The watchmen warned us
By Dr. Robert Owens
web posted January 11, 2021
Many Americans yearn to return to the days of yesteryear when slouching on the couch, drinking a beer, and watching the game was enough intellectual stimulation for one day. Or as Frank Zappa once expressed it, “TV dinner by the pool, I'm so glad I finished school life is such a ball I run the world from City Hall.”
It was this noninvolved attitude that allowed activists dedicated to fundamentally transforming America to capture the culture, academia, the media, the techno sphere, and ultimately power. The best way to sum up the mental sleepwalking of those who luxuriated in the peace and plenty provided by the American experiment is found in a French phrase: Comme ci, comme ça that literally means like this, like that. In conversation it means so-so, or neither good, nor bad.
And as the Spirit said the church, “I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold, you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, ‘I’m rich, I’ve got it made, I need nothing from anyone,’ oblivious that in fact you’re a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.” Which is just where we all might end up in the shabby future of the United Socialist States of America.
The Watchmen on the Walls have warned us over and over.
Western Europe as a cultural, military, and political group of great powers committed suicide with the two avoidable blunders of WW I and WW II. Is it the fate of America to follow their example by passively accepting the imposition of a Progressive Socialist yoke?
After the fear mongering freedom destroying experiences of 2020, we walked eyes wide open into a well-prepared pre-programmed election fraud. Now we face the on-going litigation for justice while the swamp’s smothering power oozes out of almost every avenue of the media telling us, “There nothing to see here.” The wounded economy limps along waiting for the next unconstitutional shutdown that doesn’t apply to the authoritarians we call elected officials whose pay checks never stop.
Yes, we all yearn to return to what we perceive as normal. But if that normal is just a return to the stupefying normalcy of a semi-comatose existence paying no attention to the state of our nation if we manage to dodge the bullet this time rest assured eventually one will hit the target. We need a new normal. But not the new normal of a progressive living document paradigm shift into the bondage of serfdom. We need a new normal of involved and intelligent participation if we expect to see a limited republic re-established and flourish.
The precarious position America’s freedom loving people currently find ourselves in has not come upon us without many watchmen on the walls warning us it was approaching like the hoof beats of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. From politicians like Lincoln, to political commentators such as Pat Buchanan, to musicians, and authors, we’ve had plenty of warning if we’d only taken the time away from our entertainment naval gazing to listen.
On January 27, 1838 in an Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois speaking on the topic, “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions” Abraham Lincoln said,
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
Pat Buchanan told us:
“American's greatest deficit is no longer found in the federal budget. It is a moral deficit, and it may be found in a polluted and poisoned culture that has become the great enemy within."
“We need to do more than win an election or win the House or win the presidency, my friends: we need to make this beloved country of ours God's country once again."
“Today, candor compels us to admit that our vaunted two-party system is a snare and a delusion, a fraud upon the nation. Our two parties have become nothing but two wings of the same bird of prey."
Another voice in the wilderness was Frank Zappa.
Even in the upside-down topsy-turvy days of the 1960s Frank Zappa was considered beyond bizarre by most people even the so-called Freaks and Hippies. A little known and to many surprising fact, Frank Zappa didn’t drink or use drugs. And a personal observation that may shock many who know of him but never explored his extensive body of work, never experienced his genius as a composer and arranger, or never actually listened to what he was saying Zappa was an insightful commentator on the American experiment perhaps even a natural philosopher ranking with such greats as Yogi Berra.
Here are some nuggets from his interviews that seem exceptionally relevant to our current slide into the abyss of Biden’s long dark winter.
"Schools train people to be ignorant, with style. They give you the equipment that you need to be a functional ignoramus. American schools do not equip you to deal with things like logic; they don't give you the criteria by which to judge between good and bad in any medium or format; and they prepare you to be a usable victim for military-industrial complex that needs manpower."
"As long as you're just smart enough to do a job and just dumb enough to swallow what they feed you, you're gonna be alright. But if you go beyond that then you're gonna have these grave doubts that give you stomach problems, headaches make you want to go out and do something else. So, I believe that schools mechanically and very specifically try and breed out any hint of creative thought in the kids that are coming out."
"Power will be maintained by the groovy guy or gal who gets the most media coverage for his sleaze. Naturally, his friends in various businesses will do okay, too."
"Censoring what you say is one of the ways in which people who are not nice can take away your personal freedom."
"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."
"In every language, the first word after "Mama!" that every kid learns to say is "Mine!" A system that doesn't allow ownership, that doesn't allow you to say "Mine!" when you grow up, has - to put in mildly - a fatal design flaw."
"I believe that people have a right to decide their own destinies; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only so long as) individual citizens give it a temporary license to exist, in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy, you own the government. It doesn't own you."
Since I’m quoting my way through this essay let me finish up with one from author George Orwell’s classic 1984 concerning the end result of an all-powerful authoritarian socialist state, “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.”
However, as hopeless as the Democrats who identify as journalists try to make us believe it is, I urge everyone to turn to Christ and find the hope that does not disappoint. Those who already know Him rededicate yourself to following Him. Those who don’t know Him turn from the dead-end ways of the world and embrace the life-giving faith of salvation in and through Jesus. The Bible reveals the truth, points the way, and provides the key. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Then once we’ve entered this life of faith let’s strive to make our actions match our confession.
Keep the faith. Keep the peace. We shall overcome. 
Dr. Robert Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Parler, Facebook, or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens’ Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens