Fighting The Wrong War: A Confederate Controversy

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It’s incredible how connected our lives, our world, has become. Mere days after the Charleston shooting, it was discovered that the alleged perpetrator, Dylann Roof, was of the ‘white supremacist’ persuasion. Since then, you would have thought the Civil War had started all over again.

But before I get into this, I think one of the most sad and ridiculous parts of the whole Confederate flag debate, is that the American people, or at least a very visible, vocal portion, once again showed their sheep mentality. The media told them to be offended and they were. Suddenly the ‘Dukes of Hazzard’, which has been on air since 1979, was unbelievably horrid. Walmart pulled from their shelves any merchandise that contained the flag, suddenly aware of the evil of the Confederate flag.
People are entitled to their opinions. However, bottom line, if this really was a true problem, that people in their heart of hearts were convicted of, then it would have been dealt with a very long time ago. It’s not very convincing to get up in arms over something that has been around, without much comment, for the past 150 years. Sheep.
I’ve got a news flash for you, Dylann Roof did not commit that heinous crime because he saw the Confederate flag flying on the South Carolina State House grounds. Furthermore, South Carolina’s decision to remove said flag will not result in less hate or death. Walmart removing Confederate flag merchandise, TV Land cutting Dukes of Hazzard, none of that is going to affect any change in people’s hearts.
This relates directly to what I discussed in last week’s article. We could decide to pass laws and ban Confederate flags from display or purchase but that would be the wrong approach entirely.
Allow me to repeat what I said last week, because I think you’ll see that it ties in perfectly to this vastly different subject.  

“(1) A “good culture” (one that believes in the basic principles of the Declaration and the Constitution) cannot help but promote good laws, which will lead to an even better culture. (2) However, if you take good laws and attempt to add them on top of a bad culture (one that does not believe, or possibly even hates the principles of the Declaration and Constitution), all you will accomplish is an eventual degradation and destruction of the good laws which will land you with a worse culture and even worse laws. (3) It obviously follows then that bad laws added to an already bad culture will lead to worse laws and worse culture.”
We cannot forget the culture, the hearts and minds of every American citizen. If you and I practice love and eschew hate in our daily lives, if we are living examples, there could be Confederate flags flying from every street lamp in the country and I guarantee we would see vastly greater, better results from this change in our own behavior than we would ever see after a change in laws.


Jonathan Paine
@painefultruth76

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