“The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.”
I deliberately did not provide the author of the above quotation, though I will do so shortly. I want readers to ponder the quote for a moment. Most of you will probably nod your head and say, “Yes, that is true. That is what we face today. Are we going to govern ourselves—be free—or will we be governed by a small cadre of power-hungry ‘elitists’ who want to control and dictate our lives? Freedom or tyranny? Yes, that is the issue today.”
You are probably suspicious by now about who wrote the above quote, so I will go ahead and tell you—Thomas Jefferson. As always, it appears that Mr. Jefferson is describing modern-day America. What he wrote about freedom, tyranny, government, etc., he wrote over two hundred years ago, of course. But his thoughts are just as relevant today as they were when he first penned them because human nature doesn’t change. There exists that clique of elites today—there always has been and always will be—who love power, think they know better how to run our lives than we do, and will forever grasp for the supremacy they crave. If we want to be free, it is essential we crush them. Jefferson knew that, and wise men today know it, too.
Let me break down Mr. Jefferson’s quote a little.
1. “The issue today...”, i.e., over 200 years ago when Jefferson wrote.
2. “...is the same as it has been throughout all history...” The perceptive can discern that what Jefferson wrote 200 years ago is true today, too. It was true 2,000 years ago. It will be true 200 years from now. It will be true 2,000 years from now. Americans today haven’t learned the lesson, and as a result, we are under a growing threat of losing our freedom and being governed by tyrants. And we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
3. “...whether man shall be allowed to govern himself...” In other words, whether man will be free or not. That is what self-government is—freedom, the right to “govern ourselves” in harmony with the laws of God, Who gave us our freedom. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are CREATED equal, and endowed by their CREATOR with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Notice especially that in the American tradition, our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness comes from God. That God is a righteous God and, to have the freedom He provides us, we must be virtuous. I've written many times before—quoting Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Burke, et al.—that virtuous people don't need much government. Virtuous people control themselves, and that is exactly what true freedom is—a self-controlled people. A non-virtuous person cannot be free—“their passions forge their fetters” (Burke). Obviously, not all people are “virtuous,” and because they aren’t, we must have some government, some laws to protect us against these selfish, uncivilized barbarians who would rob us of our rights. But, the more virtue in the people, the less government needed to regulate them. We clearly have an increasingly degenerate, decadent, godless society—led largely by the Democratic Party and hardly opposed by the Republicans. We are drifting farther and farther away from God, and it is not in the least bit coincidental or surprising that the greater the distance we move from the virtue God teaches us, the more government is necessary to combat debauchery in society. The government grows to control those who refuse to control themselves freely. And thus, it has more power over all its citizens.
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There is no true freedom without virtue. There is only growing government, growing tyranny, and a growing temptation among a self-absorbed elite to move into government so that they can maneuver the levers of power—over you. They don’t want virtue in society. There is no power over people if the people are virtuous, self-controlled, and elect leaders like themselves.
4. Thus, the issue is whether we will govern ourselves “...or be ruled by a small elite.” I find it interesting that Jefferson used the term “elite.” We use that word often today because there is indeed this group of despots in the Democratic Party, World Economic Forum, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, etc., who want the power to direct and dictate how we live. They want to tell us what kind of car we can drive, what kind of food we can eat, how we can grow and cook that food, what we can or cannot do during a “crisis” (that they probably created). They booted God out of the system because they knew that if people followed God, they would be virtuous, they would govern themselves and be free, and they wouldn’t need the elite that lusts for despotism. Why do you think all dictators hate religion? So, God must go. And, as noted, the more God has been removed from our society, the greater the government has grown, the more tyranny we suffer. “Communism begins where atheism begins” (Karl Marx). Do you think Barack Obama and our “elite” Democrats don’t know that?
If we want to “govern ourselves,” if we want to be “free,” we need to follow the advice of our Founders and practice the virtue that flows from the God who gave us our freedoms. Otherwise, we will be “ruled by a small elite.” That’s the lesson of history. Thomas Jefferson told us that 200 years ago.
And frankly, that is the issue mankind has faced all through history and will until the end of time.
Subscribe to my substack mklewis929.substack.com for lots more on the Founding Fathers and freedom. Follow me on Twitter: @thailandmkl. Read my western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon. And God Bless America!
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