That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended – civilizations are built up – excellent institutions are devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flow always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin. Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis
The question has been posed, “Is conservatism moving farther to the right?” Many believe it is and argue that this is what is wrong with the Republican Party and detrimental to America’s progress. Yet historically, history repeats itself and what begins as right, true and moral generally moves away from its foundational beginning and disintegrates into ruin.
America’s founding documents were based on what many through out history have relied upon as a solid foundation for Truth and Goodness. The Constitution is what American law and structure is resting on, but deeper still is the bedrock on which this document is built upon.
Oral tradition and written law, all have what in the Bible is called the Ten Commandments. Every civilization dating back to pre-history has been influenced by a set of foundational moral standards and upon these, civilizations have flourished. It is only when a society begins to move away from these foundational truths and justify this movement in the name of progress, does that society turn the corner of progress and begin to decompose from the inside out.
America’s foundational document was Biblical law and morality and the movement away from this is what has sparked the notion that the Right is moving more right. Yet Truth – Bedrock, does not move and those foundational truths still ring true for most. Conservatism has always been embedded on this Rock.
The argument can be better made that the bedrock of morality and ethics and our Constitution remains firm, weathering all tides of ideology and political philosophy, but it is the people who choose to move away from this moral standard, redefining terms to fit their agenda, lifestyle or political persuasion.
Great societies rise and fall on their ability to remain true to its origin. Most however fall because its citizens become complacent in protecting the very foundation on which their lives are built. Human nature falls into complacent slumber when all appears to be well, allowing the enemy of apathy and ignorance to take hold and draw away in the name of progress. When this happens, the decline of that once great society becomes apparent as those who rule no longer appeal to the bedrock of Truth but appeal to the swaying emotions of a people. The leaders argue not from a position of unchanging morality but of the ever changing needs as reflected by a society grasping for security from its government and not from a position of solid foundational Truth.
As C. S. Lewis stated above, history is the key. The fatal flaw begins when humans move away from Goodness and Truth as found in the Bible, and create a society that relies on changing winds and financial tides. If Truth is indeed unchanging, then why do we elect those who change with every wind of ideology, whose lives stand for everything but Truth and whose lips whisper only those things that tickle the ears of the ignorant and the apathetic.