Me too! Retired in 2010 and still very connected as we steward a ministry to the military. Around the time you retired, I had a specialist actually say he was looking forward to a one world government. He went on to become an officer. I think he and his wife became Christians after a time because I ran into him once he was an officer and he was much different, but that conversation really woke me up to where the folks in the military seemed to be heading.
The leftist news media is a good example for this discussion. It is important to have news that is trustworthy. But trust is earned, not given. While awaiting the (unlikely) efforts of the news media to earn our trust back, we can seek out a variety of sources, including outside the "mainstream" legacy media, evaluate them all critically, and avoid contributing dollars to the leftist outlets.
But we need to keep in mind that many people will not follow this path, and leftist legacy media can do a lot of damage to the society. Just because I know how to avoid them does not mean that they are not a problem. We need to pressure them to reform.
Paul Weyrich said this many years ago - in 1998 - after the Republicans failed to increase their margin in the Congress after the Clinton impeachment. He said, politics have failed us and that we needed to create a counterculture in the same way homeschooling families built a counterculture. As a homeschooling father, I took that to heart. He said that when the prevailing culture failed - and it will, and it has - our culture would continue to exist because it was built on a firm foundation of truth.
He also gave a warning which the media misrepresented. He did not say to get out of politics even though it had failed us (that's what the media reported because they wanted us out of politics), but to remain in politics because as the culture failed those in elite circles would use the power of the state to attempt to destroy us. That warning still holds true today. So even though as a retired Army officer I have some sympathy with not having our sons (and definitely not our daughters) join the military - if we leave that institution and like the police forces to the culture, they will turn it against us.
I think your comment "Our public schools are a critical institution" is no longer true. The American public school system can do nothing more than enculture ruling ideologies. The gradual expanse of federal power into public schools (the dream of theorists like John Dewey and Horace Mann), makes public schools the playthings of federal government. Public schools are huge sources of taxpayer waste and left-wing charity (I live in mega-blue city). There may be a few outposts of sanity (maybe where you live?), but with the public fracturing, public schooling is becoming less and less coherent.
Well said. The empire is falling, and our choice is to revive as a republic by and for the people, or to become an authoritarian state, of, by, and for, the state. Fascism or communism, two sides of the same coin.
There's a lot to digest in this post and I'm having difficulty. I don't understand how we can still be responsible and "turn aside from maintaining ... the 'Globalist American Empire.'" The world is more stable with projected American power. What happens if we don't support our military and our international obligations (a responsibility of greatness) and instead devote ourselves to building "new local structures to sustain community and moral life"? In short order our international enemies would reconfigure the world and then come for America, which includes our new local structures.
Me too! Retired in 2010 and still very connected as we steward a ministry to the military. Around the time you retired, I had a specialist actually say he was looking forward to a one world government. He went on to become an officer. I think he and his wife became Christians after a time because I ran into him once he was an officer and he was much different, but that conversation really woke me up to where the folks in the military seemed to be heading.
The leftist news media is a good example for this discussion. It is important to have news that is trustworthy. But trust is earned, not given. While awaiting the (unlikely) efforts of the news media to earn our trust back, we can seek out a variety of sources, including outside the "mainstream" legacy media, evaluate them all critically, and avoid contributing dollars to the leftist outlets.
But we need to keep in mind that many people will not follow this path, and leftist legacy media can do a lot of damage to the society. Just because I know how to avoid them does not mean that they are not a problem. We need to pressure them to reform.
Paul Weyrich said this many years ago - in 1998 - after the Republicans failed to increase their margin in the Congress after the Clinton impeachment. He said, politics have failed us and that we needed to create a counterculture in the same way homeschooling families built a counterculture. As a homeschooling father, I took that to heart. He said that when the prevailing culture failed - and it will, and it has - our culture would continue to exist because it was built on a firm foundation of truth.
He also gave a warning which the media misrepresented. He did not say to get out of politics even though it had failed us (that's what the media reported because they wanted us out of politics), but to remain in politics because as the culture failed those in elite circles would use the power of the state to attempt to destroy us. That warning still holds true today. So even though as a retired Army officer I have some sympathy with not having our sons (and definitely not our daughters) join the military - if we leave that institution and like the police forces to the culture, they will turn it against us.
Great article, Aaron.
I think your comment "Our public schools are a critical institution" is no longer true. The American public school system can do nothing more than enculture ruling ideologies. The gradual expanse of federal power into public schools (the dream of theorists like John Dewey and Horace Mann), makes public schools the playthings of federal government. Public schools are huge sources of taxpayer waste and left-wing charity (I live in mega-blue city). There may be a few outposts of sanity (maybe where you live?), but with the public fracturing, public schooling is becoming less and less coherent.
Well said. The empire is falling, and our choice is to revive as a republic by and for the people, or to become an authoritarian state, of, by, and for, the state. Fascism or communism, two sides of the same coin.
There's a lot to digest in this post and I'm having difficulty. I don't understand how we can still be responsible and "turn aside from maintaining ... the 'Globalist American Empire.'" The world is more stable with projected American power. What happens if we don't support our military and our international obligations (a responsibility of greatness) and instead devote ourselves to building "new local structures to sustain community and moral life"? In short order our international enemies would reconfigure the world and then come for America, which includes our new local structures.
What am I missing?
Very timely that Al Mohler had a conversation very similar to this topic with Patrick Deneen.
Patrick argues persuasively that we are in an oligarchy right now and that many use the term "assault on Democracy" to protect that oligarchy.
https://albertmohler.com/2024/03/20/patrick-deneen-2/
Hyped me up there, Mr. Renn. Let's build.