E Pluribus Unum, My Friends. Sine Qua Non

This famous quote, uttered by Andrew Jackson on the occasion of receiving his honorary doctorate from Harvard, can be translated to "Of many, one, my friends, without which, nothing."  He was commenting in the fact that but for unity, the United States would be nothing.  Lofty words, to be sure.  But two centuries later, we see the affect of disunity.  We see disrespect, divisiveness, unbridled rage, and little if any personal responsibility.  Why?

Interesting, isn't it, how the culture of the United States has so drastically been eroded in the last six decades?  There's ample evidence to support that much blame for this demise can be laid at the feet of our more than permissive society.  Political correctness is the self censorship that we as a society impose upon ourselves. Seeking to be fair and balanced in our thoughts and deeds, we lie to ourselves about the realities of the world, just to make us feel better about ourselves.  And after years of this deceit taking root and blossoming in the societal fabric, we now are beginning to see what it has wrought. And what it has wrought is that our progeny - in fact, our very culture - is unfamiliar with reality.  We ignore violence where it exists, and conjure violence where it does not.

And what do we get?  Invading Islamists seeking to annihilate western thought are not only not seen as an existential threat, but are welcomed and supported by those it seeks to kill.  And misguided souls who are feed continuous daily portions of the hate-filled and divisive rhetoric emanating from the radical left's media propaganda machine pick up arms and attempt to kill duly elected government representatives.  The media mafia is alive and well, and it does a good job of distorting reality.  Good is bad, bad is good.

And that Orwellian contradiction is echoed by popular culture as well.  By that I refer to the wanton violence found in certain video games, in the vile and disgusting lyrics of so-called rap music, as well as in the vulgarity and depravity oozing from Hollywood's motion pictures.  Not limited to the vile language and blood and gore that constitutes many films, but including the stupid and vapid plot lines of many of the feel-good films recently, all constitute an unstoppable onslaught on what used to be courteous and polite behavior.  Through these outlets, we are taught to be not gentle men and women, but rather to be crude, coarse, rude and violent.  And permissiveness finds its way into parenting, as well, and that adds to the demise of a gentle culture.  Gentleness comes from understanding and taking personal responsibility; of behaving in such a way that the enables the better man to live under the immutable laws of cause and effect, and of action and consequence, and that leads to the consideration of others.  That's how many of us were brought up.  We learned it from our parents, who demonstrated gentility in act and in deed.  But Gen X-ers, and Gen Y-ers and millennials may not recognize gentility as a moral foundation.  They, in many cases, may live under an I'm-right-the-hell-with-you attitude.  The God of Self.  That's the opposite of tolerance and civility.  And for eight years, our cultural fabric has been infused with this sort of "us and them" ideology, resulting in the demise of civility.

So it's no wonder that some yahoo, saturated to overflowing with anti-American, anti-self responsibility rhetoric from radical left wing sources, finally takes up arms and shoots some congressmen.  He vents his rage on folks who are not his enemies in a real world sense, but to him, brainwashed by overdosing on years of hateful, divisive discourse, they are.  E pluribus unum to him becomes non sunt mei: They are not me.  From unity to selfishness.   At the end of the day, all it got him was infamy - and dead.

But what to do?  We all know as a nation we are divided.  Non sunt mei can be our new unofficial national motto. The radical left has been intent on America's destruction since even before the end of WWII, and perhaps their labor is paying off for them.  Real Americans are gentle in behavior, and are slow to take offense, to take up arms.  But if this non sunt mei ideology becomes as irreversible as religious dogma, and a national unity cannot be achieved,  then we've lost the nation, and an actual civil war will surely occur.  

Should that happen it would prove Andrew Jackson right all along. "Of many, one, my friends, without which, nothing."  But for unity, the United States is nothing.  

Unity:  Do we have it still?