Why I Converted to Catholicism

Why I Converted to Catholicism

Just more than several years ago I converted to Catholicism, which by all accounts seems a very rare and peculiar thing for any non-Catholic to do. Many people, both Catholic and non-Catholic would wonder why a person would do such a thing, especially as officially converting takes too much work to be done simply on a whim. So to answer this general curiosity, here I will attempt to explain why I decided to convert.

Of course, the entire story would be complicated even if the core motivations were simple, so please expect a depiction of all of the textures and terrain undulations of not a perfect situation but of a real one.

First, let me begin by telling of a precipitating moment, a catalytic prelude to my Conversion. I was visited by my adult daughter in the American Southwest and we decided to pass our time sightseeing. We went to quite a famous old Catholic Mission. I had seen it all before, but when asked by my daughter to go inside the Church with her, I felt some discomfort at the notion and sent her ahead by herself without me. I would have had no hesitation about walking in alone, but as my daughter was a Catholic and I was not, I felt it would be incongruous – the mixing of a tourist with a true believer would have presented a clash against my sense of good taste. And then there was another dynamic involved. I had once been a Protestant, and was still tinged with that strange complex which effects nearly all Protestants, which is a hate for Catholicism that is carefully and repeatedly indoctrinated from the earliest Sunday school lessons, paired with an unavoidable envy for the apparent genuine religiosity of the Catholic Experience – a pageantry and flow of religious emotions which Protestantism is at a complete loss to match, which is the very reason why the Leaders of Protestantism find it so necessary to carefully and repeatedly instruct upon the necessity for hating Catholicism. You can see it is a spiraling set of dynamics which feed upon themselves. Hate is the Protestant’s best defense against Envy. So where I could have gone into that Mission Church alone, I was afraid my envy would show to my quite perceptive daughter. But there was no hate, and this I will have to explain in the bulk of this presentation.

One does not ever instantly know why one feels certain things, until one has had time to think about one’s feelings. We conduct much of our behaviors by the dictates of our feelings, and would not know why we act the way we do until we find time to reflect upon our conduct with our intellect. Not accompanying my daughter into that Mission Church puzzled me and I found myself going over that decision like a philosopher trying to solve the Riddle of the Sphinx. It finally occurred to me that if I was envious, than there was nothing to prevent myself from becoming Catholic. My parents were dead, and probably would not have cared if they had still been alive. Of course, if my early protestant conditioning, to hate Catholicism inveterately in my heart and soul, had still been entirely intact, it would have never occurred to me to even consider a Conversion. So, what made Catholicism even a little bit sympathetic to me?

First, for years I had studied and participated in some of the movements of the World’s Higher Moral Religions – Sufism (which better represents old Zoroastrianism more than it does modern Islam, no matter what the Sufis themselves say about it, as they are all quite under duress to pretend to be good Muslims), Spiritual Hinduism and Yoga, and Mahayana Buddhism, together with the other Traditions that had borrowed all of their Spiritual Capital from these sources, along as from elements of Spiritual Catholicism. I had been a Monk at an Aurobindo Ashram, a high initiate in Kundalini Yoga, and had followed a number of Gurus (along with a stint in the Peace Corps, as I believe actual service to Humanity must go hand in hand with one’s Spiritual Quest). And what did I notice in my active acquaintance and experience with the adherents and followers of these Higher Religions? It was that there was in every case some interaction and sympathetic communications between these Spiritual Groups and those of various Catholic Religious Orders. Indeed, Monks, Catholic and Non-Catholic alike, would visit each other’s Monasteries, Shrines and other establishments and partake somewhat in each other’s spiritual practices hoping to gain some insight, in the spirit of Spiritual Fellowship. It was no small matter to me that Spiritual Catholicism was not held in disgrace by the other Higher Religions of the World, as the same cannot be said of Protestantism (which is seen not so much as a Religion but as an excuse the West has contrived to not have any Religion at all – Protestant Salvation is represented as coming from a free Grace that requires neither spiritual practice nor even morality, and Christians are encouraged to refer to themselves as ‘sinners’, while Good Works are shunned. Where is Religion in any of that? Civilization can survive only on a basis of a wide acceptance of moral and spiritual assumptions and a lot of very hard good work, all of which Paulist Christianity dismisses as non-essential, and even as detrimental to their Salvation by based upon Faith alone). One would not willingly associate oneself with a Religion that would bring a moral or spiritual scandal to oneself. One needs to be able to correctly discern both Christ and the Devil. Something can call itself a Religion, but if it propagates the Devil and puts forward Satanic interests and Doctrines, I should hardly suppose we should concede to its Religious pretensions. Charity and Christian Love does not demand we hand our Sheep over to the Wolves, no matter how well-tailored be their Sheep’s Clothing.

Then there was the matter of History. I’ve always studied and read History – in College I majored in it, before going over to Philosophy. I’ve always considered that Catholic Civilization did rather well for itself, though many would argue the point, but when all things were considered in the balance, Catholic Civilization grew and even thrived, and lived up to not only some Spiritual Ideals but even some material ones as well. Indeed, from the Papacy of Gregory the Great to the defeat and the collapse of Catholic Christendom in the Wars of the Protestant Rebellion, was it not almost exactly the “Thousand Year Reign of Christ on Earth” promised by the New Testament Prophesies. Oh, and perhaps I should point out that the “1000 Year Reign of Christ” could not have begun until a Pope arose who would challenge Paul’s strangle-hold on Christian Doctrines, and particularly that doctrine requiring the submission of The Church to secular political authority found in the Epistle to the Romans. Christian Civilization would have been impossible had Pope Gregory the Great, and others in his footsteps, not established the Catholic Church as a central political power, a final arbiter of disputes and a court of last resort, which alone could make peace and commerce possible over what would have been a cluster of perpetually warring cities and states.

Back a few years ago, while still very much a Non-Catholic, I would often go Online and discuss my political and religious views, and would occasionally be surprised to find myself, a disinterested bystander, so to speak, defending the role of Catholicism in History. However spotted the History of Secular Catholicism, the facts point out that as a Civilization, Catholic Christendom was the most successful Civilization in the world this last two thousands years – the only Civilization which had been able to stand against the invasions of first the Huns, in the 6th and 7th Centuries, and then the Mongols in the 12th to 14th. The much maligned Crusades were actually a political and military success in preserving Christendom, that is, Catholic Civilization (for which no one today is grateful, no, not even the officials of the Catholic Church as even the Popes themselves nowadays issue hand-wringing apologies for having deployed armies that were solely responsible for having saved Christendom when everywhere else less hardy civilizations were swept into the basest and cruelest barbarism, not because they morally renounced an active defense or because they did not make what must have been the most valiant efforts to defend themselves, but because the imperfections of their Institutions made an effective defense impossible). Such successes, in Catholic Christendom, were only possible as the Church was able to exercise an effective Secular Authority over a body of nationalities that behaved effectively like the component states of a great Catholic Empire. The policies that could sustain this Jurisdiction, the saving Grace of our Civilization, are to be commended… not apologized for. This is not to say that the Catholic Church did not often have to resolve Social and Religious Conflicts of its own making. If certain Bishops had gratuitously and even foolishly provoked civil wars, we can certainly lament their inexcusable stupidity while still understanding the absolute necessity of re-establishing Territorial Integrity. One should not provoke Rebellion, but at the same time one can also not excuse Rebellion. It is silly for Protestants and Anti-clerical Masons (who dominate the politics of almost every Nation we would suppose to be Catholic) to accuse the Catholics of having fiercely suppressed Rebellion when certainly no Protestant or Masonic Nation has ever permitted such liberties in their own jurisdictions. The American’s who killed millions in their own Civil War must be disingenuous when they accuse Catholics of killing in order to sustain their Union. And the modern Non- Catholic and Anti-Clerical European Nations have committed genocide with far less justification than Christendom ever demanded.

But Spiritual and Historical Respectability are only incidental factors in my Conversion – reasons why it would not be considered disgraceful to convert to Catholicism, but not yet providing any positive incentive for Converting. As I indicated before, I already suppose that there are other Higher Spiritual Religions – the World outside of Catholicism is not entirely devoid of Grace. How can I say such a thing, now, as a Catholic? Well, because there are Saints of God who have been manifest in all of the Higher Religions of the World. One can hardly expect that the Cosmic Christ would limit His Dispensation only to those people who would have the audacity to claim some Divine Benefits for having murdered the Messiah of God. We must remember some of those important though mostly tacit lessons of the Bible, one of which is that The People’s of the Three Kings of the East did not inflict violence upon The Christ but rather paid their Tribute to the King of Kings and asked only for Christ’s Glory. They did not reject Christ… but in point of fact they were the first and perhaps the only peoples to ever have actually bowed before Our Lord while He was still among us. Certainly that should be rewarded with Grace as equally as with those who offered Christ only suffering and then murder, not so much bowing before Christ or Worshipping Christ as attempting to trade His Body to God for that License of Free Sin which Christians call Salvation.

And the Fruits of this Approval from the Cosmic Christ appear in the miraculous lives of the Saints, both Catholic and Non-Catholic. The Proof of Divine Favor is in the Supernatural Fruits of the Saints. This is pivotal. This is very important. One needs to remember the Logic of the Prophet Elijah. Elijah did not propose to argue for a Belief System. Elijah did not emphasize the aesthetics of his doctrines – how the religion he proposed could appeal to the sensibilities of each individual’s self-interests. No. Elijah wagered that he could bring down fire from Heaven to validate his own Religious Views, while betting that those with opposing Religious Views could not – That Spirit would only answer to True Religion. The Validity of Religion would rest upon the Evidence of the Miraculous – the Supernatural Mandate from Heaven. We would know True Religion by the Divine Power invested in Its Saints – this is the Lesson of Elijah (And as Catholics we should understand that Elijah was the Prophet who would found the Order of Monks at Mount Carmel which would later, during the Crusades, be the foundation for the Catholic Carmelite Order, whose habit seems to be a favorite of Our Lady, who, when She appears in Religious Garb at all, is perhaps always dressed as a Carmelite, representing an Order that began with Elijah… an Order both Jewish and Catholic simultaneously. This is expressive of a Religious Unity which Catholicism’s apparent Gentile Fixation largely renounces, even while Our Blessed Virgin Mary wears the cloths of Judaism. And do we forget that the Magnificat is a Jewish Prayer? Catholicism may one day need to review its position that this first Schism in the Church was entirely necessary – the Schism which separated the Gentile Congregations from the Apostolic Church of Messianic Judaism. Following Paul into separation, faction and division seems to have been only a House dividing against itself). Catholicism has never had a total monopoly of Saints. But then it occurred to me, that the Catholics, over the last two thousand years, have perhaps had the greater number of First Magnitude Saints. Catholicism has had a dozen Great Saints where between all of the other Religions combined there may have been only about half as many (Protestantism, the Religion of Paul, having had none over the period of five hundred years). The Spiritual Communities of the World could hardly ignore Catholicism’s fine winning record. The Vine of Christ is identified by its fruits, no? Now, if one would desire to be a Saint oneself, does not one’s odds improve by joining the Team that has shown the most successes in that Endeavor?

Then there is the matter of Divine Revelation. My first acquaintance with any notions of a particular Divine Revelation going exclusively to Catholics (though Heaven does not seem to distinguish between the Roman, Orthodox, Coptic or Thomasian Rites) was not through any formal education or reading, but came by a chance encounter with a rather special Catholic Priest of my acquaintance. You see, back in the nineteen-eighties while I was still affiliated with one of the Oriental Religions, I became acquainted through a Hare Krishna girl, who was also a Catholic, with a Dominican Priest, Father Tom, who was then running a relief operation to feed the poor – mostly migrant farm workers. I found myself with time on my hands and so I asked Father Tom if he could use a volunteer. He became quite a spiritual mentor and gave me my first informal lessons regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary. I had already acquired some pictures of the Blessed Virgin which added to the population of the Pantheon which cluttered my Spiritual Altar and took up much of the space on many of my walls, and told Father Tom of the ones I recognized in his own collection. His eyes quite lit up when he found he had uncovered a Marian from such an unexpected source, and I was from then on inundated with all kinds of Marian information and intelligence, particularly regarding the instances of recent Revelation in the Apparitions of Our Lady. Of particular remembrance, he made a gift to me of a Supernatural Photo of the Blessed Virgin’s Apparition in Medjugorje Herzegovina. It showed a translucent Lady against a granite wall in which one could see both Our Lady and the granite stones immediately behind Her. Perhaps Father Tom prayed for my Conversion, but it would take years for that prayer, if there had been one, to come to fruition.

Then, coming back to the near present, several weeks after the incident with my daughter at the Mission Church, I saw a tabloid newspaper that had one of those ubiquitous stories, largely fictional, regarding Our Lady the Blessed Virgin. It intrigued me. It brought back my memories of Father Tom. I bought it and took it home and began to do a series of Web Searches in hopes of validating the story. There was just enough Truth in the tabloid story to provide me with some more reliable links. It seems Father Tom had not gone into quite enough detail 20 years before. There had been hundreds of Revelatory Appearances of the Blessed Virgin during our Christian Era. Some, such as in the instances of Guadalupe and Fatima, have objectively and certainly been proven to be of miraculous origins. And then there were the hundreds of other instances of Divine Apparitions which must be miraculous if the anecdotes regarding them can be believed, as they certainly should be, as they carry the weight of any number of credible witnesses whose testimony could well meet legal muster. We must remember that not all evidence is Scientific, yet atheists often insist that Evidence that would be entirely sufficient in a Court of Law should not count at all in the judgments of our own minds.

While other Religions may have had Saints, it seems that Catholicism is the only Higher Religion to enjoy a sustained Revelation from Heaven. Unfortunately there have always been factions in the Catholic Church who would oppose these Revelations – I would suggest they are the ‘weeds’ Christ spoke of, rising up to choke out the Wheat. The Bishops seem to have often acted as though they were jealous of Our Lady. For instance, in the early centuries the Bishops forbade any New Revelation being added to what they called “The Depository of Faith” – apparently, they had no appetite for digesting ever new communications from Heaven, and would save themselves from such responsibilities by deliberately cutting off all commerce with God. This slamming shut the Door of Revelation could easily be seen as a deliberate affront to the ongoing Revelations from the Blessed Virgin Mary. But, despite the obstructionist Bishops, the Revelations would continue, coming to the Religious Orders and the Holy Laity, while the Bishops, despite themselves, would be forced to recognize it, calling it ‘Private Revelation’. Yes, the Bishops may have been reluctant to show their approval, but it was a case of their either following their flock or their being left behind without a flock. This, in fact, accounts for all those differences between Protestantism and Catholicism, where Catholicism had opened itself to the influences of these Revelatory Apparitions of Our Lady and the teachings and experiences of the Saints. After all, had we been left with only the Depository of Faith, that is, only the Bible, would we today not be in much the same deplorable shape as Protestantism, which only allows itself the Bible, to be cut off from all current and continuous Revelation from Heaven. It is often argued that Absolute Truth need not be updated regularly, but we need to remember that the Bible was published containing 14 Letters from Paul, who most certainly could bear with quite a great deal of updating. Also, I might add that it seems as though it should be some kind of Divine Law, that those who deliberately make it their policy to reject Revelation should never receive Revelation. Protestants then have shut themselves off from God. But thank the Good Lord that Catholicism left open that ‘Private Revelation’ Loop Hole. Indeed, Catholic Openness to these almost continuous Marian and Saintly Revelations would be instrumental in establishing a High Christian Civilization, a Civilization that would peak in the 11th and 12th Centuries, where a Kingdom of a thousand Cathedrals would rise up, all referred to in short as an “Our Lady’s of ‘This’” or an “Our Lady’s of ‘That’”. Catholicism, in its highest moments and manifestations, was a Religion of Our Lady. Christ was appreciated and worshipped mostly because He came so well recommended by His Blessed Virgin Mother.

As the Apparitions of Our Lady had converted Europe, so they would convert the New World, primarily through the instrumentality of the Miraculous Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which remains a visibly verifiable Miracle to this day.

So… back to the Weekend of the Tabloid Newspaper – remembering back, I largely went sleepless while searching the Web and studying the History of Our Lady and Her Apparitions. Approaching Monday morning, I decided to convert. Still feeling some discomfort with walking onto Catholic soil without belonging or having been invited (When has any Non-Catholic ever been invited by anybody to Convert? If there is such a thing as a Catholic Missionary, he must be the member of the most secret of Religious Orders). It had not occurred to me to research the actual process of becoming a Catholic. If I had, it may have significantly altered what turned out to be a very positive experience. I went off to pursue my Conversion with only the vaguest ideas of what would be expected of me. I thought that appealing to the Church’s bureaucracy would only perhaps bog me down, and it would be better to start with the advice of a knowledgeable Lay Person. So, I went to a small Catholic Bookstore in my neighborhood. I’ve always found I could trust Business People in the Religious Markets for their ability to provide practical and to the point spiritual advice, where the official Clergy can often be profound but mystifying, and even discouraging where they think they are not doing their jobs unless they can enumerate every single possible negative and toss up every possible barrier they can conceive of (these are the same Clergy who find it so difficult to recruit new Clergy. Hmmmm, I wonder why). It turned out this Shop was owned by a Third Order Carmelite Lady. I walked in and wasted no time in asking, “I suppose one needs a Sponsor in order to become a Catholic?” It only took this Lady a few seconds to size me up with her gaze and then she replied “Yes, you will”, and she proceeded to give me a list of details -- places to go, people to see, and she told me that she would consent to be my Sponsor -- my ‘Godmother’. I did not know at the time that she was the most fearsome of all God Mothers in the American Southwest, and that all of the Clergy were quite terrified of her. I would be her 18th God Child to be sponsored into the Catholic Church, and I received quite the red carpet treatment owing to her ‘intercessions’.

But back to that day. I asked if she had a 24K gold Miraculous Medal to sell, but her shop was on the poor side of town and she didn’t carry the more expensive inventory items, and so she drew a map to the more upscale Catholic Store across town where I was able to purchase a medium size Miraculous Medal, which I still wear. I needed some token of Catholicism because my decision to Convert came right after Easter and so I would be in the ‘pipeline’ for a complete year before becoming officially a Catholic, that is, before being allowed to receive the Holy Sacrament (I’m sure they must have taught me why it is necessary to violate all the rules of Civilized Hospitality by refusing to Feed the Hungry, especially those who Hunger for Things of the Spirit, who Hunger for Christ; and why it became the Policy of our Modern ‘Peters’ NOT to feed His Sheep as soon as they might complain of their Hunger. But apparently this Sensible Teaching didn’t make enough of an impression for me to remember it).

Not much later I learned from my God Mother, a Third Order Carmelite we must remember, of the Sacramental Nature of the Brown Scapular (which sources from the Carmelite Order). It instantly seemed to me to be a most indispensable item, and so we both insisted, God Mother and God Child, to the Carmelite Parish Priest that the ‘rule books’ said nothing about the need for being a fully Baptized and Confirmed Catholic before one can be enrolled into the Order of those who wear the Brown Scapular, and so I received The Brown Scapular, which made my waiting for the Holy Sacrament that much more tolerable. Then a little later I received the Chord of Saint Philomena, and then my God Mother insisted that I take the Chord of Saint Joseph, and memorize his famous Prayer from the Fifth Century ( “Hail Saint Joseph whose Protection is so great, so strong so prompt…”). I was instructed on how to multiply up Holy Water. All the while I read or became familiar with most of the books in her little Shop. And among the Statues and Paintings, I learned my Catholic Saints. By the time the RCIC Classes began, I was fairly well settled in and prepared for them. There was rarely any assigned work besides reading, but I would try to hand in at least one ‘Paper’ a month, so that the deacons could report favorably back to my Godmother… I wanted her to be proud of her newest protégé.

So that is the Story of what lead up to my Conversion. I wanted to become a Catholic and carried through and became a Catholic. But am I entirely satisfied? Do I wish the Catholic Church were different, were better? Well, certainly. We all must keep in mind that Christ prophesized that His Church would be a mixture of Wheat and Weeds. What rational person would wish to have the same appetite for Weeds as for Wheat? And yet I see very little discernment among the Catholic Intelligentsia, if there even is such a thing, for differentiating between the Good and the Evil within the Church. I have never found an open Forum for Catholic Discussion… everything sensible seems to be at the same time ‘heretical’, making discussion impossible… nobody is allowed to think. Questions can be asked and the Same Answers are given in reply that have always lead in the past to all of the Divisions and Unrest which have marred our Catholic History, as though nobody had ever heard the Words of Christ which say that Bad Doctrine can be recognized by its Bad Results.

Well, what good does complaining do? After all, Christ DID say that the Weeds would be with the Wheat well until the End of Time, that is, until the Final Harvest. Well, soon enough this Day of this Final Harvest will come, when the useless, barren and even positively evil Doctrines that have crowded out the Good in Our Church will no longer be able to sustain a defense based on duress, suppression and forced silence. Mary will confront Her Bishops and suddenly it won’t seem so obvious that they should have chosen Paul over Christ. Perhaps, the drive for Revenues always made Paul’s Popular Wide Way attractive to the Bishops who were mercenary enough even from the time of Peter’s murdering Ananias and Sapphira for their money. But hadn’t Christ quite condemned the Wide Way as the Way to destruction, and did He not advocate the less appealing but the only effectual Way – the Narrow Way of the Teachings of Righteousness and Perfection. On the Day of the Harvest we must decide whether we belong to the Church of the Wide Way, or of the Narrow? The Catholic Church contains Both. The Catholic Church provides a Choice, a Test – a Great Fork in the Road. It is both the Church of the Paul’s Bishops and the Church of the Holy Religious Orders, the Righteous Laity, and of Mary the Blessed Virgin. It is both the Church of Christ Her Son, and the Church of Paul, whose credentials must be wondered at considering that he never spoke a single word commending the Blessed Virgin or indeed ever quoted a single statement of Christ.

Yes, I know that these matters of Doctrine may be confusing, but we should remember that we have not been left without guidance. While we still receive the Revelations and Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there is hope that Her Patronage and Sponsorship will bring us through to completion and perfection, and that She, with Her Angels and Saints, will sustain the Wheat while holding back the encroachments of the Weeds.

So, in short, I converted to Catholicism because it is the World’s Last and Only Living Religion, experiencing an Active Communication with Heaven, through Saints, and Seers (once called Prophets and Oracles), and receiving Revelations from Divinity Itself through the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I have not converted to a mere Belief System, but to an Institution that embodies the Living Vine of Christ on Earth, nurtured and watered by the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God Herself. To be a Catholic is to be under the Pall of Her Grace.

….Oh, allow me to add some subsequent history. I had noticed that after each Holiday Season, I and many others would come down with symptoms of respiratory illness, and I was able to infer that the smoke from the incense was making myself and others sick. I mentioned this to both the Parish Priests and the Arch Bishop of the Diocese and was frankly smiled at. Well, I suffered the indignity until the next set of Holidays whereupon they again brought out the Smoke. And then there was the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to Pope. The man had given every one of the Cardinals who voted for him their jobs. “I make you Cardinal, and you can make me Pope”. It simply was not honest and ethical behavior. So while I enjoyed the Sacraments for a number of years, I suppose that the Catholic Church of the Secular Clergy, the Bishops and the Pope must get along without me.

Iran IS Democracy

Iran IS Democracy

Has there ever been a Democracy that has risen up in peace to become an effective machine for social governance? The forces of Western Capitalist Globalization never weary of pushing forward the ongoing French and American Revolutions of Democracy, but we are never given any sense that we can expect any real practical benefits. We are left to understand that ‘Freedom’ is supposed to be some glorious end in itself. Well, yes, Freedom is great for the Rich who use this Freedom to get Richer. But the typical result of Democracy, and we have seen this everywhere, is for Violence Violence and more Violence. First Revolutions, then Civil Wars, and then Foreign Conflicts as Democracies, once grown so used to Bloodshed, easily find excuses to maintain these Traditions of Freedom. Yes, we are told that Democracies eventually grow sated and peaceful, but frankly we should admit that Democracies never become peaceful while they still run the Governments, but only after they have sold out their Interests to Corporate and International Lobbyist Groups. Only as Eunuchs do they finally lay back and go to fat. Meanwhile, sold out to Private Interests, the World is left with absolutely no Institution to stand up to the Powers of Money. We always hear that only Government must have Checks and Balances; that only in regards to Government is Absolute Power absolutely Corrupting. But all the while we are supposed to believe that Wealthy Transnational Corporations, once they gather all Wealth and Power into their own hands, will be entirely Saintly and totally Benign. Yes, we can all imagine what heroic efforts the Multinational Corporations will take in regards to Global Warming, but not while there is still two cents left to be made off of Carbon Based Fuels.

So, anyway, let us not listen to the Western Talking Heads who insist that Iranian Democracy is still so very immature. They say the same of Pakistan, of Palestine. They said it of the dozen or so bloody Democratic Wars in South America. This talk needs to stop. If Democracy always comes with War and Violence, somebody needs to admit it. If violence is always annexed to Democracy then we need to admit the nature of the Beast, that it is inherently a wild animal.

Why are early Democracies so violent? It is simply because new Democracies are populated by people who still think Government is somehow important. You see, Peaceful Democracy depends upon losing Parties who can take their defeats in good humor, supposing that everything will be just fine without them. Or let us not pretend that people might be thinking exclusively of the good of the state, as we should admit that Office Holders and their Staffs might also be worried about their own livelihoods, even their own safety. In new Democracies, losing Parties are tossed out into the streets along with their supporters and employees. Heated Election rhetoric leads to Criminal Prosecutions for crimes that might have only been alleged for political advantage, from which the Accusers can not manage to ever back down. Losing an election brings both Social and Personal problems for the Losers which are often of tragic proportions.

Is Democracy really such a wonderful institution if it really does largely depend upon so many people so often cheerfully allowing their lives to be tossed aside. Democracy depends upon Good Losers while doing nothing to console them.

Yes, in America and Europe, in the Mature Democracies, the Losing Parties have developed institutions to assure a degree of protection for its Losers. Politicians who have given the Lobbyist Companies everything they have always desired are allowed to hire into the Companies… their reward for having been faithfully corrupt. Or the Lobbyist Companies arrange for Speaking Engagements … $100,000 to speak at an event where 20 people show up to listen; or Lobbyists arrange for the publication of Books which nobody ever reads but where Best Seller status is tallied up as one Lobbyist Branch sells unpacked crates of books back and forth with other Branches. In short, Corruption learns to keep everybody paid off, Winners and Losers. In the New Democracies, where Politicians and Corruption have not yet arranged such cozy relationships, the difference between Winning and Losing is seen as much more serious. Indeed, sometimes actual Polices are changed. Yes, that could never happen in a Stable Democracy where everybody can rest assured that nothing ever changes, especially if the Winner is the Candidate for Change… then there is almost the calculation that nothing should change… so that the Lobbyists won’t get spooked and run away with all their Money.

Then there is the simple matter of the Winning and Losing in Democracies. When will the Propagandists stop talking of People being represented by Democracy. They aren’t. Only the Winners are represented. In Nations where there are significant Ethnic Minorities, Democracy can be the actual end for any hope of influence in Government by these Ethnic Minorities. For instance, in regards to Iraq – that brutal Dictator Saddam Hussein had counsels here and there made up of various Ethnic Minorities, and he even had persons of Ethnic Minority in key governmental positions. All of that ended with Democracy when the Shia were able to get more than 51% of the Vote, enabling them to toss 100% of the Ethnic Minorities both out of Government and out of any position of Social, Political, or Economic influence.

Woodrow Wilson, a Professor before he was President, predicted this about Democracy, that it was incompatible with Ethnic Diversity – that the Rise of Democracy in any particularly wide political jurisdiction would cause almost instantly movements for Political Self-Determination among the various Ethnic Groups. World War II was the biggest example of violence due to Ethnic Self Determination, but the Wars of Ethnic Self Assertion all over the Globe have never ended. All the violence arises from the Fear that some Other Ethnic Group will line up the Majority and make life unbearable. The Authoritarian Bureaucracies never had this problem, as it was perceived that the Bureaucracies were not INTRINSICALLY unfair. But when opposing Political Parties are Ethnically based… well, the concept of ‘fairness’ no longer exists and there we have only the Interests of the Winners against the default of the Losers for whom Democracy offers nothing.

One can be cynical and say that every Democracy, like those of America, Britain and Europe, can finally arrive at peace after they have been entirely sold out to the various Corporate Lobbyists, that, in other words, Democracy can be Peaceful only when it has become entirely negligible and utterly useless, but this may not always be the case. If the Recent Financial Meltdown has taught us anything, it is that Corporations are mindless and incompetent. Yes, while blasé corruption ordinarily keeps voter turnout low, there exist possibilities where rogue adventurers can stir up political foment, either from sincere motives, or simply as a means of broking power that can be cashed in after the Elections. In such instances when the Electorate is whipped into some excited frenzy, there can be rather high voter turnout, as Old People come out to cancel the votes of the Young People, or Male against Female, or Class against Class. But in any case, the Public is polarized into opposing Camps, Political Decisions are made from Emotion or in regards to Appearance and its Appeal to Emotions, and in the end Society is left with almost as many Losers as Winners. And these losers will feel disenfranchised. In Iran they turn to Riot. We need to understand then that Riot is all part of Democracy.

If you have a System that makes Losers out of so many people, you need to acknowledge that it is a serious problem.

We should all rather consider Government by Civil Service Bureaucracy. The Corporate Lobbyists would hate it, but that is perhaps the best argument for it.

And if Iran had set up a Civil Service Bureaucracy, instead of a silly Democracy, they would not be having this problem right now. And one needs to wonder what on Earth they were thinking, to adopt the Same Form of Government as that of the Great Satan which they pretended so much to abhor. Iran needs to stop simply calling America ‘evil’ and instead should be looking closely to see from where any such actual evil proceeds… and then focus on not doing exactly the same things. Oh, but I guess they might be supposing that something that Christians can never do right is something that Muslims will never do wrong, that they will be the ones who will finally get Democracy right. Hmmmm. They should probably think again, as it appears they are about to take the same ride as everybody else has – through Revolutions, Civil Wars, Foreign Wars, all so they can finally end up by handing the reins of power over to Corruption and Lobbyists.