WHAT IS A CITIZEN-KING?
[UNDER CONSTRUCTION]
THE CITIZEN-KING IS THE SECRET OF AMERICA
The Citizen-King is the goose that laid the golden eggs in America. While many nations and empires have had their day in the sun of great power and dominance, America’s rise onto the world stage has been unique. Her ascendency hasn’t been so much about power as it has been about production.
The Citizen-King is the goose that laid the golden eggs in America. While many nations and empires have had their day in the sun of great power and dominance, America’s rise onto the world stage has been unique. Her ascendency hasn’t been so much about power as it has been about production.
Until the rise of America, nations were ceaselessly trying to subjugate other nations. At least in her early stages, America was not interested in conquering other countries. Even when she whipped them in war, America’s pattern was to help them rebuild and prosper in a way that would preserve them as allies. America’s obsession has been production. This obsession has existed because, by her constitutional construction, America turned loose the producer in each of her individual citizens. And while it may be news to some, most people want to DO something significant with their lives. If government just releases this energy and gets out of the way, what happens is astounding. You get what America has been for most of its history. The phenomenal unlocking of invention, innovation, manufacturing and marketing has changed the world in the 200-plus years of America’s history to the extent that America is thought of as the producer of modern life. It is difficult to imagine what the world would even look like without the things America has brought into it. This happened, not because America tried to make it happen, but because she created the conditions that allowed it to happen.
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As American citizens were turned loose to release their individual dreams, the mysterious 'hand' of the free market was able to stir all of these individual efforts into increasingly amazing recipes. As a nation primarily driven by individual initiative, the combined result has been the conquest of production rather than conquest of other nations. For that reason it even sounds odd to speak of an ‘American Empire’. But the influence of America has so pervaded the world that when we speak of ‘modern life’, ‘Western life’, or the ages of ‘technology’ or ‘information’, we are essentially speaking of the influence of America on the world, and hence, of the American Empire. A picture I saw recently of a nomad in traditional garb sitting by his camels in a mid-eastern desert using a cell phone says it all.
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Nomadic Tent in Mongolian Desert --- can you spot any American influence?
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THERE WAS AN IDEA THAT WAS ROME
This film clip pieces together several scenes out of the movie Gladiator where the faithful citizens of Rome recall the ideal of the republic which is in the process of being usurped by the tyrant Commodus. Although the film is not directly historical, it depicts a number of dynamics that actually did happen in the rise and fall of the Roman republic. The republic was a wonderful idea but it could not last merely because it was a great idea. Its existence rested upon the desire of a sufficient number of Roman citizens to make it work and be vigilant to the threats that arose against it. Ultimately, they failed. Rome collapsed into a tyranny and later into chaos and dissolution. |
THE IDEA THAT WAS AMERICA
The idea of America was embodied in the ideal of the "Citizen-King". . . this is not a label or title that was used by the founding fathers, or anywhere else in history as far as we know. We have locked onto the term because it captures afresh the essence of what America was meant to be.
The ideal of the "Citizen-King" is that we could take responsibility for ruling ourselves and live for our own purposes rather than for the purposes of a monarch. We each have a great measure of freedom, and we each have a proportionate measure of responsibility.
And it worked. Oh how it worked! It is hard now to remember what a price was paid for it, not only by our founding fathers, but by the blood, toil and sacrifice of so very many through these nearly 230 years. We have held together as a nation because --- however we understood the idea of CitizenKingship --- in our deepest hearts, and in our own ways, the majority of Americans believed this was a very great privilege and a very great treasure.
But in the course of human history, America has lived just a fly-speck of time. Her continuity has no guarantee. With the passage of time, understanding of our CitizenKingship has faded enough to become endangered. A growing number of Americans now think they can forsake taking the responsibility for our social order and still maintain their freedoms. Living with the pain of tyranny stirred a passion for freedom in our fore-bearers. Forgetting the pain of tyranny leads us to drop our guard and forget that whether or not we remain vigilant, tyranny always does. It watches for and seizes every opening to work its tentacles into positions of power. We succeeded against great odds in swinging the pendulum from tyranny to freedom at the beginning of our history. Can we succeed in keeping it from swinging back? Will we have to taste tyranny again before we're motivated to resist it?
There is ONLY ONE WAY for our freedom to be preserved, and that is if ENOUGH CITIZENS TREASURE AND UTILIZE THEIR PIECE OF THE CROWN. It won't come through a favored political candidate, more money for schools, strong economic growth or any of the myriad things we make issues out of. America's secret is having a sufficient number of personally motivated, freedom-loving citizens who are sufficiently informed, sufficiently responsible and sufficiently engaged in our society. A crown is not only to be admired, but to be administered. It is to be worn but it is also to be wielded.
THE CITIZEN-KING MAY NOT SURVIVE
We now take for granted America's unprecedented level of impact upon the actual lives of people in nations throughout the world. No matter how great this has been or is now, it does not mean that America will last. Just because we can’t imagine America’s absence doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Understand that a nation called America will continue to exist, but on the day we realize that we are citizens, but no longer kings, the IDEA of America will have ceased to exist.
In fact, the signs of this erosion are already uncomfortably evident, not only in the reactions of anti-American sentiment around the world, but in the self-doubting, self-flagellation, and self-destruction that is increasingly evident within America herself.
Our founding fathers did not set out to attain the level of power and influence that America has achieved. They would not have imagined the heights to which America has risen. But the vision and purpose they did have is what produced the America we have known. Today we hear many impassioned pleas for things people think will reinforce America’s strength --- more support for education, more jobs, regulation reform, wiser use of resources, aid for this, aid for that, etc., etc. These are band-aids for wounds that will not heal without internal medicine.
THE BIRTH OF THE CITIZEN-KING
Early immigrants did not come here to rebel, but many of them were fleeing tyranny and longing for freedom. Our founding fathers were actually happy to be British subjects, thought of themselves as such and would have continued on in the tradition of British culture, except for one thing. The British quit thinking of Americans as British. They began to look at them as ‘colonists’ in a far-away and inconsequential place, who mattered only for the sake of what benefit they could be to the British Empire. As oppressive taxes and other measures were laid on the heads of the colonists, their inner commitment to the British Empire and its ideals eroded, until they reached the point of rebellion.
Americans had faced many difficulties, frustrations and discouragements as they tried to settle the new world, but they gradually realized that instead of support from their mother country, they were facing her tyranny. And the oppressive nature of that tyranny reached a breaking point. When the internal commitment of the early Americans pulled away from the British it went to a strange place. Instead of looking for another head on which to place the crown, an idea emerged that had not been successfully implemented since the ancient days of Greece and Rome. They could have continued with society formed around the age-old pattern of monarch and subjects. And at the time, this seemed like the only secure, workable and correct way to form a social order.
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Instead, they looked at each other and said, “I don’t want to be your king, and I don’t want you to be my king. Why can’t we just be kings of our own lives, and build a society where we can make that work?” And they did. Pulling on the rich history of republics in ancient history, centuries of experience in Protestant Church governance, and the latest political theory of that day, they began working on a model for a new American republic. In essence, they took the crown of the King of England, split it up among themselves, constructed a system within which they hoped this could work, and the rest is history.
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THE CONTINUATION OF THE CITIZEN-KING
It is important to understand that there were grave concerns, even by themselves at the time, and at many points following, that this would not work, and if it did, that it would not last. But it did work, and it did last. Even with the tremendous results of this great experiment in self-governing, however, we can never escape the question; ‘will it continue to work, and will it continue to last?’. The burden borne by the founding fathers to win their freedom and establish a republic becomes a burden to maintain it, a mantel of responsibility that passes on to each succeeding generation. Everyone is glad when a great new ocean liner floats and sails out successfully across the ocean, but however grand the vessel, it must continue to be sea-worthy, or the journey ends.
The fear is that we will lose the vision and competence as individuals, to continue being able to govern ourselves. It is not likely that everyone will lose this vision. But it takes a 'critical mass', a consensus large enough to influence the mindset of our nation's core institutions, as well as the atmosphere of our society at large. Does this consensus still exist, is it sufficiently strong, and what will make it last? Make note that we're talking about American Citizen-Kings, not about something that pertains only to Democrats or Republicans, blacks, whites, Asians or Hispanics, men or women, religious or secular, or to any other select group. We learned gradually to extend Citizen-Kingship to every American. It remains to be seen whether we have conveyed the way to treasure and maintain it. There is always the danger that some generation will pass around the golden eggs, then kill and eat the goose to celebrate.
The question comes to us then; how do we effectively maintain this internal sense of American purpose and pass it on to the next generation of individuals in our culture? Or how do we restore it in the event that it fades? It is unrealistic to think that every single person in a culture will grasp the ‘vision’, but it is essential that a sufficient number of individuals own it.
AN INVITATION
There are many in America who passionately want the IDEA OF AMERICA to remain alive and flourish. Everyone likes the idea. The question is; do we understand it and want it enough to do what is necessary to preserve it? You are invited to walk deeper with us into the IDEA OF THE CITIZEN-KING, to strengthen your understanding and resolve in living up to that title, and help reinforce it in our culture with every bit of influence you have. Follow on in this web site and let us know of your interest by subscribing (free) to our E-Newsletter at [email protected]
[UNDER CONSTRUCTION -- MORE TO FOLLOW SOON -- CHECK BACK!]
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