03-17-2021
Last week American Thinker, one of my favorite websites, published a condensed version of the article we titled “Boundaries”. Before that, and since, I have received multiple encouraging comments. I really don’t want to be a blogger, but I have always written. I have essays and the beginnings of ideas and research notes and 6 books either finished or close enough that I could have any one of them ready in a couple of months.
The problem is always the same. Few people read and I never know when I am repeating myself or breaking something down that is obvious. This is just how I think, from the bottom up. So please understand, as a anti-social ardent history nut job, I truly appreciate the support and encouragement. I am not trying to talk down to anyone or bully them with my opinions; although sometimes it may seem so. I am trying to do a small part in awakening folks to the urgent and critical point in history that we find ourselves in. As Larry Elder says in closing his Utube videos. “That’s all folks. Time to go. I got a country to save.”
This is the attitude I want to pass along; that all of us need to stand up and be counted. But before we stand up we need to know what we think. There are too many people already regurgitating material and too many people preaching to the choir. That does not change things. Changing the world requires independent thought, constant self educating, periodic reappraisal. It is not a young person’s fault that they do not understand communism. There was never a need to. It is not anyone’s fault they do not have a firm grasp of the Revolutionary War. No one taught them. So in my writing I am constantly building from the bottom, attempting to put context to the absolute bullshit that is propagated by the media and the schools.
As much as I doubt the value to these blogs, I want everyone to feel free to share links to knowthycountry.com. In a very short time we have posted a plethora of articles and essays tied to the timeline since November 2020. That’s when I freaked out and realized, “It’s worse than I thought…”
Within a year there will be more than enough material for a book, or fragments could be combined to create a 101 class. I have no interest in either. But if any of this can be helpful in any way, I am prepared to do my duty.
I am not afraid of cancel culture. I am not afraid of ANTIFA or BLM or the gestapo now being created by our overlords. I relish the day they come for me because having a clear conscience is my biggest goal in life. Quality matters more to me than quantity and if this all seems a bit morose then back up and remember the Boy Scouts before they destroyed themselves. “Be prepared” was their motto.
Preparation is akin to devising a life strategy. In fact, it is a part of it. For every good idea ever formulated, 50 bad ideas had to be floated. So by preparing for the most unlikely event, we are more certain of where we stand and how to move forward. It’s like owning a gun. Before you buy it, you must be committed to using it if needed. Otherwise, it’s a complete waste of time.
And I can dovetail this thought straight to the founding fathers.
These men were highly trained in classical thinking. That’s actually where I wish to head next in these letters. The loss of the classics has devastated us. Yet, classical thought – philosophy, sociology, the humanities, logic – survived for more than 2,000 years precisely because of its value and truth. That’s why we call them “classics”. Our entire knowledge base is predicated upon one idea atop another. We improve this way, within ourselves, within society, and within government – provided we are building with good material.
George Washington had to know there was a bounty on his head. Likewise Hancock and Revere and even Adams and Franklin before they became diplomats. Being a revolutionary is risky business. Yet today, we see fear wherever we look. Our founders had faith. You know the axiom. “Courage is not the opposite of fear. Faith is.” But faith in what?
How bout faith in knowing freedom is just and anything less than freedom is unjust. What about faith in the sanctity of private property – that what you create of your own toil should belong to you? That stealing is wrong. That debate is healthy because none of us is always right? That respect and responsibility are key to relationships and civil society? That honesty really is the best policy? That principles should always outweigh personalities?
Our founders believed in all that corny stuff. And to them, it wasn’t corny at all. Ideals were meant to be sought after in the ongoing altruistic search for the perfection of the human being. Excellence is not confined to athletics or craftsmanship. Excellence of character was once the object of education. Now there’s a long lost classic.
I often blame zealous Christianity for turning so many people away from the good. Aristotle sought the good, as did so many thinkers who may not have been religious. But Christianity also provided guidance and structure for a society where education was not so easy to obtain. It established the morality of Western Civilization is a way no secular form of thought could. It unified countries in spite of the wrongs that accompanied painful dialectic progress. We people have always been a work in progress and that is why our current social / political / economic condition is so troubling. We are walking backwards at a clip that will cost us decades to recover from.
We lack a firm foundation because we have become so conceited as a society. Morality has become relative instead of absolute. We jump on new theories and assume they are correct. We use statistics to support our emotional urges. We leap frog whenever something comes along to contradict us. We believe our technology makes us superior. In fact, our technology is handicapping us.
The leftists are correct in one way. We need a reset. But not a financial reset or a judicial compromise. We need to reset our priorities and re establish a “moral” necessity. We need to abandon our current educational system and start over again. Gaming the system should not be cause for reward. Taking advantage of others should not be a strategy to success. Bearing false witness should not be acceptable any more than directly lying to the public. Yet this is what I see when I look beyond my doors. The excuse is always the same. “Everyone else is doing it.”
Today my own faith is founded in the resiliency of mankind. With many more years behind me than in front, I realize I will not see the resurgence of decency and moral creativity that I know is needed. But it may come. It can come. It is possible. My generation is uniquely situated having begun in a turbulent yet puritanical world and living to see more peace, more comfort, and far less honesty in the end. Now comes more turbulence.
Ask yourself what caused the founding fathers and an entire generation of colonists to throw away their lives and risk it all for nothing but a feeble dream to control their own destiny. They were not risking being canceled, rather the noose was what awaited them. And remember that they constituted only one half of the population. The rest remained loyal to the king.