I have begun my Moral Meltdown
My book arrived yesterday, and I have just taken a cursory reading of the book that I ordered. It looks like it will be quite interesting.
From what I have read he sees that his book is a massive attack on hypocrisy, sanctimonious news, and self-righteousness which he says is a big lie. He sees that the West has replaced one objective - that being a collective Moral goal - with individual self satisfaction. With no collective objectivity in plain sight then ‘self‘ becomes amplified over, above and beyond the common man and the common good. The common good has been lost in a sea of capitalism.
The author witnessed this in Germany, when Hitler promised employment and individual economic security, which he then went on and delivered. The individual was satisfied first of all, which in turn led people not to see further or beyond their immediate needs.
This sounds all to familiar doesn’t it!! I can see this now in the West, and I can see this happening in the Church with the prosperity gospel being trumpeted as the new moral message and that message being … ‘God rewards His kingdom kids’! Of course the reward is only for the purpose of helping those who have not been rewarded with prosperity or are unfortunate enough not to be within the kingdom of God. The moral message has been watered down to — yes, you guessed it — to money! Now let’s get back to the book.
He says that this mind-set creates a ‘moral neutrality’ which tempts us to look for our own desires on a path of least resistance. One word for this, and that word — Opportunism.
He calls this a ‘basic evil’ that overrides everything else including the bigger purpose outside of ourselves and it overrides national objectives, in fact it fools the person into thinking that it is the national objective.
He then talks about how countries and their governments want to be legitimised and uses Hitler as an example. Hitler did this with the help of the Olympic Games in 1936 - Hitler managed to integrate his nation symbolically and also built up the people living in Germany at the time, the medals were secondary to the points he wanted to make. He impressed the Germans - including the opposition at the time - and demonstrated his power as the world looked on.
Another example is George Bush Sr. who had the same foggy idea when it came to Saddam Hussein, Bill Clinton too, had the same idea in regards to North Korea, he wanted that country to become more co-operative so he extended concessions.
In regards to Nazi Germany, the western nations were not interested in conquering Germany for democracy, but just wanted to be left alone so they appeased him. Which again 
the self attitude of - I won’t bother you if you don’t bother me and we will all live happily ever after - is assumed, perhaps in ignorance by the majority who live in a nation that has no collective objectives but only that of wanting to live for the self and to live for the moment.
Now my understanding of this assumption is this … if it is extended outward to nations who do not hold to the same self interests and values it can be a dangerous one and can perhaps lead to the downfall of a nation that has little cohesive glue holding it together. The foundations of a narcistic nation are not strong ones that pull people together, the foundations are in fact built on shifting sands called individual subjectivity with little or no regard to any real outward national objective. I am guessing that is why the title of this book is called Moral Meltdown!
Interestingly, I see that we are living in a world that is not to unlike pre-war Germany and perhaps today our western world is amplified even more with narcistic ideologies, and the problem I see is that we are unable to think or see how the other half live, think and see. Countries with individual self interests only help to allow countries with strong national interests — no matter if they are good or not, that is not my point — become the stronger ones because those countries operate as one collective.
Now, all that is just the tip of the ice-berg and what I have gleaned from the preface and the first chapter, and I have not got into the nitty gritty of the book just as yet. I think I can see where the author wants to take me, but I may be wrong, time will tell. But the above is what I have learnt from it thus far and I have added my own understanding of a bigger picture which is of my own observation.
Just as a side note … I have also ordered another book called ‘Why I left Jihad’ by Walid Shoebat. The author of Moral Meltdown, Hilmar von Campe is travelling with Shoebat on speaking engagements around the United States.
