Thoughts on America

Each day social media seems filled with people chanting for the destruction of the United States. Interestingly enough, many of these people are not only recent immigrants, but citizens themselves, most of them, it seems, under thirty. They rail against the nation, its political directions, the economy, and just about everything else that makes the nation run. They disparage our institutions as unjust, based on their notions of what just is, decry inequality of outcome, insisting that should be the standard. Further, they posit Marxist tropes, couching them in the thin veil of academic double speak that does little more than cloud the issue, making it so complex as to not be understood by anyone but the enlightened ones…themselves. Then, they pat themselves on the back for their ingenuity in creating arguments so nuanced in their own minds, only they can understand them.

These advocates of the dissolution of the United States seem to revel in the chaos that would create, hoping beyond hope that by such dissolution a phoenix will arise from the rubble of our Constitution, a magical event possible only by burning the entire nation to the ground. Rather than hold our politicians accountable for their action or inaction through the vote, these revolutionaries, a title they hold in high regard only because they’ve never been through one before, advocate for the death of the nation. While they might be a vocal minority on the internet, they are there nonetheless, some hiding in plain sight and daring others to challenge them.

They are street corner activists, Hollywood blowhards, and delusional would-be martyrs who, like Nero, see themselves fiddling while Rome burns. It’s an astonishing thing to see the slow implosion of the West, the almost willful ruination of a civilization built over time by the very methods other nations and civilizations were built: conquest, ingenuity, work ethic, and solid economics. One might argue those points, but a cursory look at the historical record in general supports those broad conclusions.

The question that never seems to be answered is what would happen if the United States did dissolve, collapsing on top of itself as a building might collapse because of an earthquake. Where would our leaders come from? Where would our services come from? Who would survive? How would the remaining populace survive en masse? There are myriad other questions to answer as well, questions those advocating for “death to America” have yet thought out. Easier to shout slogans than arrive at solutions. Much easier to act as a semi-deluded college student with images of flower children and 1960s protests dancing in their heads than actual thinking adults with future concerns. Certainly, it is much easier to block traffic as hard-working people are attempting to get to their jobs, knowing the consequences will be minor than to simply be a productive member of society.

Conformity is a dirty word to those in that camp, but it doesn’t change the fact none of them have an answer for what might happen should the government collapse and there truly is “death to America.”

If other world revolutions are a guide, then the following probably is our fate should any of that “death to America” come to pass:

First, chaos in the streets. Fighting, murder, and wanton disregard for the rule of law. Petty dictators would arise demanding tribute and the rule “only the strongest survive” would come into play. We don’t have to look too far in the past to see that very thing happen…remember CHAZ (CHOP)? That makeshift “community” set up in Seattle? It was supposed to be the summer of love, another reference to the 1960s, but instead a semi-dictator arose, one with guns in his trunk, and took control. So much for the summer of love.

Even during the French Revolution, the one the West harkens back to the most, had something of a dictator arise…his name was Maximillian Robespierre, the very same who was part of the Committee of Public Safety, an organization that executed anyone suspected of being against the Revolution. Arrest by accusation alone, show trial, and then beheading. Why? Get rid of anyone not in favor of what the Revolution stood for, and that was freedom from tyranny. Eventually Robespierre was executed himself, only to give rise to Napoleon Bonaparte.

Italy went the same way under Mussolini, he who famously “at least made the street cars run on time.” There was also Germany under Hitler, and of course the Soviet Union and China under their succession of dictators, Stalin and Mao respectively, the latter engineering a coup over twenty years. When society collapses, chaos is the result and dictators rise, as does the body count. This is not in dispute.

The economy would collapse. These would-be revolutionaries, those that portend to champion equality, think it’s unequal now? History shows, almost without exception, inequality increases with chaos, it doesn’t decrease. Even in the Soviet Union and other Marxist utopias there was economic inequality, with the wealth concentrated at the top, resting in the hands of Politburo members with their luxurious homes along the Black Sea and custom Mercedes Benz autos. In Cuba, Fidel Castro was worth some 800 million dollars upon his death. Equality they say? Absolutely, if one is at the top of the power pyramid. Let us not delude ourselves in this. Greed and power transcend these notions of utopia so championed by those who wish for America’s demise.

Social order would cease to exist as we know it, the rule of law dictated by those who are the strongest. This, also, is not in dispute, and has played out constantly throughout history. Grand notions of peace and love so advocated by what I will refer to as the 1960s Dreamers is little more than a pipe dream. There are periods of peace, but humans are not peaceful, despite movies that wish to tell us otherwise. Pie is always in the sky.

Anarchy, another such solution as a social construct is not tenable, and never has been on a large scale, and all the pontificating by professors and academics whose entire lives revolve around thinking and books, but very little in the reality of life, cannot change that fact.

Even the great thinker John Locke, the one most cited in our Declaration of Independence, and the great champion of freedom from monarchy stated specifically one’s right to freedom does not result in a state of “free license,” meaning yes, humans are born entirely free, however this freedom does not guarantee them a state of license for which to do anything they so choose. By living in a society there are boundaries, a tradeoff of sorts. They trade off their complete freedom to do as they wish for entering a contract with others (think – nation) wherein they give up some of their individual rights for a common-sense civil government that will enforce the law of nature and therefore provide freedom.

Sounds complicated but it isn’t.

Anarchy is not successful, and never has been despite those pundits and political theorists who advocate for its acceptance. The reason is simple: people are, by nature, whether we like it or not, power hungry. A state of anarchy or absolute freedom will ultimately result in chaos. Order is needed and despite what we prefer sometimes, order is mandatory. There must be some rules, and someone or somebody to enforce said rules.

Hence, our Constitution.

It is an attempt to allow states to remain free to choose their own direction by democratic participation of its residents (state level voting), and a federal [national] government that stitches together the states to provide for the common defense as well as foster economic growth and cooperation among the states, to name a few things outlined in the Constitution.

Remove that…remove it all. Death to the United States. Ok…done. Then what?

To date, the current weakness of the United States on the world stage has allowed the increase of war and violent interactions worldwide. On the local level, prosecutors in the most liberal states among us have lost control of their cities/states. Violence and lawlessness are at record levels in some places. Each day we hear of police getting executed, teachers and police leaving the profession, and lawlessness increasing. Authority is no longer respected in so many locations across our nation; our borders are wide open allowing unvetted individuals unfettered access to our nation and its bounty much to the detriment of our citizens. Violent criminals are set free, often without bail, and we wonder why the state of American cities is decaying.

“It’s ok,” we’re told, “for compassion must rule the day,” all while so many chant “death to America.”

Do those that utter that chant believe with such an occurrence things will magically improve? Where has that ever happened? Where is the evidence? And at what cost?

Political philosophies, academic speculation and dreams of the self-appointed gurus mean little outside of the academic and philosophical world. Reality means everything, and the reality is the dissolution of the United States, “death to America” would lead to unprecedented chaos, actual death, street combat, and unfettered violence the likes of which we have not seen since the Civil War, something no one alive today was around to witness.

This is the price paid for a society that has not faced true hardship, had to endure true difficulty as the Greatest Generation did. Complacency, laziness, and a softening of the national spirit.

Where do we go from here?

Back to the beginning. Back to the so-called outdated notions of faith and family. Back to the idea of depending on oneself rather than the government to fix our ills. Back to the founding principles of this nation, one in which limited federal government involvement in our lives was paramount. One in which we come back to understanding ideology or party is not our salvation but our demise. We need to return to the notion that we get to keep what we work for, that less taxation results in an increase in federal government revenues.

We need to remember no matter our religion, our skin tone, our cultures, that being a citizen of this nation means we are one people, and that at times, the nation as a whole must supersede our individual desires. We need to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when we teach our history, a history not colored by our craving to foster a narrative, but a truthful look at the past mixed with the realization that historical context matters, but that the present, with the book of history as our guide, is paramount if we are going to continue our march forward. If we fail to do any of those things, we will suffer the same fate as those before us, and then there will truly be a death to America