Are We Looking Toward a Post-America World?

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What are Pre and Post American Citizens? These are the thoughts of one of the premier scholars of our time. Predictably, we have entered into a Post American time where the ideals of America have been so muddled and confused that no one can articulate them clearly. I say predictably because many of the founders did indeed see this day coming. Today, let’s look at what Victor Davis Hanson says in his book, The Dying Citizen, How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization, are Destroying the Idea of America.

Welcome Freedom Troopers to SabersEdge.Online where we will saddle-up, mount up, and cut through the disinformation with the saber of truth to strike right at the heart of the matter. If you can support us, then please do through Patreon or directly. You can always write me at Daniel.Saber@sabersedge.online If you cannot support us monetarily amidst rising prices then at least recommend us to two others whom you think need to hear our message. But remember as you complain about the rising prices that the prices for food and production costs are rising for us too and the establishment organizations that normally monetize sites have refused to monetize this site because its “narrative does not match accepted consensus.” All I can say is that if what I had to say DID match accepted consensus why would I bother paying for and maintaining a website to say it? Afterall, if I was saying what everyone else is saying already then someone else would already be saying it. SabersEdge is about sinking the foundations of the future solidly into the wisdom of the past so that we can build a lasting and durable future in liberty and truth. We used to know these things as a people, but that was when we actually understood American political philosophy because its foundations were taught by the independent schoolmasters and ‘schoolmarms’ all over these United States and our territories.

At the end there will be some notes of an addition I am making in comments that relates to the article I wrote on the death of Jeffrey Epstein. It is a video that I hadn’t seen before I wrote it, but it has interesting material that was not included in my article. It is more accusatory of persons who may have associated with Jeffrey Epstein and, in my opinion, too often makes the intimation of guilt by association. However, the presentation has other information that is both interesting and relevant, so I am posting it in the comments.

Victor Davis Hanson has written an outstanding book in his book the Dying Citizen; How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization, are Destroying the Idea of America. While there are many young and old today who would say “good riddance” to America I believe they fail to understand the foundational values upon which our country was founded upon. Too often, when I have discussed these matters with college students and working-class people they are often surprised at the stories and quotes I give them that come from our history. Repeatedly I get the comments that “they didn’t tell us that in school” and “well I agree with that.” So, I have to believe that we would not be fasting a “post-America” if more people spoke out about their own knowledge of American political philosophy and what the founding fathers said, and they educated those whom they associate with about it. If you have experiences doing that, or attempting it, I would like to hear about it in the comments or you can write me at Daniel.Saber@sabersedge.online.

I cannot cover the breadth and depth of Doctor Hanson’s book here, but the material is too relevant and thorough to be handled lightly. So, we are going to spend the next few weeks looking at VDH’s exceptional book and discussing what his studies and professional observations may mean for us.

Those who have followed SabersEdge know that I often post a Book Review of books I read but many of the books I have read lately have so much important to say I don’t know how to write a good book report on them that does their ideas justice. I read this book almost a year ago now and have carried it with me in my backpack hoping for an inspiration as to how to review it and I cannot. So, we are doing it this way. You will find this book along with many others, on the SabersEdge Reading List and it’s well worth taking the time to read yourself.

As always, I urge you to not just listen to someone else’s summary of books or “condensed” versions. I have found that summaries miss things that I, with my experience, thought was important. Anyone who gives you a summary is only telling you what they found important, you need to read it to see what you see with your knowledge and experience because that is what will serve you best in your path through life.

We all have our own truth but our chances of success as we move through this brief life often depends on how close our truth is to the truth defined by the God of Physics and Nature. If we blindly follow someone else’s truth, we may find that when we get to the top of our ladder of success, we discover that it is leaning against the wrong wall.

I hope the discussion that follows arouses your interest enough that you read the book yourself.

Pre- and Post-American Citizens is the title of the introduction. The book opens the introduction with a quote from Mark Twain that you have already read above.

“Today, only a little more than half of the world’s seven billion people are citizens of fully consensual governments enjoying constitutional protected freedoms. They are almost all Western – or at least they reside in nations that have become “westernized.”” [Yet, if you believe most of our elite the Western world that gave its people citizenship IS the problem. These two sentences were the first words of the Introduction. But the first paragraph continues:] “These realities explain why millions from North Africa risk drowning in the Mediterranean to reach Europe and why millions more uproot from Mexico and Latin America to cross the southern border of the United States. Call their exodus from their homelands a desperate quest for greater income, freedom, or security – or simply for a chance to be an unfamiliar citizen somewhere else rather than a certain serf, noncitizen, or subject at home.”

Too many today do not understand that America, the oldest living republic was, when it was founded, called “The Great Experiment.” It was called this because there were no living republics at the time. The French Republic had not yet been born and the rest of Europe were Monarchies, Princedoms, or noble oligarchies. In fact, in the courts of Europe the whole idea that people could “govern themselves” was considered to be ridiculous. Many would agree today and for the similar reasons as the monarchists of old believe that people need to be governed, not by themselves, but by unelected experts, specialists, or other bureaucrats who “know better” than the people themselves about how “we the people” should be allowed to live our lives.

These philosophies around democracies and republics were a peculiarly Western product. They grow from a philosophical and political tradition that is clearly traced back through the political philosophers of the Western Enlightenment to the political philosophies of Greece and the Roman Republic. These philosophies, when combined with the Western practice of Christianity all combined to form the peculiar ideas of freedom that Westerners have today as part of our heritage. To the political philosophies of the Ancients at the very foundation of Western culture, Christianity added the idea that every individual is a Child of the Living God and therefore worthy of courtesy and their God-given rights because of their identity as unique creation of the Divine. No other culture developed this idea in quite this way. Although other countries besides the Western Countries have adopted its values, many acquired these values through conquest and colonialism while others acquired them through political and economic association, but they can all be traced back to the Western tradition. Far from something that needs to be destroyed the traditions of the West are the only things that stand between the common person and totalitarian tyranny because it is the West that has a deep-seated loathing of tyranny.

Let us return to Dr. Hanson’s writing: “Of the world’s rare true democracies, only about twenty-two have been in existence for a half century or more. Lamentably, the number of democracies in now shrinking, not growing – ironic when so many people are now leaving what is ascendant to reach what is vanishing…a reminder that it is not an easy thing for people to govern themselves, much less to protect and exercise their inherited freedoms. Citizenship, after all is not an entitlement [emphasis is mine]; it requires work. Yet too many citizens of republics, ancient and modern, come to believe that they deserve rights without assuming responsibilities – and they don’t worry how or why or from whom they inherited their privileges.”

This points to the fact that our rights were not only fought for but hard won. Every republic in history that has forgotten this has fallen. But a major spur toward democratic republics occurred with the philosophers of the enlightenment and the idea that man was a rational creature who could govern himself above his appetites and live by reason alone was born in the years following the Middle Ages in Europe. In the eighteenth century the German philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote a major work called the Critique of Pure Reason. VDH talks about him and his overly rosy view of what an enlightenment society might look like:

“Kant perhaps best summed up all the exceptional entitlements that he hoped one day would define a Western citizen…Kant saw the citizen alone as enjoying “lawful freedom, the attribute of obeying no other law than that to which he has given his consent.” …Kant added that citizens should be assured of “civil equality” under the law. They should not recognize “among the people any superior with the moral capacity to bind him as a matter of right in a way that he could not in turn bind the other.” The state cannot treat the rich, the better born, or the well-connected any better than it does the poor, the peasant, the obscure. Finally, Kant cited that the goal of the citizen was to “owe his existence and preservation to his own rights and powers as a member of the commonwealth, not to the choice of another among the people.” The citizen does not have to thank anyone for his rights. They are innate and properly his own.” …These eighteenth-century visions of philosophers like Kant were not [even] realized throughout Europe until the early 1990s when parliamentary democracies replaced the last dying communist regimes of Eastern Europe – more than two centuries after the foundation of American democracy. Their creators did not always keep – or even fully grasp – the promises of Western citizenship [even as we have largely forgotten these things in America today]. Yet only under consensual governments was their at least a chance that citizenship would eventually match its ideals with reality.” [For more on the formation of Republics see Democracy or Republic? The Genesis of Hope – SabersEdge ]

Today, we no longer understand how rare these rights are and therefore, too many no longer respect them or the sacrifices made by so many in order to establish these rights and privileges. Just as few today understand or are ready for the sacrifices which must be made to preserve them. Even today less than half of the world can claim such rights and freedom and even fewer live in a society where they are even marginally applied. But of those that do they all lie in westernized countries.

“A FREE, LEGALLY EQUAL, AND POLITICALLY INDEPENDENT CITIZENRY…MEANS THAT CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT FOLLOW ANY LAWS OTHER THAN THOSE AUTHORIZED BY THEIR OWN ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES. UNELECTED REGULATORS CAN ISSUE EDICTS GALORE, BUT THEY SHOULD NOT NECESSARILY HAVE THE FORCE OF LAW. NO COLLEGE ADMINISTRATOR SHOULD DECIDE ON MONDAY THAT THE FIRST AMMENDMENT NO LONGER APPLIES ON HIS CAMPUS. NO MAYOR CAN CLAIM ON TUESDAY THAT FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAW NO LONGER EXISTS IN HER CITY….

“NO AMERICAN DESERVES GREATER DEFERENCE UNDER THE LAW THAN ANY OTHER – NOT ON THE BASIS OF RACE, CLASS, GENDER, BIRTH, OR MONEY; NOT ON THE BASIS OF HISTORIC CLAIMS TO JUSTIFY CONTEMPORARY ADVANTAGE. POLICE AND PROSECUTORS ARREST AND CHARGE LAWBREAKERS, BUT NOT, LIKE THE PIGS IN ANIMAL FARM, SOME LAWBREAKERS MORE THAN OTHERS”

Victor Davis Hanson, The Dying Citizen, p.3

Today it sometimes seems that the pigs in Animal Farm are defining the government and judicial system in some cases in America today. If you haven’t read the book Animal Farm you should, the animals could never have ousted the farmer from his rule over the farm without the help of the power or the horse and the dog but neither were fully respected afterwards, they were used. I still remember how angry I was at the pigs when they sent the now older horse to the glue factory because he was no longer contributing to society. The “communists” of Animal Farm had no loyalty or concern for any who had actually brought them to power and the pigs “were more equal than others.” It is a fantastic short book. Buy it and carry it with you and commit to reading it in 2024 or commit to rereading it – I will too. I haven’t read it since High School or Junior High when it was required reading in for all students. Don’t just watch the movie, you need to read the book for a full understanding of how heinous communism always turned out to be. But Jefferson warned us of these dangers.

Victor Davis Hanson describes how it is supposed to be:

“AMERICAN CITIZENS, BEARING NATURAL AND INALIENABLE RIGHTS BESTOWED UPON THEM BY A SUPREME DEITY, ARE ACCOUNTABLE ONLY TO THEMSELVES…CITIZENS DIFFER FROM VISITORS, ALIENS, AND RESIDENTS PASSING THROUGH WHO ARE NOT ROOTED INSIDE THE BORDERS WHERE A CONSTITUTION AND ITS LAWS REIGN SUPREME. FOR CITIZENSHIP TO WORK, THE VAST MAJORITY OF RESIDENTS MUST BE CITIZENS BUT TO BECOME CITIZENS…[THEY MUST] GIVE UP THEIR OWN PAST LOYALTIES FOR THOSE OF THEIR NEW HOSTS.” P.3-4

Victo Davis Hanson, The Dying Citizen, p. 3-4

Most of the world VDH points out has been ruled by tyranny and the idea of the rights of citizens is barely a blip on the screen of world history. It existed in 15 of the city states of Greece before they decayed and fell back into tyranny. The Roman Republic traditionally was founded in 753 B.C. And through adherence to tradition and by honoring their national story they survived until the first have of the 1st century. Then, Rome was racked by a civil war which corrupted it into an Empire ruled by a Caesar. Again, the democratic republic winked out on the world scene and after four to five hundred years of empire decayed and fragmented completely into what we still call the Dark Ages. Later, democratic values arose in the the city-states and provinces of northern Italy for a short time, winking out as they were crushed by the monarchies or due to the apathy of citizens themselves. The history of humanity is primarily a history of tyranny and forced obedience where those who do not “toe the line” set by arbitrary dictators are brutally crushed by their obedient and unthinking minions.

Let’s step aside from Hanson’s presentation and take a look at this term “dictator.” A dictator is someone who rules by edict, decree, or executive order rather than by the rule of law. One who dictates their own verdict and enforces it by rule of law IS a dictator by definition. America saw the rise of numerous dictators during the Covid crisis. Elected officials and unelected bureaucrats issued edicts that were then enforced by police. Police gave these extra-legal edicts the force of law, but THEY WERE NOT LAW. Laws are founded by elected officials and duly debated. Throughout too many of the Western Republics today the legislators elected to enforce the WILL OF THE PEOPLE have abrogated their right and responsibilities giving them over to unelected and largely invisible bureaucrats and administrators who rule by edict.

I have often said that we live in a tyranny that governs every aspect of our existence. Unelected bureaucrats’ control what kind of light bulbs we can use, what kind of vehicles we can drive, how we can defend ourselves and, increasingly how we can express ourselves. People don’t recognize this totalitarian dictatorship because we do not see a single person we can point to as dictator. But worse than a single dictator we have a multitude of bureaucratic tyrants ruling every aspect of our lives. The totalitarian bureaucracy has more power over our lives than most dictators are able to exert in a single regime.

AMERICA THEN, IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE CITIZENS OF ANY ERA WHO CHOOSE TO PRESERVE AND TO NOURISH IT FOR ONE MORE GENERATION. REPUBLICS ARE SO OFTEN LOST NOT OVER CENTURIES BUT WITHIN A SINGLE DECADE. P.4

“A SIGN OF DEMOCRATIC SCLEROSIS IS A LOSS OF CONFIDENCE IN THE INTEGRITY OF VOTING – TO THE POINT THAT IT BECOMES SEEN AS A FUTILE EXERCISE RATHER THAN A BULWARK OF CITIZENSHIP.” P.5

To be clear these next two paragraphs are wholly mine and cannot be blamed on Victor Davis Hanson. At the very end I will return to his observation citing the philosopher Plato.

Our judicial system utterly failed this Republic when they refused to investigate questions and allegations in the 2020 election. Their refusal to investigate looked to many people as a cover up and further eroded the electoral process in America. The Progressives are blaming Trump for this, but they have a short memory. It was Progressive Democrats in the election between Al Gore and George Bush Jr. that the Democrats made a major stink about the election of Bush being faulty. In fact, before it was even over the Democratic National Committee declared they have 40 lawyers standing by to contest the election if they didn’t win. That is the FIRST time I ever in my life remember such a stink being raised over the legitimacy of our electoral process. Oh sure, there were always some grumblers but that was the first time it became an issue throughout the country. Because of that they completely revamped the voting in Florida to ensure fairness and accuracy. At that time the judicial system responded to accusations of fraud and inaccuracy in election. Since that time they forcefully contested EVERY election they have lost with Hilary Clinton even blaming Russian Interference in the 2016 election. [See also: Voting Machines: Good or Bad? – SabersEdge ]

Every election the Progressives have whittled away at the confidence of our elections while in 2020 the issues Trump brought were not even looked at by the courts. They were all dismissed on technicalities and never even looked at. Every state should have done a comprehensive study and cleansing of their electoral houses at that time but they didn’t. Worse, the few where questions were raised often had no records or no way to even show their elections were legitimate. In Georgia, all the voting records that were required to be kept (and were kept under lock and key,) were missing when they unlocked the door. No investigation was made as to why the records had vanished. But I have come to the regretable conclusion that the Progressives don’t want us to have confidence in our Republic. They don’t trust “the people” and they don’t trust the elected officials. The Bureaucracy rules and that is the way the elite who run the government want it to stay. [For a look at how Leftists can even twist language into their service see: Wake Up America! Act Today or Be Slaves Tomorrow! – SabersEdge ]

Why is it that the Progressives repeatedly accuse others of malpheasance that they have already done themselves. It is almost like they cannot conceive of fair play or behaving according to the rules of ethics. To me that is not progressive but ultimately very regressive. It is the way the world has worked for thousands of years. A world where might and money make right and the weak, poor, and common laborer can all stuff it.

“REFUSING TO KNEEL DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM OR TO SALUTE THE STARS AND STRIPES IS NOT ILLEGAL, BUT IT IS NOT SUSTAINABLE FOR THE NATION’S PRIVILEGED TO SIT IN DISGUST FOR A FLAG THAT THEIR BETTERS RAISED UNDER FIRE ON IWO JIMA FOR OTHERS NOT YET BORN. SOMETIMES CITIZENS CAN DO AS MUCH HARM BY VIOLATING CUSTOM AND TRADITION AS BY BREAKING LAWS.” P.4

But this seems to be the way of democracies and how they unwind themselves. Victor Davis Hansen paraphrased and summarized Plato’s observations that “once established in the early West, citizenship unleashed, a rapid evolutionary process. The trajectory always bent toward greater inclusion… What so bothered Plato and other … critics of democracy was that the impulse toward inclusivity always grew without logical bounds once a society had institutionalized equality and freedom within consensual governments. Among his bleaker notions – one seemingly supported by long periods of post democratic history- was that an always radicalizing democracy would eventually lead to chaos and then swing back to tyranny.” p.6-7 [For evidence on how our government may be unwinding see: THERE IS SOMETHING NOXIOUS IN AMERICA – SabersEdge ]

So, in Plato’s opinion, and VDH verify’s it in his historical knowledge of Western Civilization is that democracies always kill themselves by giving away more and more of their privileges and rights to more and more people, questioning and challenging traditions until all identity is lost and it falls apart. It is interesting to note that many of the founders had read Plato and agree with this analysis. In history, many historians look at tribes that invaded Rome to deliver the death blow but in every case those tribes were only taking advantage of the malaise that sapped the essential identity and strength of the democratic based government. According to Plato it was essentially through the ever outward reaching tend to inclusivity and generosity of the democratic impulse that leads to the dilution and disintegration of democratic values; ultimately reaching out too far and including as citizens those who don’t share, understand, or owe allegiance to the history and sacrifices that were necessary to build the republic in the first place. This continues until the democracy itself fails and a tyranny necessarily arises as a strong man or group step in to restore order to the chaos that the people have created. It seems to me that this is what is now happening to America. [For more on how our Republic has been purposely unwound: Active Measures – The Subversion of the Good – SabersEdge ]

We have apparently forgotten that citizenship is not an entitlement or a right but a privilege with benefits for loyalty and service attached to it. It is primarily because of the obligations of citizenship and the need to have citizens that take their obligations to previous generations and our ideals seriously that I have always advocated universal conscription. There is something about traveling abroad to the poorest nations of the world (and leaving the tourist areas,) that gives you a different view of what we have in America. Any who will not serve and defend the Republic should not have a say in committing the government and people to any course of action, especially since such a say may well include committing its youth and economy to war. If a citizen is not willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, they have no right to vote; I say this because ultimately voting includes decisions that could lead to war. No one should be able to force others to a course of action that they would not take themselves.

While it is true that a free country should not force people to serve, it should be constructed such so that anyone who does not choose to fulfill their duty as a citizen can be excused and continue as a Free Person within the Republic who does not vote – similar to but a step above a Resident Alien. Likewise, I believe anyone who is a Resident Alien and serves in combat defending the colors and the nation, should automatically earn their citizenship upon on honorable discharge and/or successful completion of their first combat tour.

Our founding fathers knew of this tendency to dissolution and inclusion of which Plato spoke (after all they had read his works,) and tried to limit suffrage to land holders. It was felt that landholders had a vested financial interest (the land) in the continuance of the nation and because land cannot be removed to another country their future was tied to the future of the nation. This also has validity, and I could see extending such citizenship to family farmers – who happen to have a disproportionate number of soldiers represented in the military per capita anyway – perhaps (even if subconsciously,) tied to the reasons mentioned above. This was how they tried to safeguard against this impulse of democracies to self-destruct with checks and balances and an electoral system that was intended to renew the government with each election. But to tie my suggestion of service to that of the founders the founders believed the primary defense of the United States would be a militia and, in their definition, the militia included every able-bodied man in America. [Most people have heard that it is unclear what a militia was; you can read the facts here: Who Is the Militia? The Matter is Clear – SabersEdge ]

I think that the founders would have rejected a “ruling class” such as we have today. In the first hundred years of the Republic a large number of senators, representatives, and presidents had served in defense of the nation in either the regulars or the militia. It is interesting that the original revolutionaries who started our revolutionary war also rejected the idea of established political parties as the harbingers of control and political power. I cannot help but think that in so many ways our actions and practice today would repulse and earn the contempt of the idealists (and even the more pragmatic) of those who rebelled and formed this nation. [For more on misinformation around our government see: Law & Order – Corruption and Lies – SabersEdge ]

Over the last two hundred years have we removed the stays, machinery, and checks and balances to “streamline” our decision-making and policy making? Is it the very notions that inspired the countries founding inexorably leading to ever greater inclusivity and tolerance that ultimately will bring our own destruction even as it has done so many times in the history of the world? What can we do to fight this tendency, or is fate completely inexorable?

I know this was long today but, as I said, the ideas raised by Victor Davis Hanson are deep and complex, even so Victor Davis Hanson is an easy read; his writing style simple and clear. We will continue this next Tuesday but check out our Sunday post as we look at the thoughts of the stoic philosopher Epictetus in What Your Father Should Have Taught You. I am considering having shorter more blog-like thoughts in the blog and then have a weekly feature article which includes a more detailed and researched project. These articles are a lot of work, and each post takes from 16-24 hours of work to organize, write, and post them and that is over and above the time I have spent on reading, research, and thinking about the topic (fortunately I can think and chew gum at the same time.) From my statistics it appears that the loyal few who read SabersEdge read more than one essay per visit – yet I am told that people just don’t have the attention span for long posts. I would welcome any input or desires from you, the readers, and I am available at Daniel.Saber@sabersedge.online and of course you can leave comments.

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