Conspiracy: A Biblical View, by Gary North - EntreWave

THE SHIFT IN THE CLIMATE OF OPINIONTHE SHIFT IN THE CLIMATE OF OPINIONAnd the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and theears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also ofthe rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue ofthe stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. The vileperson shall no more be called liberal, nor the churl saidto be bountiful. For the vile person will speak villany,and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy,and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty thesoul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of thethirsty to fail (Isaiah 32:3-6).The manipulators are in trouble — the worst trouble they have been insince 1913. Voters are at last figuring out that there are people in veryhigh places who do vile things by means of liberal rhetoric. Agrowing minority of conservative Christian people are at last willingto call churls "churls." The climate of opinion is shifting. There is verylittle the Establishment can do about it. The seventy-year romancebetween the American voter and big government is turning into aseries of lovers' quarrels. While the voters still want the governmentto protect them, and they still want the rich to pay "their fair share,"there is a growing realization that the Federal government is bankrupt— economically, intellectually, and above all, morally.The rise of the neo-conservative movement since 1965 is oneindication of this shift. A lot of articulate New York Jews are not1930's Trotskyites any longer; they are defenders of at least amodified free market, and they were vociferous critics of Communismof all varieties.Let me give you a choice example. Midge Decter is the wife ofNorman Podhoretz, the former editor of the highly literateneo-conservative magazine, Commentary, published by the AmericanJewish Committee. In one 12-month period, 1980-81, Decter, as aneditor of Basic Books, oversaw the publication of four cruciallyimportant books: black ex-Marxist economist Thomas Sowell'sKnowledge and Decisions, James Billington's Fire in the Minds ofhttp://freebooks.commentary.net/freebooks/docs/html/gnco/html/7.htm (1 of 8) [5/26/2000 1:48:19 PM]