Marx And Jesus Fighting The Good Fight Together

 

 

 

Those perverters of religion, they’re everywhere….

A crucifix sculpted in the shape of a hammer and sickle presented to Pope Francis in Bolivia has caused a stir among Catholic commentators.

The Pope was given the item, combining Catholic and communist symbols, by left-wing Bolivian President Evo Morales.

One Catholic bishop suggested that Mr Morales had sought to “manipulate God”.

Does this mean that Morales isn’t a Christian for having ‘politicised’ Christianity, and what of Giles Fraser that turbulent priest?  Allegedly he has a copy of ‘Christianity for Dummies and Marxists’…proof that he has no idea of what Christianity really means.

 

 

Shameless Milne in the Guardian shows why religion, of all kinds, is an ally for the Left...Religion is now a potential ally of radical social change.

Of course possibly not quite so harmful when you get into bed with Giles Fraser but when you also take to your bosom the godly men and women of ISIS and its ilk such alliances take on a different hue and potential for danger….the Left should of course learn from Iran which is a goood illustration of what seemed like a good idea of  siding with your enemy’s enemy but which turned out not to be such a good idea.

‘Render unto Napoleon’

Talking of Giles Fraser and Marxism….he recently gave us his Thought for the Day and chose as his subject the Battle of Waterloo…or rather the missed opportunity in not allowing the anti-Establishment revolutionary ideas from France to land on our shores.  Curiously he tells us that the Church should not be the voice of the State, he worships the Prince of Peace and not the Duke of Wellington…but paradoxically that doesn’t seem to stop him praising Napoleon and championing his beliefs and ideas on what shape a State should take.

Fraser tells us Napoleon would have ‘Proclaimed a republic and the abolition of the nobility and the house of peers, and brought liberty, equality and sovereignty of the people’ to England.  Fraser suggests many Christians would applaud such beliefs.

Unfortunately Fraser wasn’t being strictly honest in telling us what Napoleon actually said…certainly he said those words but there was a lot more…

“What a ballad my life has been,” he once proclaimed, as he insisted that “the laws of morality and convention cannot be applied to me.”

“If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”

And in relation to the invasion of England in particular he said…

I would have published a proclamation (which I would have had ready) declaring that we were only come as friends to the English nation, to render them free and to relieve them from an obnoxious and despotical Aristocracy, whose object was to keep them eternally at war in order to enrich themselves and their families at the expense of the blood of the people. Arrived at London I would have proclaimed a Republic , Liberty, Equality, Sovereignty of the people, abolished the Monarchical Government, the nobility and the House of Peers, the House of Commons I would have retained with a great reform, the property of the nobles I would have declared to be forfeited and to be divided amongst the people, amongst the partizans of the Revolution, a general equality and division of property. By these means I hope to gain a formidable party, to be joined by all the “canaglie” in such a great city as London, by all the idle and disaffected in the kingdom and that, perhaps, I might ultimately succeed.”

I would cautiously have avoided saying anything about annexing England to France, on the contrary, I would have declared that we came only as friends to expel a flagitious and tyrannical aristocracy and to restore the rights of the people. That when we had done that, we would depart as friends. The hope of a change for the better, of a division of property, would have operated wonderfully amongst the “Canaglie”, especially of London. The “Canaglie” of all nations are nearly alike. There are traitors to be found amongst all nations. I would have made rich promises and could have had a great effect to “Coglionare” them all.

I would have “coglionato” you with treaties and their other means.

 

‘Coglionato’?  ‘In O’Meara’s letter to Lowe of 5 June, 1817 (British Library, Ms Add. 20214 fol. 82v) it appears that ‘coglionare’ was translated by the British on Saint Helena as ‘to humbug’, or to trick or con.’

So Napoleon’s strategy was to promise the English whatever it took to get them, or at least as many traitors as possible, on his side and then do what ever he liked once in control.

‘Promise everything and deliver nothing’…a man of his word.

Hardly the ‘People’s’ champion celebrating equality, liberty and the sovereignty of the people as Fraser wants us to believe, just another lying ‘politician’ saying whatever it takes in order to con the people.

On the Today programme (08:33:30) a while back we also had a look at the legacy of Waterloo and they also seemed rather disappointed that Napoleon had lost…..though apparently the battle was a useful illustration of the benefits of a united Europe which scorns nationalism and borders…we ‘have a lot to learn from co-operation…and the consequences of the battle’ they told us.  Mishal Husain pressed her own point that suggested that Europe today was the united Europe that Napoleon dreamt of.  Another reason to celebrate the crushing of Napoleon….how much worse would things be now if he had won!

Husain says that the unintended consequences of the defeat was the rise of German nationalism.

Apparently the victory over the dictator Napoleon was not a victory for democracy and a fairer society but was one that led to Hitler’s rise and the evils of nationalism which is rather curious as the general belief is that it was the Napoleonic Code of laws that led to the unification of Germany and thence nationalism and ‘the rise of Hitler’…and Mussolini…..

Dieter Langewiesche described the code as a “revolutionary project” which spurred the development of bourgeois society in Germany by the extension of the right to own property and an acceleration towards the end of feudalism. Napoleon reorganised what had been the Holy Roman Empire, made up of more than a thousand entities, into a more streamlined forty-state Confederation of the Rhine; this provided the basis for the German Confederation and the unification of Germany in 1871.

The movement toward national unification in Italy was similarly precipitated by Napoleonic rule. These changes contributed to the development of nationalism and the nation state.

 

Good old BBC, rewriting history once again to promote the ‘European dream’…of the great dictator Napoleon.