Paul Harvey’s ‘If I Were the Devil’ Rings Even More True Today

In 1965 radio commentator Paul Harvey wrote and broadcast a piece entitled "If I Were the Devil". In that piece, the newsman related how the fast-paced world of the mid-1960s was taking America and the world to hell in a handbasket.

That story, at that time in our nation's history, seemed too far-fetched to be believable. Harvey explained that our world was moving away from God and leaning more toward the yearnings of man. He spoke of how people were being lured away from what was considered to be "good" with promises of an "even better" that turned out to be very empty.

In the piece, Harvey spoke of a "new sexuality" manipulated by media, movie stars, and the very medium in which he made his living. He spoke of how prisons would soon be filled to overflowing and how schools would resort to teaching less about knowledge and more about "abstract freedoms without responsibility".

Remember these points were made back in 1965. Y'all that's over a generation ago and you know what, Paul Harvey was not wrong. His observations would make Nostradamus shake in his shoes or sandals or whatever he wore.

The whole piece takes just three minutes and some change, plus probably a YouTube advertisement to complete. It's breathtaking. It's scary. It's a vision of a future that none of us really wanted but here we are right in the middle of it.

As someone who grew up through all of what Paul Harvey has so eloquently described I can tell you this, the Devil ain't lazy and he appears to be even harder at work today. Take a few minutes and give this 57-year-old vision a listen. I will warn you now you are about to feel very unsettled.

Paul Harvey whose real last name was Aurandt was born in 1918 in Tulsa Oklahoma. He died in Phoenix in 2009. I cried. He was and still is a hero to many broadcasters of my generation. We all wanted to be a storyteller like Paul Harvey.

I recall how the world would stop every morning for Paul Harvey news on the radio. Then at Noon, there was Paul Harvey News and Commentary. Finally, we would wrap up the day with The Rest of the Story. We would hang on to every word and breathe only when Paul paused so we wouldn't miss a syllable.

We no longer have newsmen like Paul Harvey. We have actors who read the news to us which has apparently been written by people who have an agenda. I miss the days when "fair and balanced" was real and the facts were the facts and the news was never fake.

Maybe one day we will get back to that kind of information dispensation but that's not going to happen until the ratings start going down or Satan swallows us whole. I hope to be sitting on a cloud listening to Paul Harvey news in heaven before that is allowed to happen.