Traitors to our common heritage

We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst." - C.S. Lewis - novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, broadcaster, lecturer, and Irish. From his book, The Abolition of Man

Traitors to the common heritage of our country, mostly found amongst politicians, are nothing but renegades and rats.

In any other country, they would be decried and described as: hollow-hearted frauds; personification of deceit; foul mouthed traducers of everything good; cowardly tricksters; a disgrace to the human form; a hideous lump of hypocrisy; that mendacious lump of selfishness and deceit; the doubly damned traitor; arch imposter; a double-distilled hypocrite; a hideous monster; the betrayer; and so on. But not so in this land called paradise; a land of serendipity; a land called Lanka: a land in which, the folly of fools abound.

A land in which, for every one individual who needs to be guarded against a weak excess of intelligence, there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold idiocy. Thus, we the people, in this land, tend to worship and embrace the traitors to our common heritage. Yet, we maintain that 'we the people' are the products of one of the oldest civilizations in the world, the product of intelligence, ethics, culture, and traditions to be envied. How hollow this sounds when you look at this product: 'we the people'.

Independence

What have we achieved in the past since our independence? We condoned corruption of the unspeakable kind; we lost the spine that keeps people erect; we lost the tongue with which to chastise the corrupt; we became hypocritical, insincere, and pretenders to that claim of the products of one of the oldest civilizations. In short, in a sort of ghastly simplicity, we, our society, our politicians, our educators, removed the brain, the most important organ of our people, and demanded function. The result: we have no notion of ethics, of theology, of politics; but boast of our knowledge in all fields. We talk about civilization as though it is a static state.

Believe me, there are no civilized people yet, anywhere in this world; because civilization is a process that has to, constantly go on; and as long as we have politicians and politics, police and prisons, crime and cussedness; we are very much in the nascent stages of civilization.

An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful; but an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy. Natural Law or Traditional Morality or the First Principles of Practical Reason or the First Platitudes; they are not one among a series of possible systems of values. They are the sole source of all our value judgments. If it is, rejected; then all values are, rejected. The effort to refute it and raise a new system of values in its place is self-contradictory.

Judgment

There has never been, and never will be, a radically new judgment of values in the history of Mankind. What purport to be new systems of values, or ideologies, all consist of, at best, fragments from the original value systems itself, arbitrarily wrenched from their context, and then swollen to madness in their isolation; yet, still owing to it, and to it alone, all such validity as they posses. Therefore, this nation, and we the people, cannot go on like this forever; 'explaining away' everything forever. If we did, we will find that, eventually, we have explained away, explanation itself. Neither can we say we will see through this phase until an improved phase comes; because, we will only go on 'seeing through' things forever as we have done for so long.

The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it; and for once, let us see through it all by using the faculties of reason and judgment and expose the traitors to our common heritage, most of who are in the business of politics. Just to illustrate the type of people called politicians, I will relate this story:

One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut. After the cut, he asked for his bill, and the barber replied, "I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service this week." The florist was pleased and left the shop. When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a 'thank you' card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door. Later that day, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again repeated his mission for the week. The cop was happy and left the shop. The next morning, when the barber went to open up; a 'thank you ' card and a box of assorted cakes was waiting for him at his door.

Difference

The following day, a politician came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his bill, the barber again said the same thing about his mission for the week. The politico was very happy and left the shop. The next morning, when the barber went to open up, there were a dozen politicians lined up waiting for a free haircut. That, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and the politicians who run it.

The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of imagining a new primary colour, or, indeed, of creating a new sun and a new sky for the sun to move in. Therefore, right defense against false values is to inculcate right values; because false values, induces false decisions. But to do so, we need a change in the system and rid our society of the traitors to our common heritage; and in doing so, it is best remembered that both politicians and diapers need to be changed often and for the same reason: they stink. A great many of those who 'debunk' traditional values have in the background, values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process.

It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks the thinking of such people. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of their chest beneath that makes them seem so. No emotion is, in itself, a judgment. In that sense, all emotions and sentiments are illogical. But they can be reasonable or unreasonable as they conform to reason or fail to conform. Thus, by starving the sensibility of our peoples, we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. No justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous. Without the aid of trained emotions, the intellect is powerless against the animal organism.

Protection

Neither is a hard heart an infallible protection against a soft head; for the heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it. Nor is instinct the answer; because, instinct, like people, say different things at different times. Thus, if we are truly intent on ridding our society and this nation of the traitors to our common cause, we need to educate the people that a judge cannot be one of the parties judged. If he is, the decision is worthless. Likewise, if the people are to be the judge, and decide who the traitors are to our common heritage, they need to use intelligence and reason in passing judgment and not be a part of the party judged.

Who are the traitors to our common heritage? If a person is against our common love of country; our common heritage of racial customs and traditions; our common desire to accomplish something, however little, for the betterment of our country; that person will be the traitor to our common heritage. As at present, most of our politicians are.

Let us soon wipe out such traitors to our common heritage. Let us prove to ourselves, and to the world, that we are sufficiently intelligent, sufficiently socialized, to work together for the betterment of our common heritage.

For views, reviews, encomiums, and brickbats: [email protected]