From the American Revolution Center, which conducted the survey:

The survey questions addressed issues related to the Revolutionary documents, people, and events, and also asked attitudinal questions about the respondents’ perception of the importance of understanding the Revolutionary history and the institutions that were established to preserve our freedoms and liberties. The survey results highlight the importance of, interest in, and lack of understanding of our Founding.

The specifics of the poll, and their results, can be viewed by viewing the PDF file available from the American Revolution Center’s website, here.

The average score was 44%, and nearly 83% of those surveyed failed to get a passing grade, meaning that they failed to get more than 16 questions correct on a 27-question exam.

The survey showed that by far, the majority of what Americans know about the Revolution and its principles comes from what they were taught in the school system. That statistic alone should account for the rest of the results of the survey. Hence the question posed in the title of this post: Why are we so surprised? Why are we so surprised that

Sixty percent of Americans could correctly identify the number of children in reality-TV show couple Jon and Gosselin’s household (eight), but did not know the century in which the American Revolution took place.

What?! Is 1776 such a hard date to remember? Or is this the result of a confusion over which century the 1700s were? (It was the 18th, and not the 17th century.)

Many more Americans knew that entertainer Michael Jackson sang “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” than knew that the Bill of Rights is part of the United States Constitution.

The survey also showed that the second most popular source of information concerning the Revolution, its leading figures, and its principles (again, this statistic is not a surprise), comes from books written on the subject. That can be good. However, given the kinds of books that are the most popular these days on the subject of the American Revolution and the Founders, that can also be bad. If one examines the kinds of books that are most popular today on the Revolution and on the Founders, books written by popular authors, it is pretty clear that these books, in general, tend to (A) market their works to popular audiences, and (B) add to/reinforce what the reader most likely was taught in school (not surprising, since most of these popular authors are professors at public universities and colleges).

Now, these two attempts are not bad in and of themselves. However, marketing to popular audiences is wrong when one tries to appeal to the baser passions of the people, by accentuating the grotesque and the negative to make the material sensational, in an attempt to add to the work’s “popular appeal.” Reinforcing what has been taught in the schools is also dangerous when the schools are bent on impressing the minds of the students with humanistic philosophy, and not the truth.

And the third greatest source of information concerning the Revolution is (again, no big shock here) the television. Most of what is televised on the Revolution is drama and documentaries, but we really do not seem to have much on the Revolution in either category. And of course, it is no big surprise that Hollywood would *gasp* play fast and loose with the facts, all in the name of “creative license” and “entertainment.” If you think that popular books debase everything to add to their “popular appeal,” dramas and even documentaries do it to a much greater extent, and much more effectively. Therefore if someone is interested in learning more about our Revolution, ah, the boob tube would be the last place to get such an education. Most likely it will not inform. It will deform, twist, distort, until it has molded a false and graven image of the Revolution, its leaders, and its principles, into the minds of as many viewers as possible.

However, the part of the survey which is the most astonishing, is that although a majority of Americans believe that the Revolution’s principles apply today, and that many of the rights, privileges, and protections that we enjoy under our form of government — freedoms which our American forefathers fought and died for — are important, enough Americans do not believe that those rights are important to make one shudder. See the image below (click to enlarge), from which these statistic are obtained, to view how American opinion has changed for or against these rights and protections within a year.

And now for the figures, which speak for themselves:

14% said that although the right to a fair trial was important, it was not essential to American liberty.
18% said that although the right to practice the religion of your choice was important, but not essential.
22% said that the right to privacy was important, but not essential.
28% said the right to “speak freely about whatever you want” was important, but not essential, and 2% said it was not important at all.
23% said that the right to practice no religion was important but not essential, and 10% said that it was not important at all.
29% said that the right to march, protest, or petition the government is important but not essential, and 6% said it is not important at all.
32% said that the right not to have your property searched or seized is important, but not essential, and 6% said that it was not important at all.
35% said that the right to own firearms was important, but not essential, and 19% said that it was not important at all.

OK, a little disclaimer needs to be added here. The “rights” of “speaking freely about whatever you want” and of “practicing no religion” are not rights, nor did the Founders fight to protect them. You do not have the government right to speak about whatever you want. Speaking profanity, obscenity, or insulting the Christian religion and Jesus Christ were viewed as serious offenses to the Founding Fathers.

See for example, the case of The People v. Ruggles (1811), which was brought before the Supreme Court of New York State, and the opinion of the court was delivered by Chancellor James Kent. Kent was a contemporary and close associate with such notable Founding Fathers as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay (and no, the majority of Americans couldn’t identify those two figures either). Kent is known as one of America’s two “Fathers of American Jurisprudence” (the other is Kent’s contemporary Judge Joseph Story), for his authoritative Commentaries on the United States Constitution. Kent, in the case in question, made this declaration:

The people of this state, in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity as the rule of their faith and practice; and to scandalize the Author of these doctrines is not only in a religious point of view extremely impious, but even in respect to the obligations due to society is a gross violation of decency and good order. Nothing could be more offensive to the virtuous part of the community, or more injurious to the tender morals of the young, than to declare such profanity lawful. (SOURCE)

We do enjoy freedom of speech, but that is not the same as enjoying the right to “speak freely about whatever you want.” If it was the intention of the survey to inquire as to how Americans view the importance of freedom of speech, as specified in the Bill of Rights, then they misinterpreted it with their question, making a whole new “right.” If I had taken the survey, I would have answered as the minority above answered it.

And as for “having no religion” — that is not a right. It is something that is not within the sphere of government, so you might say that because the government is not allowed to interfere in that matter, it is something you enjoy under a free system of government. However, that does not automatically make it a “right.” Nor did the Founders specify it in the Founding Documents as a protected right.

So as for those two questions, I think I can understand the reasons for the minority’s answers. At best, those two questions are poorly phrased. However, the rest are as plain as they need be, and we have considerable numbers of people saying that they are not essential? The right to bear arms (i.e., the right to defend myself, defend my family and property, the power to defend the innocent) is not essential? The right to peacefully assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances is not essential?

Maybe I good question to ask the people who took this survey would be this:

WHAT ON EARTH IS ESSENTIAL?!?!?!

By looking at the ways in which the majority of the surveyed Americans excelled in knowledge, they think that television and entertainment is essential. As the survey PDF will show its readers, most of the Americans surveyed say that they have a desire to know more about the Revolution, until now they think they have a fairly good understanding of the basics, and they expected (at least the majority did) to excel, and they did not. Maybe this would make a good illustration of “good intentions” versus “good actions.”

So that is where we are at, America. We are enjoying ourselves to death. Literally. As the country fantasizes over the things that entertain it and tickle its whimsical fancies, our liberties are being ripped apart piece-by-piece by those who hate this country and everything for which it really stands. This survey is not all bad news, but if the body of the American citizenry is not awakened to a sense of real danger and real urgency, our tiny steps toward improvement will mean nothing, as our destruction makes huge strides.

Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you.
Wisdom is the principal thing;
Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.
~ Proverbs 4:5-7

Allow me to relieve my fellow bloggers and loyal readers: no, I have not yet been deported for sedition, thankfully. I am quite alive and well. A bit under the weather, and certainly very much preoccupied with an increased number of projects, but well. I would like to heartily thank those who have kept up the Founding Father’s Quote Friday meme in my protracted absense. My apologies that I have not kept up on your posts.

But I here now intend to resume said meme, starting today. Again, anyone willing to participate may. Here are the rules.

Because I am getting a late start in this meme, I am not going to put out a full-blown post here, just some weighty words from John Adams:

Posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.
Letter to Abigail Adams, 26 April, 1777

SOURCE: Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife (ed. by Charles Francis Adams), volume 1, page 218

After an absence from this blog, and from my own meme “Founding Father’s Quote Friday,” I now resume my pen typewriter. I also apologize (do I do that more than I blog, I wonder?) to my readers and to FFQF participants. My absence was the result of necessity.

Today, we pose the question “Does one size fit all?” Meaning, “Is one form of government appropriate to all kinds of peoples, nations, societies, cultures, and so forth?” It seems ridiculous at first to think so, because all people are different; but it seems that it is viewed as unpatriotic these days to say that the United States Constitution, or ‘democracy,’ is not going to work for all people.

Let’s see what Founder Alexander Hamilton had to say about this:

… I hold, with Montesquieu, that a government must be fitted to a nation as much as a coat to and individual; and consequently, what may be good at Philadelphia [the unofficial United States capitol at the time], may be bad at Paris, and ridiculous at Petersburg [then capitol of Russia].
To Marquis de Lafayette, January 6th, 1801

We are told that all people have an inner desire for freedom (which is true), and that therefore all people should experience political freedom no matter what their beliefs, culture, or moral standards.

While this is a nice sentiment, and one would naturally hope that this could be realized, it is a sad impossibility. Only those who are capable of governing themselves in such a way that is consistent with the order, peace, and protection of society, can sustain any form of popular government.

I will no doubt be accused of bigotry by saying this, but it is truth nonetheless. Only the moral standards of God, who created man, are fit to govern man sufficiently and properly. God has made it clear that His word has been revealed to us in the form of the Holy Scriptures. If you have any doubts about this, I would suggest that you research the facts, internal and external. Some of the greatest internal evidences that have convinced me personally of the Scriptures’ superhuman origin are the scientific and medical facts which were hidden within the passages of the Bible, some of which have been discovered only during this past century. Ray Comfort has listed these facts in his book Scientific Facts in the Bible, available at Amazon.com. Another evidence is the Bible codes. Good reads on this subject include Dr. Chuck Missler’s The Cosmic Codes, and W. E. Filmer’s book God Counts. There are many other evidences of the Bible’s accuracy and supernatural origin, but these two categories of evidence are totally mind-blowing.

Free government has worked in America as long as America has respected and observed those standards. When she departed, she departed from her origins of civic freedom as well. Now, we need politicians to look out for us, and protect us from ourselves. Such is the price a nation pays for deserting its own good by deserting God’s law.

Today, John Adams will answer that question for us. His answer comes from a letter written to an early American historian by the name of Hezekiah Niles, dated February 13, 1818. Several of Niles’ invaluable texts on American history are available for reading and searching here.

But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. …

There might be, and there were others who thought less about religion and conscience, but had certain habitual sentiments of allegiance and loyalty derived from their education. …

This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.

By what means this great and important alteration in the religious, moral, political, and social character of the people of thirteen colonies, all distinct, unconnected, and independence of each other, was begun, pursued, and accomplished, it is surely interesting to humanity to investigate, and perpetuate to posterity.

To this end, it is greatly to be desired, that young men of letters in all the States, especially in the thirteen original States, would undertake the laborious, but certainly interesting and amusing task, of searching and collecting all the records, pamphlets, newspapers, and even handbills, which in any way contributed to change the temper and views of the people, and compose them into an independent nation. (italics are Adams’ original underlining)

SOURCE: The Works of John Adams, volume 10, pp. 282-283

I think that a study of the First Great Awakening, particularly the influence of men like George Whitefield, would very much satisfy the ends of the search which Adams proposed. Indeed, my (hopefully) upcoming book on Alexander Hamilton will deal with this subject, specifically as relates to the shaping of Hamilton’s beliefs and destiny.

How is the Great Awakening responsible in a large degree for the Revolution? Books from the 19th century to the present have been written on the subject; but if I may sum it up simply: The teachings of men like Whitefield convinced men that 1) all men are radically depraved, and 2) they are dependent upon God, and not man-made institutions like the Church of England, for the security of their souls.

The first principle is apparently present in the thinking of our Founding Fathers, the men who framed our founding documents, as they grappled with framing a government with as much balance as possible to counter the constant flow of selfish ambition in all the parties involved in the structure of civil government. And of course, when the second principle was applied, self-government was made possible.

Remember: our First Revolution did not start with just a Tea Party; it started with a return of professing Christians to the Bedrock of the foundation of the Church — the Gospel of Christ. Unless this happens on an individual level, our nation can never be pleasing to God, nor can the body of professing American Christians be acceptable to God, and definitely, nor can our nation return to its founding principles of freedom.

I would encourage readers to refer to my very first Founding Fathers’ Quote Friday post.

I am very thrilled to announce that we have another new participant in FFQF: The Young American! See last week’s FFQF post here.

Ben Franklin died this day, on April 17, 1790. So today we will cite a great quote from him:

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power. From Poor Richard’s Almanac (1734)

Loss of liberty was no accident in our country. Nor was it the fault of corrupt politicians alone. We sold our virtue for luxury, and our politicians, who are not inherently worse than us, purchased power at the price of liberty. The reason why our national condition is never improved, even as election after election goes by, is because our nation lacks virtue. George Washington once wisely observed, “Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” And right now, the wealthy elite who pull the strings in our country, and in other countries, are making extraordinary bids. And if you don’t cooperate, they’ll certainly find something in your past to fill the newspapers with, and knock you out of the ring of power. And the cycle is repeated with almost every new-comer in office.

It’s encouraging to know that people are being mobilized and activated around the country to protest the blatant injustice of the bullies in power — it’s high “tea time”! But it’s going to take a lot more than protest to win our liberties back.

Everyone knows the famous saying by Ben Franklin, that the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes. Which one is worse? Heh.

(Hat tip: Patriot Humor)

My FFQF today comes from an email I recently received from Wallbuilders, David Barton’s group. As usual, his stuff is choc-full of quotations from the Founding Fathers. The email and the quotations are so good, I would like to share it all with my readers today. “JOIN A TEA PARTY TODAY!”

Next week there will be thousands of TEA parties (Taxed Enough Already) across the nation. In a relatively short period of time, we have seen an explosive increase in government spending and national debt.

Previous generations avoided these unhealthy practices, being guided by wise political leaders who understood the blessings of frugality and the dangers of debt.

For example, Alexander Hamilton — America’s first Secretary of the Treasury and also a signer of the Constitution — wisely declared:

Allow a government to decline paying its debts and you overthrow all public morality — you unhinge all the principles that preserve the limits of free constitutions.

Nothing can more affect national prosperity than a constant and systematic attention to extinguish the present debt and to avoid as much as possibly the incurring of any new debt.

George Washington similarly warned:

Avoid occasions of expense… and avoid likewise the accumulation of debt not only by shunning occasions of expense but by vigorous exertions to discharge the debts, not throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.

Perhaps no Founding Father was as forthright on this topic as Thomas Jefferson:

If the debt should be swelled to a formidable size, we shall be committed to the career of debt, corruption, and rottenness. . . . The discharge of the debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government.

The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. I. . . place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.

Jefferson even wisely foresaw where America generally finds itself today:

I am not among those who fear the people… [A]nd to preserve their independence we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy [frugality] and liberty, or profusion [excess spending] and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, our people must come to labor sixteen hours in twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these hours to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread. The [forerunner] of this is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.

Millions of citizens, following the example of America’s early residents, have finally decided to draw a line and raise their voice against the government’s exorbitant spending and exploding debt. On April 15, citizens at more than 1,000 locations across the country will be sponsoring TEA parties.

If you want to participate with your fellow citizens, go to http://www.teapartyday.com/ to find a location near you.

[*] You may notice that Hamilton is quoted here as advocating the elimination, and not the accumulation, of public debt here. Indeed, there are many, many such statement throughout Hamilton’s writings. This goes directly against what we have been taught for decades in our history textbooks, and what many people are being led to believe through Thomas DiLorenzo’s writings on Hamilton.

I have (finally) posted the second installment of my critical examination of DiLorenzo’s claims, here.

I hope to continue posting my series called “The Law of Liberty.” I’ve only posted my first installment, and that was some time ago. But, I promise to continue it, and also to continue my exciting series of posts unfolding the relationship between the Founding Fathers, and the Illuminati.

Today’s quote somewhat reflects the theme that I will be touching on in my upcoming installments of “The Law of Liberty.” It’s short, sweet, and simple truth, presenting by the admirable John Adams:

Strait [sic] is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to liberty, and few nations, if any, have found it.

To Richard Rush, Quincy, 14 May, 1821

Liberty — civil liberty — is not a thing easily achieved, or maintained. The essential ingredient that liberty requires is totally missing from human nature. Liberty requires virtue and accountability to be maintained. It requires purity, stability, and a selfless steadfastness. It requires the ability not to be bought or sold, or lulled or hushed.

Liberty is a rare thing in the world because (warning: politically incorrect statement ahead) liberty and human nature are incompatible. Human nature, left to itself in its fallen state, cannot achieve, much less maintain, lasting liberty. Human nature must experience a change before true and lasting liberty is possible.

Keep in mind that Adams made the above statement 5 years previous to his death. He was 86 years old. He had spent his life in making America independent and free. For him to make such a statement toward the end of his life reveals how sobering reality must have been.

It is not as simple as riot and anarchy to bring about, or to restore liberty. As I’ve said before, liberty is NOT maintained (as Jefferson made the mistake of asserting in his famous “tree of liberty” quote) by continually struggling with authority. History has shown that anarchy is substituted for liberty in those cases, and it’s high time that humanity learned the hard lesson that order NEVER comes out of chaos. Liberty is achieved when virtue (i. e., God’s standards) are maintained. Usually, this has only been practiced on a small scale among small groups.

Such were the Separatist Pilgrims who came to this country. They were our original Founders. Because of their godly dedication, our nation was the first republic in history to realize civil liberty on a national scale.

Today we will look at what Alexander Hamilton had to say about the self-destructive weaknesses of republics. In a day and age where both extremes of unitary government and total democracy are pitted against each other in our nation, his words need to be heard and understood.

Every republic at all times has its Catalines and its Caesars. Men of this stamp, while in their hearts they scoff at the principles of liberty, while in their real characters they are arbitrary, persecuting, and intolerant, and despotic, are in all their harangues and professions the most zealous, nay, if they are to be believed, the only friends to liberty.

“The Vindication No. I” May-August 1792

In courts, sycophants flatter the errors and prejudices of the prince; in republics sycophants flatter the errors and prejudices of the people. In both, honest and independent men are frequently obliged to tell unpalatable truths, which are well or ill received according to the virtue and good sense of those to whom they are addressed.

“Philo Camillus No. 3″ August 12, 1795

People may shake their heads in astonishment, as these foretold patterns have been manifestly evident in our own political and social history. Others may marvel at how well our Founders described “the future” so precisely. The truth is that they gained their insight and their understanding through studying the history of republics, or those governments which had the seed of some form of “popular government.”

In other words, what is happening — or, what has been happening — to America is nothing new in the annuls of great human civilizations. Nay, we are merely another link in the long chain of examples of nations refusing to learn the lesson from history — that man is an inherently corrupted being, with knowledge of right and wrong, but a perpetual inclination for wrong.

No matter what extreme you slide toward, man’s age-old dream of a perfect “Utopia” will never come true without a fundamental change in mankind itself. That change can only be wrought about by God Himself, through the power of the new covenant.

But since mankind doesn’t want to acknowledge God’s right to do that, he has chosen to ignore God, and seek answers in himself. Hence, the problem remains, and the terrible cycle is repeated once more. Thank God there is a day when all of that will come to an end. God will not put up with the iniquity of man forever; He will come and establish His own government to rule in justice.

Today I am thrilled to announce that we have a new participant in Founding Father’s Quote Friday. MikeB from Florida, author of two great history blogs (Great Lives in History and Citrus Country Social Studies) has written his first FFQF post. Go here to check it out!

I said it once, and I’ll say it again (although you are all probably tired of hearing it): our theme for this week has sounded more or less like an elegy to the late great Bill of Rights. Our Founders were aware that, in the usual course of history, governments would look out more and more for their own self-interest than for their responsibility: to protect the people’s rights and to protect the order of society. As an extra safeguard, the Founders instituted the Second Amendment to the Constitution:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

That means, that we the people (who were the meat and muscle of militia in the Founders’ days) have the right to possess our own private arms, for our own protection, for the protection of our families, properties, and communities, and of course, for the protection of our other civil liberties. Hence, when the government and our own laws cease to protect our rights, and instead become a threat to them, we have a right and responsibility to protect them by force.

“[W]hereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.”

Richard Henry Lee, Letters from the Federal Farmer, 1788

“[W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, – who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.”

George Mason, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 14 June 1778

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”

Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 5 June 1778

Before I leave off here, I would like to conclude today’s post and this month’s theme with a note of caution. I have already discussed this in a previous post, but I think that it is worth repeating; many seem to have the fervor to take back liberty, by force if necessary, but it is hardly tempered by knowledge, by wisdom, or by virtue. The Scriptures teach that such uninformed, untempered zeal is dangerous (see, for example, Proverbs 19:2).

We tend to romanticize our American Revolution, and to romanticize revolutions in general. War, even for a good and just cause, is never good and many times, one rarely finds justice observed. War brings out the worst in human nature, and revolution and revolt is one of those kinds of war that doubles the bad effects. Why? Because revolutions are inherently the pulling down of authorities, which, although despotic, once held society together, and served as a restraining force upon the evil passions of men. Once that is removed, the more ambitious, the more facetious, the more active, and the more radical men begin to control the tide of revolution. They assume the role of demagogues, and eventually, they establish a new despotic order over the chaos they helped to create.

I regret to say that thanks to our moral state, it is impossible to climb backwards up the slope, back to liberty and law. Revolt will only plummet us to the bottom more quickly. Think about it. If the people of this country got up in armed conflict with the federal government, the United Nations (or some other armed agency interested in our conquest — there are too many to list here!) would step in, and bring “peace and order” to the chaos. Having been divided, we shall be conquered, and not by our own countrymen.

Consider this also. Our federal government is not at the top of the despotic conspiratorial ladder. They have just been bought and paid for, and they are very happy to sell their consciences, their country, and their souls for the money and the power that the globalist powers have offered them. We the people have been the stupid herds that just went along with it, and became part of the bargain. And now we are on our way to the slaughter, along with our American politician-herders who led us here. If we could not sustain a free country when it was easy — when we could have protected our rights by peaceful means — than we shall not be able to put it back and rebuild it if things get hard — when we catapult ourselves into revolt, and must feel a greater blow-back for our more difficult decisions.

I suppose I wasn’t able to end this so much on a cheery note. Alexander Hamilton will have to do that for me:

The triumphs of vice are no new thing under the sun, and I fear, till the millennium comes, in spite of all our boasted light and purification, hypocrisy and treachery will continue to be the most successful commodities in the political market.

Letter to Richard Harrison, 1793

For the past several weeks, I and those participating in this month’s Founding Fathers’ Quote Friday meme, have been dealing with the subject of the (late great) Bill of Rights. We have been approaching that subject from the angle that the reason for its demise has simply been the ignorance and complacency of the people. My friend Jean has just posted about the importance for people to know their rights, and not to be intimidated by the government. My friend Cato has also posed the suggestion that in stead of the Pledge of Allegiance schoolchildren and public officials ought to recite the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights at the beginning of each workday. Also, my friend Jon-Paul who joined our meme some time back, pointed out that many people think they have certain rights guaranteed by the law (such as the right not to be offended, the right to “express themselves”, etc.), but are ignorant of our real rights.

Because the people are ignorant (government-controlled schools are not going to impress upon its students the value of their rights, the protection that the laws of the land give them from their government, and their solemn and sacred duty to defend their laws and their rights), many of those who have assumed government office on the local, state, and federal level are also shamefully ignorant. Polls again and again show (I suppose I don’t need to mention the status-quo policies of the government for decades, do I?) how ignorant and/or indifferent our public officials are of our laws, of their limits, and their duties.

But how many people know? And in comparison to that amount, how many people care? Our culture is a pleasure-seeking one, by and large. And each passing generation seems to be more and more entertainment-oriented. Of course, much of our entertainment is mindless drivel, or downright filthy. I’m appalled at some of the things our culture seems to tolerate as “funny” or “entertaining.”

Should we be surprised that in a culture filled with frivolity and impurity that our national IQ goes down considerably? That the conscience of our culture has been seared? That we are habitually complacent about the things that matter? We are dumbed and numbed, and we have willingly accepted this condition of slavery that has been gradually tightening its grip on our lives, for temporal pleasure.

Here is what Founding Father Alexander Hamilton had to say about that.

Mental debasement is the greatest misfortune that can befall a people. The most pernicious of conquests which a state can experience is a conquest over that elevated sense of its own rights, which inspires a due sensibility to insult and injury, over that virtuous pride of character which prefers any peril or sacrifice to a final submission to oppression, and which regards national ignominy as the greatest of national calamities. The nation, which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a Master and deserves one.

“The Warning No. III” New York, February 21, 1797 (emphasis original)

Ouch. I guess our infatuation with celebrities and sports and entertainment hasn’t been so worth it after all.