German Philosopher Georg Hegel once wrote that “the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” His observation during his life was very accurate, both for the past and future generations. Each generation of men builds on the lessons from their ancestors, and whatever lessons that are not learned are forgotten. This is not per se a bad thing- except when the lessons you have to learn are critical to your survival or that of others.
An example of a lesson which can be forgotten is my father knew how to use a slide rule while growing up. I don’t know how to use a slide rule- I have a calculator. Would it be nice to know? Yes. But it is not necessary.
However, some lessons- many lessons- are just important to learn for your own safety. Things like “look both ways before crossing the street,” or “don’t trust whatever strangers tell you.” These are things that, while they can be rephrased for a modern context, are timeless lessons because they teach principles which guide a child for life and are not tied to one specific skill set.
One such lesson that is of critical importance as it pertains to governing societies is that a civilization is a precious organism, a delicate life form that is hard to acquire and easy to lose, and once it is lost it may never come back. Yet it is precisely civilization that allows man to realize his greatest capabilities in this life, and for traditional Christian civilization, to direct this to the love of God and of neighbor.
If civilization is the goal of human social organization, then it must be consequently understood that not only are people who participate in society supposed to work for the greater good of each other, but they are also to work against the enemies of civilization. One such common example are criminals, and by that I mean people who intentionally undermine the social order by engaging in behavior that is inherently dangerous to civilization. Things like theft, robbery, rape, and murder, but also smaller acts such as public urination, wanton intoxication, fighting, and just being a general nuisance all, in varying degrees, damage the bonds which hold society together. Too much damage and the society will collapse. Sure, people may still live in that area, but it will be just that- an area inhabited with people but no bonds between them other than simply nominal associations. The end result is a shell of a people that once was, and uncivilized civilization that exists without existing and, like a car on an empty highway, follows a road to nowhere.
The disorder that other humans cause is the reason why government exists. If there was no original sin, there would be no need for a government in a human sense because the law of God would be so emblazoned on our hearts that we would know to choose right becuase, given that evil is a perversion of good, we would not know how to choose the perverse over the righteous.
But clearly, we live in a post-original sin world and have for quite some time. Men are prone to all kinds of sins, public and private, and some men will stop at nothing to realize their own gains of money or power regardless of the damage they do to others. Some people just do not care about society and want to destroy it for reasons of malice. There are countless reasons, but all are the same in spirit, since they are based on the idea that some men want to destroy society and do not care about the consequences it has on others.
Governments and the institutions they erect theoretically are meant to serve the public. Borders and laws as well as prisons keep people out of society who are unable or unwilling to participate in it through civilized means as much as they protect civilized people from the barbarians outside the gates. Put simply, and this is not popular to say in the west today, but some people are not fit to live in society with others.
I used to be able to say this comparison was an exaggeration, but not so much any more
Put this into the context of the current “refugee” crisis in Europe today. Germany just invited 61,000 Muslim “refugee” this month alone, not counting the previous.
61,000 people is basically a small city. And cities are very diverse, dynamic places with their own characteristics. Merkel is just dumping them into her society like a landscaper dumps grass clippings into a trash barrel. However, if you have ever done grass cutting before, you know that grass clippings are (a) heavy, (b) they fill up trash bags fast, and (c) are a burden because they are often times heavy and can break the trash bag they are being carried in. Just like you cannot keep dumping grass clippings into a bag, you cannot keep dumping refugees into a society because that society will break- there is a limited capacity of how much that bag (or society) can physically bear without falling apart. If the society falls apart, the old bag gets thrown away, the clippings put in a new bag, and then dealt with.
Yet how is Germany, a nation with a long, proud history, any different or perhaps, exempt, from the lessons of the past?
Absolutely not.
The same thing is happening in the UK. Recently, the Church of England wanted to put advertisements for people to say the Lord’s Prayer of the iconic buses of London, and they were refused. However, Muslims have been allowed to put “Allahu Akbar” and other openly Muslim sayings on these same buses:
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