Carl Wells Books

Did Russia interfere in the U.S. election in 2016? I don’t have inside information on that question.

If they did, one could understand why they might be tempted. After all, Hillary Clinton was clearly a mindless warmonger who never had an independent thought of her own in her entire lifetime. She could have been counted on to consider Russia an enemy. Donald Trump, on the other hand, at times sounded as if he understood that Russia was in no sense a natural enemy of the U.S., and possibly even a natural ally. Anybody in Russia who preferred Mrs. Clinton to Mr. Trump, would have been several bricks shy of a full load. So maybe Russia did fall to temptation, and try to influence the U.S. election in the favor of Donald Trump.

How dare they do such a thing? (That is, if they really did do such a thing.)

Well, maybe Russia took lessons not only from the history of the old Soviet Union, but also from the current United States of America–a country constantly involved in the political affairs of other countries for many decades.

Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA, by John Prados (2006), goes into considerable detail about many of the times the U.S. has butted its nose into the political affairs of other countries. Mr. Prados is not some wild-eyed radical. He seems to be a mainstream historian who has done his research, and is trying to tell the truth. The truth is not pretty.

He said in his foreword that many people around the world, according to polls, consider the U.S. to be “the greatest threat to world peace on the globe.” (p. xiii) Part of the reason for those fears is because of “the secret operations of the Central Intelligence Agency.” (p. xiii) However, it is clear that the CIA is not really a ‘”rogue elephant,”‘ but rather acting under orders from presidents. (p. xiv)

Here are some of the tools of the CIA: “political action, in which the objective is to influence opinion-makers or the politics of nations; psychological warfare and propaganda, which are tactical tools in many actions; support for military operations, an intermediate category between traditional covert action and military special operations–which consumes an increasing fraction of CIA effort; and paramilitary operations, which are covertly coercive.” (pp. xiv-xv)

“American undercover actions have resulted in upheavals and untold suffering in many nations while contributing little to Washington’s quest for democracy.” (p. xv) “Covert actions have been a negative factor in the American pursuit of democracy throughout the world.” (p. xv)

Didja ever wonder why Iran has seemed to have a thorough dislike of the U.S.? Remember the hostage taking of more than three decades ago? Well, there were reasons. The U.S. spent 10 to 20 million dollars helping organize a coup against the government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, in the early 1950s. The political upheaval at the time led to several hundred people dying in street violence. But Mossadegh was successfully gotten rid of. “The United States, by participating in the coup, broke with its own tradition–and its declaratory policy–of unconditional support for democracy around the globe.” (p. 107) These facts are not esoteric information known only to a few. Entire books have been written which detailed the U.S. intervention. See, for example, Wilbur Crane Eveland’s 1980 book Ropes of Sand: America’s Failure in the Middle East, which details much more than the messing about in Iran.

Mr. Prados covers countless more U.S. interventions in the business of other countries. This is a long book of 696 pages. If you read it, you will have a much more difficult time of persuading yourself that the U.S. is always automatically on the side of the angels–if you still have such a notion. The book is long, but repays study, and of course opens up countless avenues for further research.

Does Main Sleaze Media know that the U.S. is the world leader in involving itself in the politics of other nations? Of course. The leaders, at least, could not be so ignorant and stupid as not to know. Why then the hypocritical whining about Russia’s possible intervention in our election? I think there may be at least two factors. 1/We in the U.S.–liberals, conservatives, Christians, neoconservatives (a brand of liberal), and most people in general–just think our blank doesn’t stink. We really are among the most arrogant people in world history. We assume that whatever we do is generous and wise. Our lack of objectivity about ourselves would be laughable, did it not issue forth in such tragic results for the rest of the world and for us. 2/Main Sleaze Media is counting on Joe Sixpack to be completely ignorant of U.S. interventions. How many people know what John Prados knows, and has tried to communicate to the rest of us? Only a handful of people. So Main Sleaze Media is counting on us to be ignorant. They want to manipulate us rather than tell us the truth. They want to pretend that Russian intervention in our election (again, if it really did happen), is some kind of horrific world record of monstrous behavior. They want to manipulate us because they want to do whatever they can to get rid of Donald Trump, or at least to hamper his presidency if they can’t succeed in getting rid of him. The left deals in manipulation. Here is a possible third reason: 3?/Instinct. Main Sleaze senses that the natives are restless. We proles, a growing number of us, have begun belatedly to sense that the “elites” running our country are scumbags. We might do something about it. Main Sleaze is part of the elite. They have to keep us barefoot and pregnant, and ignorant, else we might insist on taking the country back from them. Number 3 is kind of an extension of number 2, and also may be over the top speculation, too optimistic. But at some level the elite knows we are the enemy, and we are beginning to understand that they are the enemy. They want to keep control as long as they can. Understandably.

A Christian foreign policy would leave other people alone. What would be the fun in that?

Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA, by John Prados, is readily available on the Internet. Abebooks, a wonderful place to get books, and often much cheaper than Amazon, currently has used copies for sale for $4.21 or slightly more, with zero shipping charge.

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” according to the old saying. Is that true?

It can be true. By the time we reach a certain age most of us are not very open to change. But on rare occasions even an old dog can learn a new trick–if he is willing to do so.

I was watching either “Columbo” and “Monk,” one episode a night, on my DVD player. In June of this year it occurred to me to invite my Aged Parent over to watch with me. I knew she liked both shows. To make a long story short, the situation evolved to the point where most nights we watched something together–“Monk,” “Columbo,” or some ever-changing third series. It has worked out really well. I wheel her over in her wheelchair (she lives next door to me), and we watch something together. It provides fellowship for both of us, as well as entertainment.

This is not brain surgery, right? Of course such a thing could work out well for both people. But the thing is, we could have been doing something like this for well over a decade. Only this year did it occur to me to try something like this. We are both old dogs. We learned a new trick–but barely, and belatedly. Still, better late than never.

It is a reminder to me to be open to learning a new trick at an old age.

I haven’t had a Christmas tree in decades. I am not anti-Christmas. I live alone, enjoy staying in a quiet rut, and don’t make a lot of fuss over any holidays. But last year, in a spirit of who-knows-what, I put up a Christmas tree. It is small, plastic, and lots of the lights are resting (or maybe burned out). But nevertheless I enjoyed having that Christmas tree up. I put it up again this year, and I leave it on. I am enjoying the tree again this year, and no doubt will have a Christmas tree every year from now on, until I croak. Once again, an old dog learned a new trick–barely and belatedly.

Quite a few years ago I was a member of a Sunday School class which occasionally went on outings together. One year we attended a high school gymnastics tournament. I am not a big fan of gymnastics–I don’t really watch much Olympic sports of any sort–but seeing that gymnastics tournament was enlightening to me. The young ladies’ courage and determination and willingness to suffer possible failure and possible pain, was instructive to me. I learned something. An old dog etc.

My experience has been that even moving the place where I keep my trash receptacle can lift my spirits. Am I willing to put it in a different place? If I am, the new place might turn out to be more convenient and better. If not, I can always move it back to the old place.

Are we willing to change? Usually we are not. I know a number of intelligent people, many of whom are Christians. They might, in a weak moment, be persuaded to be couriers for a drug cartel or to spy for Russia, but would they ever read a word by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Mark Twain, or some other of the greatest writers in world history? Not a chance. They are unwilling to try something new. Are they just unwilling to try because they know that I recommend trying, and they know I’m an idiot? That may be part of it, but I think it goes deeper than that. Intelligent people who don’t even know me are exactly the same. It is hard to be open to learning a new trick. If it weren’t hard, we all would do it–and we don’t. We stay in comfortable ruts. A new rut might be just as comfortable or even more comfortable, but we are really not open to finding out.

How many Christians have read the Bible all the way through? Many have, of course, but I suspect many have not. Other Christians have read the Bible only once or twice in a long lifetime. Reading the Bible would be new trick to many old Christian dogs. Would it help them to read the Bible? Would it deepen their knowledge of God and of man’s responsibilities to God? Probably. But it would be a new trick which most people are unwilling to try. It would be work, but it might–might, I stress–provide benefits to the people willing to learn and to try.

Let’s go all the way to bedrock. Is our brand of Christianity really very Christian? Most people seem to think so. But I don’t think it is. Otherwise we would not support torture, support the initiation of aggressive wars, and wink at or support countless other bad things such as public education. We are stuck in our type of Christianity which is not very Christian. Are we old dogs willing to learn a new trick, willing to learn a better brand of Christianity? Well, for the most part we are not. We could change, but we prefer not to change. Like Bartleby the scrivener (Herman Melville), we ‘”would prefer not to.”‘

For the most part, old dogs cannot learn new tricks. The old saying is largely true. But if we are open to learning, we can do so even at an old age. “If,” of course, being a key word. The things we could learn are endless. Some of them are vastly important, such as a truly biblical brand of Christianity. But we have to be open to learning. That is the hard part. But we can change, even if we change barely and belatedly. I don’t say it is easy, just that it is possible.

Is it wise, is it practical, to attend college?

Well, each person’s situation is each person’s situation, and situations differ. For people who want to be engineers, doctors, to be involved in the hard sciences, and so forth, college may still be a very practical choice. But for many other people, college is more likely to be harmful rather than helpful.

Most degrees are useless. Check out Peter Schiff’s YouTube video of about five minutes, “Is a college degree worth the cost?” You will be entertained and enlightened.

College has become incredibly expensive. Recent figures show that 68% of students graduating in 2015 had debt. The average debt was $30,100.00 But remember, that is just the average. If someone graduated with $10,000.00 debt, that means someone else had about $50,000.00 debt. $10,000.00 is no small sum, but $30,000.00 and $50,000.00 are both serious money.

That is, if you intend to pay it back. About 1,100,000 students defaulted in 2016 alone. But that is the tip of the iceberg. Eight million student borrowers, total, have given up paying their college debt. That is a lot of self-absorbed, entitled narcissists to have around, even percentage-wise, in a country of 320,000,000–2.5%, by my math. These are supposedly our best and brightest, but they can’t/won’t even pay back money they borrowed? What did they learn in their years at college?

Well, a lot of what they learned was politically correct drivel. That is another major problem with college education in this country. The people running our colleges–private and public, administrators and professors–are people who subscribe to a socialist and strongly anti-Christian mentality. Cynical though I am, I continue to be surprised and shocked at how bovinely Christian and conservative adults of good intelligence send their children off to colleges where those children will be indoctrinated in principles which are well calculated to end Christian civilization. Apparently I am not cynical enough. To quote Lily Tomlin approximately, I try to be cynical, but I can’t keep up.

If one wants to learn something, but understands that college is expensive, is run by enemies of civilization, and is a waste of time, what can one do? Give up? Well, that seems to be an option for many people. They give up intellectually, and move with the crowd. But if you really love learning and truth, giving up is not a reasonable option.

My experience of college students is that almost none of them really care about ideas and truth. They are going through the motions. They are getting a degree so that they can be a college graduate and maybe make money (not very likely on that latter point). But if you love truth, then you can love truth better outside college than in. Better because you are saving money and saving time.

What you need to do is read. Read, read, read. I grew up in an era when college education was quite inexpensive. When I graduated, I may have owed a little bit of money, but not much. I was basically debt free. But really, I had wasted several years. It was only after college that I began to be open to learning stuff. I was converted to the Christian faith in my mid 20s. I always read a lot, even before my conversion. Most of what I learned came after college, and a great deal of it came through reading. The Christian faith gave me a practical intellectual foundation for learning. That I have made so little practical use of my life is a warning to you. I wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but more harmful than that was that I didn’t have a focused idea of what I wanted to accomplish and reasonably might accomplish. I was too much adrift. Eventually I became more focused. Whether it was too late to write good books, I don’t know. I have written several books that I like, but then I would like them, wouldn’t I?

Get serious early. Have a rough plan of what you want to accomplish. You can adjust the plan as needed. Do you care about history, economics, literature? You can make a real contribution. The sooner you start reading, the better. You may not become famous and rich, but you can make a contribution.

Let’s say you write three good books on historical topics of interest. They sell almost no copies. But they are out there. History is long. Truth is powerful. Truth may be covered up for a thousand years, but it just sits there like a bump on a log, to be rediscovered and put to use eventually.

Our Christian civilization is threatened by barbarians. But it always is threatened. That is nothing new. We are always having to rebuild civilization. Some times are tougher than others, but all times are hard. Ask the millions of Russians murdered by the communists if times can be tough. So instead of whining–okay, I enjoy whining a goodish amount myself!–let’s simply go to work to rebuild civilization, or keep it from collapsing completely. Maybe we can avoid the millions murdered. Maybe we can’t. But is it honorable not to try?

The barbarians are numerous. But there are serious scholars who care about truth. They write books. They may not be famous, because they are not approved by the politically correct culture. But this has not stopped them from publishing. They are out there. You can learn from them. You may even be able to thank them, and they may even be grateful for an encouraging word. They get few enough.

Earning money? Well, college is not the best route to go for that. Trade school may be a good place for those with some mechanical aptitude. Decent with basic math? Why not learn to be an accountant via a year of business school? Your amount of income is not crucial, but managing your income is crucial. If you are interested in ideas and truth, you need to buy time so that you can read and write. You don’t need to be wealthy. You just need to buy time to read and write. Buy time rather than things. Manage your time so that you can read and write. You may be able to get by with a part-time job.

If romance comes along, fantastic. You may have to work more hours then, and you may have much less time for scholarly pursuits. Fine. A Christian marriage, with or without children, is a powerful fist in the face of the barbarians. Especially with children. Adopt some, if necessary, or even if not necessary. The battle for Christian civilization goes on endlessly. Children raised to be strong Christians are a powerful force for good. Christian children are arrows in your quiver. “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior,/So are the children of one’s youth./How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;/They shall not be ashamed,/When they speak with their enemies in the gate.” (Psalm 127:4-5)

College? Starve the beast. The beast needs to die. Higher education is one more front on which we need to rebuild civilization. It is one front of dozens. Don’t give them your time, your money, your intellect.

One person is incredibly important.

The U.S. debt is over twenty trillion dollars–over $20,593,770,000,000.00 the last time I checked the debt clock. Estimating the U.S. population as approximately 320,000,000, that works out to a debt of $64,355.00 per person. Or, for each one of our 127 million full-time workers, about $162,155.00 per worker. Twenty trillion dollars is not chump change. But the debt keeps going higher. When the debt limit is approached, Congress votes to raise the debt limit. This happens time after time. The “debt limit” is a way to pretend we have a debt limit. There is no debt limit.

So, just for fun–we take our fun where we can get it; we laugh to keep from crying–let’s ask ourselves, is budget reform possible?

In the short term, the answer is no. As an American people, we have no real desire to live within our means. Many of us don’t even believe it makes sense to try to do so. We like the welfare state, in which we receive lots of goodies from the central government. “I’ve got mine, Jack.” The system is working well enough to suit us. Almost all of us have an entitlement mentality, one way or another. This is true whether we are liberals or conservatives.

Conservatives believe that they are budget hawks. If they are, it is only in comparison with liberals–but not in absolute terms. Ask a conservative if he wants to stop receiving Social Security money, stop receiving Medicare money, stop educating his children at public expense, or stop receiving a salary for teaching/administrating in any form of public education, and you will quickly discover that conservatives are budget hawks only on the welfare perks other people are receiving, not on the their own welfare perks.

There is no possibility of budget reform, because we as an American people are morally corrupt and want to live at the expense of others. That’s why we are represented by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. They represent us well. If they didn’t, there would be dozens, perhaps hundreds of grass roots parties, well supported by growing numbers of budget-conscious citizens wanting to reduce and limit government spending. We might have a Freedom and Responsibility Party, or dozens of parties similarly named and similarly determined to live within our means. But we don’t need such parties, because we are Democrats or Republicans in our hearts. Which means we are not the slightest bit serious about cutting the budget or reducing our debts.

So our current system will keep on. It will keep on until it collapses. If/when the system collapses, at that point there may be a chance for reform–but only if the collapse really causes a lot of people to be hurt. We will respond only to a disaster. That is the only thing which will get our attention. Since I think the U.S. is too big–and too big for our britches, as well–I hope the collapse of the system leads to the break-up of the U.S. and to the establishment of many much smaller countries. (I even envision a small country or two where they don’t kill unborn children, and no I won’t share what I’m smoking with you.) But whether the U.S. breaks up or not, budget reform will only happen after a disaster shows that you really can’t live by stealing the money of other people decade after decade. You may get away with it for a while–as we have done–but eventually you run out of other people’s money to steal (as Mrs. Thatcher warned), and the system really does collapse. (Hey, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this can go on forever. Fantastic. Enjoy.)

The root cause of our problem is of course the American Christian church. We are pietist and antinomian. That we are pietist means that we see the Bible’s truths applying only to a small portion of church and private life, not to all of life. That we are antinomian means we think we can avoid applying God’s law to how we live, and get away with it. Pietist/antinomian make a very bad combination, if you are trying to build a just nation.

We just love the Ten Commandments to pieces, including the Eighth Commandment not to steal (Exodus 20:15)–until we don’t. The Bible tells believers to tithe (give 10% of their increase) to the church (Malachi 3:8-12, and many other places). A blessing will follow, if we do. But we prefer to arrange the blessing for ourselves, by refusing to tithe. The Christian group emptytomb (see their website) reports that Christians give not 10%, but 2.5%. That is one-quarter of what God asks of the garden variety Christian. If we are willing to steal from the God who died on the cross so that we could escape eternal death, is it any surprise that we don’t mind taxing our friends, neighbors, and enemies into an early grave to pay for our welfare perks from the civil government?

Half of the nation self-identifies as Christian, yet this “bite and devour” (Galatians 5:15) civil government is what we have permitted and encouraged to grow up and to become powerful. The root of the problem is 100% the Christian church.

Budget reform is unlikely in the immediate future. Meanwhile, there really is no cause for despair. Sometimes the only way we can learn is by receiving a two by four up the side of the head. Fine. That is better than not learning at all. When we get our two by four, let’s take it without whining, learn, and change. Meanwhile, one person makes an enormous difference–for good or for ill. The Bible record is clear on that, and our human experience confirms this fact. We can all begin to make a difference for good by reforming our personal behavior. Move toward a tithe. (Some people have even learned to be generous with their giving, beyond a tithe.) Get out of debt. Pay your bills promptly. Repay your bankruptcy. Teach your children to tithe. Make your church stronger and better by your behavior. Stop desiring welfare goodies from the civil government. Become someone who loves freedom and responsibility, loves not the Republican or Democratic parties. We are not going to get out of our problems by a charismatic genius on a white horse leading us. We are going to get out of our problems by becoming responsible adults “who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:14) Note that the writer to the Hebrews says we need practice. This is humbling, but also encouraging. We need practice, but we can practice. We can do better. We can be trained to discern good and evil, and to live in support of the one (good) and to stand against the other (evil).

If we become the people God wants us to be, budget reform becomes not just possible but impossible to resist. “Things hang together,” as the non-Christian George Eliot correctly noted. When we are moving toward becoming the people we can be, all kinds of good things happen. One person is enormously important.

This can be demonstrated even mathematically. Say for example that in your small church of 100 people, 60 are pietist/antinomian in regard to the welfare state, 40 have an an orientation more toward freedom and responsibility. You are one of the 60. But you change your thinking. You influence your spouse to change his/her thinking. You influence your three children to think more clearly as well. That’s five of you. Suddenly instead of 60-40, the odds are now 55-45. The Holy Spirit can use your example to help others learn as well. If one or two more families in the church begin thinking more clearly, suddenly there is no longer a default assumption that pietism/antinomianism are within God’s will.

So we need not despair. We should be cheerful and humble. The problems in our nation came about partly because we, as individuals, were snoozing. We don’t need to blame others. We can blame ourselves, change, and serve God more honestly. God can use that for good.

What, ask non-Christians (and Christians of weak faith like me), if there is no God? Well, for my part, I’d rather stand on the side of those who don’t want to steal the money of others, than on the side of those who want to steal. Call it a ridiculous prejudice. It’s how I prefer to think and live: ‘”but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD”‘ (Joshua 24:15)–even if there is no God.