ON THE ABUSE OF THE WORD "DEMOCRACY"

Thursday, December 04, 2003
ON THE ABUSE OF THE WORD "DEMOCRACY"

It appears that there is no word more sadly abused or misused in the modern American lexicon than the word, "Democracy."At some point, we have all been a guilty of aiding and abetting in this serious corruption. Although this may at first appear a trivial concern, any perversion of a conceptual word is never a minor issue. Words are the vehicle that define both an individual's and a society's life's experiences. (AKA) -- the perception of our collective past, present, and future reality(s).In theory, we Americans live in a constitutional Republic. We do not live in a Democracy. A quick glance thorough history is all one needs to be convinced that a "Democracy" is undoubtedly the worst form of government available. I cite as examples, the hollow hubris of Athens under the demagogue Cleon, a ruinous tyrant who rode the mob to power during the Pelopenesean War. The French Revolution during the period of Robespierre, the Mountain, and the Jacobins also comes chillingly to mind. Other examples abound. In more modern times, a host of nations have claimed the moniker of "Democratic."The majority of them have been rather unpleasant places to offer a contrary opinion. The inflated abuse of the word "Democracy" has gained great currency in recent years. This pernicious trend has debased the value of the concept of "Republic."The same creeping verbal sedition has meanwhile elevated to commonly misunderstood acceptance and divinity, a political concept that is in actuality, the antithesis of that which our founding fathers bestowed upon us. Among the legion of imperfect political creations of man, Constitutional Republican institutions are the most egalitarian in practice. They are found wherever and whenever a people or a culture exhibit a prerequisite vitality, virtue, and valor. Yet, being a creature of man, a Republic is a frail vehicle. A healthy Republic, (according to Machievelli) must be periodically renewed in order to maintain it's original vitality. This "renewal" is however quite attainable. Examples of "Republican renewal" abound in both ancient and more modern times.A Democracy, (por el otro mano) is ALWAYS transitive, tyrannical, and prone to degenerate from inception. It lends itself readily to usurpation and terror. Any society that comes to believe that it is a "democratic" one, usually has a Napoleon, a Julius Caesar, or a Stalin, waiting for it in the wings. This is a matter of grave and relevant concern. The power of words are employed to sow the seeds of a society's future. That power is intrinsically neutral. It can be used for good or for ill. It is well, therefore, to remember that weeds grow more readily than do harvestable crops.The power of words both enlighten us and deceive us. Within these spoken sentinels of self awareness we are ceaselessly incarnated as faithful lover and feckless cuckold.Words enable a profound vision or facilitate a shallow illusion. Words distort or clarify how others see us. They determine how we see ourselves.These otherwise meaningless bits of sounds have the power to create a new world or to destroy our old. Words define who we are, what we are, and when (in time) we are. But foremost among the Promethian power of words (and the concepts they convey) is the awesome ability to actualize a selective reality from among the host of innumerable future potentialities. These alternate futures are the eminent domain of words. It is in this keenly opaque dimension that words forge our once and future destiny.From the fertile clay of this linguistically impregnated universe, the soul's spoken ambassador will birth our posterity. For it is also here, within this limitless galaxy of conceptions, that like a mist driven wraith, endlessly plausible worlds eternally form and fade upon the dim horizon of a thousand possible tomorrow's. ---" and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands" -- -Cliff Mickelson
Posted by: Cliff / 11:52 AM
Tuesday, December 02, 2003

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: A NIGHTMARE WRAPPED IN GOOD INTENTIONS?

by: Cliff Mickelson & CJ Mickelson----

Good intentions......Or were they so good? Upon reflection it becomes difficult to prioritize the host of opaque and patient evils spawned by Affirmative Action. The fearsome Hydra that is the humanist "Modern Attack" on the foundations of this nation (and on Greco-Roman Civilization in general) has birthed it's own likeness in this concept. It is a matter of course that the defining hallmark of Affirmative Action is it's conceptual nobility. This sibling trait it shares in common with a host of other "noble" social cancers. In theory it is but one modest opus in a sisterhood symphony of Siren song, ----but in practice, it is Medusa incarnate, an insidious monster. Executive Order 11246 created by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 first coined the Phrase "Affirmative Action." The original order required all government contractors to ensure that applicants for employment were screened "fairly" and that employees were treated equally during employment tenure without regard to their creed, color or national origin.Later Johnson specifically expanded his order to include women.The initial concept of Affirmative Action however, soon began to metastasize. In the pseudo-socialist "feel good" world of the late sixties it found immediate favor with any and all political scoundrels in search of a refuge. It was therefore quickly adopted, canonized and added on to by the US Senate. Naturally, those eunuch political districts that we Americans still insist on calling States, were eager to be among the select correct elect. They too, codified and enshrined the great wooden horse within their walls. All too soon, though at first discreetly, this "Greek Gift" began to extract it's effect. Meanwhile, lost in a riot of righteous blindness, the inseminated nation began gestation of a completely new moral and spiritual social disorder Let us briefly examine just one of this Hydra whelps many heads:Affirmative action, despite claims to the contrary, is a vehicle of discrimination.It creates in a host of ways, that which it claims to seek to avoid. One such path leading to this invidious result is traversed by establishing an intangible fear in the mind of an employer that incapacitates judgment. The ability to make an enlightened selection when faced with choosing between candidates gifted with equal qualification but generated from different ethnic groups is neutralized. The hapless employer realizes that he is open to a multiplicity of discrimination charges based on creed, color or national origin (aka skin color) if he should choose the candidate in the situation described above who is a member of the majority or of the same ethnic group as he. In this context, an additional more subtle evil is created that attacks the concept of the rights of an individual to make an informed choice in an issue that effects his own (economic) well being and/or his right to pursue the American dream of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Instead, these rights are now usurped by the cynical politics of socially correct intimidation. In the end, in an attempt to eliminate a discriminatory social situation, we find that two new ones have been created, both of which are more subtle and much more pernicious in nature than that from which they were spawned. So, -- as it is with the "Modern Attack," --so it is with it's horrid spawn:--That from one head sprang forth two. -And from two, came forth four. The successful second labor of Hercules NOT withstanding!Cliff MickelsonCJ Mickelson
Posted by: Cliff / 12:18 PM
The only Post I know is Emily
Posted by: Cliff / 2:14 AM