The foundation of this nation lay in the assumption that we were wise enough to control our own lives. Everything that the Founders wrote reflects this underlying assumption. They believed, without exception (even those with strong religious beliefs) that the Church should play no role in the conduct of government because of the Church's tendency to manipulate or otherwise usurp control of the populace's lives in ways the Founders found abhorrent. They were strongly pro-gun; firearms made it possible for a citizen to protect himself from encroachments upon his liberty, even by his own government. They desired a free press because they believed that as individuals, we were wise enough to make decisions that would ultimately be beneficial to the larger community. In short, the Founders produced the first nation ever in the history of the world based upon an idea – a philosophy, if you will - of freedom. This has largely been abandoned or ignored.
Once a nation such as ours loses sight of the philosophical principles upon which it was founded, it is lost. A man without a firm grasp of unbreachable and intransigent moral principles based upon reason is a man disarmed. We are a nation disarmed - morally, ethically, and philosophically. The silence of our alleged representatives concerning the encroachment on our fundamental rights speaks more eloquently than anything I can write. Don't you suppose that the real reason for the 'silence of the damned' is simply because they have nothing to say?
"I heard no mention of the loss of personal freedom... Apparently this was not much of a sacrifice. They couldn't have cared less."
William Shirer, "Hitler and the Third Reich: First Impressions", from The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940 (Little, Brown, and Co., 1984)
Those who deny the reality of the systematic abrogation of the rule of law and the destruction of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights at the hands of both mainstream American political parties are whistling past the graveyard of history. Once it has become apparent that the rule of law no longer applies to the common man; once the application of existing law has become arbitrary and outcomes subject to the amount of money one can apply; once laws are made and applied in such a way that it becomes virtually impossible to exist without violating them - the party's over.
Some of us are willing to acknowledge the indisputable and incontrovertible evidence that the rule of law is all but dead, and that the political process as it now exists is irretrievably corrupt. The rest of you cling to the fiction that the rule of law still governs, and that the first principles of human freedom upon which our nation was founded are honored and upheld, much less understood. And that's the dirty secret, isn't it? Too many of us are willing to look the other way, to deny the evidence, to pretend that it doesn't matter. The loss of our freedom is akin to the crazy uncle locked up in the basement - we all know he's there; we just won't talk about it. There is terrible price to be paid for this denial of reality. The butchers' bill is coming due - soon.
Once it has become apparent that the rule of law no longer applies to the common man; once the application of existing law has become arbitrary and outcomes subject to the amount of money one can apply; once laws are made and applied in such a way that it becomes virtually impossible to exist without violating them - the party’s over.
Agreed. So now that the party’s over, what next?
The reality is--easily demonstrable--that Collectivist/Egalitarianism Sabotages Human Potential. Most of our social & economic problems spring from the failure of central planners to even understand the full context of the things they have wrought.
William Flax
While the author's premises have merit, I question his conclusion (above). The French revolutionists embraced reason while simultaneously savaging the Catholic Church. Their attacks on the Church included theft, murder of the clergy, and more. In the Church's place, they literally erected a new "religion" based on Reason. Their revolution resulted in mass butchery, external and internal wars, and eventually the dictatorship of Napolean and contintental war. Millions died.
No, reason won't save us, but God might.
The Ominous Parallels, p.13
So we've reached the point in our history where thinking has become virtually nonexistent. I suppose that probably less than 5% of our population actually thinks about anything at all of substance.
Of course we know that it has all been intentional and implemented by painstakingly crafty and patient design. Be that as it may, now we sit and watch it all unfold on a daily basis. Virtual all pretense and shadows have been eliminated, they openly carry out their plans in full sunlight and it barely draws a yawn from zombie masses.
Those of us that do notice and care to comment are almost universally derided as the paranoid (and perhaps criminally) insane.
An excellent time to repost this gem, my friend.
Post/thread BUMP! Thanks.
What we call Western civilization is to be found primarily
and essentially in the confluence of the autonomous rationalism
of classical philosophy and the faith of biblical religion….
The unprecedented character of the American Founding
is that it provided for the coexistence of the claims of reason
and of revelation in all their forms, without requiring or
permitting any political decisions concerning them. It refused
to make unassisted human reason the arbiter of the
claims of revelation, and it refused to make revelation the
judge of the claims of reason. It is the first regime in Western
civilization to do this, and for that reason it is, in its principles
or speech (leaving aside the question of its practice or deeds),
the best regime.410
410 Harry V. Jaffa, “The American Founding as the Best Regime,” The
Claremont Institute, July 4, 2007, accessed July 14, 2010,
http://www.claremont.org/publications/pubid.682/pub_detail.asp