GOVERNMENT AND PEACE OF MIND

The primary responsibility of government is to provide citizens with peace of mind. Now I know at first glance that sounds ridiculous. To define the purpose of government in terms of a psychological goal seems to deny the more obvious physical necessities of life like physical survival. To understand what I am pointing at, you must see the relationship between peace of mind and survival itself.

Peace of mind does not exist when an individual perceives survival to be threatened. Peace of mind stands as the first line of defense against threats to survival. The relationship between peace of mind and survival can be grasped when we realize that threats to survival can take many forms, some of which are difficult to define when first sensed. Even when individuals cannot precisely identify exactly what is threatening their survival, they can know they are threatened because they have lost their peace of mind. Even though we do not understand exactly what is threatening us, the loss of our peace of mind is clear evidence that something is out to get us. Conversely, the presence of peace of mind is perceived by the individual as the final evidence that all the necessary aids to survival are in place.

Once we see the role peace of mind plays in our survival, we can understand why peace of mind is the key to a viable self-image. It is simply impossible to sustain a viable self-image without peace of mind because the peace of mind is the evidence the individual looks at that confirms them in the idea that they have found a viable self-image for themselves. In other words, only the presence of peace of mind can allow a person to be satisfied they possess a viable self-image.

Let me give you an example of how government provides a viable self-image by providing peace of mind. At the psychological core of every person on earth is the knowledge that only through remaining connected to land that can provide us with food do we have a chance for physical survival. Peace of mind cannot exist in people who perceive themselves to be threatened in their access to such land, nor can such people possess a viable self-image without access to viable land. Since government is actually the mechanism created by people to provide access to viable land, government provides a viable self-image and peace of mind to the citizens of that government when government does what is necessary to convince the citizens that it has a plan that will allow the citizens of that government to continue having access to the life-giving land. As government goes about the business of doing what is necessary to demonstrate to its citizens that their government has the power to hold on to the land, the citizens, if convinced, find peace of mind being restored, and begin to perceive themselves to possess a viable self-image. In the absence of the ability to provide its citizens with peace of mind and a viable self-image, government fails in its primary responsibility. Chaos begins to reign.

Unless an individual or a nation has peace of mind, every other variety of peace available on this planet disappears. The individual or the nation begins to pace and fret and eventually lashes out in unreasonable efforts to grab anything that might theoretically provide the essential missing ingredient to the concoction called a Way of Life.

Peace with God is the key to peace of mind. A government that tries to justify itself without reference to God cannot provide peace of mind. Only when a government can convince its citizens that they have the right and the power to hold the land can the citizens possess peace of mind. The Founders of the United States of America understood this all important fact. They were responsible Fathers. They knew what people have to have if they are going to have access to a way of life. The Founders knew the necessity of government, and they knew that peace with God was the key to a government that could sustain a people's hope for life.

For this reason, when the Founders created the government of the United States of America, they laid the foundation of that government on words designed to explain exactly where this government stood in relationship to the plan of God for government on this planet. As citizens of the United States of America, you have a duty to understand the relationship between the idea of god and government.

GOD AND GOVERNMENT

Every government on the face of the earth will always have to define its reason for being by referring to the will of god. It is impossible for government to do otherwise because god is a word that stands for whatever people decide actually controls reality. The concept we call god and the concept we call government are inseparable concepts because they both refer to exactly the same aspect of reality; namely, that which controls the world in which we live. Whatever any individual decides to define as that which justifies government is always, inescapably, whatever that individual holds to be the will of god. And whatever the individual defines as the will of god will always be that which justifies the existence of government.

At first glance, this train of thought might appear patently foolish because it seems to ignore the fact that there are a lot of people who are absolutely convinced that they don't believe in the existence of god. Government, they believe in; god, they don't.

To understand me, you've got to see that I am using the word god in a generic sense. The word god stands for whatever people decide actually controls the world around us. Separate the word god from any Holy Book God context and see if the word still has meaning. I say it does: the word god stands for whatever any person decides actually controls things. If you grasp what I am pointing at when I use the word god, you should see that it is impossible that any person would not believe in god. Even the most mentally retarded human being sees that things are controlled. Even an infant senses the controlling forces around them. Their cries are controlled by hunger. In the sense in which I am using the word, that hunger is god to the infant. It is only when we understand this use of the concept called god that we begin to understand why every government on the face of the earth has been forced to justify its existence by using words that talked about a plan of god.

And don't expect that to stop. Oh, government can remove the word god from its vocabulary totally, but government will always be forced to talk about exactly the same things government has always talked about when it chose to use the word god in its explanations of why government has to exist. Government is totally connected to the responsibility to control reality. That is what government is for! We can decide to eliminate the word god from our vocabulary totally, but we will still be talking about exactly the same things we used to talk about when we used the word god.

One of the defining characteristics of our nation today is we have become uncomfortable, in our political discussions, with the intrusion of the word god. In fact, it appears this is becoming one of the defining characteristics of the modern age in all the democratic nations. God is well on the way to becoming taboo as an acceptable subject in public political discourse.

We must grasp the fact that this discomfort with the intrusion of the concept of god in political discussions is a recent phenomenon that is a unique development in the history of politics on this planet. The significance of this change in American political discourse simply cannot be overemphasized because it seems to me that the root of our confusion as a nation, and the root of our inability to find a ground for agreement as citizens in this nation is the fact that our minds, and our language, are only capable of finding a definition for the purpose of government when that definition is clearly, and unequivocally, stated in terms of the will of god for government. If my diagnosis about the root of our confusion as a nation is correct, in order to find agreement about government in this nation, we've got to shake off this discomfort about allowing the word god to enter the discussion, and we've got to face the issue head on.

What we're talking about when we try to understand the thing called government is actually the will of god for government. There! It's out! We might separate Church and State but we can never separate government from the concept of the will of god. When we try, everything gets confused because there is no place that we can agree the discussion has to start. We can't find a starting place because we've ruled out in advance the only starting place for a discussion of the purpose of government that has ever existed on this planet. We might be smart, but we're not that smart. We can't just look at government today and decide we're going to invent a whole new vocabulary and expect everybody to learn it before we reach an agreement about government. Yet that is exactly what our secular communication leaders are insisting that the American people do: eliminate god from politics. Our language does not allow us to do that. When we try to eliminate god from our understanding of government, we find ourselves falling into a deep pit of disagreement created by our inability to find words that actually allow us to connect our minds to the thing called government. Now that is confusion.

The confusion begins to disappear when we realize that the concept called god and the concept called government share an inescapable connection: both concepts refer to First Causes. Cause and effect relationships comprise the stuff out of which reason and logic are composed. Just as god is always defined as First Cause in a universal context, government is always defined as first cause in an earthly context. In other words, in a universal context, God is seen to be the instrument through which cause and effect is controlled; in an earthly context, government is seen to be the instrument through which cause and effect is controlled. God and government will always be connected because in order for government to be justified in an earthly context, it has to be explained to be in harmony with First Cause in a universal context. Otherwise government will reasonably and logically be judged to be out of harmony with the First Cause in a universal context. Such a government is, by definition of reason and logic, an outlaw government.

Let me give you an example: Suppose a group of families is starving. Suppose these families live on an island, half of which is desert and the other half fertile. Obviously, the starving families live on the desert side of the island. On the other side of the island is a group of families who kill the starving families every time they venture onto the fertile land. The starving families cannot get the healthy families to give them access to the fertile land. In order to survive, the starving families invade the fertile land and fight to the death the families that refused them access. The starving families win control of the fertile land. They eat, and they live. But they still have a problem. They have no peace of mind. The things they had to do to survive were horrible things that carried with them consequences that eat at their ability to sustain a viable self-image. At this point, words become very important. People gifted in words stand up in the midst of the victorious people and say words that bring peace of mind to the victorious families. The words said are words that explain exactly why the actions taken by the victorious families were in harmony with the goal of all creation. Only such words can bring peace of mind at such times. These words are always words that point to the relationship between the plan of the victorious families and the plan of god. The plan of god is that concept that, by definition, includes the goal for which all the universe was created. When the victorious families are able to believe their actions were in harmony with the goal of all creation, peace of mind is restored and a viable self-image is possessed. I know that you see the parallel between my desert island story and the history of the United States of America. Please do not think that my example means that I believe the people who justified the authority of this nation in the beginning were amoral rationalizers who used words about the plan of God for government in a calculated attempt to create a psychological rationalization for an immoral act. That is not how I interpret the story. I believe that the evolution of government on this planet has been directly controlled by the power that created the universe, and I believe that the government founded by the founders of the government of the United States of America was actually working in harmony with the plan of god for government. In other words, I believe the words in the Declaration of Independence that define the plan of the Creator for government are true words--words that actually capture an accurate image of how objective reality is organized.

Here is the point: while the Founders of this nation were doing exactly the same thing every government has always done when it found itself in possession of viable land, the words used by the Founders of this nation were different words than any ever used on the face of the earth. Think about those words! They said that God intended for government to exist in order to protect the rights of all men! They said that government derived its just power from the consent of the governed! I want you to understand that this is a plan and a God that I can get very enthusiastic about. This is a plan and a God that makes me want to spread exclamation points all over every page I write. I am absolutely delighted that I woke up and found myself on that part of this island we call the earth where authority had been defined in such words. I assure you that what peace of mind I possess can be traced in small part at least to the fact that I am a citizen of a nation founded on such words.

I have been driven to write this book because my peace of mind was threatened. My peace of mind began to disappear when I realized that virtually no citizen in this nation actually understands that the words in the Declaration of Independence are the only words available to this nation that can provide us with peace of mind and a viable self-image. They are the only words that can provide us with those precious gifts because they are the only words ever uttered by authority in this nation that answer the foundational questions that every government has to give to its citizens.

Unless a human government can explain its authority to be in harmony with the orderly structure of the universe itself (God in the broadest meaning of the term), people will be unable to understand where government gets the right to impose its will on anyone. For this reason, every government created by people on the face of the earth has sought to explain itself, to justify its authority, by defining itself to be in harmony with the plan of God. That is, every government except the present government of the United States of America.

You and I both know exactly how god got kicked out of politics in the United States of America. The dominant Christian majority in this nation, and the lock that majority has had on political power throughout the history of this nation, became perceived by most people in our generation to be a threat to the Liberty of this nation. The elimination of god from political discussion seemed to be a necessary step in breaking the hold the dominant Christian majority had on the government. Unfortunately for us, we threw out the baby with the bath water.

But fortune has always had a way of smiling on the United States of America. Fortunately for us, the Founding Fathers of the United States of America were not confused about the necessity of defining the purpose of government with reference to the will of god. That's exactly what they did in the Declaration of Independence.

In order for you to understand how the present government of the United States has destroyed its own authority, you must understand that there is an inescapable relationship between God and government. Any government that tries to destroy that relationship will find itself, at some point in history, without any authority. That is what has happened today in the United States of America. When the present government of the United States began to separate itself from a foundation that clearly defined this government's relationship to the plan of God for government, this present government lost its authority. It lost its authority because it has lost its ability to provide the citizens of the nation with peace of mind. With the destruction of peace of mind, there was no foundation that could sustain a viable self-image for the citizens of the United States of America. Symptoms of amnesia began to spread across this land. At this time, this nation is in the process of trying on various alternative self-images in hopes of finding one that can provide the missing peace of mind. Now, as always, there are various options available to people, various words designed to justify government that can be chosen by a people looking for peace of mind.

Most of the citizens of the United States are involved in this search and they blithely presume that they are at liberty to pick and choose any of the alternative definitions of the plan of god for government, and once having chosen, are at liberty to insist that their choice be implemented as the plan of god for the government of the United States of America. They presume that all they have to do is convince the majority of voters to agree with their definition of the plan of god for government and then they will have the authority to impose their plan of god on all the citizens of this nation.

That is the most dangerous presumption that can be made by any citizen of the United States of America. That presumption is founded on the idea that the citizens of the United States of America have the right to make any changes the majority wills in this nation, and the minority is obligated to accept as law that which the majority wills. That is a most dangerous presumption because it is a God Damned lie.

The Founders of the United States of America never for a split second thought that the majority would have uncontested control over this nation. They did everything in their power to design an instrument of government that could not be easily perverted by the majority into an instrument of oppression. They insisted on a Bill of Rights in the Constitution that defined clear parameters beyond which the ruling majority could not go.

And they designed the mechanism of change within the Constitution itself to be so difficult to alter that a huge majority within the various governmental structures would be required to bring about fundamental change. But finally, as the fail-safe mechanism designed to thwart the will of a nation gone beastly, the Founders left us the Declaration of Independence.

And there it sits today enshrined in a glass cage in Washington, DC. It is an innocuous looking document. But the words it contains are explosive stuff. They are dangerous words. They are words that tell people who believe their duty lies in protecting the nation founded by the people who created the United States of America that a time can come when people must begin to kill people who try to oppress them. The document says the people have a right to do it; they have a duty to do it. People who presume to create a Revolution in the United States of America that alters the plan of god for the government of the United States defined in the Declaration of Independence must understand that there are people in this nation who will fight to the death before they allow such a Revolution to occur in this nation. This book is an attempt to help all the citizens of the United States understand that this is the kind of nation we live in. We inherited it. And this is the way it is. This nation cannot undergo foundational alteration without returning to the Court of Last Resort. The real citizens of the United States of America will insist on carrying the case to that Court before any majority, no matter how great their numbers, can destroy the nation created by the Founders of the United States of America.

Today we stand gazing into an abyss. Peace of mind has been destroyed in this nation because the self-image of the nation has been destroyed. What are we to do?

There will be many in the United States today who will allege that the Declaration of Independence is an anachronism that is utterly out of place in our nation today. If you are a real citizen of the nation created by the Founders of the United States of America, please note these people very carefully as you encounter them. They are the enemies of the United States of America. They are our enemies because they do not understand that it is impossible for a nation to have peace of mind unless the government of the nation is understood by the citizens of that nation to be operating in harmony with the plan of god for government.

Or perhaps they do understand. There are two groups of people who have destroyed peace of mind in the United States of America. One group operates out of ignorance: they simply do not understand how authority was created in this nation, therefore they ignore the laws that justify this nation's authority. This group is dangerous to the nation created by the Founders but they are not potentially fatal. The real citizens of the United States who have simply ignored the truth about the United States of America can be expected to cooperate once they understand the truth. The information in this book can be expected to prevent them from continuing to act like enemies of the nation Founded by the founders of the United States of America.

But there is another group who understands everything that I have written in this book and are still committed to destroying the ideas in the Declaration of Independence as the foundation for authority in this nation. These people, most of whom are technically citizens of the United States of America, are absolutely committed to destroying the nation created by the Founders of the United States of America. Let me introduce you to them.