For a Course of Years is a web log (in the classical sense… not to be confused with a “blog” nor the narcissistic/exhibitionist drivel they often contain) that acts as a repository for my thoughts on current events, politics, and the marketplace of ideas. Specifically, my posts will generally speak to how these all relate to the original ideas of the Founding Fathers.
For a Course of Years (or just Course of Years for short) takes its title from a line in Benjamin Franklin’s speech at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, given on September 17th, 1787 (it was actually read by James Wilson, Ben Franklin having been too weak to give it). The quote in question reads:
[...] I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution.
What Franklin understood, and many have forgotten, is that a democratic society of freemen can only be as free as it is virtuous. Almost all tyranny results directly from the indulgence of base desires by a nation or people at large. Government can only continue to exist by the mandate (tacit or explicit) of the masses governed. All tyrannical forms of government, from dictatorships to nanny-states, come about because the people need protection from themselves and are willing to sacrifice their freedom for their safety. The pseudo-libertarian dream of victimless hedonism is as much a pipe dream as is the perpetual motion machine.
Today’s “liberal” (read: “progressive”) thought is thoroughly mired in a fundamental misapprehension, or occasionally a willful ignoring, of the basic founding principles of our society and our government. It is by no mere accident that this nation has become, undisputedly, the most powerful and influential in the world. Nor are its current troubles the result of happenstance either. Our greatest achievements have come from adherence to the principles espoused by the Founding Fathers and our greatest blunders have directly resulted from our divergence.
The greatest blunder of Progressive thought is the hubris of chronological snobbery. This tendency is masked to the clearthinking public by a combination of tactics: obfuscation, revisionist history, and the libelous defamation of the founders themselves… a deviously subtle and gratingly snide version of the classic ad hominem attack. This last tactic is their siege resort and the most insidious: the systematic tearing down of great figures in our nation’s history on flimsy, circumstantial, or fabricated evidence. If they were found to be not quite so noble after all then we would have fewer qualms about discarding their ideas, you see.
The end result of my observations when combined with a classical education and a penchant for originalist studies is a lot of mental baggage to carry around in my everyday life. This web log is the repository for the flotsam of rhetoric constantly drifting about on the surface of my consciousness. To borrow a theme from a popular contemporary songwriter, it might be supposed that I am getting these thoughts out of my head so that they do not poison my everyday outlook with their sometimes acrid taste. Like her*, I have chosen to accept a medium for doing so that leaves them open for the general public to “use them however you want to”.
Today’s world holding at least as many dangers as in revolutionary times for the publisher of political thought (though they be dangers of a different sort), I have opted to take the route of anonymity in publishing my more political thoughts to the world. In doing so, I hope that I do not diminish the impact that my words might have if they were backed by my good name. I simply ask that any readers understand that there are manifold reasons for doing so:
1. Anonymity allows me the ability to freely discourse on matters meaningful to me while being able to partition these matters from my professional life (and, to a lesser extent, my social life).
2. Anonymity protects myself and my family from the loopier elements of today’s violently factious and often sociopathic “netizenry”. Enough said on this point.
3. On the off chance that this thinker ever turn statesman or feel called upon to run for public office, anonymity in this forum will protect my thoughts from the ravages of modern media’s tendency toward selective quotation in willful ignorance of context and dialogue.
In the great tradition of statesmen-authors at the time of the nation’s founding, I have chosen a nom-de-plume making reference to classical civilization. Fabius has always represented to me the ultimate in practical tactics. I often feel overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the numbers I face in my ideological battle. Liberal fascism has reprogrammed the American consciousness on an almost Orwellian level. Today’s political reality is yesterday’s science fiction.
If the ideological battle is to be won, it must be on the basis of Fabian tactics. It must be a battle of patience, wearing down the teaming hordes of our invaders. Their numbers are currently superior. They have invaded the precious institutions of education and the mass media. They have deeply affected the public consciousness to the point of rewriting history in the minds of many. We must retrench and patiently wage this war on our terms, not theirs.
The latter pseudonymical element refers to the Roman farmer-general Cincinnatus. If this name is unfamiliar to you, Wikipedia might (depending on the day) be a good start. He represents the one-time ideal of all good republics: the farmer-statesman-soldier. Always ready to defend his beloved Rome against perils political and marshal, he took up office for the purpose of leaving it. He took up power for the purpose of laying it down again. His is an ideal we have long since abandoned and lost in the morass of party, faction, and career politics.
A final note:
This blog is not intended for any audience but myself. It is an outlet for my own musings and way for me to find both ctharsis and release. Whether these writings strike a chord with any audience beyond myself is inconsequential to me. I might have lofty dreams of someday effecting change in the political consciousness of the general public in a broad way, but have no illusions of self importance to buttress a notion that this web log will be an effective means of doing so.
Please do not take this to mean that I do not care for those who may read Course of Years or for their responses and opinions. Just understand the stated goal and keep your comments, should you have any, within a useful frame of reference… i.e. bear in mind that I do not care to have a following and therefore feel no sense of responsibility toward any who choose to follow, beyond my simple and basic responsibility toward Truth, Honor, and Right.
Thank you for visiting and I hope you do find something to provoke thought.
Fabius Cincinnatus
*—This should not be construed as an endorsement in any way of this artist’s work or an expression of kinship in thought or ideas. I have no notion of her politics, nor do I care to: I fear that if I did, I would probably have to stop listening… but that’s a topic for another day.
