Re-Posted by Dr. Shanon Brooks on September 23, 2014 monticellocollege.org/
I've been angry for a while now.
I've been angry for a while now.
When I turned 50, I took pause and reflected on my life,
presuming that I was at the halfway point (yes, I intend to live to see 100).
I thought about my childhood in the 60’s and early 70’s.
I reminisced my high school years and realized that my
topsy-turvy life to that point had pretty well mirrored the turbulence of the
era.
I remembered my fear of possibly being drafted into the
Vietnam Conflict (I missed it by several years, but the possibility still
seemed very real at the age of 15) and my full participation in the Cold War
aboard a nuclear submarine shadowing Soviet ships of war.
Shortly after my military discharge, I became painfully
aware of the poor state of my country and just how much had been lost, and I
dedicated the balance of my life to the restoration of the America given us by
her founders.
But then came 9/11 and the torrent of bad choices made by
the American citizenry and its political leaders following that tragedy. The
Patriot Act, the continuation of wars that we could never hope to win with the
adopted management policies—that were and still are being used—the gargantuan
unjustified economic bailouts and the rapid decline of the US dollar by the
alarming leadership of the Federal Reserve, and the unabashed implementation of
socialized medicine by all three branches of the federal government destroying
any hope of restoring liberty and personal responsibility.
So by the beginning of 2011, I was disgusted with our
“stage four” situation and began contemplating what could be done about it.
Obviously, there was no political party to look to, and political activism by
concerned citizens was having no more real impact than it had during the
previous two decades.
By 2013, the pain I was feeling in my heart about the
decline of my country began to turn to indignation towards those responsible
for leading my country down this slippery slope. Short of building our college
and impacting a few hundred students a year, for which I still feel very
determined, I felt powerless regarding the country at large until fate brought
a few outstanding individuals into my life that sparked some real creativity, turning
my indignation into a steady slow fury, and leading to my current process of
thinking. What follows is that process.
Considered one of the ten most influential books in the
United States, Man’s Search for Meaning, has sold over 10 million copies and
has been translated into 24 languages.
In this pivotal volume, Viktor Frankl chronicles his
experiences as an Auschwitz concentration camp inmate during World War II.
At one point he states that freedom is a dangerous and
destructive force unless it is tempered or harnessed by personal
responsibility.
Think of it—without an active, personal sense of
responsibility, the almost proprietary concept of American freedom could
actually be a destructive force that does harm and diminishes human dignity.
The message of this series of posts is—freedom—political,
economic, religious, gender, and racial.
My goal is to give you a lot to think about, and to
motivate you to make some changes in your current approach to financial and
political autonomy.
This is not another rant about politics, political
parties, or Washington discord; as much as those topics might warrant another
hearing.
I respect and honor all actively involved citizens
regardless their political leanings because the greatest act of citizenship and
the strongest check on abusive government is the actively involved citizen.
I do not see others with different political views from
mine as the problem. The problem—are
those who do nothing.
This post is about the attack on the American family and
the millions who allow it to happen by default. I am choosing the word “attack”
because whether is it intentional or not, the end result of American politics
today is the serious assault on small business owners and the American family.
And the majority of the country is watching it happen without lifting a finger.
Few would disagree when I say that the
fault is our adulterated political system and its political parties.
Speaking of political parties—which party is safeguarding
the sanctity and financial stability of the family? Which party?
Neither. Unless you see more and more government subsidy
as the right solution.
Which party puts the interests of our children ahead of
their own power struggles?
Neither. In fact, both republicans and democrats are
heavily promoting an educational system that seems more interested in mining
student and family data than preparing our children for successful, secure, and
happy futures.
Both parties continue to pass mountains of law that make
it harder and harder to provide an honest family living. As true as this is, it
could not be happening if the majority of Americans took a stand against it.
So why are most Americans standing idly by watching the
destruction of our once most beloved nation? That is the question that I want
to take a few posts to explore.
America is sick. The test results are back and they
confirm that our beloved nation is suffering from a potentially fatal illness
called Enervation. Enervation is the lack of desire or the inability to do
those things that must be done to protect ourselves and our families from
corporate and/or governmental abuse.
To give you an example, let’s talk about the adoption of
Universal Health Care! Or Obamacare! Or The Affordable Healthcare Act! Whatever
you want to call it.
There are two clear opinions. You either love it or you hate it.
But that’s not the problem.
The problem is that in a democratic society like ours,
these kinds of things should be part of the daily discourse. Something this
divisive should stimulate tons of adult dialogue, sit-ins, shaved heads, local
political debates, protests…And on both sides of the aisle.
Where is the heated and loyal support in favor of such a
social remedy? Where are the avid public supporters of Universal Health Care?
On the other hand, where is the public outrage against such a measure? Where are the protests? Those against this
law should not rest until it has been abolished. Those in favor should stay vigilant against
it being over turned.
The illness of Enervation from which America suffers is a
lack of political will. Political will or political autonomy is a by-product of
personal responsibility. When we cease to be personally responsible for our
surroundings and our communities—our reality, we lose power to maintain or
change it.
But how do we lose our sense of personal
responsibility? The loss of personal
responsibility occurs when we lose our financial autonomy. How does this
happen? How do the citizens of a nation with the greatest system of government
and the most freedoms of any nation on earth, become so apathetic?
To answer this I want to share some predictions from
Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy In America. In the 1830’s during his first
American tour, Tocqueville, a French aristocrat and jurist said that if
Americans did not vigilantly guard their freedoms through personal
responsibility, they would lose them Democracy in America Image[Americans] are constantly
excited by two conflicting passions: they want to be led, and they wish to
remain free.
As they cannot destroy either the one or the other of
these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once.
They devise a sole, tutelary [guardian], and all-powerful
form of government, but elected by the people.They combine the principle of centralization and that of
popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite: they console themselves for
being in tutelage [guardianship] by the reflection that they have chosen their
own guardians.
In other words, because Americans wanted to avoid
personal responsibility, Tocqueville predicted that they would create
governmental institutions that would protect them from cradle to grave. But because they wished to remain free, they
would naively believe that by retaining the power of suffrage they could
control the very individuals who would keep them in this enervative state.
Tocqueville uses the term “guardian” several times, so I
looked it up to get a better perspective: Guardian
A person lawfully invested with the power, and charged
with the duty, of taking care of a person and managing the property and rights
of another person, who for defect of age, understanding, or self-control, is
considered incapable of administering his own affairs. – Black’s law
Dictionary, 6th edition
According to Tocqueville over 170 years ago, government
dependence leads to the eventual need for 100% federal guardianship including
health care to housing to food to personal finances. When Financial Autonomy is
gone, our sense of personal responsibility weakens and shrivels. Shrinking
personal responsibility will always lead to a lack of political will.
Since 87% of all American hate their jobs and the vast
majority are experts at living Clason’s law (living above one’s income), the
average American finds themselves in financial “survival mode” and feels little
hope of securing the American Dream of Financial Autonomy. As they cannot
succeed at providing properly for themselves, they cannot even conceive of how
to help others or the nation at large.
