Volume 5, Issue 24
Dorothy is granted an interview with the Wizard because the Wicked Witch, feared by all, identified Dorothy as her enemy. The Wizard, who is of course not what he purports to be, is afraid not to grant an audience. You know the story. He sends her on a wild goose chase to get the witch’s broomstick, a dangerous and perilous mission, caring little, with no consideration for her safety or the fact that if she’s successful, it is not an answer to her problem. The mission is meaningless.
The status quo is more important to the Wizard than the safety of Dorothy’s life or the fulfillment of her dreams.
The Wizard of Oz is of course a fantasy. We must be careful not to make too much of the plot as metaphorical of government today. But what makes such productions classics that stand the test of time is that they contain certain elements of truth and comparisons of eternal principles that are in play or conflict. The Wicked Witch of the West represented fear for fear itself. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, counseled Dorothy on her inner strength. The other characters represented virtues of sound character. Much has been written about this, but one point of interest is that it was Toto, the uninhibited dog, that knew no better than to act on instinct and pull back the drapery, exposing the reality of the myths behind the curtain of protocol.
Who is the Wizard of Oz today?
It is anyone, and everyone, who seeks to maintain the status quo. They do so, even to the extent of caring little for the safety or success of purpose of individual dreams. It is the Establishment in Washington, DC. It is the heads of state of many countries who believe in total government control. It is institutions that advocate government standards dictated at the cost of individual freedom. Let’s call them what they are: the privileged power reflective of the king. In history, they were the royal court. They are not a conspiracy. They act individually and collectively to maintain their power structure.
What then is the criteria to define the members of the royal court today?
They who benefit, pursue and protect the status quo of which they are in charge. They who advance business-as-usual without any answer, leadership or vision as to how said status quo will solve the world’s problems. They who set nation states on missions that are perilous and doomed programs exposed as failures by representations of history. They who desire to justify their own values, intellect and purposes by controlling populations through treaties and laws that do not allow for individuals acting freely collectively to pursue their own God-given purposes.
Donald Trump today is being attacked vociferously by the Establishment, the intellectual elites, and the national press for not towing the line on protocol. One may disagree with his approach, attitude, and recriminations, but the question on every American’s mind should be -- who is behind the curtain pulling the levers? And who wants to maintain the status quo?
And is business-as-usual the answer to solving all the problems facing our country today? If the answer to this questions is no, then change is required. For change to occur, an unraveling of the current power structure must precede restructuring. This change then threatens the royal court.
The election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States is an answer in and of itself as to whether the American people want a change from the status quo. Each American citizen must decide for themselves – do I support the status quo, and therefore respond as Dorothy did in accepting the proposition that the Wizard is all-powerful? Or do I demand change because I believe that the status quo, played out to its logical conclusion, will ultimately lead to failure? At any extent, all criticism of President Trump should be based on an individual world view of whether one seeks change, and if so, is he being successful. In other words, one may not like his personal affinities, but is he in fact changing things? President Trump is for sure challenging the protocol that the Establishment holds to so dearly. He is pulling back the curtain.
There are several myths that the status quo perpetuates for the purpose of maintaining a protocol of deceit. The royal court either denies them or refuses to address them. But by refusing to ventilate them, they are going through the same machinations that the Wizard of Oz did to project himself as all-powerful.
In honor of David Letterman, I list these as the top ten myths perpetuated by the status quo.
10. A sovereign nation state can print and borrow money forever. Debt is inconsequential.
If this were true, kings in the Middle Ages who controlled all land, rents, resources, could print money, whose word was law, and could subject people to serfdom, couldn’t print or borrow their way out of trouble then, governments can’t do it today.
9. There are no consequences to individual freedoms under socialism.
For a government to control all assets of a federal economy, a citizen must subordinate themselves to the total dictates of the state. Friedrich Hayek called this the Road to Serfdom. The reason free enterprise outperforms socialism economically is because the free will to make economic choices expands economic activity in that it allows individuals to pursue the highest return on their skill set. The state can never properly identify individual choices. Milton Friedman called this Free to Choose. In 6,000 years of recorded history, socialism has never worked.
8. Communism can work economically.
When a communist state dictates a five-year plan, and prints the money in advance to pay for it, the currency is debased. There was no natural demand for the project or plan. Ask China today why they have empty pre-built cities and a currency (the yuan) near collapse.
7. The Supreme Court is the supreme law of the land.
It is not. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The President provides leadership and Congress writes and passes laws within the authority and guidelines of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the supreme arbiter. It decides whether acts by the President and laws passed by Congress are constitutional. Through checks and balances, the three branches of government are equal.
6. States must yield to the federal government on all issues.
States have generally reserved rights under the Constitution. The federal government’s rights are enumerated and specific.
5. Colleges and universities may pick and choose what First Amendment rights they will respect.
In the past, the federal government has threatened to withhold funds from universities that didn’t provide Title IX funding requirements for women’s sports. Freedom of speech is being summarily abridged and antisemitism is on the rise on campuses. Yet the federal government is silent on its duty to protect due process. Universities have no immunity from respecting First Amendment rights.
4. The Middle East will work itself out.
Since Muhammad’s death in 632, there has been ongoing religious and tribal conflict. The Middle East is an area of the world that has great difficulty in conforming to the prescriptions of 21st century statehood. Part and parcel to a solution is the recognition that Israel has a right to exist. Any peace will require visionary leadership from the United States and its commitment to enforce any accords, both economically and legally.
3. Europe and the United Nations are better equipped to lead the world order than the United States.
In 1776, the United States stood against all known countries of the world at the time by declaring independence from the authority of hereditary rights. As a nation, we have defended the principles with the blood of patriots, that birth is not destiny, and individual freedom is paramount over all government priorities. The United States stands today as the world's last great hope for the protection of freedom.
2. America was not founded by those seeking religious freedom.
The Pilgrims did not risk their lives to come to the shores of a land that provided more government services than England. No government existed here. They established, by and through the Mayflower Compact, a government agreement on the basis of religious and individual freedom.
And the number one myth that the status quo perpetuates is:
1. You must curb and restrict some individual freedoms for other individual freedoms to be advanced.
Whether the issue is gay rights, religious freedom, or the federal government’s demand of universal standards over the states, freedom is all-encompassing. All individual freedoms and inalienable rights can co-exist and be protected without the government picking and choosing the prioritization of freedoms.
Political correctness unchecked, debate restricted to a certain framework, pursuing answers to certain questions but not others, projecting that things are OK when they are not, accepting the appearance of things as virtuous when they are not, and refusing to defend a fellow citizen’s right to freedom, are examples of the royal court’s curtain of protocol protecting the myths of those in power.
Seek unifying principles, and start by seeking them within yourself. For in your instincts exists the God-given code to eternal truth.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?