Brutally Honest Rant - 08/09/06

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Obsessed With Apocalypse
Audio Transcripts
08/09/06

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Tonight, as I’m doing this rant, it is August 9^th, 2006.

Something significant happened sixty-one years ago today that probably just went past most Americans. On this date in 1945, the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese City of Nagasaki.

Now I’m sure some of you will recall from your history that this wasn’t the FIRST time we dropped an atomic bomb on a foreign nation. No, we first dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6^th, just three days prior to this event. Nagasaki was Japan’s largest southern seaport and one of the key industrial producers for warships and other military equipment. Equipment that would have been used to defend Japan in the event of a planned invasion.

With that one bomb, we turned that city into a graveyard.

The sheer devastation of the bombs was more than enough for the Japanese government to surrender and bring World War II to an end.

That was the last time that a nuclear weapon was ever PHYSICALLY used against another country. But ever since then, the mere THREAT of another nuclear weapon being used caused enough of a scare to last fifty years. We lived in FEAR of nuclear war! We lived with the continual fear that at some point, world affairs could reach a breaking point, a crisis would brew, the dominos would start falling, and then… that’s it!

And it didn’t take too long for us to make nuclear weapons that were even MORE destructive than the ones used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki! So the next time if one were to fall, we wouldn’t even have a graveyard left!

We lived with that fear for fifty years, and certain politicians continued to tweak that fear at every opportunity to REMIND us that, hey, it could all be over in a matter of minutes. And the ONLY thing that would prevent that nightmare from happening is the fact that our government’s leaders (and presumably those in the Soviet Union) don’t want to end it any more than the rest of us do.

Well now the Soviet Union is no more. The Cold War is – in theory anyway – a part of history.

And yet, we’re not feeling any safer now than we were in the 1950’s. In fact, we’re even MORE terrified of something just as bad as all-out global thermonuclear annihilation, if not worse.

We have people wondering if the End of the World is here!

We have outright warfare going on between Israel and terrorist forces in Lebanon that are getting supplies and support from Iran and Syria. This is a conflict that could open up to those two other countries at a moment’s notice. And now, for some strange reason, we have people actually asking if this the event that will spark the infamous final countdown.

And I have to wonder… seriously wonder… if there are people who not only think that we are on the short road to Armageddon, but are HOPING for it… PRAYING for it… and, if at all possible, even trying in their own ways… to ENCOURAGE it!

It certainly would explain for some of the very vocal religious bigotry going on. It would explain why certain groups would REFUSE to call a terrorist act for what it is if it’s being carried out by anyone but Muslims. It would explain the militant overtones of several religious groups. And it explains why the news media is suddenly talking about this military activity between Israel and Lebanon as a WAR when it really is just between Israel and Hezbolah and their suppliers.

Well, okay the last part does work… I mean if we in the United States are in a so-called "WAR" on terrorists, then so can Israel.

But let’s get brutally honest here… I believe that there ARE those in the Christian community that WANT the problems in the Middle East to escalate. I believe that they WANT that all-out holy war that the radical extremists continue to promise. They WANT it… because they believe that it will lead to that promised final war in the Book of Revelation. You know, the one where Jesus comes back, kills all of the non-believers, and then the true believers all go to Heaven and live in peace for ever and ever… THE… END. That’s what they want. They believe that they WANT that final judgement to happen, and not in seven years or a thousand years… but now. Tomorrow. Today, if it’s all possible.

And they’re not the only ones! The Muslims are also getting encouragement from their radical leaders to think that this is their time. They want the final conflict to begin.

There’s a term called SBC… suicide by cop. That’s when you convince the police that you’re going to shoot them, so they shoot and kill you in self-defense so they wouldn’t have to kill themselves instead of facing judgement for their actions.

Well what a lot of people are suffering from is pretty much SBG… suicide by God. They WANT Armageddon to happen because it’s an easier way out of the problems they are dealing with.

You take a look over in the Middle East, and you see an incredible economic gap between the haves and the have-nots. Sure you have rich mullahs and rich oil sheiks. But you also have incredible amounts of poverty there as well. And to keep the people controlled they are not only kept poor, but they are told that it is ALL the fault of the "infidels" that they are this way. They’re told that they were REALLY meant to be rich and successful and rules of the world… if not for these Zionists and their infidel friends. It’s all the fault of "The Great Satan" that they are poor and miserable. (That’s what they call the United States, in case you didn’t know that part.) Oh, but don’t worry… a great war is coming, and if you take part in it, then you will be rewarded in Heaven for committing these horrific sins on Earth.

That’s THEIR sin, folks, and that’s the stain that the Muslim world will have to answer for in the hereafter.

Now take a look at what’s going on here in the United States. We have problems like you wouldn’t believe! The price of gas is going up and up and up… the cost of living is going up… the housing market is starting to take a slump… federal government spends like there is no tomorrow… there’s no accountability in government anymore… I mean, a whole plethora of problems for us to deal with.

Now suppose that you KNEW… not just guessed but KNEW… that you would be dead by the end of the week… let’s say next Friday… would you REALLY be doing the same things that you would normally do if you thought that you were going to live for the next fifty or sixty years? My guess is probably not. You wouldn’t save for retirement, because you’d be dead by next Friday. That’s your retirement right there! You would probably want to do all of the things that you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t… because it would be wrong, or because you couldn’t afford to, or something like that. Hey, nothing to stop you there, right? You’d tell your boss or your neighbor what you REALLY thought of them. You may even quit your job! I mean, what the hell, you’re not even going to get the last paycheck! You could commit whatever crime you wanted to and know that you’d get away with it, because you’d be DEAD long before the trial even starts!

Sound familiar? Sure! It was the same attitude of the baby boomers of the 1960’s! Free love, free drugs, do whatever you wanted to… not because they thought that they were immortal, but because they believed that the world was going to come to an END by the time they hit 30!

Well guess what? The same mentality applies to the people who are yearning for the Apocalypse.

It’s rather convenient for those in the status quo, because there’s no incentive to clean up government! You don’t have to worry about holding politicians accountable for their actions. You don’t have to worry about the environment. You don’t have to worry about the ozone layer or pollution or running out of oil. You know why? Because we’re in the End Times, baby! Social Security will never go bust because the world won’t make it that long!

If we’re in the End Times, then we don’t have to worry about being NICE to anyone we don’t like! We can be as offensive and bigoted and self-centered and egotistical as we want to! Do you know why? Because we’re right and they’re not. We’re worthy, and they’re not. And when the final battle is played out, we’re going to Heaven, and they’re going to Hell.

That’s the mentality and these folks are sticking to the game plan!

There’s just one little problem… what happens if this ISN’T it? What happens if these AREN’T the End Times?

Boy that would just SUCK, wouldn’t it?

So I guess we need to give the End Times a little nudge, wouldn’t we? Let’s try to intensify the conflict a bit. Let’s burn a copy of the Koran in public! Hey, it’s been done! Let’s piss on Muslim symbols. Let’s call up talk radio and demand that we bomb Mecca and Medina. Let’s try to aggravate whatever conflict is going on right now in the Middle East. Arabs versus Israelis, Pakistan versus India, it doesn’t matter. If we can get them pissed off enough at us, then they can get this all-out holy war going so Jesus can come back and we can have our Apocalypse!

Oh, it’s a great plan! Presuming, of course, that going to war against the entire Arab world is the event that sparks the great Apocalypse. And presuming that the Book of Revelation wasn’t just a wishful fantasy written by a priest in exile just praying for the death of Roman Emperor Nero. You know… NERO… otherwise known in certain code of the time as Mister Six-hundred-and-sixty-six! AND presuming that you DO have that automatic invite, that pre-paid ticket to blissful eternity. I mean that would REALLY SUCK to do all of that stuff and help kick off the end of the world and then find out that you’re not even on the stand-by list for the final judgement!

Scary, isn’t it?

Well folks, I happen to believe that if the humanity does shuffle off this mortal coil all at once, that it’s probably because of our collective incompetence and stupidity, not because God decided to play out some mystical timetable that nobody can figure out unless they’re high on drugs. It’s somewhat insulting to have an all-powerful being spend all of that time and effort to create the universe, create Earth, create all of the plants and animals, create humanity, flood them out, let them rebuild, have them kill his son, use his son’s martyr status as an obsession to remake civilization, watch that society grow and mature… only to have it snuffed out just because Reverend Billy-Ray Dipstick over in Numbnuts, Alabama wants to validate his beliefs so he can score with the church secretary.

Listen, folks, if someone is telling you that they know that humanity’s number is up, then they’re either fools or they’re looking to MAKE us all into fools. History is littered with people who have interpreted and reinterpreted scrolls and visions and tried to trump them up to being the end of days. Guess what happened? They were each proven to be wrong. Coincidence? Hardly!

(Computer – nice mix… gotta hear it)
(Fade Music In – "The Passportal" by Team Sleep)

Listen, folks, I know this sounds strange for me to be the voice of reason when it comes to spiritual matters, but there is one constant theme in Christianity that never really gets mentioned when people talk about "the end times."

The great secret is that Christianity has ALWAYS been told that they are living the end times! Since day one, they were told that they should prepare for the judgement that follows in the hereafter.

Now the name of the game is NOT to try to figure out when the end game will be played, because nobody really knows when that will happen! Unlike the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, there won’t be any warning beforehand. If it does happen, it’s going to take everyone by surprise. If you really want to guarantee your spot, then don’t worry about WHEN it will happen. Worry instead about actually LIVING the word, not preaching about it and trying to impose it on everyone else. That way you won’t have to worry about whether or not you’re on the short list to eternal bliss… because guess what? Even if the world doesn’t come to an end in your generation, you’d be doing society a favor by DEMONSTRATING your beliefs instead of just TELLING people about them.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/"End of Recording")

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