Anthony J. DeBlasi – Ask any old-timer if there has been a better time for people than we’re in today, for a hint of what is possible regarding sanity for humanity.
The fact is, there have been better times in the past, even before any of us were born.
What could account for this anomaly, given the “progress” alleged by political, scientific, and academic leaders of the past several decades? A quick answer, off the top of this old-timer’s head, is that people holding power that love their fellow human beings have relied on a source of wisdom greater than any from the human brain.
I refer to a foundational knowledge of life that, although it draws from the world its language and tools, does not emanate from us but from the source of our being, acknowledged worldwide as the Creator, God. It is noteworthy that the deity found in the Holy Scripture, who has been a target of assassination since the beginning of time, is indestructible.
A glancing look at the issue hinted above, from one who has been around for a very long time and is a skeptic at heart, follows . . .
The best leaders in any age have drawn from a knowledge beyond the reach of the human intellect, beyond the grasp of philosophy and the grip of science. And it has nothing in common with the arcane, mystical domain of metaphysical “adepts.”
The knowledge I allude to invades our vocabulary with words like “conscience,” “self-evident,” “unalienable,” “in-the-bones,” and other such words referring to our connection with the Creator, a relation vital to human life. It is the genesis of Holy Scripture, in which the “ethics” of the marketplace is vetted, challenged, and called to an authentic morality for humanity.
It must be understood and emphasized that if this sacred relation is to empower people to rise to their best efforts in any quest for fulfillment and happiness, the standards of morality called for in that relation are not to be violated or adulterated. Because in some minds, this defies reason, such inviolate, transcendent morality has been called irrational, often contemptuously. Strictly speaking, that charge is true but misses the point entirely.
To reject out of hand what appears to be “supernatural” – baloney was Carl Sagan’s word for explanations that lie outside of science – is ultimately unintelligent, for it shuts off the mind from perceiving a reality vaster than ourselves, of which at best we receive partial and indirect indications.
Returning to the scrutiny of what makes leaders tick with the times instead of with the people . . .
In the more humane societies of the past, rulers took to heart mandates of morality originating from the One who gave them their brains, God. Consciously of it or not, they were responding to vital questions regarding humanity like who are we, how did we come to be, and how best to live – considerations regarding life that keep thoughtful leaders who love their people from falling into deep error.
This caliber of dedication to the well-being of people comes from a “process” impenetrable to reason that unites heart, mind and Creator in ways that keep ego from interfering with the common good. It is a “process” inherent in sacred scripture, which allows the Creator to awaken, influence, and guide people to conduct that brings the realities of the world and of human life into harmony with each other.
This has been the way to wisdom followed by the best leaders, regardless of the times. Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) reminds that “Men do not live long without gods; but when the [new] gods…come, they will not be merely insufficient, as were the gods of Greece, nor merely false; they will be evil.”
Man-decreed gods and attendant ethics sooner or later make it possible for a supreme court to declare what was right yesterday wrong today and what was wrong yesterday right today. Such is a “progress” that evinces insanity at the highest level of governance.
Before ending this brief look on behavior at odds with humanity, I must add some words of caution . . .
“Conscience” – what is “written on the heart” – must not be confused with the transcendent morality of this discussion. Charles Manson was following his “conscience” when he led a group of young men and women in 1969 to slaughter several innocent people, in preparation for ridding the world of its evil. And who has not heard of people arrested for murder that claimed it was God that told them to kill? Were they not relying on their “conscience”?
Beware the facility of making God and His Word justify one’s evil conduct. G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) puts it plainly: “[The fact] that Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones.”
The attainment of moral health takes more than smug confidence, skill in reasoning, hope or wishing. It takes instruction, the earlier the better. Fortunate are they who receive God-centered teaching from the cradle by loving parents and pastors who hold fast to Truth, unafraid to denounce falsehood, regardless of what year on the calendar.
Doing what is morally right, shunning what is morally wrong, does not proceed from politically motivated morality (e.g. “political correctness”) or from intellectual discussion, however thorough or profound. Sound morality does not develop as one bumps along the tortuous trip of life, alone, accompanied, or in tow of leaders that are sound only in their own minds.
A mind closed to the reality that justice and happiness grow out of a morally trained will leaves itself open to evil consequences – like the present insanity against humanity committed by reckless, mindless and heartless leaders busy destroying millions of lives in the name of a Great Reset, unmoved by the cries, the pain, and the devastation they cause.
The Great Reset needed is acceptance at every level of society of the time-independent guidance of a Mind without peer in the universe – that of the One who guided a band of moral heroes, during the 1780s, to launch a nation that would secure the sacred right of every man, woman, and child to enjoy the blessings of life in full measure.
They pledged their lives and their fortunes to this great task because they knew that without following a wisdom greater than human wisdom and laws greater than human laws – without the Light of God – leaders and followers who forget or reject God will repeat in perpetuity the errors of the past.
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” – William Penn (1644-1788)
SF Source American Thinker Mar 2022