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Coming Full Circle(From a column by Wayne D. Carlson) “Those who go around saying that there is nothing worth discussing since “the war is over”, simply don’t understand what was at stake and is utterly blind to its consequences and the issues we continue to grapple with today. The great Prussian military historian, historical philosopher and political theorist, Karl von Clausewitz, once wrote, “War is merely a continuation of politics”. He recognized that “war” can vary in its forms and doesn’t necessarily consist of unrestrained physical violence toward an “enemy”. Like the Chinese military sage Sun Tzu, he saw that war would also consist in attempting to destroy the enemies “will” to fight. In saying that war is “simply the expression of politics by other means”, we should recognize that when the war ends, the political goals might very well continue, especially in terms of undermining the enemies will to resist. When we are told that we should furl our Confederate flags, forget about State’s Rights and the original Constitution as it was understood and intended, because “the war is over”, I realize that this is the language of our political enemies. It is a continuation of the war that has never really ended. It is designed by the enemy to break the will of our people to resist their domination. Sadly, and in the end, perhaps tragically, most people in this nation do not realize that the South’s military defeat ushered in a political revolution that destroyed the founding fathers Republic. That’s right, the revolution has already occurred and we need to look back, not forward, to understand where we are going and how we got here. When one understands this, they begin to understand all the attacks we have today on Western Civilization, Christianity, and especially the Confederate South. Ignored or ridiculed in our children’s schools, we see the government indoctrinating our children with what are essentially leftist notions of egalitarianism, multiculturalism, and globalism. They do this while at the same time they have the gall to claim “politically neutrality”. This is simply an example of the war “by other means”. It is rare that anything beyond the most simplistic conceptions of key elements in our history get explored. No doubt there are those rare teachers who dare to go beyond what the State’s curriculum guide tells them to teach, but they risk censure, or worse, if they introduce non-sanctioned ideas. No wonder the federal government wants to get more and more involved in the education of our children. It doesn’t matter that there is nothing in the Constitution that gives them this power. With a kindergarten mentality regarding the destruction and continued occupation of a legally constituted Southern nation, there are legions that look upon those espousing the right of secession and the reserved rights of the State’s as closet racists seeking to resurrect slavery, or some such foolishness. The truth, as it is in so many cases, is exactly the opposite. These patriotic men and women desire only to free themselves, and any that would join with them, from the federal slavery we now live under. They realize that there is more than one type of slavery and they seek the liberty that the founding fathers sought and won, which has been lost to us today. They understand that it cannot be regained until enough of our people awaken to this reality. The good news is that there are indeed signs that the people are beginning to see where our current elitist run country is dragging us, and they don’t like it. Few people become Southern nationalists or separatists overnight. Most, I believe, simply come to the realization that we’ve become civil slaves in an increasingly hostile, coercive, overbearing bureaucratic empire that claims absolute ownership over every issue, right, and freedom under the sun. The Constitution has come to mean only what the Courts, the President, or the latest polls, say it means. Curbs on our rights to speech, religion, assembly, association, private property, privacy, and gun ownership, to name but a few, are continuously. enacted. What difference does it make if, as slaves, a single master or a governmental one forcefully deprives us of the fruits of our own labor? What difference does it make if the government or a single individual promises to take care of us from the cradle to the grave in exchange for our freedom? Make no mistake; I am not anti-government, for government has always been necessary. I simply oppose the present imposter posing as the legitimate heir of the one the founding fathers established and the South fought a war to preserve. Anyone familiar with the planks of the Communist Manifesto can readily see the parallels between this ideology and that being touted by our leading “liberals” in Washington, Hollywood, and our State capitols. My friends, the war is not over and it will not end until our resistance to it ends. Unlike our political enemies, many of us realize that there are millions of people in this country that actually want the government to take care of them from the cradle to the grave. They will sacrifice everything to have it. That is their choice. The difference comes from the fact that they want to deny us any choice in the matter and we simply wish to separate ourselves, leaving them to their self-imposed fate. We refuse to live in “Hillary’s Village”. Common sense and a little reflection show that our differences are irreconcilable. On the one hand we have those who desire to live in a society in which Christian liberty and limited self-government emphasizes moral absolutes, personal responsibility and the sanctity of the family unit. On the other hand we have those who reject America’s Christian roots, desiring to live under a totalitarian system that emphasizes universal conformity to rational-humanistic ideologies dictated from an aggressive, ever expanding center. It has become painfully obvious to increasing numbers of Christians and adherents of the old America that we need a homeland of our own. In many ways, present trends indicate that we’ve come full circle from the time our ancestors first came to this land seeking religious and political liberty. Like our colonial and Southern ancestors before us, we actively hope for a peaceful separation and a land where we can raise our children in peace. The cultural, political, educational and financial elitists who dictate to the rest of us and like to preach about diversity and the rights of people to retain their historic identities and cultures, even to the point of sending our military in to force other governments to respect these rights, seem to have a problem when it comes to the people in their own backyards. If war, as Clausewitz said, is simply the expression of politics by other means, then it would seem to follow that politics is war by other means. Perhaps, by understanding this, we can get beyond the juvenile notion that there is no point in debating the issues and consequences of Mr. Lincoln’s war because “the war is over”. Perhaps the war was temporarily lost on the battlefield, but the politics behind it still resonates, and remains embattled today. Dr. Clyde Wilson Wilson is professor of history at the University of South Carolina and editor of The Papers of John C. Calhoun. |
