An Enemy That Cannot Be Defeated Is Mighty Handy

Imagine that you are among those who possess true power within the power structures of the U.S.  Naturally your power rests upon the way things are, upon the power structure that has been built over time. That means that in one form or another your power rests upon the federal government and/or the United States’ network of mega-private enterprises, a.k.a. Big Business, a.k.a. the Fourth Branch of Government.

We’ll call this power structure Leviathan; a two-headed champion, or beast, depending on one’s point of view; conjoined twins born to New England that go by the names State and Capital.  

The foundation of Leviathan was laid between 1775 and 1789 upon an old and solid English foundation.  It was rebuilt by Lincoln and radically renovated or expanded by his successors Wilson, Roosevelt, Johnson and maybe Obama.  It is sovereign, the judge and arbitrator of itself, and no combination of power structures around the globe can stand against it.

Upon occasion you and your kind meet within the halls of Washington D.C. and the towers of New York City to contemplate your power, its purpose, and how to protect it.

In so doing there is nothing necessarily sinister afoot, any more than when a husband and wife sit around their kitchen table to contemplate their own state of affairs. Power at all times exists, and everyone, everywhere, wields a portion, no matter how small.  What sets you and your kind apart is the immensity of yours. It is the power of the great.

From across the chamber a voice rises above all others. ‘We have built Leviathan and its power is matchless. Yet no power remains unchallenged forever. What power is arising, even now, to oppose us in the decades to come? To undo the good that we have done? To threaten those whom we serve and protect?”

You turn to survey the world as it is, projecting the past through the present and into the future, in order to see what new power may be arising out of the deep to challenge you atop your hill or to pull the hill out from under you altogether.

Will it come from across the seas? Possibly, but Europe remains both divided and frozen in peace, bled by centuries of war and now content to prosper and depopulate. Russia retains power, and that of India and China continues to grow, but they are pre-occupied with internal divisions and they struggle to dominate even their own backyards.

Brazil? Lol!

Islam? Hopelessly divided Islam? Is it likely that this same Islam that at the height of its power was unable to conquer Medieval Europe will reunite in a new caliphate and send its navies and armies across the Atlantic to wage jihad across I-40?

No, any grave threat to Leviathan in the decades to come is far more likely to emerge from among those amber waves of grain, for it is apparent that the culture war that has raged since the 1960’s is not abating, and the fissures that it has created are only widening.  

So, will it be a rebellion from the Left? Is there some young American Mao Zedong, Lenin, or Pol Pot out there stewing in his fury and contemplating a new uprising of the proletariat, a.k.a. the 99%?  Doubtless there is, but Leviathan is a partnership between State and Capital, and State is not about to allow its kin on the militant fruitcake Left to overturn the apple cart that by patience and discipline he has built….albeit on Capital’s dime. ‘Let my partner hang himself and then all will be ours. Patience my little fruitcakes. Patience.”

Will it come from Christians determined to rebuild their city on a hill? Possibly. The cross has been drawn in anger before, but the words of He who hung upon it will forever sow doubt in the heart of the believing militant. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. You live by the sword, you die by the sword.  My kingdom is not of this world. Love your enemies. Etc.

Besides, many a Christian serves State or Capital faithfully and honestly and does so without pang of conscience.

But there is one broad group that cuts across many demographics that does draw your attention for it is to them that you have the least to offer and from whom you demand the most, and they are as likely to be found sitting in a recliner on Sunday as a pew. Their ancestors conquered America with musket and axe or filed through Ellis Island or may have even swum the Rio Grande. They left a world of limitations to come to a world seemingly without limits where they could be free to do right and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Draped in the red, white, and blue, they can tear up at the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner. They believe in the old American myths of rugged individuals who answer the call to arms and alms for the welfare of all. They obey the law and pull their own weight. They are the backbone of America’s fighting and productive classes.

The problem for you is that they desire the one thing that by your nature you cannot give. To labor under a light tax and regulatory load, or as it has been famously said, to just be let alone.

‘So what is to be done should these misguided simpletons ever rise against us?’ you are asked.

‘War,’ you say simply. ‘We find an enemy that cannot be defeated and we wage endless war on him, and with its exigencies as justification, we mobilise all branches of government.’

And that is what has been done and is being done in the name of the United States’ endless wars on drugs, terror, racial injustice, pandemics, and climate change. All enemies which are impossible to quantify, qualify, or defeat. All enemies that in order to defeat require Americans to forever surrender their liberty as well as their money.

M.C. Atkins

Follow me on Facebook by clicking here.