Article by Peter Skurkiss in The American Thinker
The only alternative to a Great Divorce between the states is Caesarism
There has been more talk of late of a divorce between the states or
in other words, seccession. What is prompting this is the continuing
failure and corruption of the institutions that the country relies on to
maintain a constitutional republic. Congress is viewed as being more
representative of big money interests than anything else, and a shadow
of distrust and doubt is cast over once respected institutions such as
the Supreme Court, the military, the FBI, and the Federal Reserve.
Many
conservatives hope the 2022 and the 2024 elections will arrest this
situation. Others think the rot is too far gone for meaningful reform
even if Republicans sweep those elections. One of the root problems is
that a significant proportion of the population is incapable of
self-government. Generations have been poorly served by the public
schools. They have effectively been dumbed down. And the whole country
is further debased by the popular culture to the point where virtue,
manliness, and responsibility is a joke to many. On top of that, the
country is being flooded with swarms of immigrants who for the most part
hold beliefs and attitudes that are unsuited for the American form of
self-government.
An even more intractable problem
is that the elites who are the shepherds of society are themselves
divorced from the American people. Instead of practicing noblesse oblige as
had been done in the past, they scheme to line their own pockets
while sneering at the working class for its "outmoded beliefs." Call it
what you will, but this is a form of hatred for one's own country.
As Ecclesiastes wrote,
there's nothing new under the sun. All this is in tune with
the historic 'cycle of regimes' as was expressed by Machiavelli this
way.
Thus they [societies] are always descending from good to bad and rising from bad to good. For virtue gives birth to quiet, quiet to leisure, leisure to disorder, disorder to ruin; and similarly, from ruin, order is born, from order, virtue; and from virtue, glory and good fortune.
America had its time of leisure when
silliness was the rule of the day. Now it appears we're on the cusp of a
disorder phase. As to virtue, it is to society like salt is to meat.
It's a preservative. Once the salt is gone, decay sets in. One of the
hallmarks of virtue is honesty and an abhorrence to lies and liars.
Another trait of virtue is courage, the courage to speak the objective
truth despite the consequences. So where is virtue in today's
America? It's certainly not found in government. It's laughable to look
for it in the mainstream media, in the entertainment world, or in our
universities. A case can be made that these institutions are actually
anti-virtuous. And sadly, virtue is even absent in many places
of worship. By any measure, virtue is a rare commodity in the U.S.
That takes us to an insight from John Adams who said: "Our Constitution was
made for a moral [virtuous] and religious people. It is whole
inadequate to the government of any other." Or to put it another way: Only a virtuous people are capable of governing themselves
So
if the salt of virtue is gone, what's to keep the country from flying
apart? Is our arrogant ruling class which has spent decades disparaging
national unity and calling the middle class 'racist,' all of a sudden
going to humbly ask those they've trampled on to sit down and
sing 'Kumbaya' with them? Doubtful. Rather, the day is coming when the
only thing able to hold the country together will be raw power and
force.
At some point, maybe not next year but in
five or ten years hence, the country will take one of two paths. One is
the divorce among states and/or areas of states. The other is a dictator
-- a Caesar, an authoritarian who dispenses with the restrictions of
the Constitution and law for the sake of "getting things done." Caesar
is a distinct possibility. If there's any semblence of
a societal breakdown, people will support a strong man because they
crave security above all else .
Nobody can say which path America will take, but it is clear that the current state of affairs is untenable.
