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November 12, 2003
“No wild beast is more savage than man when his passions are armed with power.”
Plutarch
Fall of the Roman Republic
My kind reader I have been remiss in coming back to this tale of our times. After all common sense tells us that we should have seen many Americans realize the threat to the Republic. Plubius does not make a business of endorsing those who seek public office, let alone those who seek the Presidency. Yet Plubius found a recent speech by one of the candidates especially candid.
The other day, while engaging I things that had nothing to do with this small space on the Internet, I had the opportunity to listen to General Wesley Clark on National Public Radio. Plubius makes his business to read widely and listen widely. Yet even Plubius, in this age of cynicism had to stop, raise the volume, and then go back to the website and listen to the speech once again.
The General, truly a Warrior-Scholar, spoke slowly and measurably of what ails the Republic. He spoke of many who told him that he had to run, as the Republic was in peril. He even spoke against the Empire that now seems to gush out of Washington. Plubius is familiar with the fall of the Roman Republic and the words used by the Warrior-Scholar reminded this listener of the last days of the Roman Republic, before Caesar rose and the Republic died at the steps of the Senate.
How appropriate, this listener had to say to himself, that one of our own Generals would be making this speech. After all, it was a Roman General who tried to save the Republic. Could our modern day Pompey be the clarion call for the Republic? Could his words, that he was called back from retirement from service to his country, be what we need to wake up the American Republic to the danger that now threatens her?
I do not know. But those initial ideas made me look into the ideas of our Warrior-Scholar and found them to be drawing from a deep pool of the American Enlightenment. Let me explain to my dear reader what I mean. Our people, are descendants of a rich tradition that many in this country seem to have forgotten. These are the ideas of the Enlightenment.
So let’s examine some of these ideas that were so radical two hundred and eighty four years ago.
These are Separation of Church and State, and the idea that the State will not establish any religion, as a State Religion. This does not mean, as some think that religion has no place in the life of the country. It does, but not in the sphere of government. This means that the government of the United States will not establish any Religion on the people, that includes Christianity. You are free to practice your faith, as much as I am, but neither of us has a right to say that our faith is superior to yours, or to bring it into the sphere of officialdom. Pray as much as you want, just not in public buildings. In fact, many of the invocations that our founding fathers were thinking of, were to a Rational God, in a rational Religion, not to a Christian God. It was a God that could properly be understood in the study of science and nature, because that was where it was to be found. It was not a god to be learned by rote, within the myths of religious writings, and for the most extreme of these views was Jefferson who believed that Christianity was a myth. Was Jefferson correct? I am not going to say yea or nay… it is not my place. What is true is that the God of the Enlightenment was not what many who would love to impose a Christian Taliban would recognize.
Let’s talk about other ideas that were revolutionary back then, and still are. One of those ideas are that we are a society with hope for all, and egalitarian ideals. Our society has made incredible strides towards this goal, ever so slowly. Our middle class is an American invention.
Now the most revolutionary of all ideas that came from the Enlightenment is that the government and the right to govern derives from the consent of the governed. This the Warrior-Scholar did state. Hence Plubius most ask, is our Warrior Scholar our modern day Cicero? And if he is our modern day Cicero, what does this tell us about the future of the Republic? After all, I would really be remiss if I did not tell you, dear reader, that Cicero was killed on orders of Caesar, as Caesar did succeed in creating the Roman Empire.
In the end, is our Warrior Scholar now a barometer to the death of the Republic? Will this be the last election of the Republic and will the Senate be disbanded and go home? Will they come back? The end of any Republic is messy, and we may as well be seeing this.
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