Who Will Face the Balrog?

If you have not read the Lord of the Rings trilogy - not just watched the movie (though excellent), but read the books, I encourage you to do so. I'm in no position to assign homework, but if I were, I believe this is a must read for the character development of every youth at an age-appropriate time in his/her development. If you were NOT given this assignment, or were not so much of a reader in your youth, please go back and enjoy a damn good story which is much more than just a story. Tolkien wrote this book over an extended period, much of which was in the prelude to; and the execution of, the Second World War. Those were dark times - as are these. The Ring of Power, the Dark Lord - the struggle of the simple hobbit whose only wish was to return to his beloved Shire and his garden - these are all obvious metaphors for the greater struggle of good and evil, of power over individual rights and liberties that the world faced in the middle of the past century, and which we face today.

So my question for this blogpost is "who will face the Balrog"? In the famous scene ending the first book of the trilogy, Gandalf the wizard. faces a Balrog who is attempting to prevent the "Fellowship of the Ring" from continuing on their quest to destroy the 'Ring of Power' in the fires of Mordor where it was forged - the only heatsource strong enough to destroy it. The danger of the ring - a metaphor for the 'absolute power which corrupts absolutely' is that it cannot be wielded without corrupting the wearer, a constant theme throughout the novel. Being blocked from the mountain paths, the fellowship is forced to go through the mines of Moria, which they find has been destroyed, the dwarves killed by armies of Orcs and finally a Balrog. Gandalf has explained to Frodo, the simple Hobbit from the Shire, that the dwarves who established their kingdom in Moria had "delved too deeply in their greed" for gold, and particularly mithril - a lightweight silver. Escaping from the army of orcs, the group must pass over a final bridge and the Balrog makes his appearance. Gandalf uses all his powers, telling the Balrog famously, "You Shall Not Pass", ultimately destroying the Balrog but sacrificing himself in the process.

We, in the "Shire" that was the American ideal of individual liberty - which never was and may never be, but is certainly an ideal worth striving for - are again (and possibly always have been) facing the Balrog which attempts to prevent us from continuing on our journey. I will not say the Balrog is liberalism (in the modern sense of the term, which is truth upside down - our founders established the principles of Liberalism, the idea that the individual has rights which supersede the power of the state), nor Democrats, nor even Progressivism. Most liberals/democrats/progressives simply want a more fair and just state - ideals we should all embrace. The danger - the Balrog, if you will - is totalitarian statism - ultimately, this is the absolute power which the Ring is a metaphor of, and which both parties of Mordor (Washington, D.C.) seek. Standing in the way of the Balrog is the Constitution which limits the power of the state. It does not grant or create rights in any way - it limits power. So, the Constitution itself is Gandalf, telling those who seek the absolute power of totalitarianism "You Shall Not Pass!".

But Gandalf is faltering. The Constitution gets its power from "We, the People" who ordained it. In our greed, we have delved too deeply and we face the Balrog. Our greed stems from the envy, the covetousness of wanting what others have. The greed of "the others" is also to blame, as they have used their wealth to buy representation from those who take an oath to defend the Constitution which they usurp and now represent "the others" and not their own constituents. WE must support Gandalf - the Constitution - as it faces the Balrog. The Balrog of the federal government has grown too strong and too corrupt to expect that any hobbits we send to Mordor can have much effect, though we must continue to seek to send them, in the hope that there will be some who will not succumb to the power of the Ring. But it is here - in our respective humble Shires - that the battle must be fought. We must elect and support state legislators and governors with the courage to face the Balrog; to stand up to the power of Mordor and reverse the tide. And we must support them with our 'lives, our property and our sacred honor'. The time is long past to meekly accept the unacceptable. The Shire is in danger. WE must stand in the breach and tell the Balrog, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

Eric

While I Was Sleeping...

Good Lord! I logged into blogger today, as I do from time to time and saw that my pageviews had gone from sub-100 to nearly 1000...err...wth??? I suppose I should keep up with my blog more and I offer apologies to anyone expecting greater frequency of posts. I will try to rectify the situation although I can make no promises. I am not a "full time blogger", I am a full time homesteader, quite busy with cutting wood, raising organic meat and eggs and keeping up with all the other chores of the homestead.

So, welcome...err...whoever you are...and I will try to do better than my monthly or so musings.

Eric

The Next American Revolution

The first American Revolution may have been an occurrence of history impossible to replicate. The history I was taught did a poor job describing the constant turmoil and revolutionary behavior of the colonists toward the European powers which attempted to keep them under control. We were essentially given the Readers Digest Condensed version – people were being persecuted for religious reasons, they came across on the Mayflower and nearly starved to death until the Indians fed them and taught them to grow maize. A bunch of other folk came looking for gold, mapping out in a haphazard way a new found continent and then they got sick of being overtaxed and had a revolution, which they won. Then it was time for Christmas break, you came back and found that a second revolution was happening, with the revolutionaries losing (the American Civil War). Then we fought the war to end all wars, had a depression and battled Hitler and Hirohito until it was time to go home for summer. In the fall you went back to school and repeated the cycle.

What I failed to fully comprehend was that the time between the formation of the first colonies and the revolution beginning in 1775 was roughly equivalent to the time between that revolution and the present and the friction between the colonists and parliament was ongoing the entire time. To be a British politician tasked with governing the Massachusetts colony was the kiss of death for one’s career as they were fiercely independent and essentially ungovernable. So long as Britain maintained a policy of benign neglect, all went fairly well – a condition that Washington DC would do well to emulate today vis-à-vis Flyover Country. But this independent streak spawned a generation of men and women who were well educated in the classics, moral and religious, and who truly cared about freedom. As in every revolution, it was initiated and led by the elites, but the elites did not seek to rule over their fellow revolutionaries – or, in the case of the ones who did, they were overruled by their more democratically minded brethren. Those salivating over the possibility of revolution today would do well to consider the uniqueness of this in light of subsequent revolutions; most, if not all of which, have ended with fratricide among the leaders of the revolution and simply replacing one despotic form of rule for another.

There is our conundrum. The elites are already firmly entrenched in power. Who will lead the revolution to remove them from power without seeking to replace them? Who will take the risks inherent in the endeavor to return the sovereignty of America to ‘the people’ and not seek to keep it for him/herself? This is assuming the American people will accept the responsibility that comes with sovereignty, which is a mighty large assumption when one considers the results of the 2012 elections. I know of no group seeking to return us to sovereignty that seems to be presenting a viable plan for doing so, possibly for the reasons outlined above. There is certainly no political party which would have my support. The RepubliCrats are securely controlled by the oligarchy and offer no hope at all. The Libertarians position on the issue of abortion disqualifies them for most who seek smaller government and a return to federalism as it is historically known. How can one claim the RIGHT to kill another – how can that possibly be a classical Liberal position? On the other hand, the Constitution party seems to be seeking a theocracy or something close. Most who call themselves conservatives seek to use government to force others to live by the moral standards they themselves hold. I may agree with their moral standards, but the purpose of government is not to legislate them. It is to protect the natural rights of individuals that they may live by the moral standards they choose, among other liberties. The Greens, the Progressives…well, they are not Liberal by any historical definition of the term. They seek (and have achieved) a Leviathan state with totalitarian powers controlling nearly every aspect of our lives. So I don’t know if there are enough Americans left who will actually consent to a Constitutional Republic which seeks an America as the founders envisioned. Identity politics has succeeded in producing a populace that seeks a government which uses its force to bend others to their will, whether through redistributionist policies, through legislating morality or for some other end.

What I am certain of is that, in the end, Americans will revolt against the police state in which we are either already living or which will be necessary to maintain the totalitarianism or near-totalitarianism emanating from our rulers in “that far-off country” of Washington DC. The spark may come from economic circumstances, such as the collapse of the counterfeit currency they force us to use with a gun to our heads. It may come from a political decision to disarm the populace – this I consider to be the Rubicon for too many Americans. Where it will come from, I don’t know, but I am sure it will come. The only means of preventing violent revolution (with the carnage and uncertain outcome that entails) is to have one which is non-violent - a political revolution vice an armed one. I don’t know if it is possible to wake Americans from their lethargic and apathetic slumber in time, but without offering them their ‘morning coffee’ in the form of a viable plan, they will continue to hit the snooze button. This was the outcome of both the Tea Party and Occupy movements. America said, “well, yeah – you’ve got a point – what’s the plan?” When each offered up the same-ol, same-ol of the RepubliCrats, America hit the snooze button.

So we’d better start brewing some coffee…and soon.