Prediction from 1965?

steveinaz

Paul Harvey:

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WilliamM2

I thought religious nonsense was against the rules here?

gwh

Cool.

Face

Conradicles

Thanks Steve. That was very interesting. Sad but true.

steveinaz

Some of you are apparently reading way more into it than I was. I just found the parallels fascinating.

Oldfatdogs

Mr Harvey seems to hit the nail on the head way back in 65.

steveinaz

WilliamM2 wrote: »

I thought religious nonsense was against the rules here?

Do you need a "rule" to hit pause and move along?

nooshinjohn

WilliamM2 wrote: »

I thought religious nonsense was against the rules here?

There was nothing overtly religious in his post.

Sad that Mr Harvey is no longer with us. I miss his gift of insight, wit and keen observation.

tonyb

nooshinjohn wrote: »

There was nothing overtly religious in his post.

Sad that Mr Harvey is no longer with us. I miss his gift of insight, wit and keen observation.

Ditto...not many left like him.

steveinaz

See, even back in '65 openly talking about religion wasn't even a blip on the radar---it was normal. Speaks volumes, eh?

Face

steveinaz wrote: »

See, even back in '65 openly talking about religion wasn't even a blip on the radar---

Neither was Club Polk.

tonyb

Neither was half the membership here.

tonyb

steveinaz wrote: »

Some of you are apparently reading way more into it than I was. I just found the parallels fascinating.

Fascinating ?? Spot on is more like it, but few will admit that.

F1nut

steveinaz wrote: »

See, even back in '65 openly talking about religion wasn't even a blip on the radar---it was normal. Speaks volumes, eh?

Indeed.

nooshinjohn

tonyb wrote: »

Fascinating ?? Spot on is more like it, but few will admit that.

What I do find increasingly disturbing is the open mocking of traditional values and reason, and instead embracing the absurd fringes of society as being somehow more acceptable.


Mr Harvey had a few words to say about that as well...

F1nut

It's the new normal John, only problem is there's nothing even remotely close to normal about it.

nooshinjohn

F1nut wrote: »

It's the new normal John, only problem is there's nothing even remotely close to normal about it.

Funny... It seems everybody here in L.A. under the age of 30 is going overboard to look like a Mursai warrior or an Aboriginal tribal princess. Tattoos cover everything and ear lobes dangle to the shoulder, stretched ever larger by inserts meant to do that. Then they complain when they are turned away for a job. We have one dude out here that lives on foodstamps and welfare because his bodywork prevents him from working(discrimination cases pending) so all he does is surf all day.

We are starting to look more and more like a National Geographic cover shot and a hell of a lot less like a Norman Rockwell.

soundfreak1

AMEN! That about covers it.

tonyb

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Funny... It seems everybody here in L.A. under the age of 30 is going overboard to look like a Mursai warrior or an Aboriginal tribal princess. Tattoos cover everything and ear lobes dangle to the shoulder, stretched ever larger by inserts meant to do that. Then they complain when they are turned away for a job. We have one dude out here that lives on foodstamps and welfare because his bodywork prevents him from working(discrimination cases pending) so all he does is surf all day.

We are starting to look more and more like a National Geographic cover shot and a hell of a lot less like a Norman Rockwell.

Well John, that's the beauty of freedom. We are allowed to do as we wish....mostly anyway. Except along with freedom comes a lesson never taught anymore. That lesson is that ...actions have consequences. The dude with all the tats and earrings, free to do so, but nobody will want to hire him as a representative of their company. Which they are supposedly free to choose also. Notice I said "supposedly". The going mentality is that business owners are suppose to accept everything and anything.

fossy

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Funny... It seems everybody here in L.A. under the age of 30 is going overboard to look like a Mursai warrior or an Aboriginal tribal princess. Tattoos cover everything and ear lobes dangle to the shoulder, stretched ever larger by inserts meant to do that. Then they complain when they are turned away for a job. We have one dude out here that lives on foodstamps and welfare because his bodywork prevents him from working(discrimination cases pending) so all he does is surf all day.

We are starting to look more and more like a National Geographic cover shot and a hell of a lot less like a Norman Rockwell.

uummmm .... get a job in a tattoo place ?? !!!!!! He would fit right in .....there are jobs for anyone ... some ppl dun't want to work

pitdogg2

steveinaz wrote: »

Some of you are apparently reading way more into it than I was. I just found the parallels fascinating.

very much so

Oldfatdogs wrote: »

Mr Harvey seems to hit the nail on the head way back in 65.

Mr Harvey hit many nails right square on the head.

steveinaz wrote: »

See, even back in '65 openly talking about religion wasn't even a blip on the radar

tonyb wrote: »

Neither was half the membership here.

Hey now i was a very small blip maybe just a dot in the matrix

Scary parallels

squeeb

First off - I love Paul Harvey. I used to listen to his broadcasts whenever I could. However, snopes is a great website with all the bull out there.

Origins: "If I Were the Devil" is a form of social criticism, an essay that postulates what steps the devil might take in order to corrupt human civilization (and the United States in particular) and lead it down the path of darkness — before delivering the catch that all the steps listed are phenomena that are already taking place in the world today. It was written and popularized by national radio commentator and syndicated columnist Paul Harvey, who from the mid-1960s onwards featured it in both media many times over the course of his long career, periodically updating it to incorporate current trends.

In an odd twist, though (and the reason this item is rated as a "mixture"), one of the most widely Internet-circulated versions of "If I Were the Devil," as reproduced in the "Example" block above, is not from Paul Harvey. Although it is clearly inspired by and in the spirit of Paul Harvey's essay of the same name, it bears virtually no textual resemblance to the original — while it is similar in structure and theme, not one of its lines appears in any of various forms of the essay which Paul Harvey presented to his audiences over the years.

krabby5

steveinaz wrote: »

See, even back in '65 openly talking about religion wasn't even a blip on the radar---it was normal. Speaks volumes, eh?

which religion? YOUR religion? or the Muslim guy's?

As far as I'm concerned, organized religion is a MAJOR problem with this world. But that's just me..someone who went to a Catholic school for 12 years. He was right about the pedophiles, though...they were in my church as well. The bible may not be a myth, but it was a piece of literature written by men a couple thousand years ago..translated and interpreted to fit agendas.

George Grand

I vaguely remember from my youth (I became a teenager in '65), "Never discuss, sex, politics, or religion." I vaguely remember who said it also. My parents and grandparents, some of the most normal folks you could ask for. I think they were onto something.

steveinaz

Squeeb, cut directly from SNOPES:

The oldest genuine Paul Harvey version of this piece we've found so far appeared in his newspaper column in 1964:


If I Were the Devil

If I were the Prince of Darkness I would want to engulf the whole earth in darkness.

I'd have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree.

So I should set about however necessary, to take over the United States.

I would begin with a campaign of whispers.

With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whispers to you as I whispered to Eve, "Do as you please."

To the young I would whisper "The Bible is a myth." I would convince them that "man created God," instead of the other way around. I would confide that "what is bad is good and what is good is square."

In the ears of the young married I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be "extreme" in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct.

And the old I would teach to pray — to say after me — "Our father which are in Washington."

Then I'd get organized.

I'd educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull, uninteresting.

I'd threaten TV with dirtier movies, and vice-versa.

I'd infiltrate unions and urge more loafing, less work. Idle hands usually work for me.

I'd peddle narcotics to whom I could, I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction, I'd tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the Devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions; let those run wild.

I'd designate an atheist to front for me before the highest courts and I'd get preachers to say, "She's right."

With flattery and promises of power I would get the courts to vote against God and in favor of pornography.

Thus I would evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, then from the Houses of Congress.

Then in his own churches I'd substitute psychology for religion and deify science.

If I were Satan I'd make the symbol of Easter an egg

And the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

If I were the Devil I'd take from those who have and give to those who wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. Then my police state would force everybody back to work.

Then I would separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines and objectors in slave-labor camps.

If I were Satan I'd just keep doing what I'm doing and the whole world go to hell as sure as the Devil.

nooshinjohn

krabby5 wrote: »

The bible may not be a myth, but it was a piece of literature written by men a couple thousand years ago..translated and interpreted to fit agendas.

So what is your agenda?


Thanks again Steve for the post.

drumminman

krabby5 wrote: »

which religion? YOUR religion? or the Muslim guy's?

As far as I'm concerned, organized religion is a MAJOR problem with this world. But that's just me..someone who went to a Catholic school for 12 years. He was right about the pedophiles, though...they were in my church as well. The bible may not be a myth, but it was a piece of literature written by men a couple thousand years ago..translated and interpreted to fit agendas.

Agree with this. The bible is constantly used to justify almost every position/ point of view. One of the founding principles of the U.S. is freedom of religion: individuals are free to follow whatever religion they desire, or none at all. Religion has nothing to do with morality.

Throughout history more people have been killed in the name of religion than any other cause.

nooshinjohn

I would submit to you that lack of religion has killed more people in the last 100 years. Conservative estimates place the number of dead brought about under communist/totalitarianism at 200,000,000.

If we allow ourselves to extrapolate those numbers over the past 2000 years, I believe we would see that religion saved more lives than were taken by the zealots that twisted religion to suit their lust for power.

steveinaz

drumminman wrote: »

Throughout history more people have been killed in the name of religion than any other cause.

If indeed man is killing in the name of religion, that isn't God's wish nor doing. That's simply the same type of preversion that can happen to any "group" that is misguided. IE, the Westboro Baptists "church" ilk.

kevhed72

Fascinating...