In 1516 Sir Thomas More became immortalized for his satirical socio-political fiction Utopia. He wrote of an island community operating under what would centuries later would be called socialism. Much of the impetus for such a system was the “over willingness” of rulers to start wars. He proceeds to show in story why socialism wouldn’t (and doesn’t) work and alludes to the fact by the title – a place that doesn’t exist. Many in the Left should read this work.
Two thousand years before More, a Chinese teacher by the name of Confucius arrived at the real way to peace and a higher way of living. The chaos of his time seemed to him a moral chaos, caused by the weakening of the ancient faith and the spread of Sophist scepticism as to right and wrong; it was to be cured by an earnest search for more complete knowledge and a moral regeneration based upon a soundly regulated family life. He called it The Great Learning:
‘The ancients who wished to illustrate the highest virtue throughout the empire first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their own selves. Wishing to cultivate their own selves, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.
Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their own selves were cultivated. Their own selves being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole empire was made tranquil and happy.’
One might forget all the other words of Confucius and yet carry away this, “the essence of the matter,” and have a complete guide to Life. The world is at war because its constituent states are improperly governed; these are improperly governed because no amount of legislation can take the place of the natural social order provided by the family; the family is in disorder, and fails to provide this natural social order, because men forget that they cannot regulate their families if they do not regulate themselves. ; they fail to regulate themselves because they have not rectified their hearts – i.e. they have not cleansed their own souls of disorderly desires; their hearts are not rectified because their thinking is insincere, doing scant justice to reality and concealing rather revealing their own natures; their thinking is insincere because they let their wishes discolor the facts and determine their conclusions, instead of seeking to extend their knowledge to the utmost by impartially investigating the nature of things. Let men seek impartial knowledge, and their thinking will become sincere; let their thoughts be sincere and their hearts will be cleansed of disorderly desires; let their hearts be so cleansed, and their own selves will be regulated; let their own selves be regulated, and their families will automatically be regulated – not by virtuous sermonizing or passionate punishments, but by the silent power of example itself; let the family be so regulated with knowledge, sincerity and example, and it will give forth such spontaneous social order that successful government will once more be a feasible thing; let the states maintain internal justice and tranquility, and all the world will be peaceful and happy.
It is a counsel of perfection, and forgets that man is a beast of prey; but like Christianity it offers us a goal to strike at, and a ladder to climb.” – Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. I; p. 668
Failing that, I recommend investing in a good M-4 rifle, a few thousand rounds of 5.56 ammo and membership in a constitutionally chartered Vigilance Committee.
“The price of freedom is eternal Vigilance.” – Thomas Jefferson
