Opus 2026-084: What Is the Ratio?

How many peasant farmers does it take to support one philosopher?

This isn’t the first time I’ve asked myself this.  Often it reflects the opulence of ancient kings and medieval nobility.  Recently, though, I have been reading about the Muslim empires, and the author, Will Durant, seems very supportive and excited about Islam historically.  His accuracy is questionable but his enthusiasm is measurable.

In the process of going through several hundred years of medieval history in the world of Islam, he mentions name after name of syllables that are impossible to pronounce and all have deep hidden meanings.  He will then go on and talk about all of the books they wrote.  Some of them lived in very high style.  One of them insisted on living on two dollars a day.  Overall, I asked myself how many peasants does it take, laboring from sun up to sundown with all of the difficulties of raising a crop and feeding a family, to make it possible for this great famous wise man to sit around, meditating on the categorical imperative.

When you consider the vast amount of gold that went into providing the elaborate mosaics, flowing fountains, numerous slaves, and concubines, and just general waste in supporting this infrastructure, I keep wondering what the ratio is.

One of the miracles of the free enterprise system that we used to enjoy was that it provided a large enough surplus from the labor of what used to be peasants, to support an elite that lived an elaborate lifestyle.  Rockefeller, Carnegie, the other is so called Robert Barron’s lived in great luxury.  At the same time, the people who worked in the oil industry, steel industry, at Ford Motor Company and so forth, tended to live lives of security, plenty and prosperity.

Now with all of the graft and corruption going on in government, I see the day coming again, where we will be forced into the same pattern as ancient times.  The elites will not suffer.  They will make sure that they have their caviar, gold plated toilet seats, numerous servants and so forth, but with so much being siphoned off for their waste, there will come a point where we will become peasants again.

We worry about the economy, collapsing.  That could be from a mild collapse to total destruction of the infrastructure.  Rest assured that there will still be a small group of elites at the top who are living off our blood and sweat.  It’s called communism.  It’s called socialism.  It’s called tyranny.  It’s called the a lot of the common man for most of history.

The younger generation seems to want to embrace the socialism.  If I live long enough to see all of these feminine studies majors out slaving in the fields then maybe it will be worth it.

But I doubt it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-286: Plow and Crown: American Uniqueness

I was thinking of how in the current political atmosphere what most of us want is primarily for the elites to leave us alone.  We want the government to stop trying to tell us how to live our lives.  Don’t you want the corporations to stop trying to control us?  We went the liberty to make our own mistakes based on our own decisions.

It then occurred to me that, at least, in American terms, wanting to be left alone was the basis of the American revolution.  The British government had their representatives here, but their main power source was across the ocean.  They were simply trying to rule us and run us.  We rejected that, and we basically said “Leave us alone.”  They refused, that led to war.

That took my thinking to the Civil War.  In our Civil War, it was again a case of “leave us alone.”  The South wanted to do things their way.  They did not want a faraway government of the North to tell them what to do.  Therefore, they tried to separate.  They did not try to rule the North, control of the North, or tell the North what to do.  It was simply a matter of “leave me alone.”

When I look at revolutions and civil wars in other countries, I don’t see the same pattern.  In both situations, I see a group reaching to be in control, trying to be the ones telling the others what to do.  What usually happens is the other side would want that too if they had the power.  So in our American Revolution and Civil War, it was a matter of Americans saying leave me alone.  Typical pattern for the world is a group saying, do what I say.

The worrisome aspect of that is the same sentiments are on the loose today.  We have the elites.  They have manipulated the economy to squeeze out the middle class.  They have learned all the ways to cheat in elections and, at least in this area, their creativity knows no bounds.  They have perverted the courts by bribery, threats or just appointing mind washed sycophants.  

Pray for a peaceful resolution that does not make us into the effigy of 1984.

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-122: Plow and Crown: Five Star Gulag

How about a Gulag for Billionaires?

Those of us who read history and know the goal of the Proregressives* get concerned about a repeat of the concentration camps of the Nazis and the prison camps of the Communists.  There are some political groups who have no answer but to incarcerate and execute people who don’t fit into their paradigm.  Maybe it is time to embrace the motto, “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

Start by confiscating all their wealth.  With modern technology it would be possible to trace all of the places they have it hidden.  I think the Swiss have already caved to our Federal government on the issue of secrecy.  If we can threaten them into cooperation then we should be able to do it with all the island nations that are being used.  Since we want to be sensitive we might allow them to keep a favorite painting to enjoy but it would now actually belong to a museum.  

Set aside as many top hotels as necessary and move them in with all services and amenities in place that would not allow them to escape or bribe.  It would not even be necessary to make them live in squalor like they dream about for us normal people.  Because they are so good at networking we might only let them go free long enough to lead us to what they have buried in their estates.

Keep them isolated from the world for a period of time.  How long?  Some are old enough that it would be a life sentence.  For the younger it would need to be long enough for them to be out of touch.  Then they would need probation officers to make sure they mind their manners.  

A cut off would need to be established.  Billionaires definitely and possibly some level of millionaires, especially if their wealth was inherited.  Any politician who has become a millionaire on a government salary would receive a life sentence, possibly on bread and water.  People who run billion dollar companies would also need to join the club.

Foundations would need to be liquidated and managing staff included in the lock down.  The evil that is done from the shelter of tax exemption is frightening.  

The only problem with this is that it might include some that we would not want punished.  It is possible that some have actually earned what they have.  Since I am not even close to that status I would be willing to put them all in secure housing and let them appeal if they can find a lawyer who will work pro bono.  The problem with exceptions is that these people are experts at working around the intent of the law and if you give them a crack they will bring down the entire project.

Would the world continue to function?  Somehow I think so but I don’t think we will ever get a chance to find out.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, fascists (I repeat myself), elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)
 
homo unius libri

Opus 2023-095: Plow and Crown: Welcome Back, Serfs

There is a tendency to move people away from owning things to downloads and cloud storage.  I am thinking specifically of software and music.  My fear is that the God-Kings of the WEF want to extend the sharing to everything I thought I owned.  With current technology hackers can access your computer and delete whatever they want.  When the government forces us all to digital currency that means that they are the hackers above the law and they can wipe you out with the click of a mouse.  Then the title deed to your home and the registration for your car will become all digital.  This would be a dream come true for the Progressives*.  

This is similar to the historic pattern.  In the past all land belonging to the king, the church or nobility and the average person could be displaced at the will of the elites.  What the midlevel socialists don’t seem to understand is that the king also had this power over the nobles.  One of the reasons why America was such a beacon of liberty to the world was that a peasant farmer could come here, work hard and become a property owner.

Get ready for the return of feudalism.  Think of the millions who are already living in some kind of housing paid for by the government either through direct ownership of subsidy.  Think of the millions either not working or working menial jobs because the government is seeing to their needs with free medical care and subsidized food.  Think of all the hoops people will need to jump through in order to keep the goodies flowing.

I encourage you to look for physical alternatives to digital possessions.  Today it is your software.  Tomorrow it will be your liberty.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, fascists (I repeat myself), elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-080: Plow and Crown: Let Them Eat Digits

There is a lot of talk about the globalists in control of the U.S. government wanting to go to a digital currency.  I have no doubt they want to do it and am confident their goals are nefarious.

I think we worry too much.  There are a lot of details to work out that seem a bit unsurmountable.  One question that comes to mind is, “What happens to the uncounted trillions of American dollars that are under the mattress in so many dictator mansions around the world?”

Another question, “What happens to the dollars in places like Swiss bank accounts?”

Then of course we come to the question of all the politicians explaining all that secret money they have hidden away.  And how do they add to their stash if all is digital?

So what about my first question about the vast number of dollars being held by people around the world for security.  They have their money outside the country to protect it from the vacuum cleaner of the IRS.  I don’t think they are going to be excited about bringing it to an American embassy to have it converted into digital currency.  I halfway think that the crisis might force the U.S. to declare bankruptcy, but that might be the intent to start with.  It would also undermine the dollars as a security blanket for the world, but again, that might be the ultimate goal.

Under pure Communism the measure of value is the labor of a worker.  The New American Elites might just declare that, since it is all computerized anyway, each subject of the new order would get a set number of credits per pay period.  Or take it another step.  Each worker is awarded a set measure of dried beans and a time when they can expect the electricity to be turned on in their homes.  Since it is all controlled by the central Digital Czar then no one will know how much the elites think their “labor” is worth.  I somehow think it will work out as a bit more than beans and an hour of electricity.

If you have doubts on how it will work, reread 1984 and you will get an insight.

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-076: Plow and Crown: Back to Kosher

We need to keep in mind that it is for our own good.

Uncle Klaus and his WEF Wizards have proclaimed the future.  In addition to the assurance that we will own nothing and be happy we are told that we will be eating bugs instead of steak.  Think of it at New Age Manna from the Post Modern Heaven.  No more trips to the grocery store.  Just vacuum your garage and you will have dinner.  These people really know how to run a PR campaign.

Eating bugs can be kosher.  Well, not all bugs.  The Bible limits it to a few.

(Lev 11:21-2 NAS77) 'Yet these you may eat among all the winged insects which walk on all fours: those which have above their feet jointed legs with which to jump on the earth.  'These of them you may eat: the locust in its kinds, and the devastating locust in its kinds, and the cricket in its kinds, and the grasshopper in its kinds.

I guess if it is good enough for God it should be good enough for us.  One observation though, also on the approved list are lamb chops, steak, veggies, eggs, honey and dairy products.

If it is good enough for the real God then it should be good enough for us in spite of what the self appointed gods think.

Honk if you agree.

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-066: Plow and Crown: Progress Destroys

Perhaps both the crown and the plow are necessary.  As Americans we tend to believe in a general attitude of equality.  We believe that you can know success through a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck.  We don’t want anyone telling us what to do.

How is that working out recently?  We keep hearing the forces of Marxism talking about democracy as if it is a magic elixir that brings Utopia.  They are working, by rigging the voting and lying to the public, to take over our country by democracy.  They are counting on the masses who seem to be un-American in the sense that they want someone to take care of them and are willing to give up their liberty for bread and circuses.  

There is a reason that democracy is not found in the Bible and was rejected by the Founding Fathers.  The only election that is talked about in scripture means the opposite of what we mean by an election.  The elect in the Bible are those chosen by God, not voted into the position.  The Bible makes it clear that all humans are born in sin which means they tend to take the selfish road if given a chance.  Democracy would simply give them a chance to force their wish list on other people.  

The Biblical form seems to be a strong man with selected leaders under him with the responsibility to oversee smaller groups.  The strong man can be a king such as David, a priest such as Samuel, a Judge like Deborah or an apostle like Paul.  They are chosen by God and marked in such a way that the population accepts them in that role.

You need a strong man but there is a catch.  For the system to work, he must be godly.  Bad kings brought judgement.  Good kings brought blessings.  Eli was a weak vessel and there were problems.  Samuel was godly and oversaw good times.  

You need the common man to do the work.  Face it.  Someone needs to dig the ditches while the engineer designs the building.  Every great chef requires a team of waiters and busboys.  Your top used car salesman can’t sell cars if he has to clean the restrooms.  We just don’t like to be the one stuck with the toilet brush.  

What is ahead for us as a nation?  Will the republic recover?  I would say “survive” but it looks like it is already too late for that.  There are going to be changes.  Often, if not always, the old must be destroyed to make room for the new.  We have different examples of how that has worked.

We have change brought about without destruction of society.  The Glorious Revolution is an example of relatively bloodless revolution.  Things like the Wesley Revival and the Great Awakening break down old patterns

Then you have things like the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution.  Massive bloodshed and terror.  One led to the Napoleonic Wars and the reshaping of Europe.  The other led to millions murdered and generations of tyranny.      

We know change is in the wind.  Maybe we should celebrate Davos and the promise of owning nothing and being happy.  It may take that to eventually force the cows to decide they don’t want to go to the slaughter house and break down the fences.

There may be time to pull it out.  Keep praying.  Stand up.  Speak out.  Be counted.

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-048: Plow and Crown: Got a Light, Buddy?

One of the characteristics of premodern housing for the masses was a lack of windows.  It may be that our overlords want to drive us back to that level.

I have always thought historically it was because there was a lack of glass and when glass became available it was too expensive.  That is part of it.

A more important reason was the difficulty of heating a home with large glass windows.  It would be labor prohibitive, chopping wood is work, and it would be cost ineffective.  Cheap energy transformed our lives.  It makes it possible to live in a world of light and hope.  The Greens want to take that away and drive us back to caves.  I remember reading that one of the great steps forward in American culture came when Rockefeller brought down the price of kerosene so that common people could afford to stay up after the sun went down.  They could now read and discuss what they read after dark.  A simple thing that may be reversed by our modern Lord and Masters.  Kerosene will pollute and electricity will be expensive.  Back to your caves, peasants.

It is more than gas stoves and meat.  It is about the masses having the free time to pursue a quality of life that the Marxist masters don’t want us to have.

It is not about greenhouse gases, it is about political control.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-260: Dating the Straw

We like dates.  They give us a feeling of security and make things clear, even when they shouldn’t.  We just went through the anniversary of 9/11.  It is really one of many steps in a progression, but it is the one we look at.  I look at it as a declaration of war on America.  This is true if you are a conspiracy nut, a minion of the deep state or simply a patriotic American.

It is true if George Bush was in on the whole plan.

It is true if it was simply Islam attacking the great Satan.

There have been many steps moving toward that moment.  There have been many since.  There are definite parallels with the American Revolution.  There we look at July 4, 1776.  It was the day of official declaration.  It was just formalizing what had been going on for a long time.  Are you aware that the Battles of Lexington and Concord were a year before the Declaration of Independence?  Are you aware that a colonial army had laid seige to Boston and driven the British out before the Declaration?  9/11 was a bit like July 4.

It is also a question of whom was declaring war.  Obviously it was part of the Jihad against the West that Islam has been pursuing for 1,300 years.  It was also cheered on by the people who are now trying to bring the republic to an end.  The Progressive Left is marching hand in glove with Islam to weaken and destroy the United States as a land that gives the common man a chance at prosperity and security.  The Progressive war goes back at least as far as Woodrow Wilson and some take it back to the Civil War.  The war of the elites against the common man goes back to the first guy with big muscles.

What is the key date for the demise of our Liberty?  Was it the election of FDR?  Was it the fraud that brought in Joe Biden?  Is the straw that broke the camel’s back still ahead of us?  I think we still have time to recover but I am not sure we have the will or the moral base that we need.

It is going to be interesting.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-251: Party Animals

There are different types of people in any culture.  I want to compare two cultures that are living side by side in the United States.  One was imported from the Ango-Saxon Tradition, the other from the frustrations of Karl Marx.

We have always had two main political parties in the United States.  Most people only remember the Republicans and Democrats.  Those are still the official names for the two organizations but in reality the allegiance has gotten a bit murky.  Some are referring to a group called the Uniparty.  It is a cross party lines group that works together behind the scenes to bring about power for the elites.  There are still two types but they don’t conform to D and R.  I think it would work to label the antagonists as the Communists and the Patriots.  

And they are antagonists.  Gone is the common understanding of what America is all about.

Communists are loyal to the party or the state.  They believe in the rule of government, guided by an elite inner circle.  The people are subjects who are expected to obey.  Government will take care of you and will do it better than you can because you, being a peasant, don’t know what is good for you.

Patriots are loyal to the Constitution or the Republic.  They believe in the rule of law, guided by the Constitution.  The people are citizens who are expected to be responsible.  The goal is to give the greatest spectrum of choices for each individual so that all can pursue their dreams.  For this group on the individual really knows what they want and what is best for them.

You can imagine how this is causing friction.  These two groups are only a part of the population.  If you look at the time of the American Revolution you have a similar scenario, or so I have been told.  One third wanted to stay part of England, one third wanted to break away, one third just wanted to be left alone.

Our largest group today is the Wake.  Not the woke, the wake, as in what is sucked into the back of a ship passing by.  Or an invitation to view a corpse.  They can be nice people but they are limited to their little worlds.  You could also call them weather vanes or farmers windmills.  They survive by not offering any resistance.  It is amazing that they manage to reproduce but when they do they send their children to the government brainwashing academies.  

Where do you fit in?  

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-341: Plow and Crown: The Conflict Keeps Popping Up

I am reading a lot of books produced by dead, white males.  I don’t have a screening process on physical condition, skin color or sex at birth.  It just works out that way.  This year I have read works by Edmund Burke, John Bunyan, John Steward Mill, Karl Marx, Friedrich Hayek, Winston Churchill, Eusebius, C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaefer.  And I am currently working through  Lord Acton, Adam Smith and Thomas Aquinas.  When I look at that list I am impressed even if you are not.

Many of these authors were consulted by the Founding Fathers when they were struggling to produce a new type of government.  Those on my list who wrote too late for the Founders to know do a lot of quoting from the documents that were available.  One of the things that I see as I read is the constant theme of the common man wanting liberty and the elites wanting power.  I call it the Plow and the Crown.  

One of the recurring truths seems to be that pure democracy is guaranteed to produce tyranny and oppression.  I am currently beginning to read Lord Acton.  He is the one who wrote a line most of us have heard,

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

I have not come across it yet but I will keep an eye out.  He did write a lot about the problems with democracy and how it has been tried at many places and times.  It always seems to end in disaster.  He uses the term, “tyranny of the majority”.

“The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.”  Kindle location 1919-1920  (Page 16)

This is from an book review called "Sir Erskine May’s Democracy in Europe" published in The Quarterly Review, January 1878.  

I don’t know about you but I am feeling that sentence today.  The Founding Fathers set up a republic, not a democracy.  They did that on purpose because they had read their history and they knew that democracy doesn’t work.  They went with a Federal Republic with a Constitution that was designed to make it very hard for the kind of shenanigans we are seeing.

I am sure I will have more on this as I continue to read.

Acton, Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton (1834-1902).  The History of Freedom, and Other Essays.  Project Gutenberg, First Edition,1907.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-289: Plow and Crown: The Pendulum Swings

My fear is that the republic established in 1787 is coming to a close.  It isn’t that it was not a great dream.  It isn’t that it was not successful for a time.  Remember the words attributed to Benjamin Franklin, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”  In the conflict between the ruling classes of the crown and the masses behind the plow it was a big step forward for the masses  The masses seem to be making a statement two hundred years later:  They are not willing to keep it.

Recently we had the failure of the recall in The People’s Republik of Kalifornia.  I will concede that the vote was rigged.  That is the only way you could have so lopsided a count, or is it?  Could it be that the masses of residents in the Republik are actually on board with the largess of socialism?  Could it be that they have made a choice to reject responsibility for their own lives, believing that the almighty state will meet their every need from the resources of someone else?

I am afraid of the answer.  I am afraid that the virus of virtual income will take hold in the rest of the country.  Keep in mind that this is the state that brings you Nancy Pelosi.  She comes from the district that, as the meme says, will allow you to defecate on the sidewalk but arrest you if you are not wearing a mask while you do so.  It is her district that allows the proletariat to liberate up to $950 worth of merchandise from a bourgeois store shelf and refuse to call it crime.  Keep in mind this is the state that elected Kamala Harris as a senator.  Do you have any more questions?

Look at the great tyrants of history.  Adolph was elected.  Genghis Khan was elected, sort of.  FDR was elected four times.  There are always voters or spear carriers behind every successful despot, that and government checks.  If there aren’t then they are not successful for long.  I just finished reading II Kings in the Bible.  It is amazing how many kings of Judah and Israel only reigned for a few months.  

(2Ki 23:31 KJV)  Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

It seems that their servants would do them in if they were not happy.  It didn’t take an army just an angry nanny and the butler.

The big change is not that we have more people lusting for power.  The change is that the peasants in the pews are now willing to support their lust because they think they will get a cut.  They actually believe that the electric cars, and now electric lawnmowers, will somehow draw their charges from unicorn farts and giant windmills.  They all want to be on the side of the one who passes out the spoils.  They don’t think about what happens when the elites run out of other people’s money; and food, and TV’s, and gasoline,....

Stay tuned, it will be a wild ride.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-229: Plow and Crown: The Return of the Nobles

During the feudal era in Europe you had no countries and few large cities.  Power was in the hands of a group of nobles.  They had become nobles because they had the swords and the ability to use them.  They promised to protect those under them in return for obedience.  Thus you had a few living in what they considered luxury and the masses living hand to mouth or worse.  Everything was based on personal power and pledges of loyalty.  Allegiances were constantly changing and life was dangerous.  During this time you saw the gradual development of nations and cities.

A noble would get enough power to call himself a king.  The nobles would support him as long as they felt like it but his only loyal army was a small group of knights and peasants who became his men at arms.  The king gained greater power by reaching out to the common people and the cities.  This gave him a base for the battle with the nobles.  What you had over time was a king with loyalty among the lower classes trying to bring the nobles into submission.  Sometimes it worked.  Usually it didn’t.

Today Donald Trump would have the part of the king, The Progressives* of both parties would be the nobles and then there are the rest of us, the common people.  What is going on now is that Trump is trying to side with the masses in order to keep the elites from taking all our liberty and making us into an aristocracy.  Everywhere you see them taking power under the banner of socialism you see emerging a society in which there is a small, exclusive group at the top living in obscene luxury and the masses struggling to stay alive.  Look at Cuba or Venezuela.  The Communist overlords don’t go without anything but the people are sorting through the trash piles and hunting rats for dinner.

It is what Antifa would like to see.  It is what the liberals are working for.  I don’t know how much attention you are paying to Portland and Seattle but you have Democrats in position of power doing everything they can to keep the violence and anarchy going.  The police are told to stand by and watch.  When they do arrest someone the local D.A., a Democrat, will release them with no bail before the police get the paperwork done.

The coming election is of vital importance to the future our children will face.  Pay attention to the local elections.  Have your politicians forced you to wear a mask?  Have they refused to allow the police to deal with violent insurrectionists.  They need to be removed and that starts at the local ballot box.

And don’t forget to vote for Trump while you are at it.

*(Liberals, educators, socialists, communists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, etc)

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-158: Plow and Crown: I Hate the Game of Monopoly

Should we be moving toward thinking like the third world?

In history and in much of the world today people ignore the law.  They assume they will not get caught and if they are they can bribe the catcher.  If that doesn’t work they can bribe the judge.  If that doesn’t work, their cousin will get them out.  The law is only for the weak and fearful.

In America and the parts of the world influenced by the moral philosophy of Christianity run through the culture of Great Britain it has worked differently.

The Progressives*, headed by their street thugs and media outlets are doing everything they can to force us to abandon our standards.  They want to destroy the rule of law and replace it by the rule of the sword.  They know how we play the game.  They know that we have a resistance to cheating.  It is built in.  So they take advantage of it.  They decide to act as the banker.  You know the type.  Conservative judges make their ruling based on precedent.  Liberals ignore it and make up their own rules which then become precedent.  They do this knowing that the conservatives will then play fair and follow it.  They keep pushing the can down the road.

A case in point in the recent China Virus panic.  There are cities where convicted criminals are being turned loose so that they won’t be exposed to the virus in jail and then people who refuse to wear a mask are put in jail.  There have been cases of mothers hauled off to jail for letting their children play in the park.  At the same time the police stand back and let violent thugs burn down businesses.  The Progressives* just sit back and laugh as they move the marker a little further.  They know that eventually the system will break.

I have been raised to respect the police and follow the law.  Now we have judges forcing us to wear masks and politicians telling us to stay home.  I was watching a video of a young man being confronted by three thugs with rifles who were blocking the street and telling him that if he went past them he would be endangering their demonstrators and they would have to stop him.  The inference was the stopping would be violent and involve the muzzles pointed at him.  He pulled out his phone to call 911.  They just laughed and pointed a half block down the street and said the police are right there.  You can’t play monopoly if only one person follows the rules.

Do we insist on being the banker?  Do we quit playing?  Do we pick up the board and throw it in their face? 

As they say, “Asking for a friend.”

*(Liberals, educators, socialists, communists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, etc)

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-181: Plow vs Crown: “How You Gonna Keep Them Down on the Farm?”, part 2 of 2

The new United States rejected the European model.  They were aware they were doing it.  They wanted a place where people could follow their dreams and live up to their potential without requiring permission from the king and his minions.  They did away with hereditary privilege.  That leaves not place for an anointed class with built in wisdom.  The Progressives under any name be it Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Communist, Liberal, to name a few, want their power back.  They are jealous of their ancestors.

To do that they have to destroy the American dream and replace it with the historic class structure of the rest of the world.  People need to know their place and the instruments of power need to be reserved for those in the ruling class.  Massive immigration is part of the plan.  They need to flood the country with enough people that they do not assimilate.  They don’t want the new people to become Americans.  They want them to be enclaves they can control.

In Who Are We? Samuel Huntington quotes Nathan Glazer and Daniel Moynihan about assimilation.

“‘To what does one assimilate in modern America?’  In 1900 the answer was clear:  assimilation meant Americanization.  In 2000 the answers were complicated, contradictory, and ambiguous.  Many elite Americans were no longer confident of the virtue of their mainstream culture and instead preached a doctrine of diversity and equal validity of all cultures in America.” p. 199

The Average American believes that this country is the best place to live.  They believe that historically the American dream is unique.  This country has brought security and prosperity to the masses.  Again the Declaration of Independence talks about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.  The Elite does not like that because a happy, secure, prosperous America does not need them.  We threaten them because if large numbers of people are successful they will undermine the elite’s power and threaten their control.

Thus they must bring us down.  It is what is going on when we see a common American, Michael Flynn going to trial and an admitted criminal, Hillary Clinton, still on the speaking circuit. 

Will we pull out of the nose dive?  Is it too late?  The Anointed that control education, media and bureaucratic government are working to replace the American Dream with something we might call “The Divine Right of the Elite.”  It took hundreds of years for common people to get a solid victory.  The battle is still going on.  It will continue even is America falls.  It will resurrect itself every time a peasant looks at the stars and says, “This isn’t right!”

As we often paraphrase Pogo, “We have met the Civil War, and it is us.”

Huntington, Samuel P.  Who Are We?  New York:  Simon & Schuster, 2004.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-180: Plow vs Crown: “How You Gonna Keep Them Down on the Farm?”, part 1 of 2

I have seen numerous articles about the next American Civil War.  Some say we are already involved.  Others say it is coming.  I would submit that we have been involved in that war since the first colony was established.  In the non-English colonies it was over before it started.  In the English Thirteen it was fought vigorously and is still going on.

It is a war between those who think they deserve to rule and those who don’t want to be ruled.  I think of it as the struggle between the plow and the crown.  You can trace it back as far as Western Civilization has been in existence.  America came into existence because there were enough of what would be considered the upper class who believed in the principle that Jefferson put in the Declaration of Independence about “all men were created equal.”  They were willing to reject the European model and create an new experiment in government.  They won that battle but the war will never be over.  Oppressors need to oppress.  It is who they are and they cannot change. 

Thomas Sowell likes to call them “The Anointed”.  Whether they believe in God or not they believe that something has endowed them with the responsibility to direct the masses.  They know what is best for us but in order to win they must Balkanize and impoverish us.  We see it happening with the race baiting, the attempt to make the successful into the enemy, the need to break down our borders and flood the country with people who have not desire to become Americans.  All of this has a clear goal:  To keep the ruling elite in power.

To be concluded...

Sowell, Thomas.  The Vision of the Anointed.  New York:  Basic Books, 1995

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-250: Plow and Crown: Elites and the Unwashed Masses

It used to be “as California goes, so goes the nation”.  I hope that is not true any longer.  We should change that to “If California goes, let them.” 

In reality, with the progressives so deeply rooted in our government agencies what we need to start realizing is that “as Europe goes, so goes the nation”.  That is not a good thing.  What got this going was a quick stop at the English Newspaper Telegraph.  I did not bookmark the article but it explained how Great Britain was taking steps to make it impossible to own a private vehicle.  They are proposing a special tax on diesel and gas powered cars in certain cities and on certain highways.  The stated goal was to do away with automobiles.  Today there was a second article saying it couldn’t work because they did not have enough electrical capacity.  Keep in mind that the lack of evidence for global warming does not keep them from taking away your options in order to fight it.  They will continue to press no matter what the facts say.

Be warned.  The elites want the common people to be taxed out of their cars and onto mass transit.  People that rely on government for transportation are easier to control.  It is easier to take away their options.  You will be forced to shop in local stores that will be more like 7/11's than Walmart Superstores.  You will only be able to live in small apartments because everyone will need to live within walking distance of a bus stop or train station.  If you want a feel for what that would be like, go to IKEA and look at some of their cute little living spaces that are around 600 square feet.

And it will allow more room for their estates and country homes.  They will always have their chauffeured limousines and security details.  They won’t need to rub elbows with the unwashed masses.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-335: Plow and Crown: Protecting the Masses from Themselves

There will always be a group of people who run things.  They are the ones with power and influence.  Along with that is wealth.  It has always been that way.  It will always be that way.  The rulers can be called elders, kings, presidents or Big Dog.  The name doesn’t matter, only the reality of the position.  Down through history there has always been a struggle between the ruled and the rulers.  A call it the plow and the crown. 

We have lived in a brief time in history where the masses have had access to power.  The United States has been at the top of the pyramid of liberty.  The reason is that a group of outstanding men, seeped in Christian values chose to live what they lectured on.  The English heritage from the days of the Magna Carta had slowly evolved to give the common man a voice in his destiny.  It has not been a smooth slope but it has been continually upward if you are one of the masses.  In ancient history you have the Pharaohs being God.  You have the Roman emperors being deified.  You have the Pope as God’s representative on earth and the divine right of kings.  In Asia you have the mandate of heaven in China and the emperor as a descendent of the Gods in Japan. 

We now are in one of those downward slumps of liberty.  Warlords, Mullahs, bureaucrats, and local sheriffs are all taking a big bite out of the hard won freedoms of the past.  We are watching this with the current election.  The elites of America are out to throw the republican form of government under the bus.  They want a system that makes all kinds of promises but always delivers what the annointed think is best for the common fools of the country.  If they think they will lose in the Electoral College then the Electoral College needs to go.  The electors need to be suborned.  The masses must be overruled.  Of course it will be for their own good.

Donald Trump was not my first choice but he became my only choice.  I don’t expect him to do everything my way but I understand that he won the election fair and square, or at least as fair and square as you can win any election. 

Anyone concerned about liberty and the rule of law needs to do everything they can to stop the Progressive elites from destroying the republic in their lust for the crown.  We did not have a revolution when Clinton took over.  We did not have one when Bush won.  We got past it with Obama.  It is time for the Nanny Staters to step back, take a deep breath, read the rules and try to find more fools to vote for them next time. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-122: Plow and Crown: Serfs Down

Down through history one of the ways that the nobility has kept the common people in their place is to control their mobility.  The Romans did not let the Jews ride horses.  The Muslims did the same.  One of the great equalizers of modern times was the automobile and it wasn’t even the invention that made the difference. 

The instigator of liberty was Henry Ford who developed the assembly line and brought down the price of a car so that the average working man could afford it.  No longer did you need to live within walking distance of your job.  No longer were you confined to the shopping choices within carrying distance.  The world opened up.  You could run away from oppression or run toward a confrontation.  It was your choice.

That kind of choice is what the elites of the world hate.  One of the enemies of totalitarian tyrants is the ability of the common people to vote with their feet.  How are you going to find someone to clean your toilets if the poor woman down the street can drive to a better paying job?  How are you going to increase taxes if the man down the street can pack up and drive to another state?  The Communists made it impossible for common people to have a car that would run and they still had to build a wall to keep them in, with machine gun towers no less.

There is a reason that people like Al Gore and the environmentalists are pushing to take you out of your car and put you on a bus.  They can control the bus lines.  They can set the schedule and determine the routes.  They can suck up your time waiting on others to arrive.  They can force you to rub elbows with people you would rather avoid.  More time wasted and more energy in worry for your safety means you have less time to think and cause problems.

The historic battle between the plow and the crown is about who is in control.  What other reason would people push government controls instead of free markets.  Capitalists learned a long time ago that in order to make a lot of money they needed to have a population that made enough to buy their product.  Socialists don’t care about that.  They know that if they are in control they will have good health care, good food and effective air-conditioning.  They can have their cake and eat yours too.  Let me paraphrase a tired statement from the anti-war protestors:  What if we had a revolution and you didn’t get their because you missed the bus.

If buses were cost effective we would have people clamoring to start bus companies.  If trains were what people really wanted they would not need to be subsidized by your tax money. 

Give me liberty.  Give me a car.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-479: Plow and Crown: Dietary Sumptuary Laws

I don’t know if you are familiar with the concept of sumptuary laws.  In many cultures of the past there were laws about what clothing and colors you could wear.  Silks were for one class.  Wool was for another.  The purpose was to make it clear what class you belonged to and keep control of the lesser humans.  One example many are familiar with is Jews being required to wear a yellow star in the Nazi era. 

I was not aware that the need to control went further.  You come across things in strange places.  Montesquieu says,

“Whether it was from a republican spirit, or from. some other particular circumstance, sumptuary laws were made in Aragon, in the middle of the thirteenth century. James the First ordained that neither the king nor any of his subjects should have above two sorts of dishes at a meal, and that each dish should be dressed only one way, except it were game of their own killing.”  (Kindle Highlight Location, 1805-1808)

So it would seem that the need to control your fellow human beings also extended to food.  Does that sound like some of the things we hear coming from the White House?  Have you noticed the health laws about transfats, salt and sugar.  We are still being told what to eat and how to eat it by the Progressive elites that know what is best for us.

Bon Appetit

Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat.  The Spirit of Laws.  Lonang Institute, www.lonang.com.

homo unius libri