Finding our Way

Upon the Stoa this night, I contemplate the near future. Our travails started in earnest in 2008 and will likely continue past 2020. We have a lot to atone for. A lot we must learn and much more we need to relearn.

I have said before that war is a leveler. An act that sweeps away the old and renews civilization for new growth, without regard to "good or bad".

Sometimes war or major societal dislocations are required in order for the contemporary leaders to contemplate radical change and for the people to accept that change.

If the United States is to continue into the future as a positive force for technological and cultural innovation then it can not continue in its present form. This much is apparent. The proliferation of Federal laws and the inability of the common citizen to protect themselves to the same extent as they can against other laws simply chains us to an unelected bureaucracy. The proliferation on Federal Departments, agencies, and programs which drain economic resources from those who drive the before-mentioned innovation. The citizens of the Republic are fractured and courted for their use by the powers that be.

I'll start with a few examples and work my way down until I grow tired of doing so:

Monetary policy. We must move away from fiat currency. In fact, I'm not sure if this is a choice we will be able to make for ourselves. Gold and silver coinage will have to be our currency. Oh, it does not have to be the actual metal, but the currency, whether it is coin, paper, or digital money. Whatever our unit of currency becomes, it must be based on precious metal holdings. Hmm, I do believe that our Founders were of the same opinion as well. Says so right in the Constitution. Metal currency. Specifically, Silver currency. You can see how we drifted, ever so innocently over 175 years.

The Federal Government's place in our lives. Today, more than half of all Americans are subsidized by the Federal government in some fashion. And when I say Federal government, I mean the People as a Whole. Redistribution of wealth. The States used to be pre imminent and they must become that again. The Feds are in every aspect of our lives. They have invaded our bedrooms and they are looking into ways to invade our futures. A hundred years ago, the Federal government was minuscule. The citizens of the States looked more to their State Capitols than Washington D.C. It needs to become that again.

Our Founders envisioned citizen politicians. I don't mean to say that our politicians are not citizens, but that it was the duty of every citizen to serve their State or Federal government for one or two terms of their respective branches. This not not to deny a person a life of politics, but that one never serve more than two terms in whatever capacity they serve. Washington set the precedent, and it was not a bad idea.

The Judicial. There was a period of time where the Supreme Court sat around wondering just exactly what it was supposed to be doing. The Constitution was pretty clear. It was written for the masses and not the political elite. Things meant what they meant. Those of the first several courts lived side by side with the Founders. They understood the INTENT of every phrase and had no desire to parse the meaning or look for "penumbras" of meaning within the document. In the 1930's, when the legislators began to really get out of control by mandating what a farmer could grow or sell, the Supreme Court be can to fail. Upholding laws that would have made our Founders cringe. Once they "found" the right for abortion on demand in the Founding document it was time to sweep out the lot of them. It says what it says. Anything not specifically spelled out is left to the INDIVIDUAL states to decide. Period.

Things drift. The very continents themselves drift. Unlike the rocks we build upon, the Constitution was both self correcting and correctable by the People. We, the People. Politicians do not change it. WE do.

The Libertarians desire to turn the clock all the way back to 1787. I'd be happy to pull it back to about 1850. Drift. Drifting is what we have been doing for a very, very long time. If we wish to do this peacefully, we will have to drift back the other way.

War changes things, though. It add heat and acts as a catalyst for rapid changes. Will we become what the Libertarians wish us to be? Not overnight. Not even after another civil war. Can we turn the clock back to 1850? I believe we can.

Lets look at this like we would a computer that keeps crashing. You know, the Window blue screen of death. You make changes to the system and the system crashes. Simply go to a back up point and restore the system.

If we were to restore the Republic back to about 1850 then there will be many, many changes. No more Income Tax. No more Department of Energy or Education. No more FDA, Social Security, or Medicare. That will pull the Feds back down to manageable levels. The States will suddenly find themselves having to manage Interstate highways and orphaned government programs. We will, I believe, be much better off for it.

Things change, things drift. Right now we are moving off the cliff and into the historical abyss of human misery, autocracy, war and oppression. If we do not return to what we once were then this will be the only possible ending our experiment.

If war and economic ineptitude pull down the structures we are familiar with, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Socialism then adopting a prior version our selves becomes very possible. We will have already lost all of those things. It will be much easier to adopt individualism when individualism is all there is left.

I depart on this warm, November night.

Live well.

--Zavost