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IN THE PRESENT CASE, CHANGE OCCURS WHEN THE RULERS FAIL TO FOLLOW THE CORRECT PROCEDURES FOR PRODUCING FUTURE GUARDIANS AND RULERS. AS A RESULT, SUBSEQUENT GENERATIONS NEGLECT TRAINING IN THE ARTS FIRST OF ALL, AND THEN PHYSICAL TRAINING ALSO. THE ABILITY TO JUDGE THE NATURES OF MEN DETERIORATES, AND THE CLASS OF RULERS BECOMES NO LONGER HOMOGENEOUS, SO THAT DISSENSION AMONG THEM RESULTS. BY A COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE BETTER AND THE WORSE AMONG THEM, LAND AND HOUSES ARE DISTRIBUTED AS PRIVATE PROPERTY; AND THE RULERS NOW REGARD AS THEIR SLAVES THOSE WHOM THEY PREVIOUSLY GUARDED AND VIEWED AS THEIR FRIENDS AND PROVIDERS.
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- Plato,
The Republic
It would seem that Plato's belief that the culture of a nation should be homogeneous is most accurate. While our Founding Fathers very rightly provided for the freedom of one's
exercise of religion, they never envisioned a world taken to ludicrous extremes where the culture of our nation would diverge from one of
Christian CULTURE.
Even an agnostic must recognize that a common core belief system is the grease on the axle of a society, and that competing cultures within a nation can only lead to cultural anarchy.
This cultural anarchy is a temporary condition which is akin to a vacuum in nature, soon to be filled by an emergent culture. The question then becomes, what culture?
If we choose to look at revolutionary models, which propose to tear down extant governments with anarchy, then fill that power vacuum with their own brand of oligarchy, we see a familiar pattern taking place within American culture today.
Of course, recognition of these forces is the first step in battling them, and so far they have successfully couched themselves in cloaks of "civil rights."
I shudder to consider the America my children will inherit.