My Thoughts

From some nine months ago I wrote^*:

No longer does one present an argument with ordinary, everyday facts, no matter how inarguably true. No. No. That simply will not do. Opinion trumps those awful facts—within the margin of error, of course; truth, a nasty habit by those who would belittle the opinions of their neighbors. It is the opinion of the majority of those surveyed that wins the day or the consensus of portside politicians screaming hysterically that the sky is melting, and the world will end in twelve years. They know it to be true because the opinions of 99.99999% of bug-eyed, green-bearded chameleons posing as scientists surveyed have declared it undeniably so. No further proof necessary; no antithesis allowed. Any facts to the contrary are wrong, terribly wrong. No reasonable person dares ask, “Why twelve years? Why not six or eight or ten or any other imaginary number?” for fear of being assaulted for the mortal sin of staring at reality.

The abandonment of reason to the tyranny of opinion yokes unfettered liberty and freedom to the plow of subjugation and slavery. The madman is a fool who may readily agree he is mad though blind to his own foolishness.  Ask a socialist what is wrong with the world and he will pray you a litany; ask what should be done and the socialist will demand your life without so much of a thank you for your generosity. Ask a progressive what is wrong with the world and the progressive will puff up and claim utter lack of progress; ask what should be done and the progressive, like any robber, will demand all that you have. Ask a politician what is wrong with the world and the answer will inevitably be to set the fault at the feet of the opposing party; ask what should be done and the politician will call for free and fair elections. Ask a philosophy professor what is wrong with the world and the response will be God; ask what should be done and the professor will say wash the mouths of those who call God their Father. Ask an honest man who is uncommonly sane what is wrong with the world and he will echo the question; ask what should be done and he will ask for a moment of silence to thank God for the many blessings he has received.

Can there be the slightest doubt the world has completely lost its orbit? Before Copernicus started a revolution by formulating a new cosmology of the universe—or closer to home: the solar system—admiring how the sun was the heliocentric star of the astronomical show, the earth held center stage and humanity played the fool. Five hundred years later, humanity plays the bigger fool, moving the self to the universal center and all the world the stage. God has been evicted, replaced by a new theology—egology—the self-study of the egocentric self. Man is thus twice the fool but has no knowledge of it. “If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.”

Some are wont to call it a culture war, which I suppose has some merit, but then, it seems rather more an epic battle of a mad, mad, raging mad horde of social justice demons fighting saints and angels for the keys to heaven. God has obviously been benched, forced to sit this war out. The battle is ultimately about maximizing “power”, the power to control lives, the power to create heaven on earth for the few who have it and hell for those who hold no share of it. Socialism appeals because it is attractive enough for people who have been made stupid to believe and support by providing a mix of moral and material incentives. It propagates its grand vision from within centers of culture and education, orienting people to its conception of the good, true, and beautiful, by passing on to future generations, through education, a worldview that incorporates its ideology. Socialism depends on suggesting goals specific enough to fool some of the people, but vague enough that they can be reinterpreted such that the goals are never quite met. If not just outcomes but procedures become essential tenets, then the ideology can self-perpetuate for a long time.

The founding fathers created a Constitutional Republic of the people, by the people, and for the people whose will was to be respected and faithfully carried out by duly elected representatives. It is noteworthy and yet seldom brought to any attention what is written in Article IV, Section 4 of the United States Constitution.

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convene) against domestic Violence.

What is further worthy of notice are these words for which not a single instance in the aforementioned document can be found: democracy or democratic, leader or leadership, govern or governed. What is found are best expressed in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, what are among the ten referred to as the Bill of Rights:

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Before any further note, I would be remiss if I did not recall the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

No other form of government exists where the people are the governors of their individual destinies; government is servant, neither master nor administrator. This nation is not a democracy but a republic. We the People forget that at the peril of our very lives. Wake up America!

Just my thoughts for a Monday, for what it is worth.

^* Colloqui Volume 04, Number 15, November 22, 2019.