On the series All in the Family, Archie's son-in-law (The Meathead) was typical of the college-ruined of that era. Having contributed virtually zero in taxes, he nevertheless knew that most of what the United States was needed to be changed. One on occasion, he and Archie were watching the beginning of a baseball game. As the national anthem was being sung, he stated 'That is a terrible song". After Archie -shocked, asked why that was the case, he replied to his father-in-law that it "glorifies war".
The fact that a courageous stand in defense of a key fortification guarding Baltimore - one that defined our new freedom in a very profound manner, would be quite a appropriate choice for a national anthem was utterly repulsive to the new breed of citizen-foreigners. They don't want people thinking about taking a stand, they want them prepared to meekly accept the inevitable - which for a Leftist is worldwide Socialism.
While we slept (or fell down) on the job, the Left was burning the midnight oil for the past 7 decades. They did their job well. This was not only in the US.
Switzerland is nation that embodies the concepts of fervent patriotism, faith, and hard work It also enjoys a history of staunch defenses of its freedom in the face of a Europe that was swallowing up most smaller states.
A few months ago, I did a post on the attacks on mandatory army service in Switzerland*(at bottom). Now, the anthem of that nation is under attack by radical secularists.
Note the key Leftist form of word-play - the name of the group spearheading the move to change the anthem is the Swiss Society for Public Good. The Left normally makes up new names for their work that will provide the opposite of what it promises (think Land-peace, and bread), but in this case, they appear to have taken leadership positions in a very old organization.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/12/13/switzerlands-growing-secularism-inspires-search-for-new-national-anthem/
"Some in Switzerland are campaigning to ditch their country’s national anthem — but not because they don’t like the melody of the present tune.
Those who want to do away with “Swiss Psalm” say its spiritually tinged lyrics no longer fit Switzerland’s growing secularism.
“We don’t take issue with the tune, which is quite beautiful,” Jean-Daniel Gerbertold Agence France-Presse.
Gerber is chairman of the Swiss Society for Public Good, a 203-year-old organization that’s behind an unofficial competition launching Jan. 1 to dream up a new national anthem. The first prize is 10,000 Swiss francs ($11,000).
“The problem is the lyrics,” Gerber said. “The author had in mind a psalm, not a national anthem. As a psalm, you have to admit that it’s very good. We have no qualms with it as a psalm, just as an anthem.”
Here are the English lyrics to “Swiss Psalm”:
When the morning skies grow red And o’er their radiance shed, Thou, O Lord, appeareth in their light. When the Alps glow bright with splendour, Pray to God, to Him surrender, For you feel and understand, For you feel and understand, That he dwelleth in this land. That he dwelleth in this land.
In the sunset Thou art nigh And beyond the starry sky, Thou, O loving Father, ever near When to Heaven we are departing, Joy and bliss Thou’lt be imparting, For we feel and understand For we feel and understand That Thou dwellest in this land. That Thou dwellest in this land.
When dark clouds enshroud the hills And gray mist the valley fills, Yet Thou art not hidden from Thy sons. Pierce the gloom in which we cower With Thy sunshine’s cleansing power Then we’ll feel and understand Then we’ll feel and understand That God dwelleth in this land. That God dwelleth in this land.
Towards us in the wild storm coming, You yourself give us resistance and stronghold, You, almighty ruling, rescuing! During horror and nights of thunderstorms Let us childlike trust Him! Yes, we feel and understand; Yes, we feel and understand That God dwelleth in this land. That God dwelleth in this land.
“Nobody knows the words!” Perre Kohler, president of the jury that’s holding the competition, told AFP. “Anyone who tells you they do is a liar. Or else we manage the first few and afterwards we go ‘la, la, la.’”
“You’ve got rolling thunder, radiant mountains. It’s a mix between a weather report and a psalm. That might have been right for its century,” said fellow jury president Oscar Knapp.
“Swiss Psalm” was written by a priest in 1841. The Swiss government made it the nation’s provisional anthem in 1961, then bestowed official status upon it in 1981, AFP reported.
Historian Claude Bonard said changing the anthem is a bad idea.
“Our anthem may not be great. It’s of its time, and times have changed. But change for change’s sake?” Bonard said. “After all, in France, ‘impure blood’ no longer ‘waters the fields,’ but the ‘Marseillaise’ is still the ‘Marseillaise,’” he said, referring to the 18th-century French anthem that emerged during the French revolutionary wars........."
I have often noted that Americans who want to avoid a Socialist US - one that no longer has school or other public holiday celebrations or cultural/religious displays of any nature, where the People are disarmed, with marriage having no meaning whatsoever, the worker being fully enslaved to a crushing public debt, and having a body of citizens deliberately turned into propagandized illiterates by a ruined primary school system, need to break with the Leftist elements (and their zombies) and form a new republic.
Perhaps the Swiss, along with more of our elder cousins in Western Europe, may have to do the same.
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This referendum does not appear likely to succeed on this turn, but again we see the handwriting on the wall. The influence of Cultural Marxism*, the fear that the EU has of a traditionally fiercely independent people, and the concern that a whole bunch of "assault weapons" in the hands of well-trained private citizens could put up a very good fight to maintain their freedom have come together to threaten a hallowed and fully necessary intuition:
"On Sunday, the Swiss are voting on a proposal to abolish military conscription in favor of a voluntary army. The country with no clear foes and a long tradition of neutrality could find better ways of spending money than playing at war, proponents say.
Switzerland, once a proud supplier of mercenaries for numerous wars in Europe, has maintained a policy of armed neutrality for the last five centuries. It isn’t a member of any defense pacts and wasn’t even member of the United Nations until 2002. But it has an army of 150,000, the size of Austria’s, Belgium’s, Norway’s, Finland’s and Sweden’s armies combined.
Under Swiss law, all able-bodied males must take part in compulsory military service between the ages of 18 and 34. This comprises 18 to 21 weeks of basic training and further yearly refresher courses lasting 19 days. Senior officers may have to serve up to the age of 50 and spend more than twice as much time on army duty than ordinary recruits........
The military is also the cornerstone of the Swiss militia, which has a role similar to the National Guard in the US. Those in the army help civilian authorities and respond to natural disasters and other major events. Many continue helping society as volunteers after retiring from the service by joining the fire service, participating in local politics. or serving other public duties.
However, there are plenty who see [Read maliciously label] military traditions as an expensive anachronism, which is no longer necessary. The pacifist Group for Switzerland without an Army (GSoA) has gathered the 100,000 signatures necessary to put their abolition proposal to a national referendum..........."
Here we see what decades of Leftist propaganda will do to a people - get them to think poorly of a key institution and render their nation weaker, convince them to shirk national service, andhave them prefer the thought of being controlled rather than checking the power of the state to control the People:
"GSoA, which has been campaigning against obligatory army service since 1982, argues that the country located in the heart of Europe doesn’t need big military firepower to protect itself and that a purely voluntary force would suffice. It criticizes conscription, which excludes Swiss women and disrupts study and work for men, costing an estimated $4.3 billion to the economy annually.
"Not everyone has time to play war," declares the GSoA campaign poster.........."
"GSoA, which has been campaigning against obligatory army service since 1982, argues that the country located in the heart of Europe doesn’t need big military firepower to protect itself and that a purely voluntary force would suffice. It criticizes conscription, which excludes Swiss women and disrupts study and work for men, costing an estimated $4.3 billion to the economy annually.
"Not everyone has time to play war," declares the GSoA campaign poster.........."
As the nation loses her older citizens, the vote tallies will change in subsequent referendums.
Sunday’s vote is not expected to go in favor of the GSoA. A survey by Swiss television in August revealed that 40 per cent of respondents would reject the initiative, with another 17 per cent leaning that way. The support for the military is particularly strong in the older generations, with 68 per cent of those over 65 opposing the initiative. Less than a third of Swiss people support the proposal.
“Switzerland needs an army,” says Jakob Büchler of the Christian Democrat Party (CVP), a member of the National Council, which rejected the initiative as cited by The Local. “We are a small country, we are a neutral country, and we are a country that isn’t in any defense alliances. We have to therefore organize our own defense and security ourselves, and that’s why we need an army.”
Opponents of the initiative fear that there won’t be enough volunteers for military service and Switzerland would then have to start a costly change to a professional army......"
Sunday’s vote is not expected to go in favor of the GSoA. A survey by Swiss television in August revealed that 40 per cent of respondents would reject the initiative, with another 17 per cent leaning that way. The support for the military is particularly strong in the older generations, with 68 per cent of those over 65 opposing the initiative. Less than a third of Swiss people support the proposal.
“Switzerland needs an army,” says Jakob Büchler of the Christian Democrat Party (CVP), a member of the National Council, which rejected the initiative as cited by The Local. “We are a small country, we are a neutral country, and we are a country that isn’t in any defense alliances. We have to therefore organize our own defense and security ourselves, and that’s why we need an army.”
Opponents of the initiative fear that there won’t be enough volunteers for military service and Switzerland would then have to start a costly change to a professional army......"
The Socialist behemoth that is the EU would certainly want the Swiss Army turned into an instrument of a state that can be influenced rather than a force made up of the People that can withstand an eventual sovereignty-destroying absorption into the EU . The claims in the article that the current system it too expensive do not hold water - Switzerland is not a poor nation by any means, and professional armies always wind up being very expensive in the end. Training the entire People to function as an effective reserve force is a very cheap means of providing a solid defense.
The People who banded together to push out the Hapsburgs and somehow maintain a small but independent nation in the middle of a Europe that was in the business of consolidation - and later deterred Hitler from invading, must be rolling over in their graves.
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