The restoration of civil society

The restoration of civil society 
By Bob Livingston
John Locke was one of the favorite philosophers of our Founding Fathers. He observed a basic scriptural and natural law to be the law of self-preservation. He described how self-preservation leads to liberty, as one creates a home, marries another and the couple raise a family. Liberty becomes a standard among men only among a civilized people who covenant together in civil society.

In response to the infestation of our institutions and daily lives by pop culture and its practitioners — and invading hoards bringing with them their socialism and foreign cultures — many families have withdrawn to the privacy and safety of their own homes and neighborhoods. Only there can they preserve themselves and Christo-Western culture. This is the first law of nature at work, as it has been consistently since the advent of Western civilization.

The experts are saying that such withdrawal and individual liberty is destroying civil society. These hypocrites are engaging in Orwellian double-speak. Self-preservation is a building block of civil society.

Giving special interest groups privileges under color of law is one thing. Funneling them the wealth of the middle class through the welfare state is another thing, and many balk. Giving them our children, and thus our very blood and destiny, is quite another thing indeed. Locke described those who come against individuals and communities as ravenous wolves to be destroyed by any means. There is no more meaningful metaphor for us today.

As civil society breaks down, so does civility. We are seeing it daily in the growing number of attacks — both verbal and physical — by people on others on the basis of political philosophy. The political elite have used divide and conquer politics to great effect, creating minority special interests to pit against one another for spoils and special privileges.

As for the decline of civility, it can also be traced directly to the same criminal politics. It's a zero-sum game. Virtually every moral, cultural, spiritual, political, business and civil practice of the middle class, including civility, has decreased as a public standard in accordance with the increasing number of special interests and with the increasing number of laws granting them special privileges.

We now know that the combined onslaught of pop culture and the official endorsement of anti-Christian, immoral, anti-American people and activities such as open relationships, consequentless sex via abortion, gay marriage, bisexuality, polyamory, transgender and pedophilia have irretrievably separated the middle class from what was formerly their own United States of America. That nation is no longer their own, and so, against the criminality and incivility of the politicians and alien invaders, the real American nation has withdrawn its borders into the homes of these average Americans.

Self-preservation is the first organizing factor for nations. After all, what are borders? The global elite want a world without borders. Armies and even corporations are organized with self-preservation in mind, both in structure of specific ranks and duties and in the ways they conduct their affairs, whether fighting battles or fighting off hostile mergers.

Christo-Western nations have conquered others and advanced their culture and civilization because of their consistent practice of the first law of nature. Self-preservation does not begin with these large institutions, however, but with the individual and the family. Self-government begins with personal accountability before God and then one's spouse and children. The irony today is that modern (pseudo) conservative politicians ignore the fact that self-preservation is the ultimate family value.

One of the beautiful aspects of medieval times was its traditional emphasis on family and community kinship. The misnomer "Dark Ages" has been applied to medieval times by those who want to propagandize history. As Montesquieu, another favorite philosopher of the Founders, observed, perfect liberty proceeded from the ancient Germanic tribes, or families. By the time of Charlemagne and the onset of the Middle Ages, the family and tribal network of the tribes had evolved into feudalism, or the law of the communal manor. The feudal manor was the castle. It had hard, high, windowless walls and towers for family and communal protection against invaders. The tower and walkway walls were cut out for them to shoot arrows and, eventually, cannons. Moats were constructed around the castles, with draw-bridges serving as the sole entry to these mighty fortresses.

Feudal lords owned and managed these habitats, but security and even housing were provided to loyal servants and ordinary folks. The bonds of kinship were extended to families willing to pledge their loyalty, or fealty, to the lord of the manor and to one another. In this way, family duties were extended to others, in covenant. Civil society was born. As the manor grew into small cities, the cities were also walled, just as they were in ancient times. Socioeconomic class levels and bonds tended to reflect martial organization for community defense purposes, led by the true forerunners of the Renaissance man: the citizen-farmer-statesman-soldier. It is a practice of self-preservation dating back to the Germanic tribes, to the Roman Republic, to Athens and to ancient Israel.

In response to the perversion of our nation, many are reverting to these practices. The streets in our towns and cities are once again becoming "gated communities," with steel bars in gates and windows everywhere. Exclusive housing developments even have high walls, barbed wire and gated entrances with armed security booths manned around the clock. Private security firms police our homes because we have learned that the civil police are either ineffective or corrupted by criminal politicians.

Homes now have dead-bolted and impenetrable doors, sophisticated electronic alarm systems that automatically notify authorities, barred windows, security lights, motion detectors, video cameras, guard dogs, etc. Specialists are hired to design security systems and even to create special homes designed from the ground up with self-preservation in mind. Inventors are busy coming up with new, creative ways to preserve our homes and families.

Criminals are only the most visible of the enemies of self-preservation and civil society. They are already armed for their invasion. It is thus obvious how much the criminals enjoy their role in destroying middle class America.

Yet the trend toward self-preservation portends good. Perhaps in returning to homes and communities built for self-preservation, as in feudal times, Americans will also return to the higher principles of preserving faith and family. Perhaps then the larger nation can restore its borders — spiritually, morally and culturally — and thus restore its identity, purpose and civil society.

For now, true liberty exists only at home, and anything that comes against the home makes war on your family and your attempted self-preservation. Beware of those who would destroy your self-preservation and individuality, ostensibly in the name of creating a more civil society.