The Origins of Anti-Semitism

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

Germany's Legislation Against Jews Before WWII Started September 1, 1939
Beginning of the Holocaust when 6,000,000 Were Murdered

It is said by Christian historians and theologians that Jesus was teaching between 27-30 CE when he died at age 37.  This was before the  fall of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE by about 40 years.  He was then placed on the cross, something that had also happened to thousands of Jews prior to his hanging for any misdeed the Romans didn't like.
                                                                 

Emperor Constantine was in charge of the first gathering of Christians in 324 to make decisions about the new religion.  Constantine had involved himself in a fateful battle for control of the Western Roman Empire and had faced Emperor Maxentiius at the Tiber River's Mulvian Bridge in 312.  It was said that Constantine saw a sign that he would conquer, and he did.  He routed and killed his enemy, who was his own brother-in-law. It was 2 Romans fighting over power.   The next year he was truly the Western Roman Emperor, and the Eastern Roman Emperor Licinius signed an Edict of Milan which  ensured religious tolerance for Christians. This ended the "Age of Martyrs, which had begun after Jesus' death.  They were also given specific legal rights like the return of confiscated property and the right to organize dedicated churches.  

"The Jewish Temple had been destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans under Titus. Then Israel was totally destroyed as a nation with the defeat of Bar Kochba  in 135 CE. (It was the hardest war that the Romans had fought and lasted for 3 years from 132-135 CE)  Hundreds of thousands of Jews were massacred. Most of the survivors were dispersed into the Gamut (Diaspora or Exile), many of who were sold into slavery. Yet, thousands remained in Judah and Israel undetected by the Romans who were mainly concerned with Jerusalem.  
                                                                         

Seen in Rome, this depicts the Jewish slaves being forced to carry the loot from the Temple
ARCH OF TITUS-
Titus astride his chariot, chained Jewish slaves forced to carry the Temple spoils, dragging the
golden menorah and table through the streets of Rome surrounded by Roman soldiers 
who plan to use the slaves to build the coliseum. 

The final utter defeat of Israel was seen by many Christians as a sign that Israel was rejected by her God. The "Church" was seen as the new Israel. Anti-Semitism began to take a firm hold on Christianity. By the time that Constantine called the first general church council at Nicea in 325, anti-Semitism was endemic in the "Church." The Council of Nicea was attended by 318 bishops, none of whom were of Jewish ancestry."
                                                                         

Emperor Constantine unified the Roman Empire under his rule in 324 and rebuilt his seat of power in largely Christian Byzantium, renamed Constantinople and today is called Istanbul in Turkey.  His ruling class grew, establishing a growing Christianity in the Roman and then the Byzantine Empires.

The Council of Nicea was then held in 325 in Iznik, Turkey.  They then decided on the divinity of God the Son  (Jesus) and God the Father.  After this council, orthodox Christians agreed on the critical point that Jesus and God were equally divine and created of the same substance.  At this time, people still believed in the Roman gods such as Jupiter, Juno, Mars, etc.

The belief had included gods leaving Mt. Olympus and consorting with humans and producing half-godlike people.  Julius Caesar (13 July 100 BCE-15 March 44 BCE)  was declared a demigod by the Roman Senate. 

The council also condemned the practice of money lending by clerics and standardized their holiday of Easter.   As it was to happen, the only trade allowed to Jews was the money lending, for they were then not ever allowed to own land or join the different trade unions.  It had been deemed at this meeting that money-lending was beneath the Christian to be involved in.

Nicea in 325, with its theological anti-Judaism, laid the groundwork for anti-Semitic legislation of later church councils. The Council of Antioch (341 CE) prohibited Christians from celebrating Passover with the Jews. The Council of Laodicea in the same century forbade Christians from observing the Jewish (and biblical) Sabbath. (Some Christians had been observing both Sunday and the Sabbath.) Christians were also forbidden from receiving gifts from Jews or matzoh (4) from Jewish festivals and "impieties."   What they were doing was ending all Jewish connections with their friends and relatives.  

"Early Christianity grew gradually in Rome and the Roman Empire from the 1st to 4th centuries, when it was legalized and, in its Nicene form became the state church of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica of 380.  Hellenistic polytheistic traditions survived pockets of Greece throughout Late Antiquity. The Neoplatonic Academy was shut down by Justinian I in 529, a date sometimes taken to mark the end of Classical Antiquity."  So it took about 200 more years before people dropped their belief in polytheism of the Greek and Roman gods.  

The 4 gospels were not placed in a canon yet at this time.  This took centuries to do. Therefore, it's really hard to judge just when they were written.   "Though the Early Church used the Old Testament according to the canon of the Septuagint (LXX),perhaps as found in the Bryennios List or Melito's list, the Apostles did not otherwise leave a defined set of new scriptures; instead, the New Testament developed over time. Jesus was figured to have been born in November of 5 BCE and died on a Friday, April 3, 33 CE, age 37.  He is said to have been born to Joseph, a Jewish Carpenter and his young wife, Mary.  She was pregnant before they had married.  

Writings attributed to the apostles circulated amongst the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating in collected forms by the end of the 1st century AD. Justin Martyr, in the early 2nd century, mentions the "memoirs of the Apostles," which Christians (Greek: Χριστιανός) called "gospels," and which were considered to be authoritatively equal to the Old Testament."

Mark had been written sometime after 70 CE.  It's thought he was writing to the Greek gentiles and was doing this from Rome.  That was a good 40  or more years after the death of Jesus.  "According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus' crucifixion was authorized by Roman authorities at the insistence of leading Jews (Judeans) from the Sanhedrin.  No Jew, no matter what year, would insist that mad Romans, who had already hung thousands of undeserving Jews of such a fate, would demand that another be hung.  The Romans didn't need prodding to do this.  They had heard that Jesus said he was king of the Jews and that was enough.  There could be no king of oppressed people who were being occupied by the Emperor of Rome.  That was a political eye-wink to get along with the Romans and win them over to convert to Christianity, which Emperor Constantine  finally did by 324.    " The story explains for this small sect of Jesus followers that survived the Roman-Jewish War and why God permitted the destruction of the Temple.  This had to have been written after 70 CE when the Temple was destroyed."  

Matthew was written about 10 years later in 80 CE to Jews and he was doing this from Syria. Anti-Jewish rhetoric increases.   First, a series of "woes" are pronounced against the Pharisees: "You testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets...You snakes, you brood of vipers!  How can you escape being sentenced to hell?  (Matthew 23: 31-33). He includes the demise of the Temple, so had to have known this had really happened in order to include it.  He wrote: ""His [Jesus's] blood be on us and on our children!" (Matthew 27:25). This so-called "blood guilt" text has been interpreted to mean that all Jews, of Jesus' time and forever afterward, accept responsibility for the death of Jesus."  This is why thousands of years later, people have still be accusing Jews of killing their god.  

Luke was the next to be written 10 years later than Matthew in 90 at least. ."Luke was a Greek native of the Hellenistic city of Antioch in Syria."  He was possibly a doctor and disciple of Paul, formerly called Saul.   He is not writing to anyone in particular but just giving history as he thought it had happened.  He wrote about Herod (73 BCE-4 BCE).  He wrote that Mary's expected son (she didn't even know she was pregnant) would reign over the house of Jacob-which would infer that he would be the king of the Jews and would be called the son of the highest forever and there would be no end to his kingdom.  " The earliest manuscript of the Gospel, dated circa AD 200, ascribes the work to Luke; as did Irenaeus, writing circa AD 180, and the Muratorian fragment from AD 170." It's thought that Luke wrote "Acts".  The book of Acts is a narrative about this “parting of the ways from Judaism.

John,  the hardest gospel on Jews, was written sometime between 90 and 100 and it seemed to be finished by 100.  He was in West Anatolia when he wrote this.  This then was written 70 years after the fact.  "The Gospel of John collectively describes the enemies of Jesus as "the Jews". In none of the other gospels do "the Jews" demand, en masse, the death of Jesus; instead, the plot to put him to death is always presented as coming from a small group of priests and rulers, the Sadducees.  John's gospel is thus the primary source of the image of "the Jews" acting collectively as the enemy of Jesus, which later became fixed in the Christian mind.".  He has dialogue in his story.  "I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father. They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did. ... You are of your father the devil."  

" It wasn't many decades until attacks on Jews and their synagogues became commonplace. The Jew was a second-class citizen, somewhat protected by law, but merely tolerated, something akin to the dhimmi status that is given to non-Moslems in Islamic countries."  "(Paul) commanded the Christians to "provoke the Jews to jealousy" with righteous living. Unfortunately, Christians kept only half the commandment; they provoked the Jews."

Many Protestants now believe, from reading the Gospels, that "The Children of Israel were God's original chosen people by virtue of an ancient covenant, but by rejecting Jesus they forfeited their chosenness - and now, by virtue of a New Covenant (or "testament"), Christians have replaced the Jews as God's chosen people, the Church having become the "People of God."

The  transformation of Christianity from a Jewish sect consisting of followers of a Jewish Jesus, to a separate religion is found to be often dependent on the tolerance of Rome while proselytizing among Gentiles loyal to the Roman empire, to understand how the story of Jesus came to be recast in an anti-Jewish form as the Gospels took their final form, for to make their point that Christianity was the only religion viable, they had to put down Judaism and drive it out.  It was more like today's political 2 party-system with Trump and Hillary running for the presidency with each telling vile things about the other, only Judaism didn't say a thing about Christianity except to teach their people that they were to beware of false messiahs as Moses had warned them.  

I have traced the origin of anti-Semitism to the Gospels.  I write this because anti-Semitism is found in these early writings of which most Christians have read.  Anti-Semitism still exists today, showing up physically against Jews and politically even in the UN which is supposed to be such a fair body of decision-makers.  People have this attitude towards Jews and they have no idea where it comes from, or don't they?  Could they just be in denial, not wanting to face the fact that their very own beloved Bible is teaching them to dislike Jews?                        

Pope Benedict XVI 

The Catholics were the first Christian group to practice anti-Semitism and the first to try to change.  "The Catholic Church issued its most authoritative teaching on the issue in its 1965 Second Vatican Council document "Nostra Aetate," which revolutionized the church's relations with Jews by saying  Christ's death could not be attributed to Jews as a whole at the time or today."   Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965 wrote this.  It was "Pope Benedict XVI" who has pardoned Jews already in 2011, but it's hard to see what imprint he has made on people's attitudes.  He had made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ, tackling one of the most controversial issues in Christianity in a new book, "Jesus of Nazareth-Part II."  

""Holocaust survivors know only too well how the centuries-long charge of 'Christ killer' against the Jews created a poisonous climate of hate that was the foundation of anti-Semitic persecution whose ultimate expression was realized in the Holocaust," said Elan Steinberg of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants."  This climate of hate and distrust had survived the centuries right to the time of the establishing of Massachusetts in the facts of the governor, Peter Styvasant, turning away 23 Jewish boat refugees from his shore as undesirables in 1640.  Anti-Semitism has lasted in one form or another, even in the USA.  

We're down to only 14 million Jews today.  That's 0.02% of the world population.  We're almost an extinct people that have existed since the 2nd millennium BCE from Abraham.  That's over 4,000 years of knowing our history in detail.  Christian Crusaders swarmed down on Jews and killed them outright for being Jews.  The Spanish Inquisition burned Jews at the stake, tortured Jews on their torture machines, and the Holocaust burned 6 million of Jews.  In 1942, a Catholic priest told a rabbi with his congregation in Germany, "`It is not just a matter of deportation. You will not die there of hunger and disease. They will slaughter all of you there, old and young alike, women and children, at once--it is the punishment that you deserve for the death of our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ."  
                                                          

At the Western Wall at night

And here we are with Israel as predicted.  Surely it's about time to join the Catholic Pope in pardoning today's Jews for something the Roman army did over 2,000 years ago when Jews were under THEIR occupation.  It's time to cut out the anti-Semitism by judging all Jews the same.  How about sampling our Golden Rule-a little different from how you have heard it from Jesus.  Hillel, a rabbi and president of the Sanhedrin of the 1st century BCE:  said it first as "Don't do to others what you don't want done to yourself."  Actually, my source found that it was Confucius who said it first in the 5th century BCE as "What thou dost not like when done to thyself, do not unto others ." 

An interesting note is that Constantine did not change in temperament or really "get" religion.  "Constantine, only one year after convening the Council of Nicea, had his own son (Crispus) put to death. Later he suffocated Fausta (his wife) in an overheated bath. Then he had his sister's son flogged to death and her husband strangled. (1) It was also during the reign of Constantine that the cross became a sacred symbol in Christianity, just as it had been in pagan religions.(2) Throughout his reign, Constantine treated the bishops as political aides. He agreed to enforce whatever opinion the majority of the bishops formulated."  Truly,  life is so political.  
                                                                       

Me in my very new Safed apartment on David Elezar, 1980 waiting for my lift,
 when Israel was 32 years old
Now it's had its 67th birhday.  .

After years of slavery at the hands of Titus; after years being locked into the ghetto without sunlight or air; after being hunted by Himmler, rounded up by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz; after graffiti on some of Rome’s walls that is still virulently anti-Semitic; it is enough to sit here as a Jew, and to feel proud and grateful of my heritage..  To be a witness to history and to know that Israel is 67 years old, is to know that our promises are being kept.  

Add on: 12/30/15  New Testament is written in koine Greek by 100 CE.  Some parts may have been in Aramaic first.   By 400 CE was the stabilization of Canon of 27 books;  Jerome translated it into Latin Vulgate and by 1382 was the first complete Bible into English by John Wycliffe.  The King James version was completed by scholars appointed by King James in 1611- 44 years before Jews were allowed to enter England in 1655.  

Resource:  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/timeline 10.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Milvian_Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon
http://www.unrv.com/culture/major-roman-god-list.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_and_the_New_Testament
http://www.biblicalfoundations.org/when-was-jesus-born-and-when-did-he-die/comment-page-1/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/02/pope-jews-jesus-death_n_830140.html
http://www.churchhistory101.com/council-nicea-325.php
http://messianicfellowship.50webs.com/nicea.html
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Luke
http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/luke357926.shtml
http://www.jewishmag.com/174mag/jewish_rome/jewish_rome.htm
http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-gods/roman-gods-family-tree.htm
New Testament-King James Version
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html
added: 1/1/16  http://cjcuc.com/site/2015/12/03/orthodox-rabbinic-statement-on-christianity/
added 1/3/16  https://www.rt.com/news/327794-vatican-recognition-treaty-palestine/

SAL Book: Structural Change vs. Individual Change

A thousand years from now, when historians and philosophers speak of the early twenty-first century in America, it is possible that the primary discussion will not will be about the brutal ideological battles that took place between liberals, conservatives, and moderates; nor will they be heralding the epic political struggles between democrats, republicans, and libertarians.


No. The real struggle of our age is not ultimately a political or ideological struggle; it is rather a tale of misplaced priorities—all of which are undergirded by the dreadfully mistaken notion that there really isn’t any real right or wrong outside of the mercurially unsteady inclinations of the individual.

While there are THREE basic kinds of people in our nation today, it is erroneous to merely categorize the three groups under simple monikers wrought from ponds of political parlance or the inclinations of ideological idiom. Rather, the three categories can be labeled thus:

1. Those who believe real, lasting societal change begins with purifying the minds and hearts of individuals.
2. Those who believe real, lasting societal change begins with purifying structures, systems, and organizations.
3. Those who are fundamentally selfish and therefore don’t care about anything that doesn’t directly impact themselves.

Those in the first group believe that a structure, system, or organization is nothing more than a synergized conglomeration of the individuals that make it up. Therefore, if you purify bad individuals (or purge them from the group) the group itself can begin to heal by virtue of good leadership, morally or otherwise.  The goal of this group is to change individuals, who are then empowered to bring about real and lasting changes in structures, systems, and organizations.  Their view is that if you change the individual, you empower change within the structures.

Those in the second group believe that the structure, system, or organization itself is where the real problem lies, and that if you could only get the larger entity right, then individual purification would naturally follow.  The goal of group two is to perfect systems, which, they believe, will then open up opportunities for individuals to purify themselves.  Their view is that if you change the systems, you empower the individual to change.  

Those residing in the third group don’t really believe in anything except that they themselves are more important than others, and that their desires and inclinations ought to be satiated at any cost. The good news is that in civilized societies, such parasites are usually in the minority. The bad news is that they are always a menacing nuisance to larger groups of which they are part. They produce untold sorrow in the hearts and minds of virtually everyone whose paths they cross. The worse news is that their numbers have been gradually multiplying throughout America since the end of World War II—when America reached its apex of selflessness at the conclusion of an epic war where Americans quite literally rescued the rest of the world from the throes of evil.

There are good people to be found in groups one and two, but only group one possesses the correct mindset for bringing about real, lasting change.  This is because structures, systems, and organizations are made up of individuals, not the other way around.  Macro systemic change without is therefore an outgrowth of micro individual changes within.  You cannot create real or lasting change within a macro system without first reforming its micro constituents--it's impossible; anyone who says otherwise is simply parroting the ideological, and I might add--quite popular--but ultimately erroneous rhetoric of group two.  This rhetoric is popular because it is easier.  Yes, it is much easier to look for and try to solve problems that are "out there" than it is to look for problems inside your own self, family, community, group, culture, etc.  

Despite the self-evident truism that individual change must precede lasting structural change, group two has grown to become both multitudinous and powerful throughout the United States in recent generations. In defense of group two, it is true that many of their leaders and acolytes are decent people who make legitimate points about changes that do indeed need to be made in structures, systems and organizations--most of which are rooted in regrettable past grievances.

The fundamental problem of our age, however, is that such a large sector of society really does believe the untenable myth that structural change prefaces individual change, which, in actuality, is a mathematical and scientific impossibility. You cannot change a structure or system without changing the individuals who make them up; nor can you cleanse a toxic environment without removing the poison that polluted it in the first place.  A box of apples that has begun to rot is not fixed by replacing the box; it is remedied by extricating the bad apples and replacing them with good ones.  It also involves washing off the residue of rot that has begun to rub off onto what good ones remain.

Over two thousand years ago, a man who claimed to be divine, and who dedicated His life to personal sanctification and purification—and then to teaching others to follow His example—both warned of and condemned those whom he called out as, “whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” [1]

I am no divine teacher. I am, however, a teacher. I therefore raise my voice in warning about the dangers of putting the proverbial "cart before the horse" by attempting to sanctify structures without first focusing on purifying—and when necessary purging an organization of—those individuals that form the base ingredient of all false, foul, and fiendish structures presently polluting our nation’s organizational systems, both public and private.

Iwo Jima monument

If America is to regain the national unity, honor, and influence it once held after leading the liberation of an entire Planet from a devil incarnate 70 years ago, the time has come to stop spending so much time complaining and crying about the filth of the outer vessel and begin directing our attention inwardly toward the errors engrossed in our own minds, hearts, attitudes, and behaviors.  It is the only pathway that will return us to greatness.

I do not disagree with nor disparage the good intentions of those seeking to change structures and systems when real problems persist therein.  Many structures and systems are flawed, and need to be revisited, revitalized, and reformed. I simply make an earnest appeal to common sense and natural law, which has, does, and always will demand individual change as the prefacing price of real and lasting organizational purification and change.  After all, won't we as change agents be able to better see what actually needs to change systemically once we are more structurally sound ourselves?  I would argue YES!

Let us therefore stop blaming structures, others, and the past for our problems—both individually and collectively. Let us begin instead to seize upon the power of the present and look deeply within ourselves to see where inner purification is needed. Again, in the words of the master teacher, who upbraided the "whited sepulchres" (who sought to stone the adulteress) with the most poignant of all possible rebukes: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”[2]

Personal Change is often both difficult & painful

The process of personal purification can prove ponderously and perplexingly painful and problematic—and that is why we are all apt to avoid it so vociferously. It is so much easier to find something wrong with someone or something else than it is to humbly confess, "Yep, I'm part of the problem too."  An even more difficult admission is: "It's my responsibility to change." There are many highly intelligent people throughout our nation who have dedicated decorated careers to pointing out, calling out, and openly condemning the sins of others while completely ignoring their own.

Just the other evening I saw a famed professor from an even more famous University make this very mistake while speaking with the host of a well-known op-ed news program. The host was arguing for changing individuals and families while the professor countered with, “No, structures must be changed first.” With all due respect to the very smart professor; he is dead wrong, and the cultural malaise he seeks to remedy will only get worse until intelligent professors and leaders all over the nation STOP putting the cart before the horse and START teaching their folds that real change always, Always, ALWAYS begins within—not without.
 

I love my country. I am concerned about her present and future. After nearly three decades of careful research, observation, and experience, I have come to know both intellectually and viscerally that the best way to make America great again is to change myself—and then teach and influence others to do the same. We will never change systems and structures—must less societies and cultures—until we first change ourselves and shepherd our various flocks to do the same. 

Jordan R. Jensen, Ed.D.

I have dedicated my life and career to changing myself—and then teaching others to do likewise. If you’d like more information on how you can start this journey of self-change -- and of influencing those you lead to follow your example -- and thereby begin the difficult, but oh-so-rewarding process of bringing about real self-change that can, in-turn, improve your family, community, state, nation, and world by a factor of the only being you can actually control—YOURSELF—I invite you to subscribe to this blog and visit our website at...  www.freedomfocused.com 

Click HERE to read about Dr. Jordan Jensen's scholarly work, as well as his OWN painful journey toward self-purification and individual change, click HERE.    

[1] Matthew 23:27 (New Testament)
[2] John 8:7 (New Testament)

An Era-Shifting Speech in Education (IV)

PART 5: The Goal of Freedom Focused

At Freedom Focused, we have two overarching goals. First, EDUCATION in true principles; and Second, proactive APPLICATION of that Education.

You and I & everyone are who we are and have what we have today in large part because of our education in true principles—or lack thereof.

Good Education—and its application—is the quintessential solution to all of our preventable problems in the United States and Beyond. It is education in, and application of, true principles that leads to peace, prosperity, personal success, and professional advancement.

The Vision of Freedom Focused & the Mission of the Self-Action Leadership theory & model is to proliferate education in true principles to everyone everywhere in an effort to restore American unity and greatness in preparation to lead the rest of the world to likewise achieve their limitless potential.

PART 6: Fire, Ice, & Unity

I would like to share with you one of my favorite poems…

Fire & Ice 

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

When you consider that the legendary poet penned these immortal words but a few years after the close of World War I—not to mention the deadliest flu pandemic the world had ever known—is it any wonder that he—and others of his generation—were pondering on the sobering subject presented in this poem?

Today we stand nearly a century separated from the national and global calamities faced by Frost and his contemporaries, which conspired then to create a dour sense of dismay and even dread for the future—and understandably so. If only the War to End all Wars had lived up to its name.

If only! 

Isn’t it amazing how the more things change, the more things stay the same?! While we may not fear German artillery shells or Turkish machine-gun fire, is a terrorist intent on destroying your home and family, any less frightening?

If we, as a nation, seek to defend ourselves and protect our futures from those who, if given the slightest opportunity, would annihilate us with pleasure, the time has come for us to “stop fighting amongst ourselves” and unite in a collective embrace of the true principles and virtues that have liberated, protected, and made us a Great Nation for nearly 230 years. Moreover, we must “face that the price for it may be dear.” [1]

UNITY – unity is the only ultimate protection against those who seek our destruction, either from without or within. Yet in recent years and decades it seems as though UNITY is the most elusive virtue of all in this, the so-called UNITED States of America. Indeed, not since the Civil War has our nation been so deeply divided along ideological, partisan lines as it is today.

In 2009, our Nation voted in a new Commander-in-Chief who was elected on the stirring rhetoric of unity, and I quote:

“There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America. … We are one people, all pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.” [2]

I cherish these words of Mr. Obama because I share this vision of unity. With all my heart, I want to believe such unity is yet possible despite the deep divisions that currently beset our desperately fractured country.

It is in this elusive spirit of UNITY that I make this address today.

I believe it is possible to regain the kind of national unity our country enjoyed throughout the World War II period, wherein our ancestors banded together on the right side of history’s most epic struggle between good and evil.

If such a slippery status of unity is possible, what must unify us? There is only one thing, and as Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama have painfully learned the past fourteen years, that one thing is not rhetoric nor partisan politicking.

The only thing that can possibly unite us once again in this great land of promise is a collective embrace of true principles – not partisan principles – but the simple truisms of self-reliance & self-government upon which our nation was founded.

I appeal to ALL Americans to put an end to the petty bickering, self-interested chicanery, and ideological extremism from all sides that got us into this mess in the first place.

I call upon every citizen throughout this not-so-united States of America to once again reclaim our nation’s cherished birthright and nomenclature: The United States of America.

Let us all take time to sincerely evaluate the role we must individually play to reinvigorate the collective unity and greatness of which the USA is yet capable.

PART 7: The Root of the Problem

As we all well know, Washington D.C. is a mess, and has been for many years. However, contrary to popular belief, the root of our nation’s troubles do not originate in our Nation’s Capitol, or in any other house of government; they lie in our own houses, and more specifically, in our own minds and hearts. While our political system is presently polluted in many ways, such issues are NOT the roots of our greatest troubles; they are the branches and leaves.

In the words of Thoreau, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is hacking at the root.” [3]

Freedom Focused was founded, and the Self-Action Leadership theory & model were expressly established to hack at the roots of evil.

Our biggest problems do not originate with our elected officials; they begin with the voters who elect them—and those who fail to show up to the polls in the first place. “I’m sorry to say so, but sadly, it’s true,” [4] the root of our problems lie with ME—and with YOU. 

The opening lines of the Constitution do not read, I the President. They read, We the People. And if We the People are ever to form the more perfect union envisioned by our founders, it is time to stop pointing fingers at everyone and everything except where the essence of the blame most often lies—within ourselves.

If we want different leaders, we must make our voice heard at the ballot box; but it goes much, much deeper than that. You see, the brilliance of our American political system is that the people themselves are allowed to choose their leaders. And what kind of leaders do We the People—speaking collectively and not individually—ultimately elect? The answer is: those who most closely mirror ourselves and our own belief systems, ideologies, and moral compasses. In other words, we really elect ourselves to office.

Therefore, if you like who is in office, it is probably mainly because those in office are pretty much like you are, and if you don’t like who is in office, the most productive possible response is not to go and whine about it on social media, but to go to the mirror and take a closer look at who you really are, and what you are actually going to do about it.

You see it is so much easier to point the finger of blame at those in official positions of power—and make no mistake—the power they wield is formidable, and elected leaders often make decisions rooted in arrogance, ignorance, and selfishness.

Nevertheless, until we stop blaming others and start changing the only thing we are capable of changing in the entire world—namely, our own thoughts, speech, actions, and attitudes—we will never make the kind of progress of which we are capable, and as the years go by we will find ourselves in even greater danger than we presently face.

It would be easy for me to stand here and bash President Obama, or President Bush, or President Clinton, or others in elected office. Pundits, politicians, and pop cultural icons have been incessantly pointing the finger of blame for years now, and where has it gotten us? We are more divided than ever, and our problems have only worsened amidst all the hullaballooing.

Because politicians are the branches and leaves—not the roots—of the problems we face, the only way to change our nation—and our political landscape—is to change ourselves.

Changing oneself does not begin in a beneficial business venture, a charitable undertaking, or a political election. It begins inside your own mind, heart, and spirit. It begins with an education in truth and an evaluation of your own motives through the honest consultation of conscience.

Then—and only then—can your positive influence begin to impact family members, friends, and your neighborhood, school, organization, community, city, county, state, nation, and world. It all starts with the ONE—with you and with me. In the words of President Theodore Roosevelt,

“[A person’s] foremost duty is owed to himself and his family … it is only after this has been done that he can help … the general well-being. He must pull his own weight first, and only after this can his surplus strength be of use to the general public. … The quality of the individual citizen is [therefore] supreme. … Character must show itself in [a person’s] performance both of the duty he owes himself and of the duty he owes the state.” [5]

Self-Action Leadership is laser focused on empowering individuals to fulfill the duty they owe to themselves first, and then to their families, neighborhoods, schools, places of work, communities, cities, counties, states, nations, and the world-at-large—and in that specific order.

A woman or man whose own life and home are not in order has no business telling other organizations, much-less nations and states how they ought to be conducting theirs. It is high time that we as Americans—and citizens of the world everywhere—turn our attention within.

I wish to make clear that I am not a politician, nor do I have any ambition or intention of ever becoming one. The color scheme of my apparel and the pin of my nation’s flag I bear proudly this day are merely tokens of the deep patriotism and love I feel for my Country—the Greatest Nation in the history of the world—even the United States of America.

Because I am not a politician, and since I make a habit of not speaking professionally on topics of which I am not an expert, I am not here to present political solutions to our nation’s current political and cultural malaise; I will leave that to professional politicians, and I believe there are some among the rising generation who will be up to the task.

If I am not an aspiring politician, then what am I? I am an educator. I am also a philosopher, poet, amateur historian, husband, father, and self-action leader. It is, therefore, into the microphone of education, philosophy, poetry, history, family, and Self-Action Leadership that I speak today.

It is through these lenses that I have produced the Self-Action Leadership theory & model over a period of a decade of diligent study and action research, ambitious—and often painful—experience, and careful (even obsessive) consultations with my own conscience. It is through these lenses that I invite you to peer through in order to better understand the only, real solution to the problems we face in the USA and throughout the World.

The message I share today is a message of REAL hope and AUTHENTIC change—not a pseudo change that originates in Washington or London or Brussels or Baghdad (real change never begins in cities or organizations) and not a false hope promised by charismatic ideologues supported by special interest groups—but a real hope & an authentic change that must be cultivated in the minds and hearts of individual men and women, boys and girls, throughout this blessed land of Promise if the USA is to remain THE GREATEST NATION ON EARTH.

The deepest problems we face today originated in homes, classrooms, and individuals minds long before they began polluting organizations, houses of government, and the culture-at-large. Ironically, these problems were exacerbated not long after the United States led the world in the most climactic triumph over tyranny and evil the Planet had ever seen; namely, the Allied victory over the Axis powers of fascist Germany and Italy, and Imperial Japan in World War II. As the old adage says: “Nothing fails like success.” 

The decades following World War II were eventually given a name: Postmodernism. This cultural phenomenon was not all bad, especially in regards to its achievements in urban planning and architecture, which can be admired the world over. More imporantly, the era of postmodernism was marked by periods of unprecedented technological advancement and much needed social changes—especially with regards to civil rights. Nevertheless, the deep and indelible mark it left on the philosophical and cultural pulse of our Nation and World has been, in a word, disastrous.

Postmodern philosophy originates in the literature of the scholarly intelligentsia. Its doctrine essentially posits that there is no absolute truth, and that all so-called “truth” is, on one level or another, merely a construct of language and therefore relative to its constructor.

Ironically, postmodern philosophy flourished best in the very institutions that had traditionally been dedicated to truth’s acquisition and identification—colleges & universities. Thus it is that we see the Latin inscription, “Veritas” hypocritically emblazoned on the collegiate crests of prestigious campuses throughout the nation and world.

The philosophy of postmodernism is understandably popular with many; after all, it is much more convenient to construct one’s own truth & conscience than it is to humbly acknowledge and then dutifully attend to the edicts of an actual truth & conscience that exists outside of the whims or wishes of the natural man.

It is certainly more comfortable in the moment to claim that “anything goes” or “if it feels right, do it,” than it is to say: “I have a social and existential responsibility to do what is right—not only for my own sake, but for the sake of all those impacted by my speech and actions.”

Instead of bowing before Universal Law in the attitude of Socrates or Kant, or bowing before a Deity in the attitude of Jesus and many of our Founding Fathers, postmodernists often seek to become a law unto themselves whereby they mistakenly assume powers that are not theirs to command.

A public address of this nature is no place to academically flesh out the many nuances of postmodernism. Suffice it to say, postmodern philosophy is complicit in exacerbating virtually all of our deepest—yet preventable—problems. It is the seminal author of our Nation’s present slump, and if left to flourish indefinitely, will be the finisher of American Exceptionalism and the end of whatever vestige of world peace we enjoy today.

What is the solution to Postmodernism? There is but one answer, and it is nothing short of the advent of an entirely new age: The AGE of AUTHENTICISM.

My next post will explicate this new AGE of AUTHENTICISM. Tune in later tonight or early tomorrow morning...

[1] Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. (1991). Directed by Kevin Reynolds.  Written by Pen Densham & John Watson. 

[2] From Senator Barack Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, MA on July 27, 2004. 

[3] From Walden: or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau, Chapter 1, Economy, sixth paragraph from the end.

[4] Seuss, D. (Geisel, T.) (1990). Oh, the Places You’ll Go!  New York, NY: Random House. No Page Number. 

[5] From Roosevelt’s speech, Citizens in a Republic, delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910.