Here are some thoughts on Margaret Figert’s article, which we published yesterday. I believe that it is a timely article, and worth spreading.

She obviously did not write that with the viewpoint that we are engaged in the great struggle now underway. This was in part my response to her original article.

Many people (and I must now admit to being one) now believe that we here in the Fifty States are in the midst of a civil war.  Margaret’s discussion in the articles touches on many reasons for that. 

This is  not – at least not yet – a war like the War Between the States – with large armies marching back and forth and confronting one another in open, bloody combat.  That war was a “First Generation” war for the most part, with linear tactics and stand-up battles under careful control. 

But what we are in today is Fourth Generation war: war between violent non-state opponents, who use a variety of methods of attack and defense.  Electronic is not the only means, though mainstream and social media are used to threaten, intimidate, lie, and more.  Colleges and schools were the breeding grounds and then the training areas for those who seek to overthrow what exists (or existed). Increasingly, government – and its original purpose in this nation of maintaining our liberty, is no longer considered legitimate: not that these “social justice warriors” believe that all government is wrong or evil – just that OUR constitutional government, intended to help us live and let live, must be replaced by a government in which the elite rule openly and the vast majority of people are under increasing control.  And government itself – the permanent bureaucracy, the deep state – is not just the goal of this war, but is an active participant in it. And fighting on the side of ultimately destroying the remnants of constitutional government we now have.

For now, violence is less lethal and less widespread but still is there and growing. It much resembles the pre-revolutionary actions by Communists in Russia, China, Cuba, and more.  And the “social unrest” seen in Italy, Germany, Spain and Argentina, leading to the fascist regimes in those places. It is also increasingly a conflict in which most people are caught in the middle and are not aware of it. But we people are harmed daily.

What is key about Margaret’s article is talking about the impact on rural and frontier American communities.

As the cities collapse due to the Pandemic Panic, the Twenty-Dollar Rebellion, and the efforts of too many politicians and “liberal/progressive” local and state leaders, people are fleeing to the rural and frontier areas. 

Sometimes they are local people who had migrated to the cities for work and opportunity, but more and more they are the same people (and associates and relatives) of those people who have made the cities nightmares in which to live. 

We can call them both liberal and conservative, but they think that the same ideas and actions they are used to in the urban areas must be applied in the “country” – even though they failed in the urban areas. They are often historically illiterate, have been taught to fear nature and business, hate free markets and private charity – and religion.  Some are actually illiterate but “know their rights.” They want to make South Dakota and western Nebraska (and other places) into “improved versions” of the Twin Cities, Omaha, Kansas City, Denver, and bigger cities: cities which have turned out to be cesspools. Increasingly “ungovernable” according to many, even while their government micromanage every aspect of life.

So we cannot blame those who flee. Even those who want to make the rural and frontier areas into new versions of their cities, and unwittingly bring about more destruction. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”

Why do these people exist?  They were taught too many things that are wrong, and NOT taught too many essential things. Not just history. Not just economics. Not just “the world owes me a living.” Essential things about God and Christ and the Golden Rule – they see the world in terms of the “Iron Rule” (of power) and the “Gold Rule” (of he who has the gold makes the rules). They are taught “all their rights” (the politically-correct ones, at least) and none of their responsibilities.  One or two in a community can be tolerated and we can live with them. But the more that there are, the harder it is.  (I am reminded that Charles Chaput, who was once the Roman Catholic archbishop in Denver, said: “Tolerance is not a christian virtue.” He was right. We cannot tolerate evil and atheism and immorality. But that is what these people want.) 

Margaret points out some critical things if the rural and frontier communities are to survive this war. The key on is something I also harp on: education. But planning and cooperation – voluntary, not coerced “cooperation” – is also needed. But above all, a firm reliance on divine providence and adherence to principles of liberty is required.