The prior post (Look There For A Sign) quoted Octavio Paz’s maxim, “Every time a society finds itself in crisis it instinctively turns its eyes towards its origins and looks there for a sign.”
The post also observed, “I see precious few folks today turning their eyes to our origins in order to seek answers….”
In other words, either Paz was in error, or our society does not consider our current conundrum to rise to the level of crisis.
Current polling suggests that most Americans, of all persuasions, do believe we are in crisis; if so, then Paz is in error, at least with regards to America. Which, as with most things in life, is nothing new. Jeremiah urged the people of his day, who knew they were behind the proverbial eight ball, to “…ask for the old paths, where is the good way and walk therein ….” Their reply? “We will not walk therein” (Jer. 6:16).
And they catastrophically lost their country.
Our colonial era was fundamental to the United States Constitution which was truly unique in the annals of history. For the first time ever a government was formed on the basis of limiting the scope of that government to few and limited powers; with all other powers retained by the states and the people.
This unleashed a very free and supremely productive populace which very quickly ascended to leadership and a shining example on the world’s stage.
However, from the late 19th Century, but especially since the New Deal, that paradigm of liberty has been distorted to the point where, today, the Constitution is not even considered by the many; and when it is, it is seen as a document which gives unlimited powers to the central governmental unit which treats the states and the people as sort of its “subdivisions” or subsidiaries or somehow subservient to its whims.
In other words, a complete and utter inversion of the original intent of our founding.
This has resulted in Americans today being among the most regulated, taxed, and controlled people on earth.
To take just one example: The Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare” was signed into law at 2,800 pages, which was considered ridiculous at the time, given that there was no possible way Congress could have read it in time for their Christmas Eve vote.
But the real outrage are the 10,000 closely printed pages of Obamacare’s regulations printed in the Federal Register.
Ten Thousand closely printed pages.
Americans are not being governed by the 2,800 pages voted on by our representatives and senators and signed into law by our president.
Americans are being governed by the 10,000 closely printed pages in the Federal Register.
Not our president, not our senators, not our representatives wrote those 10,000 pages.
Such were written by unelected, invisible bureaucrats and staffers in the countless offices, nooks, and crannies of the central government.
But that is not all: the agencies charged with implementing Obamacare are also empowered to promulgate more regulations, to prosecute citizens for violating such regulations, and to act as judge and jury in the prosecutions that they bring. In other words, these agencies combine the legislative, executive, and judicial functions in the same body.
That’s just Obamacare.
Congress and the president have passed and signed over 4,200 laws since 2001 alone.
And each one of those comes with agencies, bureaucrats, official enforcers, and hundreds and thousands of pages of regulations, which are the only “laws” most of us ever see.
One of the grievances cited by our founders to justify our Declaration of Independence was this:
“He [King George] has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”
Our founders intended this would never be the case here by erecting a system of checks and balances whereby the legislative, executive, and judicial would be separate. However, for well over a century now, and especially since the mid-20th Century, we have submitted to governance that neatly eviscerates that system.
So, does that mean that the solution to our crisis is a “return to the Constitution”?
No.
The solution to our crisis is a return to the “old paths”, which led to our Constitution.
It is a return to faith in God and His law.
That return begins in our homes and in our churches.
Judgement begins with us.
We are the ones who have permitted our children to be taught and indoctrinated by atheistic, socialistic professors who outnumber their conservative counterparts by 17 to 1. In 1968 that ratio was 2.7 to 1. These ratios are not only representative of college faculty but also of elementary and secondary schooling.
That means that two generations, at least, have been subjected to unending socialist, atheistic indoctrination and revisionist “American history”, which teaches us to hate our country and to cut off its roots.
The above ratios are also representative of our media and our “entertainment” industries.
In other words, we are under an unremitting barrage of propaganda which will take its toll unless we are clothed with Truth and teach our children and grandchildren that Truth.
One of the reasons we forget — perhaps the primary reason — is that we believe or assume that our prosperity came from the power of our own hand. We believe “naturalistically”.
However, it was not for nothing that our founders began our Declaration with the presupposition of our being created in God’s image: “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….”
We live in a personal universe because it was created by a personal Creator God, Who tells us, “Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God….”
A return to the Constitution requires a return to God.
