“In many countries today, moral and ethical norms are being reconsidered. They’re now requiring not only the proper acknowledgment of freedom of conscience, political views and private life, but also the mandatory acknowledgment of the equality of good and evil.”

Vladamir Putin

So in the bizarre, Post-modern, Post-Cold War world, the authoritarian President of the oligarchic glob formerly known as the CCCP just gave us a lot of useful knowledge free of charge. Perhaps it was his way of thanking the NSA for all interesting things that he learned about America from Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Whether we realize it yet or not, Mr. Putin just explained to us why China can reach the moon, while the United States of America no longer has that level of national will.

The United States is not technologically degenerate to the point where it cannot compete with China’s space program brain cell for brain cell. The Toyota Highlander Engines that are built in Huntsville, AL require a higher onboard SLOC* count than some of the first Apollo rockets that were tested nearby on Redstone Arsenal. Just whinging about how hard rocket science proves to be isn’t exculpatory. If the United States actual cared about reaching the moon, we’d be making its first real estate market.

So what on God’s Green Earth does discrimination between good and evil have to do with shooting off rockets? If my 401K kicks butt and I’m getting paid, why should I care? We don’t want to discriminate. That creates inequality. Isn’t that the world’s greatest evil? Even the Pope seems to think so…

The problem here is simple. To accomplish anything worthy of mention, you have to be able to discriminate. You evaluate good versus bad with the ruthless justice that is shown by an NFL coaching staff the day before the final roster cuts are made. The ability of a nation to so endeavor in a unified fashion can be demonstrated paradigmatically by that nation’s space program. A unified nation, with an affirmative culture and a societal sense of purpose can successfully reach for the stars. President Putin is again kind enough to explain why America no longer qualifies as such in any meaningful way.**

The “destruction of traditional values” in these countries, he said, comes “from the top” and is “inherently undemocratic because it is based on abstract ideas and runs counter to the will of the majority of people.”

This sort of enforced diversity is not our strength. It leads to antinomian hatred instead. Camille Paglia explains one of the many deleterious impacts that our brave new Progressive world has had on our national unity below.

If men are obsolete, then women will soon be extinct — unless we rush down that ominous Brave New World path where women clone themselves by parthenogenesis, as famously do Komodo dragons, hammerhead sharks and pit vipers. Peevish, grudging rancor against men has been one of the most unpalatable and unjust features of second- and third-wave feminism. Men’s faults, failings and foibles have been seized on and magnified into gruesome bills of indictment. Ideologue professors at our leading universities indoctrinate impressionable undergraduates with carelessly fact-free theories alleging that gender is an arbitrary, oppressive fiction .

The great national accomplishments such as space exploration and massive infrastructure improvements invariably require significant national unity and single-minded pursuit of excellence. If Gill Scott Heron’s opinion of these efforts for national greatness ever represent a majority view, than you can forget about shovel-ready anything. That is unless you are referring to the grave of an obsolete, decadent and increasingly iniquitous American Empire.

*-SLOC = Software Lines of Code.
**-Having once toiled in The Satanic Mills of the KGB, Putin could even qualify as an Subject Matter Expert on this stuff.