Outside The Box

“If the mass of citizens are to rule, it is absolutely necessary that they should have very strong principles of thought. … if you want to build a wall of pebbles you must have very strong cement.” -G. K. Chesterton

During the long holiday weekend of the 4th our thoughts turn to the many ways we might use the time away from the regular grind of the working week. For some of us, any holiday is an opportunity to gather with family and friends. For others, holidays create a new grind in the rush to plan and execute all the activities we want to condense into a limited period of time. Hurry up so we can pack, and then fight traffic on our way to a place where we can unpack and party hard before we pack again, fight the traffic home, and unpack. Congress gifted itself with a long weekend but neglected to give us an extra day off to recover from our holidays.

Some of us gathered our provisions long before the rush to the grocery stores so we can shut the gate and stay home with the barbecue grill, far from the maddening crowd.

A few of us will take a moment to remember the reasons why we celebrate the 4th of July and to consider with gratitude the struggles and sacrifices that allow us the freedoms we still cling to with a tenuous grasp and a grip that seems to weaken with each new generation.

Patriotism has suffered a long decline in the wake of repeated attacks from certain political quarters, as well as the general ambivalence that accompanies the monetization of all aspects of life to the detriment of spiritual and moral values.

There is disagreement over the celebration of American history, traditions, and values; what those values are or should be, and whether that history and tradition should be framed as a record of exploitation and evil or as a struggle to transcend the flaws of human nature and human institutions. Our history has elements of both, but much more of the latter, in my opinion, and in this partisan age of the false dilemma many have forgotten that something can be flawed but still worthy of veneration.

The detractors of American cultural heritage present an alternative that sounds attractive on the surface. Diversity in nature is the mark of a healthy ecosystem. Equity and inclusion mimic the Christian values of loving your neighbor as yourself and a Creator who shows no impartiality. But where the progressive detractors of things American severely miss the mark is the undiscerning promotion of “multiculturalism,” which, combined with open borders, is a recipe for national suicide.

There is a vast difference between the “melting pot” of traditional American values and the “diversity” of the progressive. The American melting pot takes the best ideas from its variety of cultural contributors and forges them into something uniquely American. “Diversity” posits that all cultures are equal and assumes that the classical liberalism of western civilization is no better than traditions which, for example, demand capital punishment for personal decisions or deny women the right to drive or to make fundamental choices about their own lives.

A melting pot requires the heat of a forge, and the forge is in the values shared by the members of that society. For much of our history, Christianity was fundamental to our values, but in the divorce from faith suffered by many over the years, the moral code produced by the Judeo-Christian heritage of western civilization endured, remaining embedded in our legal system. Now that legal system itself has been gamed and is frequently used in partisan attacks that supersede what is true and just.

Once there was also widespread agreement in our shared understanding of the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence and the codification of those values in the Constitution. That understanding has eroded to the point where the antithesis of these values, communism or communism masquerading as socialism, is openly embraced, the hard earned lessons of revolution and war so quickly forgotten. Communism is not a cement; it is an epoxy which requires a hardener. Despotism is that hardener.

There is indeed a diversity of pebbles in the wall that separates American society from anarchy. While many, perhaps even a majority of us, can still find enough to agree upon to warrant a celebration of our uniquely American holiday, the legacy of years of open borders and the inferior cement binding incompatible cultures has weakened that defense, further damaged by the illogic and emotionalism of partisan politics. From our own streets, we see foreign nationals hostile to America waving their countries’ flags in protest of our national holiday, and sadly, they are often encouraged from the armchairs of aging social justice warriors old enough to know better.

Still, I am hopeful. A resurgence of national pride seems to be underway which transcends politics, race or national origin. Perhaps it was always there but obscured by a powerful few who were successfully able to dominate the narrative for so long. Better than pride would be a national self-esteem tempered by humility, informed by our history of struggle in overcoming the inherent flaws of human nature. Perhaps one day it will occur to a protester at a “No Kings” rally that if we did have a such a king, no protest would be tolerated.