(This was originally written in the mid-seventies, and the writing style was based on that of Charles Fort from "The Books of Charles Fort". It was rewritten & edited for content in 2004.) "SELECT POLITICAL NOTIONS FROM A MAN BESIEGED BY NOTIONS IN GENERAL" by D. L. Herring America the beautiful - or the dilution of strength into feminism. The spirit, or spirits, of America; wandering, misplaced ghosts of the past. The emptied, burned-out hulls of ‘individualism’, ‘patriotism’, ‘inalienable right’. And the pioneer spirit, solidified now through two hundred years of compromise; that it is comfortable now and seldom rises; a ghost, it wanders no more. Encased as a clam in our shell: a security we brandish as ‘government’, though sometimes we wonder - what once was the ‘land of the free’ and the ‘home of the brave’ is reduced to apathy and court decisions. Absence of vital force. And just what was that vital force whose absence now rings so loudly? I have the past envisioned so well: handful of refugees, glimmer of unity; handful of patriots, and their faith and hopes. Fleeing from tyrannies, they scribbled on parchments. Little did they know that their new ‘truths’ and ‘justices’ would some day be old bones on which would be draped the flesh of other tyrannies; but they scribbled on, these bold ones. Their visions were clear. Through their veins rushed the hot life fluids of a Democracy of decency, pumped by hearts, oppressed and bruised by taxes and sundry other repressive acts. They scribbled on, parchment after parchment, daring to hang together - for posterity. They wrote, or scribbled, declarations, constitutions, amendments - and various notes, I suppose, to other members or to home - all based in and reflecting (what else?) Their fear of and faith in ‘God’s Law’. Is it not so: man’s law is God’s Law paraphrased? Or: it was: back then. It was supposed to be that the masses governed themselves, alone, by way of ‘majority rule’: laying down laws for themselves that in no way should bind the following generations, as they were bound in past by others. This was the ‘Spirit’ of the law. This spirit is what we lack. We are left with the outward constructions and rhetoric of law, but the inward essence - the vital force and bottom line - is gone out of it. The spirit in which the law was intended is missing, and I’m mad as hell. Wouldn’t you be more than irate if the ‘from scratch’ was missing from your grandmother’s home-made buttermilk biscuits? Of course you would. You’d see red, and I wouldn’t blame you. Somewhere along the historical line, it seems to me, we’ve ceased to be a democracy, and have become a republic instead. Our nation is all but lost at the hands of glory hounds and bureaucrats. What is that particular osmosis that turns the good into bad - though one realizes from the outset that a ‘democracy’ is the most vulnerable form of government - still in all, we are interested, here, in some thing that is destructive, relatively to our nation, the United States of America? One seeks answers where one may, but here, to know how far off the track we’ve been led, or have wandered, perhaps blindly, or perhaps wearing blinders; we’ve only to notice what was originally meant. We look to the source. One merely traces backward. We see that local law is but an appendage of state law. State law correlates around national law. Our nation’s law is summed up in the constitution. And it doesn’t stop there. The constitution is made in the image of God’s law. Fairness, decency, and freedom rather than bondage; or three terms of strength which allow for national unity, and security, and peace - not to mention productivity, etc. - or in other words: our entire national structure depends, as do all free nations, upon basic strengths: freedom, equality, stability, etc. Why does God’s Law state: "Thou shalt not kill"? And then again, why is murder "against the law"? One does not have to be especially bright to understand the religious structure upon which our constitution hangs. And yet, our supposed leaders fight fiercely against ‘prayer’ in our public schools. Had this been attempted in the early days of our nation, our religious forefathers would have had a righteous fit. Prayer is a basic part of a child’s upbringing; a basic strength which is ultimately a cohesive factor in our national fabric. Our supposed leaders seek also to widen the gap between church and state. We all know that the state’s origin is in the church. Our supposed leaders restrict free enterprise where they see fit. Innocent people are jailed while the guilty buy their way clear, and all along, with the passage of each new law - the success of yet another ‘precedent’, the "police state" draws ever nearer. Recently, the precedent was set that gave the government the right to veto the individual’s right to have the ‘final say’ in his or her individual life. I suppose, now, that privacy will be the next to fall by the way. When our constitution was being drawn up, there was no desire for and no call for ‘leaders’ and ‘authorities’. There was but one position to be filled: public servant. Servants of the public good; and that our servants are seeking an overthrow. Reverse rebellion is in the wind: handful of zealots; glimmer of repression. And bands of bureaucratic, aristocrat-glory hounds who imagine that they know our needs and requirements better than do we. Who do ‘they’ think they are? Sadly, we are all too aware of their track record: deficits, fiscals, international lending, interest rates, and etc. What a fiasco ‘they’ve’ made of our affairs! Do ‘they’ imagine that we shall always be pacified with sports, and honky-tonks, and video games? Think ‘they’ that we are not aware? Unfortunately, in our present botched state: our bedlam and shambles, there are only two alternatives, or cures, for our Romanesque descent. One would be the complete realization of the police state: in this, I see only the functional: a sort of bee-hive society; and the transition would not be a difficult one to make - for as a nation, we’re already no more than diluted communism. The latter alternative, or cure, would, of course, be some revolutionary re-writing of existing laws and codes by the people, themselves. Toward this latter, more realistic cure, I’ve a few notions.
The stuff that has disabled you from reading or writing more than one line. I got off easy: I only see trails.
OK, you misunderstood. The first line basically states that feminism has weakened America. I disagree. Feminism has strengthened America. Past that, it's all politico-religious rhetoric. I don't do drugs, never have. I respect my body too much.
That is exactly what I intended it to be; and it was written when I was a younger man. As to your claim of never doing drugs: that is praise-worthy. But, in that I have decided to share sometning with other people - that is not a call for critics. You are not made from that cloth. Perhaps, instead of being unduly critical, you should share something of yours with us.
You wouldn't like it, Daniel. It's all science fiction about grand inquisitors in spaceships, flying around the galaxy fighting heresy, losing their faith in the process. And other pleasantries that heathen non-Christians such as I would pen. I have several essays that you would find highly offensive though. One in particular explains how sexual abuse migrated from the Roman Catholic Church and bled into the Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist, etc in the 1970 when the vatican first started covering things up.
No, he was very specific that "stuff" = drugs, and he admitted it. This specifically refers to the after effects of LSD use. Check your facts, ryu. You're doing it again.
Zoomie, I think I might actually like to see some of your writing. I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy. As a Christian, I am a realist and my faith is based in strength: I am a practising non-orthodox - some contemporary Christians find me a bit 'off the wall', to put it mildly.
Daniel- You can't see the vital force in everything? Hmm. Wierd. I took most of a vial once. Pretty awesome.
I was born a Jew, completed when I was 8 and raised Episcopalian. So I can dig it. One of these days I will drag it all out of the attic, pay one of my wayward offspring to type it all up and put it on a site someplace. Until then I still have to work for a living and I already waste far too much time posting here. We all have a minor vice though, eh?
