Roselouise Smith - American Apocalypse

American Apocalypse

Roselouise Smith

Copyright 2019 Roselouise Smith

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2019

ISBN 978-1-64544-984-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64544-985-0 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Many observers in both the ancient world and the middle ages recognized, for example, that the earth could not support infinite human numbers; when over burdened it periodically purged itself of excess, through famines, wars, plagues, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters. These other so-called natural disasters in the modern world, now arguably include political interference and extreme religion.

In recent years, there has been an increasing disregard of facts, whether historical or accurate. As a result, we as a nation and part of the global community have become disconnected from truth and in some cases reality. Dogma, propaganda, and outright lies have become the political norm and not just in America. This is a global epidemic. The Americas, Russia, Arab and Asian nations, and Europe have all seen politicians use fear, bigotry, religion, and social issues to drive the quest for greed and self-preservation. As a result, we have seen vast tracts of humanity eradicated by both politically driven agendas and religious intolerance. The dogma preached by radical Islamists and radical Christians over the years has fueled detrimental divisions in the ability to empathize for one another. This continuous downward spiral into far extremes continues to advance the turmoil and destruction of society. The rhetoric has also restricted governments from openly working toward more humanitarian efforts. The argument can be made that the effects bear the potential of being cataclysmic to society with reverberating consequences for humanity in the generations to come. It will ultimately be determined by historians in the future as to how these issues truly affected humanity and how we responded to these malicious and nocuous factors.

We stand on the precipice of fatally repeating history through ignorance and a sheer disregard for humanity. How we move forward from this point will decide if we fall over the edge into oblivion or rise above into a new era of an ever-evolving psyche.

Prelude

Visions of a desolate landscape, burning and choked with smoke, in the midst of an apocalyptic crisis are more often than not forced upon us to the point that we as a collective whole have become desensitized to the prospect. The bleak future that is proposed by these visions is a very distinct possibility for our nation. While this meager attempt to enlighten and encourage the education of the reader may never fully succeed, I feel compelled to try to inspire. As a student of history, a veteran, and a mother, it has become increasingly imperative to me that I cannot remain silent to the damage being done to our nation and the reckless attempts to interject the seeds of the four horsemen, either domestically or through foreign influences, to take root and disrupt our democracy. The cold hard truth is we may very well have willingly, through complacency, cowardice, and sheer ignorance, unwittingly relinquished our democracy to the hands of those who have far-reaching and nefarious intentions. Our hubris has clouded our ability to see the decadence that is rampant across our nation. The inflated national debt, political partisanship governance, and poorly educated masses add to the alarm bells that go unheeded. As of January 24, 2019, we are two minutes to midnight, the closest we have been to total annihilation since the Cold War. We are at the precipice. The choice is upon the reader to remain complacent and do nothing or join the call to arms to speak out against untruths and oppression.

Remember this, it is uniquely American to descent against injustice. More importantly, it is imperative for all Americans to do so, not just to veterans and politicians who have sworn to uphold our Constitution against enemies, foreign and domestic. Yes, we currently have a multitude of foreign threats, with the most critical in my mind being Vladimir Putin. We also have a home front challenge that may prove to be just as critical, the political stranglehold that the radical right religious leaders have on our Republican politicians.

We have been at war with various terrorist groups for almost two decades now. This is a fact, and consequently the first horseman war. Let me be perfectly clear, a complete apocalyptic collapse does not happen from one, two, or even three conjoined horsemen, but they all bring the fourth horseman, Death, in some way shape or form. Our continued cycle of war has led to deaths that nearly twenty years ago none of us thought would occur. How could we, the general population in our blissful ignorance, have predicted that Bin Laden was furiously plotting and planning our economic collapse through an attack he hoped would utterly demoralize us. Miraculously, the 9/11 attacks had the complete opposite effect on our nation. We united to a level that had not been seen since the American Revolution. We helped one another regardless of race, creed, or color. We flew flags from coast to coast and banded together as one nation. Amazing that it took the precipice of destruction to reduce us to a state of pure harmony and compassion.

We have lost that.

Now we stand at the spear tip of an even greater challenge. The Evangelicals, who propped George W. Bush up to become president, have twisted even further to the right, and it appears that they no longer hold to their morals. The demonstrable truth is that the religious right has swapped out their morals and values for political gain as a whole. While I am grossly over generalizing and lumping all Evangelicals, Southern Baptists, and any other radical right religious sects into one harmonious glob, they have earned this portrayal from the way they have consistently twisted and contorted themselves throughout the Trump campaign, and now his administration validates this classification. One cannot preach against adultery and premarital sex and then in the same breathe advocate for Donald Trump, a man with no moral compass nor humility. Yet this is exactly what they do by brushing off his moral and ethical flaws as a leader in a true hypocritical faction. The simple truth is, they can justify these acrobatic and morally flexible moves through the acknowledgment that they themselves are not truly moral. Too many times has there been questionable behavior from the leadership of these factions. Sexual misconduct is rampant, yet they preach the sanctity of traditional marriages and family. The religious right can no longer pretend that they are living godly lives and spreading Christianity. The growing persecution of the LGBTQ community, Jews, Muslims, and other Christians do not exhibit a fraction of an ounce of the teachings of Jesus. Unfortunately, they use the Bible as a crutch. Yet no matter how much one memorizes texts and manipulates the scripture to a wide range of interpretations, it does not make this right or just behavior. It is especially true when you lack the historical context of the people who wrote the scriptures. Remember first that nearly all of the Old Testament was passed down orally for generations and that for the vast majority of those texts, they were to guide and control a society that was, until Moses, without a set homeland. While religious control over a nation may in the past have been beneficial, our nation was never intended to be ruled by the laws of God but rather the laws of man. This is a reality that the religious right cannot, or so it increasingly appears, abide by. They have a very hard time accepting facts that contradict scripture. My own personal experience with various individuals within this group has brought up visions of Spencer Tracys portrayal of Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind as he questions the devout politician Matthew Brady. For those who are too young to know, or too oblivious, the movie is based on a play that is based on an actual trial where a teacher was threatened with imprisonment for teaching Darwin and evolution. Almost a century has passed since that case, yet the religious fervor toward divine creation seems to exponentially push and backed by the religious right. From an educational perspective, nearly all school textbooks are published in Texas, a religious right stronghold. Science, especially when it refutes something the religious rights holds true, is dismissed by the injections of blind faith. Literally, they as a whole believe and hold the Bible to be without flaw and a definitive fact. It has become their norm that when faced with these challenges, hard facts, reality, and common sense that they retreat to scripture, faith, and far right lies/alternative facts. In addition to all this, they have created a museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, that is dedicated to teaching exactly this cultist propagandathe Bible as literal fact. They even have an exhibit that states that you can Meet Ebenezer, our stunning full-size Allosaurus. Hes a testament to the reality of the global Flood of Noahs day and the truth of God s Word.