To say that these current times are tumultuous, and to say that paying attention to what is happening is crucial, are both understatements par excellence. However, unlike those of us who are living through it, those who wish to learn What Happened in 2019-2022 who are removed by geography or time will have to hear it from someone else, whether that is written, spoken, in text or on video. As the student of recent history knows, the moment that the historian put pen to paper is not the moment that someone started shaping the narrative. No, that happens much earlier, and it is the initial determination of the narrative that turns isolated occurrences into a story, and random data into intrigue.
As Australia heads towards reopening her international borders, this author humbly predicts that overseas travel will have a pacifying effect on many Australians who were starting to get their feathers ruffled and think about such ideas as freedom and rights. So, as the dust settles, the despots who stole, killed and destroyed will soon write themselves into the history of What Happened as the heroes who delivered us through the Red Sea of covid, except the sea is only red in our example because it bears the flag of the Victorian Government.
Frankly, dear reader, we can’t wait for the Secularists and Safeists to determine the narrative, and then hope that our reactionary knock off will be just as good, and hopefully a smidge more compelling, just enough that it won’t elicit too many frowns and dead air if brought up in polite society. If you want proof that religious reactionary movements pale in comparison to Protestant pioneering, compare the dreadful 90% of ‘Christian films’ to Bach and Copernicus (and please, lest the reader accuse us of Crossing the Tiber, we are aware that Copernicus was of the Popish inclination).
If we want to genuinely learn from the mistakes that have been made in Victoria, we must begin to record them, and to do so accurately and boldly. We must be prepared to admit when we were wrong, and when we (and this author would own up to this) have falsely assumed that Australian politicians were far too uncoordinated and busy backstabbing one another to be successful tyrants. Why, you may ask, should you write it down? The videos are there on Facebook and Youtube, aren’t they? Aren’t there articles you could just Google? Those things can come and go more quickly than Solomon’s proverbial grass and flowers, so if you want your record of 2021 to not be rewritten by the Ministry of Truth, then we suggest you record it yourself.
The battle for whose story will characterise the way we think about recent history has begun, and it is currently in scattered conversations here and there about ‘was it a good plan’ and ‘what the goal was’ and ‘whether the rules were realistic’. It will not stay like that for long.
The following thing we say most passionately: We cannot let them cover up the things that have happened in these few short years. This author exhorts you to perceive history as God’s story, that is, as Providence. In all of this, let your foundation be that God has always been in control. Let your repentant admission be that our nation has been storing up God’s wrath. Let your honesty tell you that us Westerners have grown soft and complacent, taking for granted our Lucky Country.Let the history books that we write show that they were writing and rewriting their stories every step of the way. Gentle reader, be encouraged that all that has been done in the darkness will be revealed. No plan or plot will escape the Great White Throne. Justice will be served. However, until then, let us pray and seek national repentance. Repentance that starts with the individual, then the family, then the church, and God willing, the nation.
Distilled Orthopraxy 