The Idea of America is Indestructible

Consider first the old analogy to the caveman and the laws, or ‘principled ideas’, of aerodynamics. The laws of aerodynamics existed in the caveman’s times just as surely as they exist now. The caveman didn’t know how to access them or make use of them, but they were no more or less true than they are now. Mankind had to grow into the understanding of how to make use of them.

To extend the analogy a little more, consider the alien force from Planet X that swoops in, zaps Earth with a special weapon that destroys every airplane in the world, and then zips back to Planet X.

Back on planet Earth, the laws of aerodynamics will still exist, and mankind will continue to be able to access and use them. Just may take a little refreshing of the memory and relearning of the principled ideas. How long it takes will depend on how well it has been taught and ‘stored’ in some retrievable form, but it won’t depend on whether the ideas themselves are still available. They never change; they are indestructible because true.

Now shift to the ideals of human government. The founding fathers of America were extremely well-read and knowledgeable about civilized society, virtue, authority, law, human nature and human foibles; they were also uniformly reverential of “Nature, and Nature’s God”. When pressed by events into the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, they captured certain ‘principled ideas’ (or stored them in retrievable form) regarding the organization of human government.

Among these key principled ideas:

• There are such things as self-evident truths regarding the Creator and the created, or God and man; and included in these truths are:

• All men (and women) are created equal in the sight of God, with no one having a birthright of superiority or authority over anyone else;

• Men and women are to be viewed as individuals, with God-given and inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These ideas are anchored in Truth itself; they are right, and they will never change. But from the time they were first stated, and for as long as there are human opinions, they will be disputed and denied and argued to be obsolete and superseded.

For example, some human opinions will always dispute the existence of a Creator, or God. They will think of themselves as gods—which is as old as the Bible’s description of the serpent's suggestion—with the right to control others, if not by birthright in the monarchical sense, then by birthright in a DNA or ‘superior intellect’ sense. They will always scoff at the idea that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are “God-given” and beyond the ‘regulation’ of wise men and women. They will claim a ‘third way’ or ‘new world order’ or just ‘hope and change’.

And if an alien force from Planet X, or radical leftists who disguise their opinions in order to ‘take control’ of government, swoop in, proclaim in fact or by action that America’s principled ideas are no longer in force, and then seek to control, bully and intimidate their way into making their opinions ‘law’, they may appear for awhile to have succeeded (just as the alien force destroyed the airplanes).

But America’s principled ideas can’t be destroyed, any more than can the laws of aerodynamics. There was be a need, as noted before, for a little refreshing of the memory and relearning of the principled ideas. Again, how long this takes will depend on how well the ideas have been taught and ‘stored’ in some retrievable form, but it won’t depend on whether the ideas themselves are still available. They never change; they are indestructible because true.

The tea parties of today are symbolic of that America-wide ‘refreshing of the memory and relearning of the principled ideas’. And while the teaching of those ideas has slipped terribly in the public schools, they remain ‘stored’ in the safest and most retrievable of locations: the human heart. All that’s been needed is for a few good men and women everywhere to voice them so that they will ring true wherever read or heard.

More than a few good men and women have answered this call. We continue to think history will place Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin at or near the top of the list of those who had the courage and persistence to voice the right ideas at a time when elite human opinion was pushing hard in a different direction. But there have been and will be many, many others.

The American people have heard these voices; they are turning back to these principled ideas of human government, and they are finding them to be indestructible. America will fly high once again.

Paul Gable

August 21, 2010