Two commemorations of note take place this week1Three, if you count the sixtieth anniversary of Star Trek, but that’s not part of this.:
- The first anniversary of the public murder of Charlie Kirk.
- The 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
I am not going to revisit the actual events themselves here; what I want to mull on is the aftermath.
As the confirmation of Charlie’s death was reported on the Megyn Kelly Show, where she had pulled in Glenn Beck for a special broadcast immediately after Charlie was shot, Glenn said something that I can never forget:
I don’t know how, but something good and glorious is going to come from this, because God is not neutral in the affairs of man.
And for a time, it looked like we would see something good and glorious. Charlie’s funeral was a massive outpouring of both grief and faith; Erika Kirk was recognized as a strong, godly woman who deserved all the prayers in her behalf. The great mass of Americans condemned the misbegotten demons who exulted in his death and confirmed there was a line that people of good conscience simply could not cross by definition. It looked like Charlie would become as Ben Kenobi, more powerful after having been struck down.
And then it fractured. “Claimants” to Charlie’s “mantle” appeared from the woodwork, sniping at each other. Despite the apprehension of a suspect within the week2An aside: The “alleged” confessed killer was arrested 33 hours after the crime. It has taken until a week ago – September 1, to be precise — for the judge to rule that the evidence presented in the preliminary hearing was sufficient for the case to go to trial, which will probably begin in 2027. The Sixth Amendment guarantee of a speedy trial is disregarded on its face. (along with documented evidence that he had confessed to the crime to loved ones), bizarre conspiracy theories mushroomed up involving Israel, or Freemasons, or Mormons, or Erika Kirk and J.D. Vance. Demons opened a portal from hell in Candace Owen’s mouth, spewing forth enough vile perversities to warp the mind and soul of anyone immersed in it.
One year later, there is sadness in remembrance, but the impetus to honor and protect Charlie’s legacy, to make him a legitimate icon as powerful as illegitimate icon George Floyd was, has dissipated. The same demons in different skinsuits posted videos of themselves practicing their dances for their Charlie Kirk murder anniversary celebrations.
God can make something good and glorious from Charlie Kirk’s death, but man refuses to go along. As usual.
Now, cast your mind back to the immediate aftermath of the event we commemorate tomorrow: The Islamicist terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. There was a sudden seriousness in American culture — not just a somberness, but a sobriety. Values suddenly spun and re-centered, like a compass with a perturbing magnet removed. Snark and irreverence evaporated as everyone rediscovered, and rededicated themselves to, the verities of an objectively good life: Diligence. Sincerity. Love. Loyalty. One famous phrase of the era, repeated by many commentators, was that it was “the death of irony.”
And how did that work out?
Irony came back with a vengeance. The unserious is the water in which we all swim now. Everything is deconstructed, mocked, shat upon with a wink and a sneer and an iron fist. Our cultural betters enforce belief in the unbelievable (or at least the public allegiance thereto). Equality isn’t about equality; truth isn’t about truth; justice isn’t about justice. Pseudo-students and pseudo-leaders are vocally proud of their ignorance of facts if the facts contradict their ideology, the incoherence of which is a feature, not a bug. It’s the 21st century Western iteration of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s famous quote:
We know that they are fake, they know that they are fake, they even know that we know they are fake, we also know that they know we know they are fake too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are fake too as well, but they are still fake.
Except the “we” is often also the “they.” Because here’s another Solzhenitsyn quote, recast for our era:
The line separating truth and falsehood passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.
This is not meant to be a black pill. It’s meant to be a warning, and a warning would be of no use if the thing it warns against were inevitable.
Any strike against evil is a good thing. But it isn’t a permanent thing. Evil does not go down with a single haymaker. Evil must be beaten down, held down, refused admittance or misbegotten empathy. In his prophecies of the end times in Matthew 24, Jesus says, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Like Paul, we must fight the good fight until we have finished the race.
Stand firm, and be not moved.