In the preface for Abel Upshur’s book, A Brief Enquiry Into the True Nature and Character of Our Federal Government, the author states, “I know that the actual practice of the federal government for many years past, and the strong tendencies of public opinion in favor of federal power, forbid me to hope for a favorable reception, except from the very few who still cherish the principles which I have endeavored to re-establish.”
Well, I can certainly relate to that!
The sad thing about it is, that book was written in 1840; which means that we have had nearly two centuries of shifting values take place since; meaning the principles he was endeavoring to re-establish have become even less popular today than they were back then.
This transition away from principles that were once commonly held by people is something that has been going on ever since our system of government was established 234 years ago; with the speed at which old values, beliefs, and principles being abandoned increasing exponentially as time passes by.
Charles Austin Beard was a 20th Century Professor of History at Columbia University, and he once stated, “It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.”
Beard died 75-years ago; which means that there is the very real possibility that the values, beliefs, and principles held by his generation are now considered outdated and dangerous.
I think the single greatest failure we, as a country, are guilty of is to not teach our youth philosophy. I think the study of philosophy is essential if we want our children to be able to think; not be indoctrinated into ‘what’ to think; which is what happens with most of those who graduate from the system of public education. While there are those who fall through the cracks, or those to whom the indoctrination does not stick; well over 90% of those who graduate from high school are incapable of the kind of thought required to study philosophy with an open mind.
Philosophy, at least according to Wordnik, is, ‘The study of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based upon logical reasoning.’ Other dictionaries my define it differently, but I think that definition is satisfactory for the purpose of this essay.
There is a reason why philosophy is no longer taught in schools; that reason being that a mind that has been taught how to ‘reason’ is less likely to be manipulated; guided into reacting emotionally to issues and stimuli. One could say that a person who has been taught to ‘reason’ is less likely to panic; to call for measures they might later regret they had never called for. On the flip side, a person who reacts emotionally to situations is more likely to say, ‘I don’t care what you have to do, just make this problem go away.’
Unfortunately, what usually happens is that the solution offered to a problem, often, tends to cause other problems; producing a never-ending chain reactions of crisis/solution scenarios; where the people live out their lives in a constant state of fear and panic; looking to authority to solve the problems they face. Had people trained their minds how to think, to reason, they would be able to calmly analyze these situations, and realize that, more often than not, the cause of their problems today are the solutions offered by those in power for problems that existed in the past.
Those who seek to rule over you know this, and they use this against you by keeping you supplied with a never-ending stream of problems; which keep you in a constant state of fear, and dependent upon them to solve all the problems they are responsible for creating. To make matters even worse, you have the news media, Ministry of Propaganda is more fitting, that works in tandem with those in authority; broadcasting a steady stream of news designed to keep the fear level at a fever pitch.
Back in 2012, Graham C.L. Davey wrote a very interesting piece which was published in Psychology Today. In this piece, Davey writes about the negative impact on people lives that watching an endless stream of ‘negative’ news has on them. Before I get to what he said, there is something else I would like people to think about.
When I was growing up, people had 3 sources on the idiot box to get their news from; CBS, NBC, and ABC. There were no cable news channels, and the news was not broadcast 24 hours a day. Once that began to change, I believe that those in power saw the incredible opportunity around the clock news provided; the ability to broadcast propaganda non-stop to the masses. That is not to say that the news media had not already prostituted their integrity, they had; it was merely that the reach, and ability of the media to reach people any time of the day was an opportunity too good to pass up; and those in power took full advantage of it.
Getting back to that piece from Psychology Today, Dr. Davey, who holds a PhD in Psychology at the University of Sussex, in the United Kingdom, writes about an experiment they undertook: “Knowing that the proportion of negatively-valenced emotional material in news bulletins was increasing, in 1997 we conducted a study looking at the psychological effects of viewing negative news items. We constructed three different 14-minute news bulletins. One was made entirely of negative news items, one was made entirely of positive news items (e.g. people winning the lottery, recovering from illness), and one was made of items that were emotionally neutral. We then showed these bulletins to three different groups of people.”
Even I was surprised by the results of their little experiment; with Dr. Davey’s stating: “But what was more interesting was the effect that watching negative news had on peoples’ worries. We asked each participant to tell us what their main worry was at the time, and we then asked them to think about this worry during a structured interview. We found that those people who had watched the negative news bulletin spent more time thinking and talking about their worry and were more likely to catastrophize their worry than people in the other two groups. Catastrophizing is when you think about a worry so persistently that you begin to make it seem much worse than it was at the outset and much worse than it is in reality — a tendency to make mountains out of molehills!”
So, not only is there the effect of getting people to exist in a constant state of fear, they are able to cause people to imagine that the problems they face are even worse than imagined; when in reality they may not be as bad as people are being told.
It is natural for people to seek solutions to problems, or issues, that they believe threaten the stability of their lives; people want to live in peace and tranquility. Unfortunately, as anyone who watches the news with any regularity will tell you, in the world we live in today we are beset with so many problems that peace and tranquility are not possible.
Of course, this is where the public-school system’s indoctrination of our children comes into play. Kids grow up believing that government exists to solve all their problems; be they crime, poverty, social inequality, and all the other buzzwords and catch phrases that cause the political division in America today. It is natural, under such conditions, for people to turn to government for solutions; with the problem being that the solutions tend to create problems of their own; just like I said, a never-ending stream of crisis/solution scenarios.
Since people, for the most part anyway, are incapable of using logic and reasoning, they cannot see that they will never find peace and tranquility while trapped in the vicious cycle of seeking help from those who are responsible for the majority of the problems they face. Think of it this way; it is akin to a drug addict asking their dealer to help them kick their addiction; they cannot see that it is not in their governments interest to solve their problems; for if it did, people might begin to question the need for government.
Actually, the same thing mode of thinking applies to our health. When people get sick today, even a common cold, they go to their doctor looking for relief. The doctors then prescribe medication and antibodies; which in turn cause the bodies natural immune system to weaken; less able to fight off disease. Then, the next time a virus, or bug, comes around, the symptoms are worse, and the people repeat the process all over again; never realizing that if people attained true health their body would be able to fight off many of these illnesses on their own; putting doctors and the drug companies out of business. It is only natural that those who profit off disease would want to see people sick all the time; it provides them with a never-ending stream of customers for the services they provide.
I could also say the same thing about world peace and the military industrial complex; with peace being the last thing the makers of bombs and bullets want. Hopefully, you get the picture though; government does not want all our problems to go away; for then what would they do; why would there be a need for them?
Before I wrap this up, there is one final point I wish to address, and it goes back to my opening statements regarding how values and principles have shifted; and continue to shift…not in a good way, either.
Way back, when America was still relatively young as a country, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Judge Spencer Roane in which he stated, “Time indeed changes manners and notions, and so far we must expect institutions to bend to them. But time produces also corruption of principles, and against this it is the duty of good citizens to be ever on the watch, and if the gangrene is to prevail at last, let the day be kept off as long as possible.”
If you were to examine the shift in values and principles that has occurred over the course of our country’s existence, you would find that the values and beliefs of each generation has shifted further, and further, away from the values of the men who existed in generations that preceded them. That is why talk of individual liberty, and self-reliance/self-sufficiency, are not looked upon as outmoded; old-fashioned and out of date with the needs of society today. It is only natural that those who cling to those beliefs (principles) be labeled as enemies if the shift is to continue away from those principles.
Of course, that does not make those who cling to those principles the bad guys; herd mentality is a strange thing; it causes people to abandon beliefs that their ancestors held; just to fit in with their peer groups and social circles. All that has to happen is for the idea to be introduced that clinging to old values and beliefs is morally reprehensible for that shift to become the norm; with those who cling to the ‘old ways’ looked upon as the enemy of change; which brings us to something known as The Overton Window.
The Overton Window is described as the range of policies which are politically acceptable to the majority of the people at any given moment in time. It has also been called, The Window of Discourse; that which it is politically correct to say/discuss. The term Political Correctness first came about sometime in the 1930’s but it really gained popular usage during my lifetime.
Who gets to decide what is, and what isn’t, politically correct? Now if you think about that question from the perspective of the Overton Window; that window can be very wide, or it can be very narrow; depending upon how drastic the limits imposed upon free speech those who make these decisions want them to be. Anyone who says things which those who make these decisions do not want discussed, will find themselves targeted for character assassination; with them being hit with labels such as racist, sexist, homophobic, and a whole laundry list of others.
The outcry against those who speak outside what is considered politically acceptable will often find that their freedom of speech comes under attack; with censorship being the tool of choice for the politically correct. Just look at how that plays out on social media sites like Facebook; with people finding their accounts suspended for saying things that Facebook declares violates their community standards. Those standards were not established by the users of Facebook; they were established by those who created, and maintain, Facebook; making them guilty of censorship of ideas they do not like.
Sadly, it is not our freedom of speech that is the real victim here; it is the truth. If those in charge of determining what falls within the Overton Window decide that certain historical truths are no longer politically correct, then those facts now become the target of censorship and derision. In essence, these people have absolute control over the range of acceptable political discussion, and where that spectrum of acceptable discussion is centered upon.
Look at what has happened to our morality; it has shifted dramatically towards what used to be thought of as immoral behavior. If this pattern continues, it will look something like this; What was thought of as immoral by our ancestors is now moral, and what we consider immoral today will become morally acceptable in the generations who follow.
The Overton Window can apply to almost any debate, or discussion. It can apply to what powers people think the government out to exercise on their behalf. It can apply to how much freedom society thinks that the individual ought to be allowed to enjoy. It can apply to our religious beliefs either; with what the Bible tells us is God’s Law now being thought of as outside the parameters of the Overton Window.
Of course, most people will not be able to see any of this; due to the fact that they were not taught how to use reason and logic. Yet the fact is, we are the most controlled, most manipulated, and less free people that have ever lived within these states united.
The sad thing is, it is only going to get worse if people do not pull their heads out of their backsides and begin to think on their own; not in response to the programming and propaganda that has been fed to them their entire lives. In short, what I’m trying to say is…
‘Take the damned Red Pill people…before it’s too late.’
July 26, 2023
~ The Author ~
Neal Ross, Student of history, politics, patriot and staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Send all comments to: bonsai@syix.com.
If you liked Neal’s latest column, maybe you’ll like his latest booklet: The Civil War: (The Truth You Have Not Been Told). Life continues to expand for this prolific writer and guardian of TRUE American history.