A book came, I believe providentially, into my possession from the estate of my late maternal grandparents. "Stand Fast by our Constitution" is a compilation of writings and speeches given by J. Reuben Clark Jr., a servant and leader in the LDS Church as well as in the United States government. This quote hit me profoundly tonight. I am sure I will have many more quotes from him to share in the future.
Check out this timely warning!
"And let me say here and now, that in the whole history of the human race, from Adam until now, Tyranny has never come to live with any people with a placard on his breast bearing his name. He always comes in deep disguise, sometimes proclaiming an endowment of freedom, sometimes promising help to the unfortunate and downtrodden, not by creating something for those who do not have, but by robbing those who have. But Tyranny is always a wolf in sheep's clothing, and he always ends by devouring the whole flock, saving none."
3 comentarios:
oh wow... food storage anyone???
Look to history, my brothers. It is the only source of political wisdom strong enough to establish a foundation capable of withstanding the gale forces of any contemporary political storm, regardless of the epoch. Nothing is new under the sun. Our founding principles are as sound today as the day they were penned. These principles are neither compassionate nor cruel by nature, they are simply the hard truths gleaned from thousands of years of human experience. We ignore or dilute them at our peril, but most dangerous of all is to have but a superficial understanding of them.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote a brilliant letter to a friend in which he bemoaned the use of the words "self-evident" in what has become perhaps the most sacred line ever penned in US history. He felt the term didn't do justice to the sweeping truths it described. He went on to explain that, in fact, they were not self-evident at all! Indeed, at the time of their writing, they flew in the face of the entire history of human governance!
His point was that such profound truths only become self-evident upon close examination and understanding... that such profound truths had, in fact, an entirely independent existence, apart from an individuals personal inclination or convenience, both practically and philosophically! His fear was that through the course of time, as each successive generation became more and more accustomed to an environment of freedom and liberty, his use of that phrase would be taken literally. People would lose the impulse to inquire deeply into the origins of these principles, and make the effort to truly understand their self-evident nature. After all, if it's self-evident, what more do you need to know? He was afraid his choice of words might stifle the effort to explore these truths properly, and the words would be reduced to a mere slogan. He gloomily predicted that the potential result was a citizenry so enamoured with the benefits that these principles endowed that they'd become blind to the hardships they impose. He was very frank in expressing that the principles expressed in the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence were not to be understood as only applying narrowly to the emergence of the United States of America as a country, but were in reality a Declaration of Independence of the human spirit itself... and in neither case was success guaranteed! And finally, he summed up his fears by resorting to the cyclic nature of empire throughout time. He foresaw a time where his unfortunate use of words will have been complicit in sapping the public mind of the strength of will to properly value their very liberties, and armed with only a shallow grasp of their most profound truths, they would begin... slowly... imperceptibly... in the familiar pattern of history... to relinquish their most sacred rights back to the government. His fears were well placed... we are watching that process play out.
And so, for those of us who take our resposibilities as a citizen of the United States seriously, the task is not just to be able to identify what principles underlie our form of government, but much more importantly to understand why they are what they are, and that there are consequences to departing from the path they dictate. The alternative is to have these Principles re-defined by current events and eloquent politicians, rather than filtering current events and political rhetoric through the lens of a mature understanding of principle. Only then can one honestly claim the title of "Independent".
I assure you, I am as "Independent" as they come.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
One of my favorite J. Reuben Clark quotes is:
"I have a complete confidence in the aggregate wisdom of the ... people if they are given and made to understand the facts. The wisdom of the mass is always greater than the wisdom of the individual or of the group. The few may be more subtle, more agile-minded, more resourceful; they may for a time push to the front and scamper ahead in the march; they may on occasion and for a time entice us down the wrong highway at the crossroads. But the great slow-moving, deliberate-thinking mass plods along over the years down the Divinely appointed way. led astray, they slowly, cumberously swing back to the right road no matter what the toil or the sacrifice may be, and when they start the return, they crush whatever liles in their path. So has humanity come up through the ages." (cited in Prophets, Principles, and National Survival, p110)
Bob, if you want an invitation to the PVS, I need you're email address. You can send it to me at elder[underscore]jones[at]hotmail[dot]com
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