In lieu of a coherent philosophy of life, tribal or national purpose, and a strong culture of responsibility and individuality, the state will expand to fill the void. When spiritual emptiness is combined with cultural self-loathing, historical revisionism, and general apathy, the state will intercede to fill the vacuum. State education, media, and endless propaganda will always demonize opposing centers of power and exalt the communal. When the individual only feels ‘fulfilled’ as a part of the ‘community’, the state will have succeeded. This is how individual states and empires enter the long road of stagnation and failure – the religiosity of the state.
History is basically the storyline of one overarching political-social battle – that between the state and the individual. The rise of the individual is the most important factor in creating the modern world. Those world systems which have not placed the individual at the center of the political-economy are the ones who are the least developed and the poorest in all matters of social-economic and moral development. Witness Islam as a prime example, or the current and much over-stated ‘rise’ of India and China – both very poor states which thanks to limited modernization and globalization have released 500 million people from lives of crushing poverty and inconsequence.
The ethos of the individual is particularly a Western only phenomenon. It arises from two distinct and over time, interwoven revolutions. The Jews from at least 1400 BC under the military leader Moses [the episode on Mt. Sinai and the 10 ‘words’ or commandment revelation by ‘God’ was a necessary ploy to defuse a rebellion and meld the leadership of the ‘church’ and state under Moses’ command, he was of course first and foremost a military genius], infused Egyptian monotheism with distinctly Hebraic forms of ethics and responsibility giving rise to individualized salvation, esteem, and the concept that each person had a purpose. The Jews were the first to not only guarantee the sanctity of life [they ended child sacrifice and were the first to implement laws against murder], the right to own private property, but also to expect earthly and heavenly rewards for good behavior. The Jewish conception of God or Good, was a normalizing factor in creating a social system in which different opinions, views and politics could be tolerated without resort to bloodshed.
The high Greek ideal about the importance of the individual and his right to privacy, ownership, and self-worth put the Greek states at such odds with the Orientalism of the Persian empire. The Greeks believed in historical cycles, but that importantly, humans were directly responsible for the outcome of what happened in the modern world, even if they were abetted by their pantheon of ‘Gods’. In war the Greek farmers, artisans, craftsmen and traders would fight as free men, and would squabble not only amongst themselves but with their political and military masters. In peace the Greek free-man would not willingly bow to any cult, or leader, which castrated freedom of expression, trade and individual initiative. This dynamism made the ancient Greek world a checkerboard of rivalry, conflict and chaos.
This endless penchant for robust intra-Greek conflict and dissension is remarkably similar to that shown by the Jews throughout their history. The Jewish state even today is riven by many factions – secularists, Hasidic fundamentalists, Ashkenzai-Kibbutzim Socialists, Sephardic immigrants from North Africa, military ‘hawks’, and Peace Now! activists. The Jews like the ancient Greeks view conflict as a necessary corollary of freedom.
Not so today. The crushing power of the state distorts all activities and minds. The cultural Marxism which stands athwart real progress and intelligence, is a state managed, state funded and state supported disgrace. There is no quicker way to destruction than to corrupt and infect minds with mindless statist propaganda and deny the right to think, criticize and act as individuals. The trend in Western states is not hard to see. The rise of the state – even in the face of tepid Globalization – is a fait accompli. Witness the following:
-Governments in most Western states including now the USA, control 45% of GDP [a bad measurement but a proxy alas].
-Real tax appropriation levels when all taxes and ‘fees’ [which are taxes but not named as such], and regulatory costs [which increase the price of products such as food, or medicine], are 45-50%. Historically such levels provoked civil wars.
-The utter mindlessness of Globaloney Warming being paraded as a fact in schools and on state media outlets.
-The state educational complex moving from ‘hard’ education to ‘softer’ mores, including homosexuality support, an animus towards the traditional family, and an outright hatred of Jews, and Christianity.
-The obsession with games such as the Olympics or other mostly meaningless sports triviality as defining in some measure ‘national worth’ [as opposed to freedom, wealth creation, rights and laws, and an appreciation of culture and history].
-State controlled media brainwashing the masses about ‘values’, and national ‘attitudes’ which have nothing to do with Western civilization and everything to do with increasing communal and state power.
-Unfettered Muslim immigration and the elevation of Islam as a ‘religion’ and one absurdly enough, dedicated to ‘peace’.
-Anti-Semiticism.
-State management of the economy. Only the ‘state’ can ‘prevent’ economic ‘cycles’ and ensure that the consumer which is purportedly 70% of the economy [a grotesque lie], will be ‘protected’ from the greed of big business.
The increase in state power runs amok. Historically such a predilection against the individual always ends badly. The state itself usually goes bankrupt – first morally, second militarily and third economically. The West will suffer the same fate. The question is not if, but only when.
