Category: United States of America

SHREW U: Worshiping at the Alter of Perfectibility

To plan for worldly perfection is a web of deceit and the spider who sets this trap believes himself to be like a god.

A web of deceit has been inadvertently spun since our founding which I will date as June 21,1788 when our Constitution was ratified. At that time there were 13 states. Only nine states needed to be on board for ratification…Ammendments to the document continued for several years after the ratification, for instance the Bill of Rights was not ratified until December, 1791.

During ratification the first political parties formed, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists.  Anti-Federalists saw the constitution as a potential threat to personal liberties and opposed its ratification wanting only each state to have sole power.  However, there were more Federalists than Anti-Federalists so the Constitution was ultimately ratified.  This is not to say that the Anti-Federalists didn’t get some of what they wanted…The Constitution did put in place checks and balances to help prevent central government corruption and tyrannical rule as well as incorporate explicit protections for individual rights.

In today’s polarized political climate we must all remember that perception is only part of the path to truth.  Facts still remain. – The Shrew

The Anti-Federalists soon became the Democratic-Republican Party.  Founding Fathers such as Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson were among them.  In the early 1800’s this party split into the Republican Party and the Democratic Party (Federalists such as George Washington, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton ultimately became members of the Democratic Party).  Essentially Republicans at this time wanted to reserve more power to state governments unlike the Federalists (later the Democrats) who dominated national government early in our founding and passed laws which taxed land owners to pay for war preparations against the French, increased residency requirements for U.S. Citizenship, deported all male citizens of enemy nations, and limited free speech rights.  By 1830 the Federalists had been completely reformed into the Democratic Party which supported slavery and opposed civil rights reforms.  You can see the trend early on that neither party was perfect with their understanding of Liberty. 

In the mid 1900’s the Democratic Party underwent a dramatic ideological realignment by supporting organized labor, civil rights of minorities and progressive reform.  During this time there were a number of other political parties with their own particular ideologies that came and went, many of which had elected representation in Congress, but they would not prove the test of time.  Today’s Democratic and Republican Parties bear almost no relationship to their original counterparts.

Through the decades of party representation in the presidential and congressional roles it seems that any time the dominant party was too aggressive with its messaging it left an opening for the opposing party to take control.  This “duel” made it more difficult for progressive ideas to cement, but laws and programs which began under the New Deal and civil rights reforms were enacted when both parties were more amenable.


When I compare the ins and outs, ups and downs of our federal system to our state and local governance systems the picture is the same.  Any time an extreme example of controlling power is displayed, another election happens to check this power and bring a modicum of balance to controlling forces.  Governing systems don’t just create themselves, it is people working together who bring them to being.  Ours is the only system which allows for ideas to be tested, thrown out and reinvented.  This is what a free republic does.  And if the people of this republic are free to also imagine and be inspired by the invisible hand of God at work in their personal lives, then the ups and downs of our system give emotional maturity for the individual to persevere when their wants are not able to balance their needs.  We do ourselves a great disservice when we believe that whole populations and desired outcomes can be forcibly perfected.  These are the ways of tyrants.

Our Earth and the cosmos are ever changing, and as we know, people are limited when they try to improve upon these changes.  To plan for worldly perfection is a web of deceit and the spider who sets this trap believes himself to be like a god.  We must not worship at the alter of perfectibility lest we divert our inherent worth to a false  master.

Shrew View: Homelessness and the Thin Blue Line

Identity politics has been stripping us of our humanity.  The latest case in point aligns with how the homeless population has been allowed to grow unchecked in many urban centers.  Homelessness has been a plight since the dawn of civilization.  Circumstances create personal problems for people in a myriad of ways.  Hopelessness becomes all consuming to the point where personal responsibilities which were once manageable suddenly are too much to handle.  Some would argue that it’s a money problem and tell us, “If only we all had a basic income, free health care, and free higher education, then homelessness would not exist!”   Responsibilities with this model of free stuff inevitably shift to an administrative group.  This group identifies money sources, collects the money, distributes it with a system that is “fair”, and employs a means of enforcement.  But would this progressive formula actually mitigate the personal problems inherent to human nature?  Think about it!


If I allow an administrator to take control of my basic neccessities and to educate me, will they also be able to control my dreams, wishes and choices?  What will be expected of me from this administrative state?  And what about morality?  Who defines morality and enforces this paradigm?

Now consider our police force…The men and women who are employed by municipalities to protect and serve its citizens.  It seems to me that their functions are slowly being eroded by an over zealous political class.  Lately the main stream news programs and social media fixate on police brutality as though it was more commonplace than the smuggling happening daily on our boarders.  Angry attitudes against the police along with the dangerous aspects of the job itself are causing many municipalities hardships to find new police recruits.  Is this by design and does this define a new mindset whereby law enforcement is now seen as the bad actor?  To be sure, policing will need a newly defined mission in order to help a controlling administrative state enforce their “fair and progressive” systems.


Judeo – Christian principles were once the sphere of moral precept in our country.  As these priciples erode and secular laws replace them, the human capacity for obtaining  higher consciousness will decrease and dependency on the administrative state will increase.  Each one of us is then acting as a cog in the wheel of an interdependent system and is replaceable if we are not being “perceived” as doing our part.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive” – Sir Walter Scott, 1808

We can see how the deception is forming the web, but do we know WHO IS THE SPIDER?

America, All You Need Is Within You…

How should we use higher consciousness in our secular world?

Secularism has no religious or spiritual basis and therefore refers to the so-called “separation of church and state”.  The state, or more precisely the government, is a system of people in charge of making and implementing laws for a country.  There are many forms of government, but in this blog I will focus on the democratic republic of the United States.

In our secular society we all exist among people of various religious faiths, spiritual beliefs and humanist followings.  Some people show their religious faith or spiritualism by wearing particular garments, jewelry or even body art.  Other people might not display their religious faith or spirituality at all on the outside, believing that it is their personal choice and therefore no one else’s business to know.  Either way, the display or non-display is accepted and is a civil right.

It is compassion that forms the basis of meaningful negotiation for most anything. 

Do not confuse religious beliefs with ideology…To equate the two will lead to a very slippery slope.  Ideology is a system of ideals forming the basis of economic or political theory.  A religion is only concerned with Devine nature and typically has its own rules or laws.  Spirituality is a frame of mind in relation to nature and emotional experience, sometimes with or without the use of a God or Higher Power.  It is easy for humans to put much time, energy and money into an ideology because the results are typically concrete.  It is less easy for most humans to put forth a similar effort toward religious beliefs because the results are far less tangeable.  Interestingly, when the two systems intersect the implementation of secular laws and systems can be difficult to negotiate.  But we must negotiate them within the context of our Constitution.

In the United States the majority of people whether they are citizens or not are using civility to live among eachother.  Sensationalist politicians and media would have us believe otherwise.  It is therefore important to develop a personal sense of higher consciousness to put human needs into perspective…This awareness helps us to tap into true compassion for our fellow humans.  It is compassion that forms the basis of meaningful negotiation for most anything.  And, higher consciousness will never require you to apologize for past experience since it’s only concern is for the present good and a mindfulness toward future possibilities.  Emotions are separated from facts, yet both are honored in the negotiation process.  We know we have lost this ability because we see the break down of communication among our governmental leaders, within much of the  mainstream media, and in protested campus debate.  Pure and simple, the ideologies of Socialism, Nazism, ecologism, and tribalism do not work easily in our system of governance.

However, what is wonderful about our system of government is that privately run civic organizations are allowed to operate and fill this intersection of need where secular government is unable to please everyone.  Unfortunately we are allowing ourselves to forget about this important aspect of secular engagement…Blanket solutions by government elites using commingled tax dollars do not solve all issues fairly.  Civic involvement can.

Ideology alone should not form the basis of government policy and law.  Where ideology intersects with religious beliefs, civic organizations should step in with their compassionate approaches.  Our Constitution provides for this if we are able to see the wisdom within it.