The American Freedom Network

Kimba, Gibbon and Our Decline and Fall (and Rising)

Those of you of a certain age may remember an early anime carton called, “Kimba, the White Lion.”  (http://www.kimbawlion.com/epguide.htm, in case you never saw “Kimba.”)  One episode, “The Sun Tree,” the world’s oldest and tallest tree is in danger of dying.   In spite of Kimba’s frantic efforts, it falls in a storm, but a new sprout comes up among the ruins it left behind.  (I haven’t seen the shows since the early ’70s, so this is recounted from memory.)

I was reminded of Kimba often when, as a teenager, I would be reading Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall,” as the frantic efforts of the heroic ‘Barracks Emperors’ and the ablest generals and statesmen could not save the Empire from destruction.  (As I grew older, I meditated on how most of the Emperors who were not successful generals beforehand were the absolute dregs of mankind, like Commodus, and did not deserve the service and loyalty of their subordinates, who had to fight both the barbarians and palace intrigues fostered by greedy nonentities.)  Eventually, the Empire wasn’t worth saving, because what replaced it would grow to be better than what Rome had become.  Eventually, I concluded that it was better to root for the Goths after a certain point, usually around Diocletian’s time, because, while barbaric, they had the virtues of courage, loyalty, personal honor, and they loved their women.  That makes up for their crudity, cruelty and lack of letters.

America may be reaching that point.  The passage of socialized medicine means that a giant teat will now be offered to anyone too lazy, stupid or unlucky enough to have health insurance.  All must answer to the IRS as to their insurance status.  Failure will lead to punishment.  Coming on the heels of a generation or more of rampant dishonesty in all sectors of public and private life,  endless war, coupled with trillion-dollar deficits, promises of benefits that cannot be honored, and a police state invading every aspect of our lives (to keep us ‘safe’), one may argue that Americans have sold their rights for pottage and are willfully unfree.

Given the above, one could argue that it’s time to stop trying to save what is irretrievably dying and to stand back and let it fall.  as to who the next Goths will be, I cannot say, but one can hope that what they erect on the ruins of our civilization will eventually be worthy of its’ subjects loyalty and love, as our America once was.  (I hope that I am wrong, but I will act on the assumption that I am right.)

What options, then?  The Athenians learned that the Polis, in which they placed all the faith that was wellspring to their duty, was a weak reed.  Three generations separated their Greatest Generation, victors at Marathon, from the imperial hubris, defeat, the Thirty Tyrants and the jurors who put Socrates to death.  Every system tends towards entropy, as the greedier elements learn how to game a system designed to serve nobler souls.  We have reached that point.  If we depend on electing the party that so lately gave us uncontrolled spending, Medicaid drug insurance (the biggest entitlement between the Great Society and Obamacare), ’No Child Left Behind,’ and domestic spying, think again.  They cannot, as a party, be trusted.

The best strategy is the one that won for the Plebs their rights against the Patricians in old Rome – secession.  To the extent that each of us can, follow Etienne de la Boite’s dictum:  ”Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once free.  I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant, but that you merely cease to obey him, and you will see him, like a great colossus, fall of his own weight and break into pieces.”  This strategy of non-violent resistance worked for Ghandi, who learned it from Tolstoy’s writings, and he, in turn, inspired the American civil rights movement.

Living a life of voluntary simplicity, to the extent possible, earning less (if one can afford to do so), paying less in taxes, not complying with any law that violates the Constitution, and using a juror’s power to judge both facts and law (no matter what they tell you), as John Peter Zenger’s jury did, can do much.  Courage is a powerful alkly to justice; it remains in our power to choose to be free, even in an unfree world.