The past few weeks and especially the past few days has been particularly revealing. I have said “only in 2018” so many times this year that it does seem to be the swell one sees before a tsunami. *
(* – actually, not a perfect analogy as the water rushes OUT to sea just before a tsunami hits)
It started this morning when I read this from Lew Rockwell’s fantastic site, an article from Michael S. Rozeff that has a line stating:
America used to greet bringing the boys home from foreign wars with applause. Now there is immense criticism from all components of the pro-empire contingent, who act as if the empire and Washington will crumble because 2,000 American soldiers are leaving Syria.
We are talking 2000 soldiers (if we can trust Pentagon numbers, since they failed their first ever audit and also misplaced trillions, as in, “we can’t account for that money” over the course of the past 20 years) but more importantly is the continued US and coalition efforts in Syrian airspace without Syrian permission!
But I digress, what this article then led me to, which is so intriguing to me, is the relationship between empire, religion and political correctness. I love it when society, and the human psyche can link so many things like this into the “real life” experience here in 2018. Below was my segue:
For an explanation of the relation between the empire and immoral moralism, see here.
From Amazon reviewer John Williamson, Provincetown, MA shares that the authors of this book point out:
… the US Government has long been involved in immoral actions that have often been justified using arguments suggesting that the action was being taken for moral reasons .. We learn that, “In 1783 George Washington characterized the colonies as `a rising empire,’ and nearly all the Founders saw America as destined to become one of the world’s great empires. A great deal of attention is given to examples drawn from prior empires such as the Roman empire, the Spanish empire and the British empire to name only a few ... They review also describe how the neoconservatives used moralistic rhetoric to justify US involvement in Iraq .. The argument is that PC puts limits on “the range of acceptable thoughts, seeking to outlaw or marginalize those ways of thinking that might challenge the powers that be .. Right PC uses the concept of patriotism to intimidate and silence those on the left who are critical of the war in Iraq. They are vulnerable to the criticism of being unpatriotic .. the PC of the New Left during the 1960s as well as the current identity politics of feminist, gay, and race movements. Their focus is on the ways in which these movements use PC pressures to keep certain issues off the table. For example, in connection with feminist PC such questions as: (a) Do fetuses have any rights? ( b) Or are fathers discriminated against in marriage laws and divorce courts?..
… The authors tell a story of the evolution of the American empire or more precisely what they refer to as the five American Empires: (1) The Fledging Constitutional Empire, 1776-1828, (2) Manifest Destiny Continental Empire, 1828-1898, (3) Allied Global Empire, 1898-1945, (4) The Good Empire versus the Evil Empire, 1945-1991, and (5) World Hegemon: 1991-Present. This section of the book basically reviews the many ways in which the US behaved badly – in the name of high moral ideals – like other prior empires during each of these periods.
So a clip from the book’s introduction states (remember, this is a ten-year old book):
I do not know about you, but I do see, especially since Trump’s surprise victory in 2016, quite the storm, perfect in only that there are so many triangulations involved that the average person can’t keep up and they depend on MSM or the government to explain what is going on.
I still say, there is a LOT to learn from history that helps the discerning thinker and reader to consider things that they previously had made up their mind on. Critical thinking is extremely in scarce these days, however, it is these kind of people that will be invaluable in charting the course in this storm and into the world beyond it.
This thinking will be scary to most, however, as I have said before here, a crumbling empire is a perfect environment for a grassroots, black market, underground networking of Love to give hope during and after the storm, as was demonstrated in the 1st century in the Roman Empire. It will be in that environment I do hope many can entertain a thought without accepting it as they try to adjust to a very different world.
Just thinking of my kids and grand-kids yet again, seems to be a theme .. (yes, I am not your typical “boomer”)
In context, the first faith communities that followed Jesus more or less did it His style. Where ever He was in life’s journey, there He shared life with those around Him. Accused of being the “friend of sinners” by the religious elite of the day, the Pharisees, He never stayed out of the “den of thieves” which were the taverns and pubs of the day. He mingled with tax collectors and prostitutes and so his public reputation would suffer, but He touched people’s hearts, for life and created stories that would last through the generations. His life stories would be the glue that helped this grassroots movement impact the Roman Empire for its good, and they never saw it coming.
In those days there were not special buildings, a special class of teachers or gurus, or anything physical that held the faith community together except their hearts. These people would be so touched indirectly with these stories and yet at the same time touched directly in a spiritual way so that their lives would change, and their neighbors would notice. These people would be the first to a neighbors door in their time of griving a death of a loved one, which happened a lot since the average age of life in that empire was under 40 years old. What was the topic of the discussions that were held in people’s homes during the week or in the marketplace? My guess was anything and everything. These people were seeing their hope and faith in God change the way they looked at life, they were not alone as they faced the day-to-day struggles in small cities, rural communities and even in very large pagan-centric metropolitan areas. Those that tended to lead in anyway in these communities led by example and were asked to share their wisdom without a title. Some would call them elders, but the ones with His character would just asked to be called by their own name. Their times together usually centered around a meal if they were not in direct persecution, otherwise they met in the early hours of the morning, or late at night in secret.
This gathering was as informal as any pool party or picnic one might have today. Again the point of these gatherings was sharing, in every aspect of life, what God was impressing on their hearts.
Today, while there are those that meet this way, any time and any place, there are many others who do gather in a special building and listen to mainly one teacher or leader. There is nothing at all inherently wrong with this as long as it all is about helping others to know God and His desire to see with different eyes the circumstances we are in.
The tough part, as many communities of faith have faced over time, is when the state demands compliance and obedience to their agenda. Most communities of faith in the United States have to register and incorporate with the government (501C3) in order to claim the tax free/deductible status that many benefit from. But like anything else with the state, there are unintended consequences of these good intentions.
As someone who had led such churches over the years, Chuck Baldwin has seen over time how the state has muted churches, especially in areas of embarrassment for the United States government that should be obvious for Jesus-followers to spot. His church fellowship chose NOT to file 501C3 status due to the limitations it would have forced on their group.
At what point does a faith community talk openly about these things and as necessary, speak to the state about their immoral decisions and actions. Below you will find excerpts from his latest article about the time for people in the church to talk about the wolves and determine the appropriate non-violent actions to consider:
I have said for years that it’s not what you hear in most churches that is the problem; it is what you don’t hear. The same goes for most conservative politicos. On the issues that are the most parlous to our liberties, the vast majority of Christians and conservatives are silent. I mean totally silent. Here is about all most Christians and conservatives have to say about things: *Donald Trump is very good. *Democrats are very bad. *Israel is very good. *Muslims are very bad (except the Muslims in Saudi Arabia are good). I don’t think I left anything out.
So in the years I have been in and around faith communities, there was this unwritten rules about not talking about “politics”. It was similar to the common saying to steer clear of BOTH politics and religion in marketplace discussions. I think I know why:
In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.
Mark Twain
This then begs the question. Why could the first century communities talk about these things but we can’t today? I would dare say that the first century communities, like those of the Revolutionary War, were in a time when there was much more at stake. Living in the shadow of an Empire that is evil abroad, is bound to be despotic at home. With the atrocities our government has been responsible for in the Middle East, but also in Central and South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, you name it and add to that the more recent erosion of our liberties, the spying on the people, the squandered tax revenue, well I will just let Chuck share his laundry list of offenses this State, this Empire is guilty of:
.. what about America’s War Empire killing innocent people all over the world? Silence. What about America’s War Empire building military bases on Russia’s borders and pushing China’s territorial waters almost to dry land? Silence. What about America’s War Empire selling billions of dollars of weapons and munitions to the terrorists in Saudi Arabia and Israel who can then slaughter tens of thousands of Yemenis and Palestinians with impunity? Silence. What about America’s War Empire dropping thousands of bombs on innocent men, women and children all over the Middle East and Northern Africa? Silence.
I would say that the US Empire’s support of ISIS and the atrocities accomplished in Syria since 2011 is the icing on the cake, yet CRICKETS!
What about 45 years of electing “pro-life” Republicans to Congress and the White House, and the federal government is still fully funding America’s largest abortion provider: Planned Parenthood? Silence. What about 45 years of appointing Republican “pro-life” justices to a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, and Roe v Wade is still the law of the land? Silence. What about the fact that “pro-life” Republicans have controlled the U.S. House of Representatives for 20 of the last 24 years, and no Sanctity of Life bill that provides personhood to the unborn baby has ever been brought to the floor for a vote? Silence. What about the fact that even though a “pro-life” Republican Party has controlled both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government (House, Senate, White House) for no less than 6.6 years during the Bush II and Trump administrations, nothing has been done to overturn Roe v Wade via Article. III. Section. 2. of the U.S. Constitution? Silence.
Yes, the Republican party has a horrible track record when it comes to sanctity of life, the War Against Southern Independence and Sherman’s March is their trademark.
What about the militarization of America’s local and State police agencies? Silence. What about the growing number of unarmed American citizens (especially black citizens) being shot and killed by trigger-happy policemen? Silence. What about Donald Trump calling for the confiscation of firearms without due process? Silence. What about the numerous “red flag” laws being passed by both Republicans and Democrats that authorize police agencies to confiscate the firearms of innocent American citizens who have not harmed a single person, have not committed a single crime nor have even been accused of a crime? Silence.
Nothing says “The Redcoats are coming” like the militarization of those who will be charged with protecting the political class in the near-term with ever more paranoia now with the Yellow-Vest movement in France.
Here are more things you won’t hear most Christians and conservatives talk about: *The Rights of the Colonists, a List of Violations of Rights, and a Letter of Correspondence, by Samuel Adams *Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress *Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms *The American Crisis (No. 1), by Thomas Paine *George Washington’s Farewell Address *Ron Paul’s Farewell Address to Congress *The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights
It is true that in a majority of faith communities, they have been neutered by our government, and this is by design. However, the time has come when we could address this threat, because there is a lot more at stake.
Personally I see the majority of these entities effectively marginalized in being anything that could help the people of this land once yet again deal with an Empire in their face.
Maybe we will see a continuation of an underground faith movement in the United States that can help the people survive and thrive in the middle of a very broken world in the months and years to come. The first century church did this, as well as the underground church in Communist China! I know that this remains my own prayer.
We need to talk about this at the same time the PC/Marxist movement wants NOTHING talked about. It is time to be radical, in love 🙂
It seems that the current state of American society can’t escape the political forces of the so-called left and the neo-con right. Both are addicted to the power of the state to satisfy all their desires for all the dreams they have, and they are willing to force people into this “good world”.
The use of the state for groups, religions, cults and such are nothing new. Jesus himself was trapped by the religious leaders of the day into the state’s snare, and as an innocent man was executed for it. This should give each one of us pause, as it has been said:
“Showme the man, and I’ll show you the crime.”
Lavrentiy Beria, head of Joseph Stalin’s secret police
In the history of the United States there has been many times where groups have convinced the state that certain people or groups were to be violently purged from the “union” violently.
Before Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 there was a fringe group that the Republican’s courted for votes but they gave little traction to, the abolitionists. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that slavery of any type is proper, however, the method by which you employ to remove this condition from people best be the one that works the best for the oppressed themselves, not for the political operatives themselves.
These abolitionists waged a moral war (in their minds) as early as the 1830s in the attempt to get the South to free the negro slaves. The problem was, these people would NEVER want these 3-4 million Negroes in the north, no sir, no ma’am. They wanted to remain apart from the fray that would follow and not want to have any skin in the game themselves. These Yankees always felt better when they could put other people down. It was this attitude early on that actually caused the southern efforts to emancipate the slaves to slow down, stall and then stop. Constantly ridiculed for never doing enough to right the situation yesterday, the single digit percentage of southerners who actually owned slaves just attempted the status quo while the slave industry was dying a slow death on its own.
Just a few years into the war to force the eleven southern states back into the union (actually, Abe would never say that, he just was ending an insurrection .. as VIOLENTLY as possible), Lincoln was fighting for his political life, and with the vision to “save the Union”:
.. failing to continue to motivate politically and emotionally, he turned toward emancipation to rescue his war effort. (It should be noted that this emancipation freed ONLY the slaves that Lincoln had no control of. All the slaves in the areas the Union Army had control of would have to wait until a constitutional amendment was passed in December 1865 to be free) Lincoln mentioned to an associate that this was only in fact, a “war effort”. Violence to the tune of almost 800,000 soldiers dying and many more maimed physically and emotionally for life PLUS tens of thousands of civilians killed and the rest experienced ravaged farms, property and businesses either by Union troops OR by the Reconstruction years that followed. The South would be “dirt poor” for decades. The najority of the Negroes stayed in the south and were hurt by the very means of privation that the north forced on the south, as penance for wanting to leave the “marriage”.
Today, there are another couple groups that are attempting to use the state for their sword of righteousness yet again, similar to how the progressives zealots of the 1920s rolled in prohibition. From this Lew Rockwell article by Thomas DiLorenzo comes some truth-bombs of today’s reality:
The nonstop avalanche of hatred spewing from the hearts of the leftist and neocon political classes in America has the appearance of religious fanaticism on steroids, the kind that must have fueled the Spanish Inquisition. It is not real religion, of course, but the “religion” of statism, that has replaced religious faith in the minds of these nonstop spewers of hate because their “sainted” Hillary Clinton lost the election. To them, Hillary Clinton is more “moral” than the Pope, Mother Theresa, or any other religious figure because to them, “morality” stems not from faith in God or living by the Ten Commandments but from one’s support for leftist ideas, rhetoric, and policies. For socialism, in other words — even if they refuse to call it socialism.
The drive for this utopia has been tried for ages, and still is found wanting. I have yet to find an example of any people group / nation / country that took this road and allowed the common man, woman or child to flourish as a result.
Thomas DiLorenzo continues:
When this first cropped up, about five minutes after Hillary Clinton’s non-concession concession, it reminded me of a run-in I once had a decade or so ago with an acquaintance who I’m sure has been exploding with Trump hatred for the past two years now. He was a senior vice president of a television network and a lifelong Washingtonian. A typical D.C. liberal who lived in Chevy Chase, MD all his life, well inside the Washington orbit. All of his friends, neighbors, and co-workers were just like him, politically speaking. I made the offhand remark that I don’t vote because it “only encourages them” and besides, most of what government does is blatantly unconstitutional (not to be found in Article 1, Section 8). Therefore, voting just helps to legitimize this unconstitutional regime.
The man went completely nuts, shouting that I had attacked his most cherished of all beliefs — voting and “democracy.” He really, really lost it and had no interest whatsover in any civilized discussion of the matter. As far as he was concerned, anyone who expressed such views should be imprisoned for treason, if not hanged. I had attacked his “religion” which, to a lifelong Leftist who has spent his entire adult life declaring his moral superiority over any and all non-Leftists, this was the ultimate insult. To him and millions of other Leftists, Trump’s first inaugural address in which he denounced the entire Washington establishment, as most of it sat right next to him, was a declaration of war on their “religion.” And, in the spirit of their patron “saints” Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, they demand unconditional surrender.
Both the left (who desires another X decades in power so they can “help the poor” some more) and the neo-right (who desires another X decades of military spending) need the one thing that the “right” won’t give them, legally anyway, and that is some good drugs to calm down (as theey desire another X decades of the war on drugs and corporate welfare).
You see, this political turmoil is being brought into every home so all eyes can be on the State, which every religion earnestly wants, to make people dependent on their every move.
Demonstrators wearing Yellow Vests (Gilets jaunes) walk past the Arc de Triomphe (Arc of Triumph) in Paris on November 17, 2018 (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP) / ALTERNATIVE CROP
What brings protestors to state monuments and state capitals? The feeling that they have been done wrong by the state. Was this inevitable? Of course, every state can’t possibly follow through on all the promises its politicians make, ever. There will come a time when the people have had enough of this parasite activity.
The state itself is not being questioned here, just the state’s actions (over time sparked by recent actions as in this case, a gas tax). I question the state because it actually always comes up short on their end of the deal. I think Jesus would agree, when He could have received justice, He got the cross. He knew that would happen, however, it is something we should ALL know, that the state can mean DEATH!
From The Burning Platform, in an ongoing dialog with Doug Casey reflecting on the 1st amendment to the US Constitution that has in it a fourth provision stating the right of assembly:
I’m opposed the very existence of the State. I’m opposed to it on moral grounds, because its essence is coercion. I’m opposed to it on economic grounds, because it’s more a threat to everyone’s property than a guardian of it. On practical grounds, since it’s necessarily inefficient in doing what it’s supposed to do, and does everything it’s not supposed to do. On aesthetic grounds, since it inevitably draws the worst kind of people to its employment. On evidential grounds, since its main products are wars, taxes, regulations, inflation, pogroms, and the like…
… I’ll just say that it speaks poorly of the average person, that he not only thinks the State is necessary, but enthusiastically supports it. And a constitution—whatever its positive aspects—enshrines and legitimizes the idea of the State.
I favor individuals cooperating as individuals, not as cogs in the State’s machine.
Doug Casey – Transcript from Interview with “JB” on The Burning Platform
I contend that while the US police forces, under direction of the federal government in times of crises (“insurrection”) may put up with peaceful assembly that does not destroy property (especially the destruction of state property in their eyes), in time they will remove this right (we still have the natural right, just that the government will not protect us to have this right) as they have done with all the others.
In the future, if the economy gets as bad as I expect, there will be serious riots—which are always a danger when the hoi polloi assemble. There are now means of crowd control much more effective than tear gas. There are beam weapons that, when directed at you, make your skin feel it’s on fire, and will absolutely make you run away and hide. Directional sonic weapons that will make you cover your ears, and run away. Ultra-slippery chemicals that make it impossible to walk. And of course they have means of identifying people in crowds, both with facial recognition and gait recognition. It may not be against the law to assemble, but the “authorities”—if they choose to– can certainly make it unpleasant.
Doug Casey Transcipt in Interview with “JB” on The Burning Platform
Beyond this, there is the whole marginalization scheme that technology has afforded centralized government in measuring individual’s adherence to state policy and narratives and thereby giving them a score that reflects on what a good citizen they are. This then plays a role in what interest rate you might be eligible for or IF government benefits are due you, or not.
There’s no question that the Chinese Social credit system will be adopted in the U.S. You can tell by the way people cherish their Experian and credit scores, even now. Although you’ll theoretically have a right to protest and gather, you could put yourself at risk by doing so. Freedom of Assembly is on its way to becoming a dead letter, if only because of technology.
Doug Casey Transcipt in Interview with “JB” on The Burning Platform
So what is there to know about the recent efforts in France toward making a case that their government has gone to far or failed to uphold their part of the “social contract”? For a more global view of these events in context I will refer to two sources (that I do not always agree with), Eric Margolis via Lew Rockwell and Moon of Alabama:
The storm that is hitting France came out of what looked like a clear blue sky. The angry demonstrators, known as ‘gilets jaunes’ (yellow jackets), for the warning vests all motorists must keep in their cars, inundated Paris last weekend in peaceful protests over the government’s planned increases in fuel prices, which were already among Europe’s highest. As too often in France, violent vandals known as ‘the breakers,’ infiltrated the demonstrators and sought to put the most beautiful parts of Paris to the sack. I watched with horror as the magnificent Arc de Triomphe, France’s premier war memorial, was befouled by spray-can graffiti. The majestic Champs Élysée was ravaged by hoodlums, who smashed showroom windows, burned cars, looted luxury stores and set scores of fires.
As is often the case, a movement, peaceful at first, gets hijacked by those with no principles. This is the hardest way to get government to retract and to do the right things as usually the revolution gets you something worse than what you already had. France’s history has proved this before! (Us in the US should know this as well, for how many of us would willingly go back to the British Empire’s tax rate of 3% that was effective in the American Colonies before the Revolutionary War?)
In a France24 report from a small town in the country side shows extraordinary solidarity between the people. Police passing through an occupied toll road entry sign the protesters petition, other pass by and gift food to the middle-aged protestors. One woman makes an good point. Yes, the violence as seen in Paris last weekend was not nice. But only after last weeks protest went violent were the yellow vests really noted by the media and by the otherwise tone deaf politicians.
Moon of Alabama
It is too bad that the politicians are not close enough to kick in the butt when they misbehave and squander tax revenue for their pet projects and also enter into alignments with other countries that the people do not always appreciated (i.e. EU) This is the very fact that makes me think secession into smaller republics, states, city-states is the peaceful way forward. Having to use violence against private and public property carries its own negative long term unintended consequences.
From Mint Press, who I use to get a more unbiased view (at least not a US Empire centric MSM view) of world events:
The Yellow Vests held their first demonstrations on Saturday, November 17, on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. It was totally unlike the usual trade union demonstrations, well organized to march down the boulevard between the Place de la République and the Place de la Bastille, or the other way around, carrying banners and listening to speeches from leaders at the end. The Gilets Jaunes just came, with no organization, no leaders to tell them where to go or to harangue the crowd. They were just there, in the yellow vests, angry and ready to explain their anger to any sympathetic listener. Briefly, the message was this: we can’t make ends meet. The cost of living keeps going up, and our incomes keep going down. We just can’t take it any more. The government must stop, think and change course.
This is the “sound” of tax slaves that are at the end of their rope. 50% plus income taxes in addition to all the other taxes in place or proposed makes for a life for those on the margins a very tough go with no hope for the future!
There were young women who were working seven days a week and despaired of having enough money to feed and clothe their children. People were angry but ready to explain very clearly the economic issues. Colette, age 83, doesn’t own a car, but explained to whoever would listen that the steep raise of gasoline prices would also hurt people who don’t drive, by affecting prices of food and other necessities. She had done the calculations and figured it would cost a retired person 80 euros per month.
The very real failure of socialism is on display here as it has been in Venezuela for several years, the state in the long run will never live up to its propanganda of utopia!
A significant and recurring complaint concerned the matter of health care. France has long had the best public health program in the world, but this is being steadily undermined to meet the primary need of capital: profit. In the past few years, there has been a growing government campaign to encourage, and finally to oblige people to subscribe to a “mutuelle”, that is, a private health insurance, ostensibly to fill “the gaps” not covered by France’s universal health coverage. The “gaps” can be the 15% that is not covered for ordinary illnesses (grave illnesses are covered 100%), or for medicines taken off the “covered” list, or for dental work, among other things. The “gaps” to fill keep expanding, along with the cost of subscribing to the mutuelle. In reality, this program, sold to the public as modernizing improvement, is a gradual move toward privatization of health care. It is a sneaky method of opening the whole field of public health to international financial capital investment. This gambit has not fooled ordinary people and is high on the list of complaints by the Gilets Jaunes.
In the end, the state is a parasite, and efforts however novel (i.e. US Constitution), will fail time and again in this broken world.
Putting your trust in the state is madness IF you research it long enough. Do not forget history, even if the state indoctrinates you to.
‘Democracy, the God that Failed’ is an epic book by Hans-Herman Hoppe that suggests that a monarchy is better than democracy [which is better than socialism, marxism and communism, but are all collectives in nature].. at least with a king, they want to give their heirs a better kingdom .. but as 1 Samuel 8 shows, even God says there are some significant drawbacks to having a king:
“.. Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day. ” – 1 Samuel 8:10-18
SF1 in an e-mail sent out this past week
So if God’s view is that even monarchy is never ideal, what is?
As a child of a “broken home” back when it was much less common, in the late 1960s, I was routinely asked by my new friends about my parents. When I mentioned that they were divorced, my new friends would say “sorry”. I would say “don’t be sorry, it is actually better this way”. You see, for over five years before the separation (divorce was final after X months of separation in those days I guess) I lived in a very NON peaceful environment. While the arguing did not always happen in front of me, it did happen at night when they thought I was sleeping. I am sure others had it much worse as the frustration led to physical abuse of the kids in the home, but after years of hearing crying, shouting, the whole range of emotion, I felt very much at peace in the separation year and beyond. These two people in my life, that gave me life, when together could not find a peaceful path forward.
Now think about what is called the “united” States of America (USA). Can anyone find peace today as politics, narratives, intrusive government (and government linked) spying on every aspect of our lives flourish? Those that pull the levers love to pit us against each other and emphasize our differences and cause us to focus on each other instead of the root of the issue that has cause discord, violence and lack of trust 360 degrees.
In an article by the Abbeville Institute, a very astute writer renders a fairly short piece that should give everyone pause in what is going on. Maybe there is a path forward that includes a lot more peace than we experience today. However, this will take some critical thinking and a bit of pushing aside old narratives that we have always believed to be true. This thought consideration involves the S-word, you know, the one that most believe is the dagger to the heart of this republic as we have been taught in both public and many non-public schools. That word is secession.
Lately, this word has gotten more air time from the same people that months ago (when Obama was President) would scoff at such an idea, but with Trump in office, they all now are thinking about this . Even California has had interest in this road forward.
Below I will quote some prime examples of GOOD secession that has brought decades of peace as well as some wisdom from those who helped design our republic:
in 1991, 15 states peacefully seceded from the Soviet Union and the world applauded
How was this divorce not good? You tell me. The collectivism of the old Soviet Union had ruined families, finances, the environment and involved so many levels of corruption that the whole things was going bankrupt. (Sound familiar?)
Says Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Joseph Priestley in January of 1804, “Whether we remain in one confederacy, or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I believe not very important to the happiness of either part. Those of the Western confederacy will be as much our children and descendents as those of the Eastern, and I feel myself as much identified with that country, in future time, as with this: and did I now foresee a separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty and the desire to promote the Western interests as zealously as the Eastern, doing all the good for both portions of our future family which should fall within my power.”
Was Jefferson wrong? Actually, there were many in the North about this time were also considering secession, especially around the War of 1812. Research the Hartford Convention held in Hartford, CT from 1814-1815.
1796 Election – showing real split between New England and the South
In Canada, Quebec nearly seceded in 1995, Scottish secession was narrowly defeated in 2014, Catalonian secession was voted on in 2017 and Brexit (the secession of England from the European Union) continues to be an important topic of discussion.
I do believe that people are figuring out that bigger is not necessarily better. The USA, being trillions in debt having spent almost $6T on the war on terror alone since 2001 (not including money not accounted for by the Pentagon or the CIA’s black budget). The path forward, together, arguing about finances is never good for a family!
– Thomas Paine
“For over 2000 years, most governmental bodies were not much larger than the Athens city state. But since the French Revolution, governments have adopted attitudes of ‘monster states’.” The thought was that in America, new states or even city states – like Cantons in Switzerland – would be carved out of secession from older states.
While this is not an exact recipe for peace, and can merely reset the clock that ticks toward another world war, it is something that “could” bless this land. As this author stated earlier in this article:
Driving the 10+ hour trip to Dallas on Friday, opting to traverse the backroads through small towns, passing through the already somewhat seceded communities of native Americans in Oklahoma, and witnessing the flavor of life scattered throughout the hills and plains of the Midwest, I couldn’t help but be thoughtfully impressed by the diversity of people that I encountered. Men, women, old, young. Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Native American. Many areas could readily be seen as being predominantly Christian, with signs proclaiming the sanctity of life, or where one’s eternal destination might lay. But on the flip side in other more “progressive” urban areas, I could also see the glaring evidence of an unfortunate and obvious animosity between those who clearly don’t share the same views as their more conservative neighbors.
Amen. In the last few weeks, I too had the privileged of driving some distances through urban, suburban and rural areas and found the diversity of economics and core principles extremely significant. Also, over the past decade plus I have commuted regularly in an area of the Midwest to see two to three sides of most states. Whether it is Chicago or southern IL, Detroit and the UP of MI, or even Atlanta and rural GA, there remains a significant difference of vision, mission and values that seem to be increasingly incompatible in almost every region of the USA.
Key to going down this path I believe is to learn from history, foreign as well as domestic. Those in power today will not relinquish that power quickly or easily and revolution has rarely produced a freer people as a result.
We know what happens when seven states exit LEGALLY. Do you think the same (or worse) collective government would allow any place inside the US borders to leave, peacefully?
At the end of the day, one has to hope for a better future for our kids and grand-kids while at the same time to be grounded in the reality that without some divine intervention, this whole thing could end real bad, especially if those who are desperate enough opt for the nuclear option.
Conclusions? Yeah, no. If you have faith, pray, dialog. If you don’t have faith, try it and see if in the quite you can hear Hope in the middle of this storm. Beyond this, prepare as your gut guides you, for you, your family and for your community. Be vigilant, do your research and always question the narrative that is being forced on us all. Maybe, just maybe, a peaceful secession can be had. History tells us that we will always have wars and rumors of wars, but we can read about times of peace that flood in for a season and blesses a people can happen as well. Pray.
