Candace de Russy and St. Augustine on American Decline

My friend Candace de Russy makes interesting points on Big Journalism.com. De Russy observers that former Justice Department attorney Christian Adams has repeatedly brought to the media's attention shocking revelations that the Obama administration has instructed lawyers to disregard cases involving white victims and black perpetrators; has insisted that the DOJ's election law division NOT enforce voter fraud laws particulary concerning fraudulent voting by non-citizens; and "is now considering a submission by Ike Brown, a Democratic Party Chairman in Mississippi, to run elections in Mississippi, even though a federal court already stripped him of that authority after he victimized minority white voters and otherwise prevented people from voting based on their party loyalties."

All of this smacks of racism in the Obama administration, which is not news.  Obama's followers are left wing brownshirts. But the story had some synchronicity with a book I'm reading, Book One of St. Augustine's City of God. 

Augustine, originally from North Africa, wrote in the last years of the Roman Empire. His arguments in Book One oppose the claim that Rome's adoption of Christianity led to Alaric's sacking of the city and the Empire's ultimate fall.  Augustine argues that self indulgence led to Rome's fall.   Here and now we have a president elected on the basis of public whim and hysteria who adopts socialist policies that repeatedly have been associated with decline.  America's self indulgent prosperity sounds something like the prosperity that Augustine argues led to Rome's fall (Book I, chapter 31):

"And greed and sensuality in a people is the result of that prosperity which the great Nascia in his wisdom maintained should be guarded against when he opposed the removal of a great and strong and wealthy enemy state. His intention was that lust should be restrained by fear, and should not issue in debauchery, and that the check on debauchery should stop greed from running riot. With those vices kept under restraint, the morality which supports a country flourished and increased, and permanence was given to the liberty which goes hand-in-hand with such morality."

While the construction of theaters, one of Augustine's concerns, does not trouble me the decline in American morality does. The nation no longer takes democracy or the moral principles on which democracy depends seriously.  Part of the problem is the decline of public debate because of the poor quality of the most popular media outlets.  Just as with Rome, American decline is a long process.  It began more than a century ago and is accelerating.

Mr. Obama is hardly of interest to me at this point.   I do not doubt that his administration is ugly, corrupt and stupid, nor do I doubt that the media that whisked him into office is dysfunctional and destructive.  None of these institutions are worth worrrying about because they are not worth saving.  America must be reconstructed from the bottom up.  We are living in the days of American democracy's well-deserved collapse.

James Crum on Our Spiritual Crisis

I just received the following e-mail from James Crum:

>Our problem is not economic, or political…It is spiritual, and I fear greatly that our nation has been handed over to evil men with poor intentions. A self absorbed citizenry, greed, lack of personal responsibility on all levels, a willfully ignorant press, and a dysfunctional social contract have turned America on its head. Once this debacle savages the average American, they will give the issue their strict attention, but where they focus the blame will be an issue.

Mitchell, right now, I recommend reading City of God by Augustine. His times were similar to our own as the known order begins to collapse, and chaos is all around. Piracy, dangerous cities, mass migration, immense political corruption, the list goes on. He straddled the river between antiquity and medeival times. I think that is where we could head, but so much is not yet determined.

I live in a very nice suburb in Chicago metro, but now even our our area is becoming a concern. Not too long ago, five people were murdered at a local shopping mall. Our neighbor's son (17) was carjacked at a gas station, beaten, then dumped onto I- 80. The police caught the perpetrator, and then told the family to not press charges because the gang is too violent. I had a better idea to the Chief of Police- try shooting them as they tried to escape...no one would know or care. Everyday we are getting robberies in very good, affluent areas.

I am retrenching financially as I am able. My wife is stocking a pantry. I am looking into our property in northern Arkansas for a new home once the children have moved out. Firearms and fishing gear are on the list of shopping items. I do not see this going away for many years.

Billy Grahman said something to this effect a bit ago. We have called evil good, and good evil, and so the entire society suffers for it.


We need another Great Awakening... Jonathan Edwards, where are you?