m not saying we’re living under the Nazi party (at least not yet), but it sure feels like we’re getting a little taste of what Germany must have felt like in the 1930s—the slow, unsettling shift of political norms toward something more authoritarian.

I remember being a kid and learning about media literacy—how to tell the difference between propaganda, real news, opinion pieces, and ads dressed up as news. Seems like social media wiped all that out. Now it feels like people see a headline, hear a soundbite, and just... accept it as truth. Our teachers warned us this would happen. And here we are. It's wild how so many of the warnings from the past feel like predictions that have come true.

Anyway, I came across this quote from Kurt Vonnegut's A Man Without a Country the other day, and wow, if it doesn't hit home:

“For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. ‘Blessed are the merciful’ in a courtroom? ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ in the Pentagon? Give me a break!”

With all these states trying to pass laws to stick the Ten Commandments in schools, I can’t help but notice how eager people are to focus on the first covenant between God and man—while totally ignoring (or maybe just not understanding) the new covenant fulfilled through Jesus. Funny how they lean into the Commandments as a way to enforce behavior, but the Beatitudes? Not so much. You know, the ones that encourage things like mercy and peacemaking.

Maybe some of these folks should spend a little time with Luke 6:24-26. Actually, I think all of Luke 6 is a good reminder for everyone, especially this part:

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

But hey, what do I know? I’m not a religious scholar, and I’m definitely not someone with a strong, traditional faith. I believe what I believe, and I just try to live by the simple idea of doing the right thing and being kind to people.

I’ll wrap this up with this thought: Trying to force a moral code on people through government, based on one group's interpretation of God, is a slippery slope. History’s shown us—more than a few times—how that tends to end.