September 18th, 2025

Because our discussion about current political issues was cut a bit short on Saturday, I don't think I brought my last thought to an obvious conclusion. I'll try to do that here.
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Why is the point important that one cannot have an ultimate negative? (i.e. – anytime one speaks of a negative it necessarily implies the existence of the positive of that negative, but not vice versa – you can have a 7 w/o a -7, but you cannot have a -7 w/o a 7)

This needs to be kept in mind in any discussion, but I was speaking about the idea that has generally taken hold in our history that the democratic ideal is a 'secular society', that is, it must remain completely neutral to taking sides with any religious, moral or metaphysical philosophy (i.e. - anything that speaks beyond the material realm to an 'unseen' realm). This is a perfectly natural conclusion for the empirical philosophy which is the rule of the day. Empirical knowledge has its place, but it is limited to the material realm, and is highly deficient for establishing a comprehensive worldview.

Everything about life requires a positive presence, or purpose. This concept comes from the Greek word 'telos' (i.e. - purpose, destiny, goal, end point) It is where we derive the term 'teleology'. Anything that doesn't generate positive life movement rusts, disintegrates, decays and corrodes. It becomes covered over by that which does have life. We could flesh this out with many examples which I won't belabor here. A common quip you will hear is that 'nature abhors a vacuum (or void)'.

Humans naturally prefer the idea of 'live and let live', because we all want to do what we want to do without being bothered. This pretty much translates into a 'secular' setting that allows everyone to believe and do what they want. But when disagreements come up, people necessarily fall into talk about what is OK/not OK, right/wrong, good/bad. C.S. Lewis' whole point in 'Mere Christianity' was – you cannot even speak about these kinds of issues without acknowledging the existence of a universal invisible moral law. It is logically impossible. (Read it if you haven't!) This realization is what brought that atheist to Christ. If there is a universal moral law, then it is impossible to avoid its consequences, and necessary to understand it and respect it the best we can.

On the surface it seems to make sense that we can just set up a 'secular' society if we want. But in reality, human beings crave purpose, and a society craves a purpose beyond the present – one to live for, build for, and pass to the next generation. Without this, fallen human nature devolves into selfish 'live for today' hedonism, loses purpose, motivation, and descends into a suicidal self-cannibalizing condition.

People as a whole will not stand for this. They will not long endure a neutral 'everything is OK' mode once they sense where it is leading.

They will crave leadership with positive purpose, strength, and direction to fill that void. The anarchists of the French Revolution led to → Napoleon as dictator, The Bolshevik anarchists → Soviet dictatorship, Germany's post-WW1 collapse → Nazi dictatorship.

By positive leadership I don't mean necessarily 'righteous' leadership as you can see by these examples. I simply mean some force that steps into a leaderless void and says 'follow me – I will end the chaos and lead you to a great vision and purpose'. This leadership can be good (a la our founding fathers) or it can be bad.

At our founding, the Christian consensus was so strong, the people of the day just assumed it as the basis for our moral code and laws. The early documents and writings show this extensively. It produced government for the will of the majority (Protestant Christians), but with protections for minority groups (Jews, Catholics, Deists, etc.)

For reasons I won't get into here, the Christian consensus has severely eroded since WW2. It takes time for the effects to manifest, but we are smack dab in the middle of the 'uneasy' period, the void, where the social order is intuitively clamoring for a solid sense of purpose to lock onto. The Marxists sense this and are eager to fill it. The Muslims sense this and are working to fill it. The elite globalists are desperately working to seize it and fill it. Even though the Catholics are our friends now, with enough opportunity I have no doubt, based on centuries of evidence, that they would take over as well.

My point is that, like it or not, once we are weak enough, some group with a sufficiently cohesive identity and 'positive' message will step into the void and seize the reins of leadership. People at large – even many who disagree with the conquering group – will feel that this is better than 'nothing', because it at least provides some structure and security to end the social disintegration and chaos.

Therefore we must reawaken to the reality that America was born, in its ethical, legal and cultural identity, as a Christian nation, uniquely predisposed to not impose any specific form of that on other people by force, as did the state churches of Europe. (We know conversion by force doesn't work spiritually, anyway). Still, America gained the great benefits of firmly embracing those values in a sufficiently broad way.

But we must see that if we don't revisit this and reassert the positive moral, legal and cultural essence of the historic Judeo-Christian world view, then something else will impose its own worldview. To this point in history, plenty of other ideologies have offered themselves as a replacement. To this point, the ones that are strong enough and determined enough to fill the leadership void, have a very clear and documentable trail of creating hell on earth as evidence of what they will bring to America if they are able to succeed.

Over the weekend I was actually stunned to see the outpouring of vigils and gatherings all over the world in honor of Charlie Kirk – and also, I think, for Ilyna. I see the hand of God here, frankly. He spared Trump twice, once by a millimeter. There are many ways God could have diverted the bullet for Charlie as well. But that bullet detonated a cultural atomic blast now reverberating around the world, igniting a massive coalescing of people (young people especially) who now clearly see who and what the Left is. They have been powerfully convinced to join the ranks of the nationalist, populist, conservative point of view. It is reminiscent of the circumstances that exploded the spread of Christianity in the first place.

I think we are seeing the American renewal that I am talking about transpiring before our very eyes. It can still be hijacked. You can hear the screeching and howling of every stripe of demonic jackal closing in on all sides. It is a time to throw weight behind the forces most likely to bring America back to our original foundation. The MAGA movement has energized the only really viable option for this that I have seen in my lifetime. The political process is never quick, easy or perfect. It just comes down to siding with the group that is moving toward the light instead of the dark – moving us toward 'a more perfect union' as the Declaration of Independence states. That choice rarely comes clearer than it has right now.