286 December 9, 2020 “Two or More”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

# 286 – “Two or more…”

December 9, 2020

Monday was a seminal day in American history. That day, an unprovoked sneak attack on Pearl Harbor would launch the United States into World War II. Young men, some in their teens, lost their lives when the Empire of Japan struck on a sylvan Sunday morning in Hawaii. Pearl Harbor and Ford Field saw men and equipment fall as Japanese fighters pummeled both installations in hopes of crippling the American fleet in the Pacific.

For the first time in more than twenty years, I failed to file a column. It bothered me quite a bit, but something held me back. I didn’t realize just what until around two o’clock this morning. Now I know that my reticence was prompted by a larger goal than the annual column in response to the old familiar phrase, “Remember Pearl Harbor.”

My passion in education has always centered on political science. Honed in elementary school years, further polished in high school and inspired at Franklin College Yu Long Ling, a mainland-China born professor whose family fled to Taiwan before “The Cultural Revolution,” a man who had held high responsibility in Taiwan, a man who appreciated the United States far more than his students could imagine.

Looking back now in my middle 70s, I see even more clearly what for years, I and many others of my vintage and slightly younger, watched — our country sliding toward an abyss. The beginning of the Declaration of Independence, while strong in patriots, began to fade among others. Where our schools once consistently taught of the Founding Fathers and their immense sacrifice, we saw the decimation of such education replaced by a new form of idolatry — government. That love of country so instilled in us, was being supplanted by forces hell bent on destruction, but mindful that it could not be accomplished quickly. Hence, the consistent and malicious whittling away at the values that founded this nation.

If you think this is a new judgment, it is not. It dates back to less than fifty years after July 4, 1776.

America, founded and built by sheer effort and determination, inspired a visiting Frenchman, a crucible for democratic thought and critique. Heed Alexis DeTocqueville’s warnings. Heed them now.

The year was 1831. These are but a few of his quotes.

The Tyranny of the Majority

Tocqueville does not mean that the majority in a democracy will always act tyrannically, only that nothing can prevent it from so doing. He further argues that tendency to acquiesce in the rightness of majority opinion has negative long-term consequences on national character and culture.

The greatest danger Tocqueville saw was that public opinion would become an all-powerful force, and that the majority could tyrannize unpopular minorities and marginal individuals. I taught it in three sections, described below.

Lesson One. The Omnipotence of the Majority
In this lesson, students are introduced to Tocqueville’s argument about the “omnipotent” power of the majority in America and its consequences. After an initial statement that the “very essence” of democracy is majority rule, he contrasts the means by which state constitutions artificially increase the power of the majority with the U.S. Constitution, which checks that power.

Lesson Two. The Tyranny of the Majority
In this lesson, students continue their examination of Tocqueville’s argument about the power of the majority and its consequences. Having suggested previously that the majority can crush a minority without even hearing its screams, he elaborates on the dangers of unchecked and unlimited power in democratic America and how to deal with it.

Lesson Three. The Power of the Majority over Thought
In Tocqueville’s discussion of how the majority in America constrains freedom of thought, he makes some of the most extreme criticisms against democracy. For example, he says “I do not know any country where, in general, less independence of mind and genuine freedom of discussion reign than in America”; and, “there is no freedom of mind in America.”

The following quotes add more than meat to the outline. I challenge each of you readers to take time to ponder their content and then go back to your daily life without reflection. For me, it is impossible to do.

Alexis De Tocqueville on America

Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

(If this does not harken to Donald J. Trump’s consistent message, I don’t know what does.)

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.

(Consider the actions today’s Democratic Party.)

Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannize but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

(Thank you, so-called educators. This is what you have done to our children.)

It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.

Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.

(Again, this is precisely the mantra of today’s Democrat Party in America.)

The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults

I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.

(Again, bear in mind this was from the 1800s, not after the Moorish invasion of Spain or Post-911.)

Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom…. The subjection of individuals will increase amongst democratic nations, not only in the same proportion as their equality, but in the same proportion as their ignorance.

(The need for actual history being taught — our weakness for decades.)

As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can’t have it both ways. Socialism is a new form of slavery.

(And what has the Democratic Party done for blacks in this country? Look at their voting records. They blocked legislation at every turn, supported segregation in schools, espoused Jim Crow laws, and would have stopped the Civil Rights Bill in its tracks had not Republicans stepped up and voted it into law. Tell me, have our government teachers taught that in classrooms? )

I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.

(Donald Trump is such a man.)

When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

(Label faith as a weakness. Close the houses of worship, open bars, abortion clinics and marijuana, and crush small business while big business continues unchecked.)

Any measure that establishes legal charity on a permanent basis and gives it an administrative form thereby creates an idle and lazy class, living at the expense of the industrial and working class.

(And so we have the social programs pushed by the left, stoked by the specter of victimization — no individual effort encouraged whatsoever….)

Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things. In France, I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.

And so, readers, we come to the present. Faith is the crux of our nation. It remains the strong foundation from which this amazing country came. Are we now to stand aside and allow those who attack it to win?

There is a time to pause and a time to fight. These are fighting times. But what is our weapon?

While some may judge it trite, the answer is prayer. Years ago, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, born in El Paso, Illinois, was a familiar figure on early television. He had a huge audience and viewers did not separate him out because he was Catholic. His goodness and intelligence shone forth in every airing of his program.

He warned of what we see now. What’s more, he gave us guidance and direction for what we could do.

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Founded on God, America still has a chance. Please heed Bishop Sheen’s warning. God hears prayers. Now is the time for each of us to pray. In times of trouble, God is the only resource. Seek him out. Pray for America.

I end with Matthew 18:20

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. American King James Version For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the middle of them.

Now is not the time to “think about it.” Now is the time to do it.

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