America has long been "the land of the free, and the home of the brave." Today there's a rising sense that this status is in jeopardy. Many compare this nation to the Roman Empire; a country about to fall into ruin. Unfortunately, this assessment has merit.
America is becoming a nation of sheep. This process now embraces, and may yet destroy, many-its perpetrators and victims both.
Only a handful of nations survived unconquered for a thousand years or more. Both Jews and Koreans have survived for millennia, but they've had to endure conquest and tremendous suffering.
America has long stood as a bulwark against totalitarian forces of many sorts; a sort of "external Providential power center." The Mormons and others recognized its righteous position. Today, world communism has largely been vanquished, and America's relative importance has thus diminished.
Satan has always been this nation's bitter enemy, and has long sought to destroy it-by many means. Further, Principle explains that any prosperous society will face decadence, as comfort allows wholesale pleasure seeking. Ephemeral as fallen pleasures are, satiety only intensifies the quest. Drug use and promiscuity become rampant. Problems multiply.
Nations in decline take measures to ensure their survival. There are clear patterns to history; hence the comparison to Rome and its "bread and circuses."
Desperate times produce tyrants. Corruption prompts both social withdrawal and self-appointed purifiers, and in the end, revolutionaries. America is a massive nation, and it travels this path slowly; to many, imperceptibly. Yet the danger signs are all around us.
As America teeters, we Unificationists must consider these dangers, and how to counter them. Let's examine some of them. Warning: The forces which can bring down a mighty nation are NOT pretty.
Those who instituted-and who now defend-these destructive phenomena do not have America's best interests at heart. From the very top, they'll give passionate speeches about such troubles-and then defend the very things that caused them.
In every era and nation there are individuals who appoint themselves "wiser than the masses," and seek not to serve them, but to dominate them "for their own good." Famous Libertarian F. A. Hayek termed this "the fatal conceit," and traced the ruin of many nations to that source.
This "elitism" has nothing to do with membership in any one group, and little to do with being wealthy. It has much to do with attitude. Elitists delight in control, and in seizing and spending other people's money.
Elitists quickly ruin most nations they control. Nazi Germany lasted a few years; the Soviet Union, a few decades. In democratic societies it's different. A wise old Scotsman named Alexander Tyler foretold their slow deaths. Politicians promise their voters ever more Federal largess-paid for by somebody else, and by endless borrowing. Bankruptcy becomes inevitable, without painful budget-cutting measures. So very painful that politicians now call such `entitlement' programs (like Medicare) "third rails"-touch them and you die.
Elitists go by many names, but their historical footprints are clear. Hayek's classic The Road to Serfdom and Thomas Sowell's new books give details.
To rule more effectively, elitists prefer a "sheeplike" population. One not too concerned about any `necessary measures' their rulers might take. For this, Americans must forget their heritage, and life itself must become a "cheapened" commodity.
(Hence the title: Sheepenization. Your author coined this word for a forthcoming science fiction novel.)
America was founded as a Republic, by people of deeply religious character. The several States were dominant. This changed, slowly but radically, with the direct election of Senators, and the Federal Income Tax.
The Feds-and their appointed officers-gained vast powers, far beyond old King George's wildest dreams. Today, cries of horror are heard if Federal bureaucrats are not welcomed into every aspect of our lives and communities.
In the 1930s the Welfare State blossomed. Programs which were pitched as "supplemental" and "temporary" now spend hundreds of billions of dollars, increasing every year. The Feds dispense "free" money, food, health care, housing and more-even to addicts, blatant cheaters and illegal immigrants. Also, they dole out `corporate welfare' to millionaire farmers and industrialists.
After spending trillions of dollars, the poor are still with us, and the `big boys' still demand their cut.
In the 1960s the `youth culture' leaped far beyond ordinary teenaged rebellion. It became enshrined as a cultural ideal, and-not coincidentally-gained lucrative commercial success. Timothy Leary almost single-handedly caused a surge of hard drug use. Many of today's rap singers are boosted by huge corporations. Immature youth still follow their elitist shepherds.
The `sexual revolution' tore at the heart of the family, as young people were taught to despise traditional morality. Today's Generation X-ers bemoan their unanchored lives, yet many will spurn the traditional `anchors' offered them.
Abortion has snuffed out tens of millions of potential lives, and the euthanasia movement grows in strength. Punks imitate gory action movies-upon their innocent victims. "Life is cheap" isn't just a phrase any more.
The Public Schools, with tax funding and forced attendance (unless one can afford the endangered alternatives), have squeezed out God and eased in condoms. The Ten Commandments were-literally-banned, replaced by self-selected Relative Values.
School kids joke: "The sex education class is boring, but the lab sure is fun." Gay `awareness' sessions came later. All these damage one's sense of right and wrong, causing moral blindness.
America's schoolchildren are far behind the world's in virtually every subject-but they feel good about their non-achievements. `Educrats' bemoan parental indifference, then criticize those who do get involved! Today, when improved test results are trumpeted, it's usually because the test was made easier. Those unable to reason can be fooled-and persuaded-much more easily.
Solzhenitsyn said: "In order to weaken a people, you must first cut them from their roots." Educationists at all levels spent decades rewriting American history. The new `politically correct' versions replace the Founding Father's wisdom with the ruminations of Marxist Third World peasants. The elites gave one such, Rigoberta Menchu, a Nobel Prize.
With graduates who can't read, much less understand America's founding principles, a socialistic America can be implemented, and people won't even know the difference. History teaches many lessons-if it's remembered.
Students are taught their supposed "ethnic heritage"; allegiance to a bitter, victimized subgroup, with only the government offering redress. Outrages are blamed on groups, never individuals. A noble soul can forgive and overcome, but Darwin's clever animals can only strike out, seeking quick advantage.
Today's Universities revel in `deconstruction,' a concerted program emphasizing the flaws of American ("eurocentric male") society. This being a fallen world, such flaws are many. But, like their Marxist twins, `deconstructionists' can only destroy; they have no solutions. Cynical bitterness flows from their classrooms. Students are deliberately shocked into doubting everything. Resentment and discord follow.
Parents: proudly sending your offspring to college? Beware! (Your author has personally witnessed this. Read Heterodoxy magazine for the awful details.)
Strong families are wellsprings of tradition and morality-and they're under assault. A few tragedies, eagerly trumpeted by the elitist media, gave us stricter Child Abuse laws. Schools now instruct that, if spanked, kids should call 911 and have their parents arrested. Social workers, paid to meddle, will do just that.
Recently the town of Ellensburg, WA was torn asunder, and dozens of families were ruined, by expertly-primed charges of `ritual abuse.' Christians were the main targets.
The connection between welfare, fatherless families, and troubled youth is widely understood. Benefit cutoffs might bring back those absent fathers. Insisting that welfare mothers work (and pay their taxes) will require child care they likely couldn't afford. Government is only too willing to provide such care. Thus: welfare removes the fathers, `workfare' removes the mothers-and government raises the children.
The Rev. Don Sills said: "Gangs are a functional answers to a dysfunctional family." Who would want gangs roaming loose?
Gang violence is frightening, especially to a disarmed populace. They'll demand stricter laws. People will literally sign away their rights (as with Public Housing's "no warrant gun search" policies) to buy a little safety. Ben Franklin put it well: "[Such people] deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Government gains, the Constitution loses.
Trumped-up scares about the Internet prompted some 85 Senators (who couldn't tell a modem from a muffin warmer) to remove Constitutional protection from the high-tech world as well. The elitists now demand Federally-approved encryption methods to which they hold the keys, as well as supercomputers with the ability to eavesdrop on millions of phone and data lines at once. Big Brother, here we come.
How, then, to deal with these multiple assaults? First, let's look at several societies which became `sheepenized.' China's business and family traditions are simply outgrowing this. Cuba's many restless have landed here, in America, but they plan to return. Older Russians still long for their sheeplike days.
North Korea keeps an iron grasp. They are surely aware of (the former) East Germany's troubles, and of the sexual enslavement of hundreds of thousands of Thailand's young women. North Korea, impoverished and still AIDS-free, could easily become the next playground for the world's perverts. Hence, `de-sheepenizing' must be done carefully!
This article, while completely true, does paint a "worst case scenario." America can pull out of the mire, and soon, if not easily.
How? Learn to read anyway, and study the right `incorrect' books. Tune in the right radio shows. Get married and stay that way. Go to church and mean it. Get involved, as best you can.
True `right and wrong' will always show in the end. Hopefully, not cast in America's dust, but in its reawakening.
The ongoing Federal Budget debates will show us whether Alexander Tyler was right. Some lawmakers openly vowed to prove him wrong.
American Christianity (and other religions) can shed enough pride to listen to True Parents, and be re-energized through learning the Principle.
Past decades can be replayed, but to a Heavenly tune. The youth of the sixties missed their chance, but God has granted today's "second generation" another. America's fate rests largely upon those who embody this choice, and on whether it is accepted. Let God's Will be done!