“For everything there is a
season....a time to speak, and a time to be silent.” Prudence may suggest that
one must be highly cautious in criticizing his own political regime, lest he
further wound the body politic. (Here, as elsewhere, I use the term “regime” as
a translation of the Greek politeia, meaning both the arrangement of
political power in a society and the way of life of the people.) The American
political regime is both well established in the sense of having strong and deep
roots, but it is also highly vulnerable to disease, and even to death. If the
sickness evident in the American regime were not as serious as it is, prudence
may indeed persuade one to keep silent, lest the disease be strengthened. That
may yet be the case. But it seems to me that the regime is already so
degenerated in both the ruling elites and in the way of life of the people, that
it may be beyond recovery. Or again, to indicate in rough and broad strokes, as
I do, that this regime may well be perishing is hardly “letting the cat out of the
bag.” On the contrary: one of the salient features of the American regime
today is that many human beings living here see and feel the sickness and
decay. And so I write boldly, thinking that these words merely articulate what
many sense, whether they admit it to themselves or not. It is not pleasant to
face the possible even likely death of one’s regime.
My hypothesis is that the
United States of America, as it has been historically, as we have known it, is
dying, and our way of life is dying. The impatient patient is highly feverish,
gasping for breath, and quite likely beyond recovering its health. The famous
words of Goethe--”America, you have it better”--remind us of what is now long
gone, no longer a living reality. Then again, there are ways in which life in
this country remains good: some virtues in many of our fellow citizens; prosperity for many; relative safety, especially in less urban areas; and so
on. Some of our political leaders appear to be, to one extent or another,
reasonably sane and honorable human beings. And it is possible that the
goodness in a creative minority will regenerate and renew the fabric of the
whole, and lead to a new Renaissance of the American way of life, of our
culture, of science and the arts, of the political art of ruling responsibly. The future is unknown. But trends point in a different direction, and it is
these powerful trends and their overwhelming force that suggest that the United
States is in an advanced state of decay, and passing away. Or perhaps one could
maintain that the regime founded in 1787 has already died, and what lives on is
not the constitutionally limited republic of the Founders, but an American
Empire dressed up in democratic clothing.
Now, before proceeding, a
question must be raised: Is what I offer here intended as political theory, as
analysis of the way things are; or is it written as a manifesto to help bring
about the death of the dying? Do I wish to understand, or to cause further
illness? Frankly, it would be highly illusory to think that these words could
have much affect one way or another. What political science has to offer is
analysis of the way things are, in light of the best possible life for human
beings. Few will consider the words, fewer yet would be moved to action by
them. What is intended is political analysis. And if there is an element of a
manifesto to break from the regime, it aims not at concrete political action,
and surely not at violence, but at a personal break from the regime and from its
corrupting power over one’s life. In other words, what is needed in America is
not more political speeches and actions, not a political revolution, but a solid
renewal of human existence from the heart of the human being outward into the
world. An essential part of internal and personal renewal is a sober
examination of one’s way of life, and a break from it. In other words, our
people need a genuine conversion of life, not more empty-worded political
change. Through such change, individuals may be spared some of the rampant
social and spiritual disease, even as the regime remains festering in its
sicknesses.
*
“We the People” do and do
not rule in the United States of America. We rule in the sense that some of us
elect leaders who in turn reflect our way of life in its complexities of virtues
and vices. “We the People” do not rule in the sense that, as is transparently
obvious to a fair observer, the elected political leaders and the
administrators, at least at the federal level, are as a group highly
self-serving in their love of power, wealth, prestige. In any statement made by
a national political leader, one can and should ask: “Is he or she speaking the
truth, or seeking to deceive us? How is he or she seeking to advance their own
power position?” I recall self-styled “liberals” repeatedly calling President
Bush the younger (and Reagan before him), “a liar.” And I have heard many
self-styled conservatives call Presidents Clinton and Obama liars. What is in
common is this: “We the People” sense that we are being deliberately deceived,
lied to by our political leaders. Whether in reality they are lying or not is
another question; what clearly shows up is the intense sense that “we are being
lied to, deceived, duped, betrayed.” The body politic is in a real sense
detaching from its head, and the head from the body of the people. Consequently, “We the People” are ruled, not by ourselves or by justly chosen
representatives, but by a largely closed cadre of self-selected politicians.
Underneath the awareness or
belief in being lied to, then, is a highly widespread sense of alienation from
the Central Government and from our “elected representatives.” This acute
political alienation is at once a leading symptom of decay and an ongoing cause
of further decadence. Whether one examines attitudes predominating in inner
cities, or in middle class suburbia, or in small-town and rural America, most
Americans are in fact alienated from the political culture, and especially from
the national leaders. As a small indication, I know of no one in my daily life
who had any interest in watching President Obama’s second inauguration, or in
his State of the Union address. Out of the many people with whom I spoke on the
matter, not one showed the least interest in hearing what the President had to
say. They are interested in their families, in their ranching or other work, in
the local basketball team. The strong sense is that “whatever happens in
Washington, D.C., is of little or no concern to us.” That is alienation,
whether accompanied by emotional disaffection or by avowed hostility. Rhett
Butler’s words express the way the vast bulk of Americans feel about the rulers,
their speeches, their ceremonies: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
Mass communication makes it very easy for Americans to tune in and watch such
ceremonies, to listen to speeches. But relatively few people make the effort
(far fewer, for example, than watch the Superbowl). Why? Disinterest, a belief
that the leaders are lying, perhaps latent disrespect, and even hatred in some.
In short, the widespread sentiment in our country now is: “The political
leaders do not in truth represent us.”
With the covenant or
contract between rulers and ruled largely broken, what remains to constitute a
political regime? In a word, power. The use of raw power or threat of force
causes obedience to the laws, and not primarily or essentially a love of country
and its leaders. In this sense, too, America is an Empire, not a government of
laws, not a civil government “of the people, by the people, and for the
people.” Our federal government, at any rate, is government of the power elite,
by the power elite, and for the power elite--with sufficient tidbits thrown out
to largely politically ignorant masses in order to secure their votes. The
President is a new Caesar, skilled in manipulating the masses to win elections
and to keep their favor. In both tasks he is greatly aided by mass media which
are little more than handmaids to the powers that be--or less charitably but
more accurately, pimps for power. With thrills running down their legs, they
salivate to heap praise upon their Caesar, and just possibly to receive his
blessing--and perhaps some personal rewards (money, fame, approval, job
advancement). The adulation offered Caesar by the mass media is far removed
from the “freedom of the press” won by blood in the American Revolution.
What we are experiencing is
a major political crisis, whether it is analyzed as such or not: Americans do
not feel that they are represented by the elected, by ruled and dominated by
government seen as corrupt and self-serving. As I recently wrote, this
attitude predominates in small town and rural America. But it is also strong in
urban areas, among masses who may want “stuff” from government, but feel little
connection with the leaders and are often openly disrespectful and even
rebellious towards signs of political authority. To grant “respect” in the form
of adoration for elected leaders of one’s favored party or gender or color or
ideological flavor, and not to give that respect to anyone who wins an election
and holds office, manifests alienation and distrust. That many elections are
“won” by deceit, fraud, stealing votes, media manipulation, and so on, only
increases the clearly growing sense of alienation from elected officials--and
especially from the Central Powers (elected rulers and administrators at the
federal level). The notion of the “citizen ruler” taught by the Founding
Fathers and long held as part of the American civil religion has been unmasked. The leaders do not live as most of us do, they are not held to the same
standards, they are not responsible to live and act under law. What appears to
most of us is that the powerful rulers live pampered lives far removed from what
we experience. The language of “democracy” has increasingly become a thin mask
for political reality: government by an emperor and his ruling circle, with
various petty rulers barking around him. The “imperial Presidency” analyzed
years ago has become ever more true. America has a Tsar, a Caesar, a ruling
elite in some real and imputed ways more remote from the daily life of Americans
than King George III was from the colonists several centuries
ago.
*
Test the
hypothesis: Suppose our country is not sick and dying, but healthy and
thriving. Suppose the government really does represent the people, and that our
leaders live self-restrained lives under law. Suppose that the vast bulk of
Americans are not at all alienated from the governing class and government, but
obey the laws and respect the rulers with genuine affection. Suppose the
country is a healthy body politic, in which the young are well-raised,
well-educated, respectful of their elders, and readily find meaningful and
rewarding work. Suppose the older ones among us are respected and live in noble
dignity. Suppose the American regime truly does guarantee the “inalienable
rights” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and that every human
life is respected, protected, and nourished as well as possible from the moment
of conception to the moment of natural death. Suppose that virtually every
American citizen knows well what his rulers think and believe, and that their
words are trustworthy, their deeds noble and exemplary.
This hypothesis, these
thoughts, are so far removed from reality that I can barely conceive them, but
must strain to think of what to say. Regarding diagnosis of our illnesses,
words come readily to mind, because we live in the midst of a decadent culture
governed by rulers who seem to be bordering on tyrannical. One must willfully
blind himself or herself to political lies and deceptions not to feel the
intense contradiction between what the leaders say and what they do. They speak
democracy, they act oligarchy and tyranny. The American republic gave way to
mass democracy, and mass democracy has given rise to a tyrannical regime. The
change has gone so far that to claim that our present regime is in continuity
with the regime established by the Constitution of 1787 requires an intense
exercise in wishful thinking. The regime of Washington is dead. The regime of
Lincoln gave rise to the Progressive era of mass democracy, which in turn
yielded up the tyrannies of T Roosevelt, Wilson, FDR, LBJ, Nixon, and the more
recent crop of sharp-tongued deceivers.
*
How does one live and
thrive in such a destructive regime of lies and injustice? As the psalmist
of old asked, “The foundations once destroyed, what can the just do?” Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle broke from democratic and decadent Athens and highly
advanced the profound spiritual movement known as philosophy. The prophets of
Israel broke from the corrupt Davidic monarchy and priestly religious
institutions, and paved the way for the radical break from Israel and from Rome
evident in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. And so began the movement of
Christianity, which in turn became statically encased in decadent institutions,
and in time gave rise to the great movement of mysticism which remains perhaps
the finest flowering of Christian faith, or of any faith.
In short, the corrupt and
corrupting institutions are not to be reformed or saved, but avoided and exposed
for what they are. One must consciously choose to stand aside from the noise
and confusion of the age, and take shelter in one of the enriching spiritual
movements still alive and accessible. As for American federal government and
its deceptive rulers, “Let the dead bury their dead.” In the usual course of
events, the federal government will continue its enormous growth, and extend its
tentacles of power over more and more aspects of American life. In other words,
the federal government is clearly becoming what it is: a totalitarian regime. That is what happens when men and women drunk on power take control of
government: they abuse power, and seek to dominate the lives of others. And
those who rise to power in such a regime are usually the ones most driven by the
desire to dominate, the will to power; for if they were not themselves seeking
power and willing to get it at at any and all means, they would be crushed in
the process by more ambitious, less scrupulous contenders. In a regime such as
ours, the worst characters tend to rise to the fore, for they are the most
grasping for power. And of course in a regime with a democratic history,
tyrannical power is masked beneath the cloak of “doing the greatest good for the
greatest number,” or “just doing what is fair,” or “caring for the most
vulnerable among us.” There is an element of truth in these claims, but that
element is minuscule compared to the corrosive damage done to the body politic,
and to the virtues of the citizens. For citizens become mere subjects of power,
and beneficiaries of goodies, and not free and independent human beings
“pursuing happiness.” Objects of power become alienated. And that is exactly
what has occurred in the American regime: bad government has alienated the
affections and hearts of the governed. Hence, as a people in history, we are
dying.
