1. Guilt
Have you noticed something? Today is Canada Day, but there’s a raging argument about whether it should be celebrated. The radical leftist and their mob, being reinforced with growing strength in numbers, always accuses and wants us to believe that we’re guilty. Guilty of what? It doesn’t matter. Whatever’s most provocative in the climate of the moment, so it varies from month to month. Today, it could be for terrible injustices committed decades ago. Tomorrow, it could be because of the colour of our skin. A year from now, it might be for our religious views, or perhaps because of the way our grandparents voted.
“Are you white?
“Yes.”
“Then you’re systemically and inherently racist. Hate the colour of your skin and the privilege it affords you.”
“What kind of home were you raised in?”
“Middle class.”
“Then you were afforded economic opportunities others weren’t. You are a part of the hierarchy that discriminates against poverty. Feel guilty and champion socialism.”
This slander is becoming more and more common. But let’s be rational—if we’re guilty of anything, it’s sin. The radical leftist is naturally just as guilty before the Judge as I am (Daniel 9:27). However, we are not responsible for the sins of our ancestors. And to try and force a man to think that he is, to brainwash him day after day that he’s burdened with blame for the evil committed before he was born, is wicked and cruel. We have entered into an era where a man is held hostage for the crimes of generations he never knew.
Bear in mind the society’s logic is so twisted in a labyrinth of modernism that few are held accountable for sin committed today—the Social Justice Warrior only cares about the evils of distant past. Our culture has summited the mountain of irrationality. We have become so illogical that a man is sooner held in contempt for the sins of his great great grandparents than for himself.
“Did you burn down a building?”
“I did.”
“No worries. You were only expressing your displeasure and anger regarding old wounds.”
“Did you just rob that man?”
“Yes.”
“Nonsense. You merely engaged in ‘material liberation’ to help atone for any perceived oppression.”
2. Strategy
Have you noticed something else? The radical leftist and their mob’s never shoulder the burden of guilt they lecture we all deserve. So why shovel it down the throats of everyone else? I think the reason is clear: power. In this struggle, the leftist generally captures the throne as they are experts in the art of politics. Suppose we analyze one of these “Social Justice Warriors” (SJWs). We know that they crave power; they want to lead for as long as they can. Thus, why not tell the society to pursue a goal, be it the elimination of carbon, absolute safety, or the perfect reconciliation of injustice, that doesn’t exist? The SJW could lead forever, promising their subjects “just a little farther” ad infinitum because only the leader knows where to take the society. In this case, they describe an exodus from this land of guilt we’re supposed to feel. They claim only they know how to fix it and that we should follow them in order to find that fix…we’re supposedly sick with racism, sexism, and whatever other “ism” that can be conjured. The enlightened and modern socialist promises they have the cure if only we bow to their ideology. It never comes.
3. Reality
By now we've noticed why this method of domination is so evil. The reason I detest being accused, slandered, forced to feel guilty, for something previous generations committed is that I cannot atone either for their sin or my own. No man can. In telling a generation that they must, somehow, atone for the sins of the past, men are led into depression and despair because no matter how hard they try, it can never be accomplished on their own. The socialist tells us our failure to adequately pay for injustice is our fault: we haven’t done enough, we haven’t cared enough, we have worked hard enough, etc.; how could a man not feel bad? But no amount of money or worship can pay for injustice adequately; no actions of violence will cleanse the ledger of evil committed and reconcile us to righteousness. It takes Christ Jesus to accomplish the atonement (1 John 2:1-2). To try and wash away ones’ sins on his own, let alone the sins of ancestors, is like trying to climb a rope that’s attached to nothing.
So then, I will celebrate Canada day (though I wish my province to achieve independence from Canada), not because I agree with everything our generations have done (I certainly don’t), and not because the country is perfect (it certainly isn’t), but because by no individual choice, it’s my own. Here lies my love for a way of life; coffee row in the morning; exploring the landscape in the afternoon; watching hockey at night. On what grounds could this be condemned?