Prompt 51: July 6th, 2025
As we celebrate independence, and inevitably, the freedom we Americans cherish, it is easy to mistake this as our highest ideal. It is not. The founding ideals that shaped America, and eventually the other liberal democracies that make up The West are inalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to be upheld and protected by government. We must preserve the propriety needed to treat these rights as privileges of living in a just society and not values to hold. The separation of church and state has helped solve the political challenge of just governance for all, yet it has weakened the legitimacy of the Church, which has compromised the human need for a higher-order identity to join. This is the cost of losing these institutions– starting with the Church.
This collapse was articulated in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The scene depicted above was a gesture of replacing the Christian symbols (The Last Supper) with new pagan celebrations (Queer/Fat pride feast with Dionysus served on a silver platter). We no longer treat the inalienable rights as such in order to participate in a higher ideal. To the culture at large, hedonism is the only result when life and liberty are for the pursuit of happiness.
In keeping with our recent discussions of World War II, I was reminded that this confusion was not manifest in the wake of the worst event in human history. In his address at the surrender of Japan, General MacArthur acknowledged that freedom was not the highest ideal by which people could be united.
“Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have been attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start, workable methods were found insofar as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful. Military alliances, balances of power, Leagues of Nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be ‘by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature and all the material and cultural developments of the past 2000 years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh. ”
General Douglas MacArthur 1945, Surrender of Japan
He called us toward a higher standard of value that would quiet the temptation toward annihilation; yet the old gods linger.
The thread is open. Create boldly, and may the Spirit guide us all