What Is to Be Done?

I just sent this email to an acquaintance who lives in my county and who asks what is to be done:

The conservative movement hasn’t been successful, and the Republican Party has proven itself to be an enemy of liberty much like the Democratic.   One stumbling block is public opinion.  It is not unlike the fall of Rome.  By the first or second century few people living in Rome had any understanding of the republican form of government. They had immigrated there from the conquered provinces, and if they chose to remain in Rome often it was often because of the welfare benefits that Augustus and his successors had developed (bread and circus: free grain, free entertainment, free food).   

America has increasingly become a nation of beggars and welfare cheats; there is little understanding of Jeffersonian individualism, especially among those educated in New York’s and similar public schools; increasingly, Americans are motivated by lust for subsidies and handouts. This starts at the top--on Wall Street.  If the public was comfortable with the bailout and with the monetary policies that have been pursued since ‘08, there is no limit to how much wealth transfer they will accept. 

This is not the America of Jefferson,  of Grover Cleveland, or even of Franklin Roosevelt.  I do not think there is much hope for democratic change.  Secession, nullification, or a breaking off of freedom-loving Americans in a new polity are possible paths, but they can’t be executed now.   Relocation to another country is feasible now, and I am planning at least a partial relocation.  

To do more, there will need to be a further breakdown in federal power.  That might occur as the dollar falls to ever lower levels and America finds that the federal government is not sustainable. That might happen within our lifetimes.  I’m sorry to say it, but there needs to be more chaos before anything important can happen.  Rather than waste time with political activity, it might be more useful to spend your time educating yourself, building a game plan, and winning over others to a vision of an alternative.  There is no point in defending an American system that already has disappeared.  

Where Do We Go From Here?

In 1776 the nation's population was over three million, yet it produced leaders like Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and Adams. These were men of integrity, inner-directed, with a strong moral sense. Today America's population is over 300 million, 100 times larger, but our leaders lack vision, integrity and understanding. Part of the difference may be the transition from inner to other directedness that occurred beginning in the late nineteenth century as the media and centralized banking became dominant. This transformation led to professionalization of work, increased specialization, larger scale enterprise and personality that tends to be reflecting instead of visionary. Leadership is not a trait associated with fashionableness or consumerism.

America traded its moral vision for a Model T Ford and a radio broadcast.

The question is not so much where do we go from here, but rather what in ourselves inhibits greatness. America is only as great as its people. But a people addicted to mass consumption, groupthink, conformity and fashionable trends cannot be great.

Americas' coming economic decline is a product of the spiritual mediocrity to which America has been committed since the Progressive era. It is a product of the exchange of consumption for morals. It can be repaired only when Americans insist on thinking for themselves; on educating themselves as to liberty; and on freeing themselves from the addiction to fear, consumption and conformity that has dominated urban American society for the past century. From that transformation leadership and greatness will evolve.