Learning from our History to Guard our Future
The Pillars of Democracy
No one would have guessed that the government in Canada would have gone this far in response to the truckers protest. Is this an indication that democracy is at risk? Let’s take a look at the pillar concepts holding it in place for us and why our constitutions were written the way they are. If we understand them, we can live our life using these forces to our advantage, or at least not get wiped out by them.
Freedom Convoy 2022 in Canada got worldwide attention last month and it has revealed a lot by the various reactions it has gotten, from governments, media and average folks. If you haven’t seen any of what I’m talking about, here are two great reviews for you, or see my blog describing it.
A group of truckers got together and decided to protest the government removing the vaccine exemption that truckers had for crossing the USA border in January. The federal government just got the police to remove them, without even acknowledging their claims. In my previous blogs, I explain the incredible difference between the legacy media and independent media coverage of this truckers protest and reveal an emerging pattern in the government’s response to dissent.
The Values a Democracy Requires
We have been hearing about the Politically Correct movement for many years now, and in the last few years you probably have also heard more and more about Critical Race Theory. These things come from a worldview quite different from the one that gave rise to our democracies. This stems from a post modern neo-Marxist globalist ideology, which has taken hold in academia for a decade or two and now in government. At the same time, the Christian foundations of our democratic societies have fallen into disrepute.
Why is this a big deal? Western democracy as we know it requires 2 pillars: Greek reasoning and Judeao Christian ethics. This is where we get ideas like the necessity for logic, which led to the scientific method. The Judeao Christian work ethic permitted the industrial revolution.
The concept of the intrinsic value of each and every human being, derives from the Judeao Christian notion of being made in God’s image. This is the basis for human rights. If this is not true, then there is no reason for you to think of me as worthy of respect. You will tolerate me for your own survival, but that isn’t good enough to keep a democracy strong.
The founding fathers of our nations knew that it was essential for this concept of intrinsic value to be understood as true. It is even written into the Preamble of the American Declaration of Independence (1776). The first line of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) states: “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the Rule of Law.”
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
A free democratic society can not survive if its people are not in agreement on what constitutes basic acceptable moral behaviour. For democracy to work, it requires buy-in on these basics from the population as a whole. Jesus’ commandment to love one another would be a tremendous benefit too.
Fragility of Democracy
Our society no longer has that consensus. In a democracy, it is the citizen’s responsibility to maintain those principles. Otherwise, what ends up happening is that in every election, all other issues are trumped by that one basic value they disagree on and society quickly reverts to tribalism. Citizens need to maintain the spheres of influence within their domains for democracy to continue.
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
This historian describes the 8 steps that a democracy goes through: from bondage to spiritual faith, to great courage, to liberty, to abundance, to complacency, to apathy, to dependence, and from dependence back into bondage. Many western democracies are clearly closer to the end of this cycle than the beginning.
The founders understood that God’s law is the moral compass for man. Until recently, you could see the 10 Commandments hanging on the walls of courtrooms. If citizens are not standing publicly for keeping that moral compass in the government sphere, then they end up with a house falling off its foundations.
This is exactly what has happened in communist regimes. In Russian culture, where there has been no Christian influence in society for a century, it is considered honourable to break the rules. They live by the saying, “you’re not a thief if you don’t get caught.” Cheating in the Olympics is a good thing. If you don’t have the 10 Commandments, who is to say otherwise?
Citizen Maintenence
Regardless of our religious beliefs, it behooves us to make the best of our nation that we can. We thought peace was inevitable because we’ve attained it and it will remain, without us having to do any regular maintenance. It looks like we were wrong. The same goes for our democracy; we take it for granted. It would be like having a house, thinking we can just leave it for years without any painting, or repairs. And, it is only when we realize that it might fall down on us, that we decide to do some repairs. At that point, it might be too late to keep it up and supported.
From all indications, the structure of democracy is now at risk. The development of democracy took centuries of effort to get where we are today. Democracy is fragile, so it wouldn’t be difficult to make it crumble. There are plenty of signs in the last few years of prominent people instigating divisions between us and them (gay and straight, cis and trans gender, black and white, French and English, leftist and right wing, humanist and religious) within countries. There has been increasing intolerance of ‘them’, who are inevitably portrayed as extremist. It is a waste of time to get into anybody’s conspiracy theories (I don’t have any) but for now, it is sufficient to say that there are people in this world who would like to see the end of democracy and become dictators.
Don’t Shoot the Messenger!
It is getting exceedingly difficult to even raise this issue. For example, Gina Carano from Mandalorian Tweet-ed, “we need to do everything we can to make sure / that nobody can question the legitimacy / we have fair elections.” Is she applauded for her interest in keeping her country stable? Hardly! Her company, Disney, fired her for a FaceBook post she made saying, the Nazis encouraged neighbours to hate each other and we need to watch out that it never gets that bad in our country.
What happens when people try to alert us like that? They get censored!! The irony was stunning; someone saying we can’t turn on each other, having her boss turn on her as a hateful person. Some people are feeling like we must ensure that the other side of the argument is not heard on our side of the fence. It’s like we need to protect ourselves from their free speech — hate speech is anything that upsets my worldview. The Politically Correct movement has morphed into something that is telling us the other tribe has nothing legitimate to say to us.
The Great Experiment
Some may think that we need to evolve into a secular society, to be more open to everyone in our society. While that’s a nice idea, we have to be very careful that as we pull out the foundational tenets of our democracy, the whole building doesn’t just collapse around us. It is possible that the democratic structure can stand without it. It is quite likely, though, that it won’t.
In an effort to ensure a secular society, one of the provinces of Canada, Quebec, has already passed a law making it illegal to wear religious symbols, while working in a position of authority. This means police, judges, teachers, nurses, and doctors are no longer entitled to wear a hijab, yarmulke, or crucifix. It effectively ensures that adherents to these religions are restricted in their employment options. This is a way of re-creating a philosophical consensus in society.
So, what happens to these other spheres of power, without the influence of religion in the society? Who knows? My general policy is: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Sure, our society could do with a little tweaking to make it better, but compared to every other system we’ve had in all of history, it’s awesome! And it is thanks to those pillars from the Christians and the Greeks. Is it really worth risking it all?
So, how do we know where to draw the line between these different power structures in the country?
What are the areas of authority that we have to look at protecting?
In your country, at what stage in the cycle of democracy is the general attitude right now?
See my next blog. What are the proper roles for the various spheres of power in society?
