The American Crisis: Defined
Journal Entry #3
One might understandably wonder what conceivable danger exists to America’s FREEDOM that, while threatening harm, nevertheless appears benign- even beneficial. If something is really noxious, wouldn’t its destructive character clearly be recognizable as it worked through, for example, the press, public education, internet media and public assemblies? Is it at all possible for something to be at once dangerous and harmful, while yielding benefit?

Furthermore, if this danger to our FREEDOM has a long history- going all the way back to the era of our founding- wouldn’t its destructive character have been detected some time ago? Wouldn’t this danger have elicited some telltale sign of its presence, over and above the usual problems that beset any society? In short, wouldn’t there be some fairly conspicuous indicator that FREEDOM is under siege?

Yes, most certainly there would be tell tale signs; there would very much be an indicator of impending danger, if one were willing to take stock of all the evidence. But again, this danger to our FREEDOM is most subtle and is often made to appear attractive by the benefit it otherwise conveys.

The source of this danger to our FREEDOM proceeds from our Western intellectual heritage, our system of thought, and the far-reaching assumptions about our universe it has come to produce. Particularly as a result of the work of that most esteemed and useful of Western intellectual activities: modern science.

I recall Professor Russell Kirk’s valuable insight, in his book The American Cause, about the “three great concepts [that] are the cement of American society…[that] make possible the ordered liberty that is among the chief justifications of the American Cause.” These concepts are justice, order and freedom, this last being defined as the “principle and process by which a man is made master of his own life. It implies the right of all members of adult society to make their own choices in most matters.”

He goes on to say, “A slave is a person whose actions, in all important respects, are directed by others…”. It stands to reason then, that a person is not free to make their own choices and direct their own actions to the extent that their thinking is controlled and determined by others, whatever the supposed benefit to society- or science- is claimed.