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After 'Nam

In the years following the Vietnam "police action", after Woodstock and Altamonte, after the Symbionese Liberation Army, and the Weathermen Underground had disbanded, and Timothy Leary had become the subject of university history classes, as Jewish Renewal became normative of American Judaism... what had appeared to be the dawning of a Fourth Great Awakening (the Age of Aquarius) collapsed. The hippies and yippies cut their hair and donned suits to join the corporate workforce. The promised social revolution never materialized. After Vietnam things calmed down as most people returned to spiritual slumber and political apathy. The imaginary land of the American capitalist dream and its new paradigm covered the land like wet blanket soon putting out most of the surviving embers. Social outrage and righteous indignation was replaced by passive complacency. Watergate and the impeachment of Richard Nixon for crimes that by today's standards of governmental abuse seem petty, shattered the remaining utopian hopes. Not only had the "invincible" nation lost its first war, it had been humiliated in the eyes of the world as solid proof emerged that the justification for the war had been a White House fabrication (note T).

During the 1960's and into 70's the country had awakened to new spiritual realities. These new insights are usually classified under the umbrella term New Age Movement. These beliefs were brought forward from the Second Great Awakening and were reenergized through the Aquarian concepts of the hippies, psychics, and spiritual entrepreneurs who were always ready to offer true enlightenment, but for a cost. They plagiarized all religions and created a montage without root or historic underpinning. Unlike the free 'brush arbor meetings' of the Third Great Awakening, the New Age Movement became largely the religion of the privileged few who could afford to pay the new gurus and Channelers, As the seventies passed into the 1980's American religion largely became an economic racket leaving most people out in the cold. The during the nineties it became largely irrelevant.

Those experiences fundamentally altered the society. Scholars disagree as to whether this awakening was significant enough to be recognized as the Fourth Great Awakening. In my opinion today it was not because it faded too soon. Just as the full impact of the Third Great Awakening was not completely realized until afterwards however, so too we are now beginning to see how far reaching these transformations actually were. A Fourth Great Awakening may now be beginning. Time will tell. If it is, it began in a most unlikely place: The Occupy Movement as we will discuss below.

Most observers would agree that for a while there was a genuine transformation in consciousness underway among the citizens, arguably such as had not been seen for millennia (TP 33). The awakening that occurred during these years was amazing even though its potential was never realized!

The NeoCons and Islam

During the "Me Generation" of the 1980s and 90s through the dawn of the new millennium the nation's spiritual consciousness gave way to a short lived revival of Christian Fundamentalism in various forms. This was not unlike the Christian elements of the Third Great Awakening except that within this one the Church lacked the needed zeal to sustain and unify it. It also lacked viable answers to it Secular detractors. Calvary Chapel exemplifies this point. While it began as a dynamic beach outreach of awakening 'Jesus People', it soon transformed into another reserved socially negligible organization as it merged with normative Protestant Christianity. Not that this was a bad thing necessarily. I only note it here to show how spiritual awakenings originally enliven and challenge people in ways religious orthodoxy seldom can but then fold into new orthodoxies. As religious reform movements wind down they typically either cease to exist (like the Shakers and I Am Movement) or enter into the orthodoxy of the day (like the Quakers, Seventh Day Adventists, and Calvary Chapel).

The rising NeoCon political trend reflected this. Many Americans felt that the attacks on ethics and social morality had gone too far and yet they were not ready to return to traditional religion and values. Many sensed that the nation needed a counter-weight to the leftist trends of the 1960's and politicians like Ronald Reagan, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Buchanan provided it for them. Once the new social vision was embraced politically by those on the Right side of the political spectrum, many of these people were ready to return to their pews as part of the 'Religious Right' or 'Moral Majority'. What the children of the 1960's and 70's had soundly rejected they now, as older people, repackaged and embraced as they took up the reigns of political and religious power. This too was short lived however.

The growth of Islam's popularity during the 1990's reflected both the nation's gradually returning optimism and its remaining general dissatisfaction with traditional Western religion. The Internet was becoming a public gateway to the world and many non-Western religions were quickly learning how to utilize its awesome power. Millions of Wahabi taqiyya dollars were invested in convincing Americans that "Islam Means Peace" (note I). Many of those who still felt the need for a religious center, especially former Christians, were now looking toward Mecca hoping to find the untarnished religion of Abraham.

• Note T: Americans had given up on America being the New Zion, "the City on a Hill" envisioned described by Ronald Reagan, but the loss of its spiritual foundation now lead to the loss of what had made America unique. The previous pride that was common among Americans as being part of a just and caring nation was shattered by the American Democide (i.e. government directed and permitted killings) in Southeast Asia. The US war against the people of the region (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and other countries) was shown to be a complete fraud created by President Johnson and the military–industrial–congressional complex. It had nothing to do justice. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (August 7, 1964) was proven and admitted to being a lie:

  ...It was later revealed that the federal government had drafted the Tonkin Gulf Resolution fully six months before the attacks on the U.S. vessels occurred. It was also revealed that the United States provoked the attack by assisting the South Vietnamese in mounting clandestine military attacks against the North Vietnamese. Although the two U.S. vessels attacked were actually on intelligence-gathering missions, the North Vietnamese could not distinguish them from the South Vietnamese raiding ships. Johnson had also exaggerated the gravity of the attack itself, which did not harm either of the ships -- source.

  As a result of this damning US government deception between 95,000 and 430,000 Vietnamese civilians were killed by US troop during the "police action." 50,000-65,000 North Vietnamese civilians died in the war as well. This is not counting the soldiers defending their homes nor those lost by the US military.
  
  During the 1960's and early 70's there was at least popular resistance against this senseless slaughter. As the period subsided and was replaced by the ME Generation there was only apathy: "Well what do you expect? Its the government!" "Its Congress!" "There's nothing we can do about it...." The spirit of e pluribus unum was dead. Ronald Reagan later tried to restore it (with his City on a Hill speech for instance) but America had lost the sense of unity that previously made it great. The United States is clearly was no longer a country by and for its people. It became just another oligarchy with a rich and increasingly challenged past. Even Christopher Columbus was immune! Today he is widely viewed as a genocidal criminal rather than a respect explorer. After the Nam the country fundamentally changed and lost its positive self-image of its worth. (return).
• Note I: Deception (Taqiyya and Kitman): Lying to non-Muslims to convert them to Islam or to otherwise use them deceptively for a "just cause" is permissible according to Islamic authorities. Much of what Americans think they know about Islam is based on taqiyya. The following is taken from a reputable Muslim website:

  Qur'an (3:54) - "And they (the disbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed (against them): and Allah is the best of schemers."  The Arabic word used here for scheme (or plot) is maraca, which literally means deceit.  If Allah is deceitful toward unbelievers, then there is little basis for denying that Muslims are allowed to do the same. (See also 8:30 and 10:21) -- source

  Here's an example of Muslim deception. "Islam means peace." One must understand what this means according to Islam. The Arabic word islam only means "submission." This taqiyya conceals the true belief that IF one fully submits to the Islamic authorities and Sharia law THEN one will thereby know "peace" through absolute submission. Conversely one who refuses to submit will know the opposite. To see what this means in practice simply observe "Islamic justice" as practiced around the world. (return)