The Deciding Factor

The Deciding Factor

          Carpenter without a rule to measure with. How can he begin to build?

          Sailor without a compass to guide his course. How can he find his way?

          Nation without a unifying philosophy. How can we decide the weighty issues presented to us by politicians and media pundits? What do we have for a guide? What can we agree about, choose as our shared goal, and vote for when the polls open for us to decide?

          Is there a deciding factor we can all subscribe to as a united people?

          Would such a factor be a good thing to agree about, publish, and promote?

          Something about which there can be no reasonable debate?

          For 6,000 years of recorded history, we have submitted to be ruled by kings, dictators, and other autocratic regimes. The State government has reigned supreme. The people did what the State decreed, and those who rebelled were destroyed or imprisoned. The power of the State was absolute. The schemes of those who ruled were thought to be of greater importance than the supposed rights of individuals. What was good for the State was good for the masses, and those who disagreed were considered outlaws whom the State was justified in exterminating.

          Millions were exterminated.

          Uncounted millions.

          Entire races were eradicated — innocent men, women, and children — all in the interest of maintaining State control, restraining the blind force of the people, compelling obedience by the sword, firing squad, guilotine, poison gas, and more.

          The idea that each of us is endowed with individual rights is rather new. The concept of “human rights” has only recently been considered as valuable, worthy of our concerted efforts, something we should work for.

          Prior to America’s Birthday, 4 July 1776, the human masses were ruled by autocrats, individuals or small groups of individuals, with absolute power that in due course corrupted absolutely.

          The new plan was for the nation’s people to be governed by their individual independent actions, participating in a democratic republic without a king claiming divine right to rule or a tyrant using death and imprisonment as the cruel means of commanding irresistable obedience.

          This plan was guided by a compass concept, a rule to measure by, an idea that even today is only vaguely understood by most of us, a principle principal.

          The value of one.

          Funny thing principles.

          Easy to be forgotten.

          Easily set aside to make room for the temporary demands of political expedience.

          Easily swept under the proverbial rug so they don’t get in the way of men’s ideas of progress or political gain or financial benefit.

          Principles do get in the way.

          And mankind does ignore them.

          So we have war, famine, unrest, genocide, and the rise of a ruling class of individuals empowered by previously unimaginably vast masses of money and the poll-influencing political power it buys.

          In our midst remains Want and Ignorance scratching at the underbelly of society, Crime destroying lives and eroding hope, and an insidious increase of Mis-Information pouring into our minds from foreign sources where our scheme for self-government is supplanted by the old plan whereby the people are compelled to obedience by the strong arm of the State without the slightest hope for individual Liberty and the opportunities for joy that Liberty alone ensures.

          Each generation has been given this choice of self-rule or autocracy. There have been uprisings in every age, but only in the last two centuries have we seen the Light of Liberty successfully upheld, defending the value of one, giving to each of us an equal opportunity to be heard, to make a record of our grievances and, when duly justified, to reform the power of the State and even amend its policies.

          This choice is sacred to those who understand its immeasurable value.

          Should the value of one innocent life outweigh the imperatives of the State?

          Or is the individual expendible if the interests of the State require he or she to be cancelled for the sake of some political expedience or exigent circumstance?

          This Sacred Choice is presented to each generation.

          How shall we be governed?

          What should be the deciding factor?

          Promote the power of the State regardless of the rights of individuals?

          Or, work to implement the methods by which the power of the State can be regulated by the people themselves, comprised as individuals, each endowed with the right to live, to enjoy the blessings of Liberty, and to pursue our dreams with honest labor without the imposition of unnecessary or invidious restraint?

          An innocent baby was born in a cow shed many years ago, and though his birth has been overshadowed by materialism out of control, it would serve us well to remember how his death was sought by soldiers who went about murdering infants at the command of an autocrat who put the security of his rule ahead of the value of one. It was commonplace then (and has been tolerated even in these late years of civilization’s groaning reach for the vaunted prize of Peace on Earth) for innocents to be destroyed for the sake of cementing power in the hands of a few.

          Some three decades later that baby had grown into a man, a lowly carpenter with an idea he shared openly, a new way of living, a cognition that those in power are not by the mere badge of office rendered infallible. He taught that Truth stands resolute against the ravages of arrogance, avarice, and deceit, though often on the scaffold.

          Those who weilded the power of the State chose to make a decision with regard to that carpenter, a decision direly demanding our attention, a decision too often made today, a decision rendering the State’s interests above and beyond any supposed rights of innocent carpenters or, for that matter, beyond the rights of any who oppose the will of those empowered by the State to rule the masses.

          They decided it was better for one innocent man to suffer death than for the power of the State to be jeopardized by the people’s love for the value of one.

          The value of one.

          Today that man is seen only as a religious figure, considered by many as no longer relevant in what they see as their post-modern world in which money and a “good time” are the only deciding factors by which they measure the character and performance of those who weild the power of the State.

          The deciding factor.

          Every carpenter needs a measuring rule.

          Every sailor needs a compass.

          And, every nation needs to decide how it wishes to be governed or ruled.

          We might choose to consider the value of one vis a vis the authority of the State to impose political imperatives upon us all.

          We might choose to consider the plight of that innocent carpenter when we are offered choices between rule by the many and rule by a few.

          But choose we must, and failing to choose is nonetheless our choice.

          Whether that man is merely an irrelevant religious figure or simply a lowly carpenter with hands calloused by work and marred by nail holes, he represents to us a deciding factor we can choose to consider.

          How shall we measure what kind of government we need?

          When will we decide?

          Autocracy with its unbending imperatives beyond the people’s control?

          Or, a democratic republic rooted and grounded in its commitment to the value of one, submitted to The Rule of Law, and securing for its people the rights and knowledge of due process power to protect every individual from murder and the consequence of political mendacity?

          The deciding factor is clear.

          The choice is yours.

          Your future and the future of our children is in your hands.

          Decide now and urge others to decide with you.

          Or, inherit the whirlwind.

… Jurisdictionary ®                                                                           

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