Sometimes the best policy for everyone can seem to be selfish by the one implementing it. For example, if an airplane loses pressurization, idealism would have us think that every parent should think of their children first, helping them get their oxygen masks on before their own. However, in the preflight safety briefing parents are told to put their oxygen masks on before helping their children get theirs on. Why? If the parent passes out from a lack of oxygen while trying to help their children, they have jeopardized their children and themselves.
Likewise, the “America first” policy may seem selfish, but it is the best policy for all nations, not just America. It is American economic and military strength that has protected the rest of the world from Marxist aggression to date. If America weakens or collapses by not looking out for itself first, it will not be able to help any others in this ultimate battle against globalist tyranny.
Because of America’s strength and prosperity, it has been able to do more to help other nations than any country in history. After World War II it was American economic strength that was able to help rebuild the nations devastated by the worst conflict in history—even our enemies Germany and Japan. What country in history ever helped to rebuild, not just their allies, but also their enemies after a war?
We must keep in mind that Nazism was an extreme form of nationalism, and extreme nationalism is dangerous. However, what some see as an extreme only seems that way because they are so far out of the opposite extreme. Without question extreme nationalism can be as bad as extreme globalism, but what many historians fail to acknowledge is that Nazism was also a form of socialism. Nazi stood for The National Socialist Party. Nazism was not the opposite of communism but was in fact itself a leftist organization—different in degree in just a few ways.
The Nazis allowed free enterprise and independently owned businesses, but only when they complied with the dictates of the state, and they could be seized by the state at any time if needed. As in all socialist countries, the people and all of their resources existed for the state and would be seized by the state if owners did wholly submit to the dictates of the state.
The world is still divided into these same two camps, not really left and right, but those on the extreme left, and those less so, but still on the left. The extreme left, Marxist-socialist-globalism, maintains that all people and resources belong to the state and exist for its interests. In the others, including many democratic republics, there may be a philosophy that the state belongs to and exists for the people, and to protect the rights and property of the people, but in practice this is hardly so anymore. There are some variants in every country, but in general this is what the world has come to.
As we have covered, the greatest innovators and leaders in history were propelled to that stature by great antagonists and challenges. Likewise, this ultimate challenge of Marxism to the free world can help propel the free states to a higher level, and ultimately work out for good for all freedom-loving people. However, to date Marxism has been able to penetrate and subdue republics from within that they could not subdue from without, and so the whole world has moved decidedly to the left and is now very close to bringing the entire world under an ultimate tyranny.
Biblical prophecy speaks of this scenario at the end of the age, which is a time of great conflict and trouble like the world has never seen before, or will again after it, but there will be the dawning of a new day that is brighter than the world has seen before. One of these prophecies is Isaiah 60:1-5:
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
“For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you.
“Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
“Lift up your eyes round about and see; They all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be carried in the arms.
“Then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and rejoice; Because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you.”
Here we see that darkness will cover the earth for a time, just as it seems to be doing now. Just as the darkest part of the night is right before the dawn, we have the assurance that a new day will come, the light will ultimately prevail over all darkness, and the nations will turn to the light.
It is not just biblical prophecy that foretells this scenario, but it almost seems as if all transcendent thinkers have begun to grasp this. In every Hollywood story there is a hero and an antagonist. That is the ultimate story of mankind. However, we keep in mind that the antagonist is needed to reveal the darkness and the threat that it is, so that they can see the distinction in the light and turn back to it. This turn will certainly come with the nations.
For King David to become the great king that he did required him to endure being persecuted by the evil King Saul. This was perhaps the greatest source of his character development. There does not seem to be anyone in history who accomplished something of significance who did not have such an antagonist to challenge them. But for a challenge to do this it must be a real threat. Freedom is always under threat but is now facing its greatest yet. This can compel us and our Republic, and the rest of the world, to see a greater light, and turn to it.
Every time America has faced great challenges in the past, she has overcome them, and because of the struggle, has been able to grow stronger and better. As America is now facing some of its greatest challenges, from both without and from within, we must see this as our greatest opportunity. What may look at times to be our doom can be the path to an unprecedented advance. In the past, the American people rose up with a greater resolve with each challenge. Now it is our time.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor that thrust America into World War II, American forces were being beaten and pushed out of the Pacific on all fronts in our confrontation with the Japanese—until one seemingly insignificant event that is hardly a footnote to the history of the war—Jimmy Doolittle’s raid with a few B-24s on Tokyo. How did this make such a difference?
Doolittle’s raid did virtually no military damage to Japan and seemed to the world like a quixotic and meaningless act of folly that wasted some good men and aircraft. However, it was not the physical damage that had such an impact. This seemingly insignificant raid changed the mentality of both Japan and America so that it radically changed the trajectory of the war in the Pacific. Before this raid, America did not win a single battle with the Japanese; after it, America did not lose one.
One of the remarkable lessons of history is how seemingly insignificant people or events can have such an impact on the trajectory of history. This may be why so much of our literary and cinematic storytelling revolves around this theme—it does reflect our history.
J.R.R. Tolkien grasped this phenomenon in history and conveyed it powerfully in his classic Lord of the Rings saga. As the great battle for Middle Earth unfolded, and it did not seem that the forces of good had a chance against such overwhelming odds, a couple of Hobbits, too small and insignificant for hardly anyone to notice, won the war with their courage and resolve to never quit.
Many who have had this resolve and prevailed have testified that they had been inspired by the accounts of those who had prevailed in previous struggles. Both courage and cowardice can be infectious. Perhaps this is why the only commandment the Lord gave that had a promise attached was to honor our fathers and mothers. The promise was that if we would do this it would go well with us, and we would have longevity. Maybe this is because if we would remember them and learn the lessons that they did by listening to them, we would not have to make the same mistakes.
When we recount the odds that our Founding Fathers faced, going years losing almost every encounter with their enemy that was the most powerful empire the world had seen, they persevered, refusing to surrender until they ultimately won the biggest battle of all, and the war. This was such an impossibility that for years after our War for Independence, much of the world could not grasp that it had actually happened and did not acknowledge it by not recognizing the new American Republic.
For the Americans to win the War for Independence was a miracle, but it had to be followed by some even greater miracles for the new nation to survive. Forming a government that could hold so many independent and different states together seemed even more impossible than defeating the British Empire. Some nations would not recognize America as an independent nation because they did not think it was possible for a republic to survive for more than a few years, which was the testimony of history.
When the weak original Federation began to collapse and the Continental Congress came together to work out their differences to form a new union that would be strong enough to hold together, for weeks there was no progress, and the forming of a new union seemed impossible. Benjamin Franklin entreated the delegates to just take a break for a few days to seek the Sovereign of the Universe who formed the nations with His wisdom and grace. After this prayer it took just a few days to frame the Constitution that has held the American Republic together for almost two hundred and fifty years, almost fifty times longer than any previous republic in history!
We must never forget the ground from which we have grown. We’ve had constant conflicts within and without, many of which have threatened our continued existence. With each one we have emerged stronger and better than ever. We can do it again if we learn from our national fathers and mothers, who believed that all things are possible for God, and with His help we cannot lose.
The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of government power, not the increase of it. When we resist the concentration of power, we are resisting the powers of death. Concentration of power precedes the destruction of human liberties. ~Woodrow Wilson
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