MM#50--The Dying Citizen

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I'm David and welcome back to another Mojo minute. In fact, it's Mojo minute number 50. How cool is that? When we started this little journey, we weren't sure if we were going to get to Episode 25. But here we are. Episode 50. And going strong. 

And actually, let us pause here to thank you, the listener, your great feedback and downloading of the podcast each and every Tuesday and Thursday keeps us pumped up. And we will continue to bring you great content. And, in fact, we're going to keep on going, we're not sure we're not going to put a limit on it, we're just going to keep on going some have suggested 100, we're going to keep going. 

Because, in fact, there are so much wisdom out there in a great deal many of the books that we have to continue to mine, and find those nuggets of wisdom because it is our mission here at the Mojo Academy to search for the truth to mind those nuggets of wisdom and truth and put them together in these nice little compact Mojo minutes for you. So you can flourish in your life. And so with that, let us keep marching forward together. 

And so for this special Mojo minute number 50, we're going to take a step back and look seriously at our world, and our country from say, a 10,000 foot level. So let's zoom up all the way to 10,000 feet, let's see the forest from the trees. Let's get some objective view of the chaos that is our country. And in case you haven't been paying attention Clearly, our country is not being run by the adults. In a world that has gone crazy. Well before COVID, the last 18 months has only intensified itself and to a verge of schizophrenia. And in the last six months, it's even intensified more. It's almost unrecognizable, if you compare our country to where we were two years ago. 

So we looked, we at the Mojo Academy looked around of the book world. And we tried to look for those serious people in our country who are trying to make sense of all this craziness. And after all, to live a flourishing life. You have to live human beings need a relatively safe and stable and limited government to ensure that the flourishing life can happen. Much like water and sunlight are needed for plants to grow. So does humanity need certain things for human flourishing to occur? So again, we looked around the book world to see who is thinking deeply on the big and serious topics of our day. And one such serious thinker we found is Victor Davis Hanson. Now who is Victor Davis Hanson Well, He is the senior fellow and military history at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. And he's also a professor emeritus of classics at Cal State University, Fresno. 

He is the author of over two dozen books, most recently the Second World Wars, which I have read. And they are another great book why the West has won nine landmark battles in the brutal History of Western victory. And this is some let's see, some 465 pages. Now I have not read all of that up. I read three quarters of it. But Victor Davis Hanson knows his history and he knows his classics. And he can certainly put everything in perspective for us. And today, Victor Davis Hanson actually released his latest book, The dying citizen, how progressive elites tribalism, nation, tribalism rather and globalization are destroying the idea of America. 

And so with that, as always, here in the Mojo Academy, let's go to a quote. And before I do, let me say that Victor Davis Ansan has the precision of a, let's say a veteran surgeon,
using in this case an intellectual scalpel, if you will. He is well versed in the classical tools in the classics. And he can diagnose if we're going to keep that surgeon. That surgeon mindset he can diagnose America's various ailments like no other. So let's go to the quote. By the 21st century, the Western idea of citizenship after 2500 years of evolution neared its logical fruition, with the full emancipation of the poor women minority populations after the long ago abolition of serfdom, indentured peasantry, and chattel slavery. Yet, despite progressive legal efforts to extend all the rights of full citizenships full citizenship, to newly arrived illegal immigrants to felons, and to teenagers not yet 18 years old. In a practical sense, the privileges of Western citizenship are in fact, diluting just as there was no constitutional government before 700 BC. So there is no role that there must be democracies and republics in the 21st century, unquote.

 So did you catch that? Let me repeat the important sentence, just as there was no constitutional government before 700 BC. So there is no rule that there must be democracies and republics in the 21st century. That, my friends is a dire warning, a dire warning indeed, of the diluting idea. And the value we place on American citizen citizenry, in fact, now, one might conjure up the vision of former President Ronald Reagan reminding the country in his farewell address in 1989. That we have to we've got to, quote We got to teach history based not on what's in fashion, but what's important. Unquote. Ultimately saying of the collective American Memory, President Reagan went on, quote, If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. And he says, I'm warning of the eradication of the American Memory that could result ultimately, in the erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics, more attention to American history, and a greater emphasis on civic ritual. Unquote. Now, folks, that was some 30 years ago. And can we honestly say if we were to grade ourselves between now and then how we did? That's dismal. We are at a point where that erosion and that eradication has deepened, deepened all the way to the point of tribalism now. 

But Hansen correctly identifies this growing tribalism and speaks to it saying, quote, at least until recently, tribalism was seen as a backward a reenact a reactionary, a pre civilization notion that made it impossible for a citizen of a multiracial nation to consider those of different appearances or religions, has equal. It was the bane of constitutional government, higher education and popular culture, undercut meritocracy, and marked the road of poverty, the road to poverty, rather, chaos and violence. Fueled Americans wished to defend the Jim Crow South, the caste system of India, the racial laws of 1930s fascist Europe, mainly Italy, in Germany, the apartheid of South Africa or the ethnic and religious categorizations of the former Yugoslavia, and eight li toxic to humankind. tribalism fully expressed as infighting and rivalry was understood as an anathema to any pluralistic democratic society. That's fantastic analysis spot on. And the truth, he goes on the new To anti tribalist mindset redefine life as something more than just hunting, gathering, substances farming, and continually war warring for resources.

Under all of those guarantees of citizenship, without clan, ethnic or racial qualifications, people flourish. That's fantastic analysis people flourish. Without them, they end up a pre polis Greek backwater, like the Wilder regions of Archanea or M brecha. Or in our own day, a Somalia, a Sudan or a Rwanda. A society that spent its time feuding over tribal and ethnic loyalties never has the resources to focus on its collective prosperity, freedom, accomplishments and security and certainly cannot hire admit to higher education or reward and punish on the basis of merit. Wow. Another paragraph, so dense, needs to be studied very good analysis. Like a like a veteran surgeon, like I said. Let's continue on the keys to American patriotism, I think are two now vanishing values. First gratitude for being a citizen of the United States. And second, the recognition that one emigrates to the United States, or continues to live within its confines because one believes it is preferable to other countries. These truths are grounded in the reality that America has unique uniqueness at its birth in 1776. And throughout its various constitutional reforms and amendments, has logically made it the envied destination of the most of most of the world's immigrants. Unquote. 

So in today's Mojo minute, let us correctly understand and as Hansen reminds us, citizenship after all, is not an entitlement. It requires work. Yet too many citizens of Republic's ancient and modern come to believe that they deserve rights without assuming responsibilities. And they don't worry how or why, or from whom they inherited their privileges. Unquote. Let us not be those citizens. Let us learn our history. Let us teach our civics and let us reclaim our American republic. And let us re reclaim American citizenship.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on