Special Alert Newsletter - March 2010
To subscribe: e-mail Des Griffin at alert@midnightmessenger.com
 Dear Friends
During the last few weeks we have been rereading the early chapters of our second book, Descent Into Slavery? We were particularly struck by the comparison between the conditions that led to the disintegration and final collapse of the once mighty Roman Empire and the conditions that presently exist in what was once the mighty, apparently invincible American Republic.
As we finished the last paragraph, the word “ignorant” suddenly and unexpectedly popped into our mind. With it came the renewed realization that “ignorance” is one of the abundant failings of the American people in 2010. That statement will undoubtedly ruffle some feathers. After all, don’t Americans pride themselves on their ultra-sophistication, and their great knowledge and understanding of so many things? Aren’t we world leaders in most areas of human activity — the people who have shown the rest of the world how to live, work, and manufacture products in a much more efficient and effective manner? Point granted! But one sadly overlooked fact is that, as history demonstrates in no uncertain terms, all the “great” empires or powers of the past suffered from the same debilitating and ultimately deadly disease: pride. That fact contributed greatly to their ultimate demise. Check it out for yourself: Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Persia, Rome, and — much more recently — the British Empire, on which it was so proudly stated, “the sun never sets.” Is not the Bible once again proven correct when it declares that, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:8)?
ARE WE ALL IGNORANT?
How, then, could “ignorance” possibly lead to the downfall of the United States? As is so often the case, the issue is one of definitions. Let’s check the word and its variations in Webster’s Dictionary: Ignorant: “Destitute of knowledge; uninstructed or uninformed; untaught; unenlightened... Unacquainted with... one unlettered or unskilled.... unknown, undiscovered.” Please note that there is no reference to or denigration of a person’s intelligence in this definition. Although it is undoubtedly true in many cases, an individual who is “ignorant” is not necessarily “stupid” or lacking in brain power. In fact, most “bright” people can be shown to be extraordinarily “ignorant.”
Ignorance: “Want, absence, and destitution of knowledge; the negative state of the mind that has not been instructed ... or has not been informed ... in facts. Ignorance may be general, or it may be limited to specific subjects.” Please pay particular attention to those last few words. They are vital: Ignorance “may be limited to specific subjects.”
Now we are beginning to get somewhere. This helps us focus on a very basic reality which most people, especially those who are generally viewed as “highly intelligent,” want to ignore. That reality is that all of us — from the very “top” to the very “bottom” — truly are ignorant in many “specific subjects.” Interestingly, the more “educated” many people perceive themselves to be, the more they want to cover up their ignorance of many “specific subjects.” We wonder if this could it be as a result of swallowing the Satanic lie that they can be “as god” (Genesis 3:5), and are thus impelled to view themselves as superior to others?
All too often, such people cover up their gross ignorance in many “specific subjects” by treating unfamiliar subjects with disdain, and by demonizing those who value a development of a broader, deeper, more comprehensive overview and understanding of what is really transpiring on the world scene. It threatens their false sense of security. To cover up their unadmitted ignorance of other than one or two “specific subjects,” some claim they “don’t have time for trivialities.” They are so “busy” running from the possibility of having to face the truth about themselves that they frequently feel impelled to demonize lesser mortals as being “idiotic,” “ignorant” or “stupid.” Being the bond slaves of one or two “specific subjects,” they have a type of incestuous relationship with others in the same position. They only feel “at home” or have a sense of purpose and meaning in their lives when surrounded by their own kind — of themselves, for themselves, and by themselves. Otherwise they feel like “fish out of water.”
VICTIMS OF INDOCTRINATION
Most of these poor wretches are victims of an indoctrination system masquerading as “education.” They have unwittingly accepted and embraced numerous false concepts and beliefs that were pumped into their plastic, unsuspecting minds by those they were misled into accepting as “experts.” Even when such a structure comes apart at the seams, and it always does, it takes very strong, informed, and dedicated individuals to “buck the system” and to start thinking investigatively and constructively on their own. After all, “what would people think?” if they were to publicly admit they had been conned and were, to quote the famous words of Howard Jarvis, the organizer of California’s 1978 Proposition 13, “as mad as hell and weren’t going to take it any more.” They would no doubt lose most of their crumby “friends,” and be ostracized. That is the price many have to pay for being honest.
Most, never having had a rock-solid foundation upon which to build their lives — and lacking a basic understanding of both spiritual and political reality — fall into the deadly trap of drinking from polluted fountains and feasting at tables laden with spiritual and political “junk food.” Initially, it may look good, taste great, and make people feel good. But, like a chip and dip guzzling, beer gulping “couch potato,” such a constant diet of garbage is destructive, and ultimately has deadly results.
From both a physical and educational perspective, we all need to be extremely careful about what type of “food” we eat, or type of “drink” we imbibe. There are all kinds of “food” and “drink” out there that are allegedly “good” for both the body and the mind. Both categories may initially look good, taste great, and have the appearance of being nutritious. But, without extreme care, both have the capacity to poison us — both physically, mentally, and spiritually. If not food of the right type, they can weaken our various immune systems and result in debilitating diseases. Remember that any “house” built on sand and not on a solid, immovable foundation will — under pressure — ultimately come crashing down. “And great [will be] the fall of it” (Matthew 7:24-24).
We all need to take great care that we build our lives (or “houses”), not on the shifting sands of man’s ever-changing “value systems,” but on true values and standards that have stood the test of time, and have proven to be immutable. Don’t be conned into unwittingly accepting and embracing sugar-coated intellectual and spiritual “garbage” when you can “go for the gold.” In the final analysis, “no other foundation can any man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation [Jesus Christ] gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be manifest ... because it will be revealed by fire... If any man’s work abide [stands up under “fire” or heavy pressure] ... he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work be burned [fails the test] he shall suffer loss...” (I Corinthians 3:11-15).
DON’T BECOME TOO “AMUSED”
One of the main tools used in the dumbing-down of the American population is the “entertainment industry.” In one sense of the word, our nation is being “amused” to death. Again, we need to define our terms. We start by removing the prefix from the word “amused.” This leaves us with the root word, “muse.” Webster defines it as, “Deep thought; close attention or contemplation which abstracts the mind from passing scenes.” Museful: “Thinking deeply or closely; silently thoughtful.”
Now, let’s restore the prefix and again define our terms. To be amused basically means to do something without thinking or being on the alert: Amuse: “To entertain the mind agreeably; to occupy or detain attention with agreeable objects ... to be amused with trifles.” Amused: “Agreeably entertained; having the mind engaged in something pleasing.” Amusement: “That which amuses, detains or engages the mind; entertainment of the mind; pastime; a pleasurable occupation of the senses.” As a result, while being “amused,” one — without musing, thinking or being on guard — can unwittingly let all types of garbage flood into their minds and dominate their thought patterns. This can lead to the acceptance of all kinds of destructive ideas and false premises. As has been said previously, when one starts off with false premises, one automatically ends up with false conclusions: garbage in, garbage out!
Untold millions, both nationwide and worldwide, can bear testimony to this simple but all-too-often unrecognized fact. Never having been taught at home or in the “educational system” to carefully consider the various facts and principles frequently involved in making decisions, many blithely ignore the ultimate consequences of their glandular actions or reactions, and blindly stumble from one catastrophic situation to another. They act in haste, and repent at their leisure. Of course, one of the signs of insanity is making the same mistake repeatedly while expecting different results each time.
It pays to learn not to be amused too frequently and to develop the habit of considering the likely results of our actions. The root word here, consider, is defined by Webster as, “To think seriously, maturely or carefully; to reflect... To deliberate; to turn in the mind.”
LOOKING BACK AT ROME
We return now to our opening paragraph. The startling comparisons between the conditions in the United States and those that led to the disintegration and final collapse of the once-mighty Roman Empire are strikingly ominous. We would all be well advised to take them to heart, to think seriously about them, to deliberate on them, and turn them over in our mind so as not to be overwhelmed by the distractions and the social pablum that dominate society. Two thousand years ago, Rome’s wealth and military power staggered the imagination of the ancient world. Rome was “invincible.” We learn from such historians as Edward Gibbon, Philip Myers, Samuel Dill, Jerome Carcopino, that initially the Roman Republic — like the American Republic — was built on strong, stable families, self-government, personal responsibility, high moral standards, hard productive work, and patriotism. But, as time went by and people’s lust for pleasure and the perceived “good life” grew exponentially, the rules were steadily relaxed and became increasingly blurred. Eventually, they became almost non-existent. Roman society became increasingly licentious.
There was a strong “women’s rights” movement. “Some women evaded the duties of motherhood for fear of losing their good looks, (and) some took pride in being behind their husbands in no sphere of activity... It is obvious that unhappy marriages must have been innumerable... There was an epidemic of divorce. Senaca, a Stoic Roman philosopher, stated that many ‘marry in order to divorce.’”
And Rome’s educational system? The schools “undermined instead of strengthened the children’s morals, they mishandled the children’s bodies instead of developing them, and if they succeeded in furnishing their minds with a certain amount of information, they were not calculated to perform any loftier or nobler task.
“The pupils left school with the very heavy baggage of a few practical and commonplace notions laboriously acquired and of so little value that in the fourth century Vegetius could not take for granted that new recruits for the army would be literate enough to keep the books for the corps.” The dismal “education” of these young Romans left them without a set of moral values, and no sense of patriotism. The writing was on the wall!
“The Roman virtues — honesty, candor, frugality, and patriotism — withered and died. What was left was a people whom neither the vices of the rulers nor the increasingly bold attacks of foreign enemies could shake out of their apathy.” In addition, a massive influx of aliens “had a more important bearing than is usually accorded to it... As they “did not spring from the soil of Rome, their recollections and affections were elsewhere.”
Welfarism was also “a leading fact of Roman life. The evils that resulted from this misdirected state charity can hardly be overestimated. Idleness and all the accompanying vices were fostered to such a degree that we shall probably not be wrong in enumerating the practice as one of the chief causes of the demoralization of society.”
As various social crises escalated, the government came up with another “answer” — more government. This ever-growing bureaucracy could only lead to one thing: higher taxes. As a result, “the heart was taken out of the enterprising men.” Eventually, “the tax burden became so unbearable that tenants left their farms and merchants forsook their businesses.” At this point, “the government intervened and bound the tenants to the soil [the beginning of serfdom] and the businessmen and workmen to their occupations and trades. Private enterprise was crushed, and the State was forced to take over many kinds of businesses to keep the machine going.
“This led to still further strangling taxation with repeated devaluations of the currency that fatally weakened the middle class and decimated its natural leaders. The attempt to cure the resulting disorder with the complete regimentation of the totalitarian state merely gave a temporary check to the progressive decay. Disintegration followed the stifling of initiative.”
Just before the bottom fell out from under the whole sordid mess, most Romans indulged in bizarre forms of denial and escapism — anything and everything to avoid facing reality. Few wanted to make the drastic changes necessary to prevent the once great Roman Empire from plunging over the edge of the precipice into oblivion. That catastrophe, when it inevitably occurred in 476, resulted in the Dark Ages from which western Europe didn’t emerge till the time of the Renaissance some 700 years later.
WILL AMERICA SUFFER SIMILAR FATE?
Being aware of the frightening parallels between Ancient Rome and present-day America, we must honestly ask ourselves, Will we suffer a similar fate? Or will America wake up and take the drastic actions needed to avoid going the way of Rome? Or, having stumbled over the truth, will Americans (to paraphrase the words of Winston Churchill) jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their empty, frustrating lives as if nothing has happened?
It is “odds on” that — priding themselves on their sophistication, technological advances, and numerous other illusions and delusions — most will ignore the warning signs and go full speed ahead until America inevitably “hits the wall” and disintegrates. In the meantime, in their prideful sophistication, most will delude themselves into thinking, “It could never happen here.”
Before we wrap up for this month, we need to check one more definition: “Sophistication: The art of adulterating; a counterfeiting or debasing the purity of something by a foreign admixture.” In other forms, the word means “fallacious reasoning; reasoning sound in appearance only ... one that adulterates, one who injures the purity and genuineness of anything” (Webster, 1828).
We will now conclude with a thoughtful analysis we first discovered 35 years ago:
“To believe that we could be wrong about something — almost anything — is unfortunately a very ego-shattering experience for some (if not most) human beings. The exposure of myths and biases can be so psychologically disruptive that it is tantamount to complete ego destruction.
“When the security blanket is gone, so is the particular niche of comfort into which we can conveniently creep when some challenging new thought comes along to disturb our mental processes. We have our first line of defenses against truth, and they are far more effective than any radar set or military advanced warning system . They unfailingly tell us that we are not wrong, but right after all.
“Most people stubbornly resist any new truth with a whole series of first-line defenses and several backup systems to boot. But when truth finally exhausts all their defenses, they are forced to resort to that one-and-only tired old excuse: ‘Just who do you think you are?’ Where did you get your authority from? If all else fails, people tend to fall back on this ‘put down’” (Good News Magazine, October 1975)
In these perilous days there is no time for sophisticated reasoning. Individually, we all would be well advised to take these warnings to heart, to think seriously about them, and turn them over in our mind. If we do so, we will not be overwhelmed by the distractions and the social pablum that dominate society and with which we are bombarded 24/7 from every point of the compass.
Best Wishes,
Des Griffin
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