The Foolishness Of Freedom

Consider the voice of oppressive governance. It is the voice of czars, and kings, and emperors, and tribal chiefs, and despots of every kind.

Many of them have died among the previous pages of history. But their voices still echo across those pages to join such voices in the present to question and detract American ideals. And from those voices, one thing is clear. They all failed to understand the grandeur that flows from empowering people instead of oppressing them. So, this is what they all might say of America, "America, you are such a fool!"

"You believe in basic human equality. And because you do, your lowest becomes eligible for your highest offices of power. No one is restrained from intruding across class lines. All may participate in the civil franchise. How, can you run a country in such a way - and still control the outcome?"

"America, you do not suppress speech. And because you do not, your national conversation becomes an unwieldy dialog of immense dimension. Every sort of citizen has input. How can you fail to control the flow of opinion and information - and still control the outcome?"

"America, you allow your citizens to have guns, many guns, all types of guns. And because you do, your citizens are not so easily intimidated. They may even use them to defy the state. How can you allow your citizens to have guns - and still control the outcome?"

"America, you allow your press to intrude upon and challenge public officials. Because you do this, the state is threatened, high officers are exposed, and the agenda of the state remains constantly subject to public scrutiny. This does not allow the state to operate "efficiently." How can you possibly grant such exposure - and still control the outcome?"

"America, you allow your citizens the vote. Do you not understand that this means they ultimately hold the power. Do you not know that the state then becomes subject to the masses, instead of the reverse. How is it that you believe you can invest the citizens with this great power- and still control the outcome?"

"America, you allow your citizens to amass private wealth. In allowing them to do so, they become confident, and influential, and in many ways uncontrollable. Do you not understand this danger. How can you allow the threat of personal wealth - and still control the outcome?"

"America, you allow your citizens unlimited freedom of movement. As a result they are exposed to other cultures, they consort with people of differing viewpoints, they are able to elude state scrutiny. Surely you see the inherent liability. How can you give such freedom of unaccounted movement - and still control the outcome?"

"America, you allow your people to practice religious choice. Do you not understand that this creates diversity among the citizens. It diminishes order and commonness. Such choice may set them against each other, or worse, against the state, or the god of the state. How can you allow such choice - and still control the outcome."

*****

The criticisms of the despots are telling. Their insecurity denotes an ignorance regarding the human destiny, which Americans have  known and embraced from our beginning.  It is this.  Each man owns his own destiny as a gift from God. No one - no king, no prince, no despot of any kind has any title or claim to it.

America did not invent this idea. But, America has certainly given reality to it as no other nation on earth. And, every day she confirms this principal in the best possible way - in the liberties of her every citizen.

And, America has proven herself to be the nation most willing to risk the implications of this idea. Every day, we risk what our citizens will lawfully do, where they will collectively take us as a nation. We risk their whims, what they will say, and what new things they will devise - both good and bad. 

We risk their equal access to power, the influence of wealth or position. In fact, in America, we are not just willing to risk the swift current of our individual, and in turn, our collective destiny. In fact, we embrace that doing with some passion.

This unwieldy risk is the very thing that the despots of history have never been willing to take. But, in America, we do not control the outcome, we do, indeed, risk it - under God. 

Every day, when the sun comes up on this matchless, and magical, and God blessed land - every lawful thing is in play. It's what we call - Freedom.

Militancy

These days, it would seem that angry militancy is imposing itself on the American culture at very high levels on all fronts.  So, gays, Progressives, Socialists, Democrats, and Communist are all now raging activists.  

The gun haters and the Never Trumper's are all salivating with anger.  African Americans, Hispanics, Muslims and university students are all at a take-it-to-the-streets level of militancy.  And on it goes until it seems everybody has gone militantly mad.

But, in fact, they have not.  In truth, the preceding paragraph is a blatant exaggeration on all fronts.  It is merely a “head shot” of the caricature which the liberal media, a cadre of hate filled activists, and a bunch of arrogant elitists are constantly attempting to sell to the American people as a tactic to aid their seditious intentions. 

In reality, however, in all of those people groups mentioned above, the great majority remains peaceful, reasoned and concerned about, not just results, but about the justness of how we achieve those results.  And how do we know these good people are out there?  Well, by the math for one thing.  The population of the United States is 325 million people.  So those subversive “pot stirrers,” even with the few off-the-rails extremists and ne’er-do-wells which they may actually represent, don’t compose even a drop in the bucket of that number. 

And, there is another way that we know that the vast majority of Americans are still strongly bound together by real sanity.  It is the anecdotal evidence of our daily lives.  Indeed, in our common values, we continue to widely cherish the nobility of our humanity, and thus, the nobility of our behavior.  We share a deep love of country which allows us to beam with pride even while we work together to remove her warts.  And, we continue to believe the long proven idea that mutual respect is the precious norm which truly yields peace, brotherhood, and quality of life; whereas, hate is never anything more than a disabling character flaw.  

So, fortunately for America, the vast majority of Americans still embrace sanity over subversion.  Praise God!  View The Exhibit

The Puppeteers

Where there is an earthquake, there is an epicenter.  And, that epicenter is where the real force of the outflow movements are concentrated.  And, to be sure, the same is true of the sociopolitical movements which are occurring in America, right now.  They are being caused by a very well developed and well organized central force. 

I am an ordinary, born and bred, U.S. citizen of 70 years.  I am a person of no great reputation.  And, I fully expect to die in anonymity.  But, what I am not, is stupid. 

When I look at what is presently going on in America, it is very obvious that there are very real “puppeteers” pulling the strings of our more naive population in these herky-jerky times.  And certainly, there have always been manipulative movers and shakers who have attempted to do the same.  But, in prior times, they were not so well armed with degenerate media and public school systems, Facebook, X, and a national “propaganda news” platform etc.  And now, they are. 

And obviously, these “string pullers” know very well how to employ these new advantages at this very strategic time – a time when we have several character-deficient generations in play.  And, even this strategic timing is no accident. 

These burgeoning “puppet generations” have actually been carefully fashioned by the very puppeteers who now manipulate their every move.  For decade upon decade, American children have been unwittingly bombarded from every direction with the hypocritical values of these who have now become their psychological overlords.  From the cartoons they watched as children, to godless public schools, to even more devilish universities, our younger population has been taught, “Reject all previous values and establish your own, based solely in your own nobility of thought.”

And sadly, the puppeteers have been so effective in their subtlety that these puppet generations actually believe they are doing that.  But, in fact, they are really just mindlessly responding to the long implanted values of the string pullers.  

And so, every day the puppets join their peer puppet group on Facebook, or X, or in the propaganda news newsroom to obediently embrace whatever party line they are to be fed before they move on in service to the puppeteers for that day.  And, every day, when this sad process is finished, they adjudge it to have been, indeed, “noble.”

Thus, we are left with these burgeoning generations which can no longer tell the difference between true good and evil, true right and wrong because their minds and hearts have been so co-opted in this way.   And, what they don’t know, and sadly, may never know, is that true nobility of thought and action only ever flow out of a personal and abiding connection to the larger moral reality – not the absence of that connection. 

But then, we must remember – they are puppets.  And, puppets don’t really think, do they?  They just jump when their string is pulled.