At the present moment in our American history, replete with daily reports of anarchy, violence, disease, death, destruction, and disillusionment, I find myself struggling to wrap my mind around it all, and then, pushing back against the darkness by recalling earlier memories, even the saddest of ones that yet occurred in happier and saner times.
Events appear to be swirling out of control, with the circles of chaos growing ever larger and achieving a gravity that I fear will suck us all into its vortex.
To make matters worse - far worse, in fact - is the sense that events are being impelled not by the best intentions, nor by the truest minds and hearts of America, but instead by its most destructive elements and by their enablers.
In the darkness of my room at night, when I awaken long enough to think externally rather than dream, the words of William Butler Yeats keep coming back, as an echo:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Is this in fact the Second Coming?
Or is it instead a gathering storm, long presaged by our nation's loss of values, purpose, leadership and social cohesion?
I read the news each day, looking hopefully for the even the tiniest sprouts of green in the baking asphalt of our modern culture.
Most days, blessedly, I am at work and doing what I do, which is to help people navigate their financial futures, but in these times, with the world's troubles elbowing in from all corners, the subject always proceeds to something other than retirement strategies, or asset classes, or the intricacies of 401(k) and 403(b) plans. The discussion always seems to get around inevitably to:
"What do you think is going to happen?" and
"Are we going to be all right"?
And the answer always is:
"I don't know" and "I don't know".
In the evening, I sometimes envelop myself in the vast Terrabyte Web of digital communication that provides our modern window to both reality and fantasy, trying to comprehend what is happening, and what the future may have in store if we remain on the road we are presently traveling. And the answer remains:
"I don't know".
And so, I listen to music. I play my guitars. I clean my guns. I smoke my cigars and drink whiskey and watch old movies from older times when things were quite usually what they seemed to be, as opposed to some newly-invented inversion of reality. Men were men. Women were women. Good and evil were distinguishable, as were their natures. America had homes and families and friends and neighborhoods and churches whose pastors preached about God and not social justice.
It occurs to me often, especially in the darkness of those nights when I cannot sleep that I ought to be more engaged and speak out against the violence being done to the country and ideas that I love. Such is my purpose here.
But it equally occurs to me: where are the leaders and the movement of like-minded souls to join up with? Often they appear to be either non-existent, or else silenced by the Progressive Mob, with their dominance of the news and social media and their endless privilege of false accusation against anyone who might oppose them.
I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed not by madness, but by fear
We are far from the same as each other, but we did once share common values - the greatness of our nation and the righteousness of its cause, the necessity of traditional families, the value of hard work, and the necessity of personal responsibility and morality.
In 2020, we are no longer that nation.
A depressingly large number of our "leaders" are either putative tyrants or crooks or else are far more interested in keeping themselves in office than in anything that remotely resembles an idea or a principle. Our social institutions have been infiltrated and corrupted by Progressives, who have converted them from whatever purpose they once had to the purpose of promoting radical social change, eradicating our history and fomenting anarchy in order to achieve their ends.
It occurs to me, especially on those nights when I cannot sleep and there are no dreams in which to escape that I should speak out publicly and forcefully, rather than simply observe. Such is my purpose here.
But it also occurs to me: where are the leaders and like-minded souls with whom to join in opposition? Many, if not most have been silenced by the Progressive Mob, with their dominance of news and social media and their unending accusation privileges against anyone who dares to publicly oppose them.
You have all seen what happens to people who challenge Liberal Orthodoxy and refuse to accept the premises of those who wish to destroy their institutions and crush their values.
They are set upon by the Mob.
They are Unfriended, Cancelled, Demonetized. Some have even lost their jobs because the companies they work for are also among the institutions corrupted by Progressivism and cowed into supporting the latest LBGTQ+Godonlyknowswhatnext Cause du Jour and thus afraid of being themselves financially and socially ostracized.
There is a name for this, and you know it.
It is Tyranny.
It is tyranny and it must end, now.
For those who still believe in freedom, virtue, honor, the dignity of all human life, and true justice, I am asking you - imploring you - please help me spread the message by whatever means you can. Our time is short, and the perils of inaction grow by the day. I am but one person, and I cannot succeed alone.
All I can do is dream. I would prefer if the dreams that in our days to come will not resemble the nightmare that looms on the ragged precipice of which we now perilously cling.
And so: may God bless you, and may God bless, keep and protect the United States of America.
