After reading Orrin Woodward’s blog article about Western Civilization and Judeo / Christian Influences posted on May 27, 2012, I was inspired to dig deeper to gain greater insights into our roots. Orrin makes a statement, “Just as a tree dies when the roots are damaged, so too will Western Civilization die when its roots are neglected." I ask, “Are we Resolved in our principles or are we willing to appease the new theories of relativism and lose the foundations that kept us as the beacon of freedom for the world?”
As if traveling by night without a light, we become confused as to our direction. This appears to be where our country is today. If you're thinking that there seems to be a lot of disorder in the philosophies of the world today, it’s because principles have been slowly uprooted. There is no more important time for us to become resolved to take the responsibility for the preservation of the principles of freedom. Simone Weil said, “Our 20th century is a time of disorder very like the disorder of Greece in the 5th century before Christ. It’s as though we had returned to the age of Protagoras and the Sophists, the age when the art of persuasion – whose modern equivalent is advertising slogans, publicity, propaganda meetings, the press, the cinema, and radio – took the place of thought and controlled the fate of cities and accomplished coup d’ e’tat.”
Just where were our principles built on and how far away have we drifted? Codes of conduct (law) have been passed forward to western civilization from the Babylonians, Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and the Hittites. The law that survived was made known through Moses. From Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, and London the legacy received from the Hebrews was passed on to classical Greek and Roman culture. It continued into the Medieval and Reformation periods, on into Britain and into America’s colonial experience. Like today’s concern over the principles that built up the freest most prosperous civilization in all of mankind Cicero examined the causes of private and public confusion and wrote, “Long before our time, the customs of our ancestors molded admirable men, and in turn those eminent men upheld the ways and institutions of their forebears. Our age, however, inherited the Republic as if it were some beautiful painting of bygone ages, its colors already fading through great antiquity; and not only has our time neglected to freshen the colors of the picture, but we have failed to preserve its form and outlines.”
We need to study and think. Only if we are willing to accept responsibilities and not focus on our rights will we preserve all the good things of our society. The LIFE business and the Mental Fitness Challenge are materials that keep us grounded in principles. Yes, it takes discipline and responsibility to preserve these foundations. First we must remember what we were founded on. Then we must be the example. We can only be defeated if we are not strong in principle. That means not giving up to the impulses of the prevailing “what’s in it for me” mentality that we see across the land. It’s a difficult pill to swallow for most of the Western Civilization today as we witness the willingness of some European nations to fall back into the failed socialism. Deosthenes, the great Athenian patriot cried out to his countryman, “In the name of God, I beg you to think.”
A catastrophe today would be the loss of foundational principles that would decay moral beliefs. The current philosophies of “do as I feel” supersede all founding principles of moral standards. Constitutions have been subverted in the past. Have the American people approved of a large amount of constitutional changes? If Roman history is no longer taught then the public is unaware of the parallels. George Washington wrote, “No walls of words…no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.” Montesquieu said, “The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” Ronald Reagan warned, “We’ve gone astray from first principles.”
One of the best ways to help people test out which principle work and why is to purchase a LIFE subscription and take the ninety day MENTAL FITNESS CHALLENGE. Then, measure the results while sharing these timeless principles while using the Team system to build a community. Watch what happens when friends and families begin to apply these truths to their lives. We are at a cross - roads. There are those who simply don’t want to know and are happy with the trends. By getting this timeless information we begin to gain an understanding of what has worked in every free civilization. It takes discipline to make a difference in our own life. It takes ’Resolve’. Thank you Orrin Woodward and the rest of the Policy Counsel (Chris Brady, Tim Marks, Claude Hamilton, Bill Lewis, Dan Hawkins) for standing on principle. God Bless, George Guzzardo
