Natural selection in a democratic society. 

  in accordance with Darwin’s law of natural selection, organisms compete for limited resources. some of these organisms are born with genetic defects or adaptations that are beneficial to their ability to catch prey or escape predators. thus rendering them more likely to find a mate, reproduce, and pass on these beneficial deviations to their offspring. this process is one that we are all familiar with, in this world of eternal struggle and perpetual competition, it basically boils down to “the survival of the fittest”.

  but how, in a civilized society does the evolutionary mechanism function? and are its results any different? if the weak herd is conscious of its “strength in numbers”, will it always endeavor to marginalize the strong, exceptional individual? if so, it would seem that there is a complete inversion of the law when you apply it to advanced (democratic) civilizations like ours. moreover, the more intelligent a species becomes the more it develops an inclination to cater to and pity its degenerate specimens. while in the wild, many organisms will not nurture their offspring if there are deviations that are seen as detrimental,  we perform costly surgeries and spend countless tax dollars to develop the drugs and technology needed to help the “less fortunate”. thus inadvertently we are insuring that these detrimental genetic deviations will continue to infect the gene pool of our human race.  democracies frequently go beyond  promoting the weak and will marginalize the strong.  with sophisms and propaganda the weak (victims) become a protected class and the strong need to be stifled if our beloved equality myth is to become a reality. this is all in opposition to “survival or the fittest”  in nature, thus herbert spencer must  posthumously re-evaluate his erroneous ideology of social darwinism. behold , our dysgenic descent into the singularity of retardation. 

This is wondrously when the people are vibrantly filled, with substantive hope, as is seen through their inventing, exploring, achieving, conquering, etc.  A spirit of greatness, moreover, pervades the land as its possessors manifest the rightfully confident thrill of truly loving and grasping challenges, even if only for the exhilarating sake of mastering challenge qua challenge itself; these are the presumed halcyon days of a civilization confident and, consequently, readily filled with superb confidence of its own desirable future.

When a nation or empire is in its assumed declension stage, however, there is then a growing plethora toward exhaustion of those who have finally gained the requisite wisdom, meaning the philosophers and others more closely called soothsayers; they are those who, insightfully, do know the unfortunate direction of present and expected future events that necessarily do bode ill for any possible attempts to revive a truly solid spirit of political, social, and cultural hope; few are they who, vigorously and openly, proclaim vehemently the initial beginnings or genesis of a considerable civilizational renaissance just about to take off for the politico-economic, socio-cultural, etc. stratosphere of notable achievement. 

When all true hope appears to be either fully lost or nearly so, on the other hand, then it becomes the intriguing case that so many people come to then realize things and considerations, with a clarity and profundity, previously unknown when prosperity, affluence, and pride had obscured sober visions of the deeper truth; that depth-filled truth, that harsh reality confronted manfully, had a hard time coming into proper and requisite view for many people.

But now, when it is already, probably, much too late to substantially reverse direction, a transparency, a most compelling confession, of a supposedly important political, cultural, and/or social revelation of a tremendous magnitude occurs; this is consciously formulated, somehow dramatically and vividly, at this rather disappointing point in time; thus, one is, proverbially and respectfully, reminded of the asserted, aforementioned flight of divine Minerva’s wise owl.

The USA has, as many believe, reached that dreadfully significant point in that its historical zenith is seen to have been mainly passed and, now, the fundamental nadir of the various realities confronted present a predominantly gloomy prospect foreshadowing the coming disaster.  And, this sort of thinking is now crescively widespread, even among those highly prominent commentators, talk show hosts, and pundits who may publicly claim to remain still quite fundamentally optimistic about the future, about the truly celebrational epic that was, by definition, the United States of America.

For instance, Rush Limbaugh, upon reflecting on the matter of South Carolina’s Gov. Mark Sanford’s social interlude with his mistress, in knowing that his political career would probably be, thus, totally destroyed, has commented, interestingly, that Sanford may have concluded that all hell was going to break loose in the fairly near future, meaning in this country; so, this Southern leader of the Republican Party had rationally decided to get as much gusto out of life, as fast as he could, due to his then personal knowledge of the dire catastrophe ahead. 

Was he, thus, seized by a Spenglerian pessimism, (as is such a public figure as, e. g., Patrick Buchanan)?   It may be true.  Now is, therefore, a time truly worthy for much intense reflection upon the errors committed that have, thus, contributed to the noticeable decline of the Republic.

Of what substantial value is a possibly brilliant career in politics, if certain chaos and anarchy are to be the horrid forces to be sadly confronted, during a prolonged or unpredictable national disaster of a quite terrible magnitude?   Few are there who, longingly, do aspire greatly to preside over the destruction of a once-purportedly, great national patrimony spoiled, both integrally and thoroughly forever, by vile ideological excesses, inclusive of corrupt, massive, interventionist, governmental spending programs gone wild; the national debt has, moreover, and will further skyrocket toward once unimaginable heights, with the later massive inflation to come, as is now being logically anticipated. 

And yet, more than all that, America’s domestic leadership elites, cultural, political, educational, etc., are, by and large, mainly degenerate swine who only think about themselves and have no real concern for posterity or the national patrimony, meaning beyond their own relations at best; thus, potential for genuine recovery does not appear to be realistically possible nor, in fact, substantively plausible given the above presented and argued context of a genuine loss of affirmative faith in the Republic and its then manifest suffering; this is in this perilous era fraught with much danger; there is, moreover, a quite discernibly pervasive Godlessness among the movers and shakers, the power brokers and players, rancid intellectuals, shallow-minded academics, etc. of this much afflicted nation.

The demonstrably effete elites, after too many generations of self-indulgent affluence, have ended up adopting nihilistic and selfish attitudes; this is by which to simply self-justify their own inbred arrogance, sense of superiority, corruptive snobbery, etc.; and, moreover, they are so well satiated by excessive promiscuity, enervated by much aesthetic nonsense, filled, eventually, with ennui, etc. and now headed, need one add, eventually toward a surely much deserved self-extermination through birth control, sodomy, drugs, etc. 

Of course, the continuing decline, for a respite, may achieve a temporary “plateau” with the election of a fairly conservative Republican President in 2012, as when, e. g., Constantine had slowed down the still inevitable fall of the Roman Empire.  But, history, of course, knows of this scenario already.

And, later, St Augustine wrote his The City of God to help provide some consolation to those Christians and others who had feared greatly that the destruction of Rome, the Eternal City as it was called, may have meant the simultaneous finish for the entire world, as it was known to them, of course.  He had properly reminded Christians, then and for all time, that the only true eternal city was Heaven, not this fallen world; and, therefore, the solely appropriate worship was meant for God, not the State. 

This present minor article can, in its rather limited way, help to simply alert people, today, that there will be, in fact, life lived after the termination of the (former) Republic, as it is, thus, hellishly transformed into a social-democratic State on a (degenerate) European model, of course. 

To return to the larger aforementioned point, noted failure of the spirit of the American ruling class can be seen, for instance, in terms of the quite inferior politicians that were offered, to the public, in the national election of 2008; the very best that the Republican Party could offer did not really inspire enough of the conservative core of that party to come out and enthusiastically vote for the candidate obviously desired by the country-club/yacht-club, upper-crust Republicans, as was, thus, so correctly noted by Buchanan and others.

But, much more related to the position noted, of the further degradation to be seen, is the plan to legalize approximately 30 million illegal aliens who will permanently change the nature of the USA, as it rapidly slides toward the basic approximation of a Third World nation, having both an increasing and crescively permanent underclass; this result is clearly desired by the effete elite who do need a ready supply of servants to attend them and their needs.

The parallels with Rome’s fall added to Alvin Toffler’s (author of the books: Future Shock and The Third Wave) idea of the acceleration of history factor add very dramatic weight to most of Edward Gibbons’ reflections concerning the decline of that empire, which are frightening and uncanny parallels, e. g., inflation, a permanent proletariat/underclass, barbarian invasions, the cancerous growth of bureaucracy and statism, overextended military commitments, etc. regarding the USA; the spiraling downward of this country cannot, apparently, be functionally stopped and the  still purported doctrine of “American exceptionalism” is, now, thoroughly being put to its severest test of all.

The Latin Americans (meaning mainly illegal aliens), for example, entering massively into America, are quite similar to the Arian Christian and pagan barbarians who, more and more, could not be properly assimilated, Romanized enough, to articulately participate in the truly advanced society, culture, and civilization that was Rome; the basically same condition is now, to all intents and purposes, essentially true for this declining country, with its truly decadent multiculturalism, degenerate diversity, racist affirmative action requirements, etc.  This superbly illustrates, therefore, the ancient saying that: “Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad.”

One easily confirms this needed understanding, moreover, by reading such important recent and provocative books as James Kalb’s The Tyranny of Liberalism: Understanding and Overcoming Administered Freedom, Inquisitorial Tolerance, and Equality by Command.

What, however, literally took centuries for Rome regarding its long collapse is now, because of the acceleration of history factor, occurring more quickly in America, meaning within the scope of just decades of time; of course, a New Constantine, such as, e. g., Bobby Jindal, can arise, being that he is a convert to Christianity (finally, to Roman Catholicism), as was, eventually, the original Constantine; Jindal could forestall, though only for a time, what must inevitably, one supposes, happen given the course of events concerning this nation, since at least the 1960s. 

However, in any eventuality, intelligent people ought to logically prepare now for the dark age ahead by strengthening themselves, especially morally and spiritually; establishing contacts with local people for much needed networking, and doing whatever is practical and possible concerning the viable creation of localized infrastructures as a requisite and safe counterpoint to the general and progressive breakdown of the outside world.

One might hope, furthermore, that the religious institutions may come in the fill the growing gap of competence and responsibility that must occur as the hyper-centralized and massively centralizing governmental establishment, the Federal government, Big Government, caves in on itself.   Political hypertrophy, in addition to other matters, was one of the important reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire because their own attempt at Big Government had also failed; thus, certain aspects of history, in terms of the observed principles involved, make for the repetition of historical melodrama.

After all, the merely human instrumentality of (modern democratically despotic) government can only really do a few things, at best, pertaining to solid attempts at governance; but, many things, as in a social-market economy, piled ceaselessly upon a continuing growth of many more things can only be done badly, increasingly so, as history has, time and again, vividly demonstrated in empirical terms of reference; the shift in thinking has been from a consideration of a theocentric to an anthropocentric order of reality, meaning that, for most people, Man is now made the true measure of all things.

The vain ideological pursuit of utopia, the supposed awaited heaven on earth, however, can only lead, at the clumsy and often corrupt hands of imperfect human beings, to a hell on earth; as was well known even to that “nonconformist” socialist, George Orwell, this is not, of course, what the collectivists ever expect, though this is always, unqualifiedly so, what they do then genuinely only deserve for their quite often Satanic efforts on this planet; nonetheless, what has substantially resulted is the basic growth not of Big Brother statism but, rather, a Big Mother regime so intent upon bureaucratically regulating and controlling, monitoring and investigating, the lives of the people as intimately as possible; thus, it is the revealing thought that who says socialism, says bureaucratism.

It can be appropriately said, of course, that America had its great glory and was, indeed, a most brilliant civilization that offered great opportunities for real success to many millions of people of diverse colors, creeds, etc. well beyond that of any other country in the entire recorded history of this world; vastly tremendous technological, military, and scientific triumphs are, splendidly, to be worthily included, in this soon-to-be postmortem estimation, that must fairly encompass, as instances, victories in two world wars, the Moon Landing event of 1969, space probes to the outer planets and beyond, and much else. 

At a minimum, it is, surely, true that the 20th century was then so rightly called the American Century, which may well end up being looked back upon as the past Golden Age of the Republic.

But, the always much greater, highly more significant, past achievement of America had been its (later failed) attempt to institute a responsible understanding of liberty under law and the sense of self-government of a people in terms of a free, limited, constitutional, republican government that was once held in sacred trust by the people of this nation; the generation that had led the American Revolution and established the Republic was one of the most remarkable generations in the entire history of mankind; it was truly the greatest American generation, not the people who happened to have fought War World II, as often now alleged.  Why is this statement purposely given as such?

Above all others, George Washington had, ever magnificently, refused completely to do what many lesser men would have just, normally and expectedly, have so willingly done; he gave up all of his vast power freely and just tried to go home, though he was, thoughtfully and righteously, called back into needed political service by his ever grateful country, what had been once thirteen disunited colonies that had, finally, become a proud nation.

Washington alone, among the truly greatest of men in the entire history of this world,  ought then to be forever justification enough for the fundamental entirety of the notable justice and resolve, necessity and glory, behind the Revolution; it is this ultimate great patrimony that these present and inferior generations of Americans have just frittered, have simply squandered, away toward the terrible and expected future destruction of anything, the last vestiges, that may be left of republican government qua requisite governance. 

It is important to remind people, since it is no longer taught correctly in the schools these days, that a republican government, which is not, by definition, a democracy, is only meant to be a representative government, a representative republic, as was the exact case, e. g., with the original US Constitution; moreover, an actually written constitution is truly meant, by definition, to be for only a delimited, circumscribed governmental structure, unlike countries having unwritten constitutions, as with Great Britain, that can be infinitely flexible and, thus, expandable concerning endless degrees and kinds of political powers and prerogatives, of such a State, in this world. 

Thus, it is definitely an oxymoron to ever speak of a democratic republic, representative democracy, or a republican democracy because such odd terms are clearly inherent contradictions, as by definition.  A democracy, in its proper understanding, admits of no representation whatsoever because the people, the citizens, are to directly exercise their rulership by voting; thus, 51% of a vote decides any issue in terms of a true democracy. 

If representation is, thus, involved concerning the voting to be done, then it is an obvious representative government that does exists, not a democracy; a republican government, therefore, incorporates the specified constitutional powers of and acts by and through the elected representatives of the citizens; the people in and of themselves, therefore, do not rule.

These forever important political facts were known, of course, to the colonial leadership that became the later revolutionary figures, who had, among other compositions, written such things as The Federalist Papers in which, for instance, democracy gets there openly denounced unreservedly as being a terrible form of government; among the ancients, the great Aristotle, e .g., knew that it was a form of tyranny.  

The Revolutionary War generation, especially the Founding Fathers, were not really demigods, as is, sometimes, said in praise; but, they were, it can be fairly said without any exaggeration, genuinely a group of extraordinary men who rose above the ordinary ranks of the majority of the people of that era, on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, at a minimum; that was this nation’s ultimate claim to justified fame that had ended up, among other consequences, attracting immigrants from around the world to its shores hoping for a better future for themselves and their children and further descendants.

The New World of America was always to be, thus, extremely different and better than the Old World of Europe and its then rejected ways; in general, what existed as a social contract society was, therefore, held to be much better than a social status society in the European manner; today, a once more fluid social pyramid is to be substantially replaced, by ideological dictate and collectivist fiat, by one that will try to politically, culturally, socially, and, especially, economically exist as if poured in solid concrete for all time.

What is, sadly, occurring with the predominant majority of the Americans of today is a manifest form of idolatry, meaning making the worship (social justice) greater than the god.  Because social justice is deliberately cut off from overall religious signification and its integral vital meaning, the democratic-collectivist State, in the social status-oriented manner of the European social-market economy, meaning the ideological myth of everybody living at the expense of everybody else, provides the modernist ideology of secular materialism and with it, ultimately, degenerate nihilism, as if it were, in fact, an earthly form of glory; there is to be the ersatz religion of the worship of deified Man as offered by the reified State in a postmodern, post-moral world.

A terrible reversion and disgusting retrograde movement is, thus, happening by which tyranny gets celebrated as not a form of slavery under a euphemistic title but, supposedly, a truly new righteousness, ideologically supplied with appropriate propaganda; this was the fear, in the early 19th century, that was interestingly expressed by Alexis de Tocqueville in his notable book, Democracy in America, in Part II, in which he had coined the now justly famous expression: democratic despotism. 

The fame of the democratic ideal had spread both in America and Europe; and, many people thought that it would be all political glory to boast of how democratic a government could be, forgetting what history had taught, as was known to the Founding Fathers, about those democracies that had existed in earlier times.   But, democracy, especially when headed toward a postmodernist secularization of the society and culture, does not assure success.  In addition, such things as the notable and empirically observed might of the USA, measured in many terms of reference, cannot itself by itself guarantee any permanently secured form of (supposed) temporal success. 

Moreover, the tremendously united technological-economic-military infrastructure all together cannot insure survivability, as is noted in such interesting recent books as Christopher A. Preble’s The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free.  With all of its remarkable and past fame and glory put together, therefore, America will still, nonetheless, eventually pass away, in time; moreover, entire empires and mighty nations do, as ever necessarily, both rise and fall in history. 

But, as an aspect of reality, the disheartening level, e. g., of politics offered, in this nation, is disastrous to behold; this is as both the conservatives and the liberals/leftists wish to diffuse their ideological passions among the populace.

Passionate politics is a true synonym for such ideologies as Communism, Nazism, and Fascism in that the leaders and followers are both supposed to be extremely filled with an inordinate intensity of desire to establish a utopia on earth, in the name of their particular ideological fixation, of course.  But, this excessive fascination with terrible extremes of feeling versus thought, reflection, and contemplation is not limited to only the normally most prominent examples of their kind, as was true of the 20th century, in particular.

The vast majority of the advocates of conservatism, in this country, explicitly demand that passion be involved in the central doings of quite passionately committed politicians and citizens who, one can easily guess, have a true passion for politics; one hears this often resoundingly said, for example, by such notable, public conservative figures such as are Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and many others. 

On a wide variety of profound issues, due to opposed principles on philosophical, political, and moral grounds, this too, however, is an obvious issue where the traditionalist right solidly rejects and stands adamantly against conservatism’s views on the subject of passion and its specific application to politics.  The classical mind, meaning the cognition of the traditionalist right, thus, properly rejects the thinking of the conservative mind.

Conservatism in America, on this matter, once again supremely proves itself to be a form of liberalism in that modern politics, basically embraced by conservatism, is opposed to classical politics, which is, on the other hand, rightly upheld and admired by the thinking of the traditionalist right.  Passion is part of the firm basis of modern politics, which is the lust for modernity, meaning modernist political cognition as was firmly supported by, e. g., Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, J. S. Mill, Marx, Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and others. 

In contrast, Aristotle taught, in line with what is called the perennial philosophy, classical political philosophy, as was also properly understood by such philosophers as Leo Strauss, that passion and, moreover, a known man of passion were said to be always automatically, axiomatically, disqualified from participating in politics.  What, however, specifically is meant?

No passionate man, Aristotle insisted, should ever be allowed to exercise political power, due to the excessiveness of such emotional and/or psychological impulses held that can then logically corrupt or derange his thinking and any consequent actions.  Passion, thus, bespeaks a mind and will unfortunately afflicted with what today is recognized as ideological ardor that can and usually will then deform the ratiocination or cognition of anyone who puts abstractions before the humble realities of human beings. 

Concerning this important matter, moreover, Limbaugh and many other very prominent conservatives have, repeatedly, publicly, and vehemently insisted that conservatism is definitely an ideology geared for passionate action in this world; but, among other serious defects, it logically leads to the destruction of actual and needed statecraft and statesmanship.   

A statesman, in sharp contrast to a mere politician, has a disinterested regard for politics, which does not mean a lack of interest; politics, in terms of true statesmanship, is then to be a logical and proper extension of ethics as ethics is a requisite part of morality; but, politics, when rashly conducted at the most base level, gets reduced to who gets what, when, and how much; not surprisingly, the bold champions of such a debased and often ideologized  politics, therefore, do easily achieve their raw expectations of fame and glory, money and power, in this fallen world.

And yet, one sees clearly, as the poets have knowingly said, that all fame is fleeting; and, as theologians acclaim, all (true) glory is God’s.