The Right Problem
America's decline is a symptom of a rotting culture. It is something repairing politics, the Constitution or our laws will never resolve.
When I write down some thought or idea, the "what if's" continue. Seldom do I compose a post that my mind doesn't keep turning it over - and my mind starts to bring in earlier posts and thoughts.
I've always been a proponent of disciplined problem solving, perhaps that's just the way my mind was trained, a legacy of being trained in the art of engineering.
The first question I always ask is this:
Are we solving the right problem?
How many times have you seen a project go down one path only to realize in hindsight that it should have gone down another?
A long time ago, I read a white paper that began with this quote – and it struck me as the key to discovering effective solutions:
“The rigor with which a problem is defined is the most important factor in finding a good solution.”
But even then, what I have found is that every problem is almost invariably wrapped in another, and another, and another. Sometimes there isn’t a root cause, there are root causes, plural. Sometimes the root cause is filled with multivariate problems that must be broken down even further – and the bigger the problem, the more likely it is to have multiple causes.
So, you must just keep going, solving a problem at a time, testing each variable and ultimately, keep digging and reassessing until you get to the bottom of the pit.
Over the past week or so we have discussed, debated, and argued over stolen elections, political failures, President Trump and the 2022 mid-term “Red Drip”. We have talked about whether the Constitution still exists in function or simply in form and whether we should combat the Democrats by being more like them.
As I considered all this commentary last night, I noticed something – all the things about which we have been in a kerfuffle are symptoms, not real problems. They are outcomes, not inputs. In my mind, the following are symptoms of a larger problem:
People voting for ethically challenged candidates.
People voting for dead-end, nation destroying social and economic policies.
People increasingly ceding their liberty to the state.
People manipulating regulations, breaching ethics and laws to win.
Public officials openly lying about their actions and denying the results of their policies.
Politicians doling out taxpayer money to buy favors, advance political agendas.
Elected officials acting to disadvantage citizens in favor of non-citizens.
Elected officials ignoring duly passed laws.
Those in power weaponizing government against their political enemies.
So, if these are truly symptoms, what is the problem?
Andrew Breitbart said something we should always remember – politics is downstream from culture.
Logically, it follows if politics is rotten, it is due to the cultural decay that preceded.
People will read this and say, “Well, he is just a white Christianist nationalist nativist who wants to force his beliefs on the rest of the country.”
No. Not really.
There are basic tenets of a civil society that were in place long before Christianity. It has always been wrong to steal or cheat, to lie, and to disrespect people. It has always been right to help people in distress, to respect their property and persons and to not intentionally cause harm.
Of course, there are more, and societies added even more as they decided what was desired and necessary for maintaining a civil existence - and as Western civilization began to revolutionize the world with the concepts of individual liberty and self-governance, the rules were modified again to accommodate the idea of God-given individual rights.
My mind keeps going back to something I said this week – the idea that since our Constitution, our laws and our traditions have been set aside in favor of the Obama Theory of Government – “I’m just going to do this, stop me if you can”, and there is no way to work within a corrupted system to set it right, we are faced with two options – its either a second revolutionary war or a massive popular uprising ending in the resignation of the entire government.
The first option requires a small number of the population willing to do and suffer violence, the second requires a complete cultural revival and a recovery of the basic tenets of human morality. The former is likely to be seen as just another faction forcing their will on a nation, a “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” thing, the latter is the only prescription (in my humble opinion) for a lasting peace and a return to the America of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
How to do it?
When I think about the massive organization and coordination such a popular movement would take, it sure appears our societal decay has destroyed most of the organizations, networks and philosophies that could be used to recover our heritage – even an institution I have always considered as an almost unbreachable wall against this – the black Christian churches – has been corrupted. The reelection of the alleged Reverend Raphael “The Warlock” Warnock (the pastor or MLK’s church who said Jesus would approve of abortion) proves it.
Any society where a majority sees children as an inconvenience to be excised rather than a gift from God to be loved is doomed unless it submits to a revival of spirit and intellect.
But the churches may still be the last opportunity to build a modern “Underground Railroad”. We must find some national commonality and the churches are the last institution that isn’t under direct government influence and control, and they may be the last places people who love liberty and America but hold differing religious beliefs (or none) can still gather and network out of the all-seeing eye of Washington.
I may be completely up in the night on this, but a good problem solver also believes in Occam’s Razor, when you have competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the likely answer.
What do you think?
I've never wavered on my animosity of the 'burn it all down and start over' club, but I freely admit it's tempting at times. When I sobered up 22 years ago, I was beset with crises, each wanting more attention than I had to spare. I likened it to being a circus performer either juggling, or keeping plates spinning on top of sticks and every time I believed I had a handle on what I was dealing with, another ball was introduced to the juggle, or another plate or two were added to my act. Someone much smarter than me at the time suggested letting it all hit the ground, then sift through and find the one thing that was plaguing me the worst. Essentially identifying the one thing that all the other balls, plates, and sticks shared. If I could identify that and develop a plan on making that one thing manageable, I had a shot at dealing with the rest. Now that might involving working on two or three things simultaneously, but that was preferable to a half dozen or more all vying for the limited attention and focus I could bring to bear. See, that's the thing about multiple problems, even if you're not paying attention to them, they never really go away, but if you take the worst of them and and make them tractable, it steals momentum from the others and once you're able to gather them up again, the inertia is on your side.
Now applying that outlook to the woes our nation endures, in my mind money is the biggest problem. Not just the once almighty dollar and what it represents, but how it's collected, who gets it, and how it's spent. That one thing finds commonality with just about every problem the USA faces. From punitive taxes and regulation inhibit the Pursuit Of Happiness, Liberty, and in many cases, Life as we've come to enjoy it. "Public Servants" make careers out of "service" and come to government as thousandaires and in a relatively short time become multimillionaires. Foreign aid to nations actively working against our interests, and multiple instances of zero accountability of just how our taxes are used, squandered, and pissed away. It seems to me, the simplest way, seeing as Occam's Razor applies is to, rather than drive the swamp denizens out, is to starve them to death. It takes large amounts of capital to fund these nonaccountable agencies that create law by fiat and have become known as "The Deep State". We've seen their destructive nature before, but in the last two decades they've lost all interest in remaining anonymous. They use our money against us. The simple facts is, if we want to return to a manageable form of constitutionally limited government, it needs to go on a starvation diet immediately if not sooner. We blew right passed the boiling frog analogy years ago and now they're just pitching shit in the pot knowing most of the deplorables will end up cooked anyway, even if some escape.
Now as to how this gets accomplished, well, ay, there's the rub. Getting all the concerned parties on the same page and agreeing on how to proceed, makes herding cats seem like a good idea. There are several avenues, the most prominent of which is the Article V CoS movement. It's been around for some time, but still hasn't made the headway our exigent circumstances require. Your massive popular uprising could take that CoS and truly redirect our headlong rush toward the fiscal cliff that sadly if left unattended will surely bring the armed conflict so many say they fear. Everyone thought the summer of 2020 was bad, wait until the trucks and trains can't resupply urban centers. There are other ways, but longer, slower, and less effective. One need look no further than last month's elections to know that "using the system to fix the system" will only ensure our inevitable demise. The veneer of civilization and prosperity is thin and it's suffered more cracks and fissures than can be addressed cosmetically. Demolition, amputation, and swift, decisive action is required if the patient/structure is to survive. Simply limping along as we have been does not forestall our imminent demise. It's coming. The question is, are we willing to do what must be done? If we dither, the choice will be made for us and as is always the case, it will be worse than had we acted when we had the chance.
One thing that is also lacking is a LEADER, similar to how Christ was the leader amongst men. The 'Govt' saw that in Trump and how the people were behind him in numbers that have not been seen in any other person of the last few decades. Trump was for the people and the people saw that.
However, as Schumer stated - the Intelligence Community (IC) has 7 ways from Sunday to defeating you. Well, the IC did their job and were even helped by Trump himself (in a sense) and as a result the people, the masses of the right are even more angered and in disarray.
Look around, the right, churchgoing, Christ believing, rule following, education believing, family-oriented, boarder controlling people have become the enemy of the state, and therefore must be dealt with at all costs. For if they are allowed to multiply unabated then that could indeed bring back all that has been taken away by the Elite and Powerful.
As Michael Savage use to say - Borders, Language and Culture are the cornerstones of society and I'll be damn that the 'Elites' have done everything they can to destroy all three.