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] |