I’ve spent nearly fifty years on God’s Earth, and in this time I have been a Painter, Writer, Teacher, Engineer, Student, Business Owner, and Gentleman Farmer, not to mention husband (badly) and Father (My kids love me, and are self sufficient, so let them judge.)  I’ve earned degrees, enough to know that once you know how to jump through University hoops, they aren’t impressive.  In that time I have met in my life men and women from all walks of life, from the dregs of humanity to truly noble individuals.

I have developed a preference for associating with what I call “Salt of the Earth” types.  These are people who are stubbornly independent and self-sufficient, who work hard and play hard, and who possess a degree of common sense which is rather uncommon. I have found that most the time such people tend to live apart from most others, and have an attitude for most of “Leave me be.  Do what you want, but don’t drag me into it.”  They may join you on their own, but if you try to include them in on what you are doing without a proper “By Your Leave” they will cross their arms, dig in their heels and refuse.  They are principled people; ones who don’t have an elaborate code of conduct but base their dealings on immutable principles and truths that they have seen bear out as ways to live and deal with others.

One of the facts I have learned about the Bell Curve of humanity is that Joe or Jane Q. Average is just barely qualified to run their own life, and just barely succeeds in doing so.  This is not a condemnation of them, but a simple statement of fact.  They do not risk excessively, and so do not succeed or fail in any significant manner, barring acts of outrageous fortune.  By and large the task of running their own life consumes their time and energy.  Between working for a living, and dealing with bills and family issues, they have little left over to engage in the political process.  Come the weekend, they would prefer, after doing what must need be done in the house or yard, to spend the day relaxing with family and re-energizing themselves.  This is not an unworthy way to spend one’s life, as such people are the backbone of a society - without them, it fails.  Trash does not get picked up, goods are not sold, and the trains do not run at all, let alone on time.

In a medieval setting, these people would be the commoners.  While not necessarily herd animals, they lack vision - left alone peacefully, chances are their lives would change little, but over a span of decades or even centuries it would also not change.  This is because while they manage ther own lives well, they lack vision.  They are social creatures, and would wither in isolation, as they tend to be specialists in but a few things.  They are more akin to a hive than a herd, and while not needing to be led, they are easily led by a dynamic enough individual who has such vision.  Their judgements, in the broad  picture, are sound enough given sufficient information, but let such a person with vision be an unscrupulous one who controls what they see, they can be swayed to unwisdom as they have no time to dig, or to ferret out the truth.  Indeed, such truth may make them uncomfortable when it is stark and harsh.

When all is said and done, such people are sheeple.  This is largely circumstance which makes them so, and in their case not a moral failing.

Below them are people who are sheeple and have a defect of morals or character which makes them so.  These people need to be led.  They are peasants, and serfs. They do not desire leaders as much as rulers.  They run the gamut of the “peace at any price” herd, to welfare recipients, but may also, perversely, be very accomplished.  The defining characteristic of them is their overwhelming desire for security.  They do not value liberty so much as their own miserable lives of quiet desperation, and are precisely the ones whom we were warned about with the saying “Those who value a little temporary security over their liberty deserve neither.”  They are alarmed by risk and risk takers.  They do not like their cheese to be moved.  They have made their mind up on a few ideals, and no amount of facts will sway them from this.  Without a leader, they would huddle fearfully in caves and die of starvation, fearing to venture forth and seek wood for the fire without someone telling them that they need to do it.  This is their defect of morals, they are not necessarily malicious in and of themselves, but if told by a leader to perform great evil, they are the ones who will claim “I was only following orders.”  They are the ones that will turn their neighbor in for being a Jew, because that is the law.  They are slavish devotees to authority, and their deference to power makes them poster children for the term “Useful Idiots.”  In many ways they are worse than slaves, because though they have moral qualms, and will wring their hands and wail and gnash their teeth at being commanded to do great evil, they will do it anyway, only developing any backbone when, after coming for the trade unionists and all, they themselves are then hunted.  They do, however, possess some sense of self interest and self preservation, but have to be backed into a corner before they will exercise it, but even then, almost never in the face of overwhelming force or authority until there is no choice, always hoping for “someone” to do “something” up to the last minute.

In the upper echelon we have the nobles, which I number myself among.  These people tend to thrive in what setting they are placed in, and do not rely on structure, but shape their environment to their own ends.  They will lead if need be; some actually crave power and control as a tool for shaping their environment.  Others have no desire for control over other people, being self-sufficient unto themselves.  While possessed of vision, unless circumstance places them in a position of wide reaching power (Depending on “having greatness thrust upon them”), they tend not to seek out such power beyond a sphere of personal control.  While capable of leading, they are also capable of following, and it serves their self interest, enlightened or no. Their tendency to follow is always contingent, and their loyalty to leaders conditional, on that self-interest being advanced, and can be treacherous and traitorous in the extreme if they feel betrayed by one whom they placed their trust in.

At the bottom of the ladder are the willing slaves, who not only need to be led, who not only eagerly follow a strong leader, but whom actually seek them out, and are lost in life to the point of despair without some cause in which to dedicate themselves to.  In the proper circumstances such people can often appear heroic, and can be lauded if the cause is morally commendable - and many martyrs or saints can be placed in this category.  If the cause or leader they follow is a despicable one, they can be counted on to unthinkingly and unwaveringly do the filthiest and most vile of deeds with an obsequious devotion which can be astounding in its depravity and cruelty.  These people are rare, thankfully, as their most defining characteristic is an utter lack of personal initiative and even need to survive.  They are the ones who can easily become fanatics, blowing themselves up on buses full of children.

At the top end are kings - and tyrants.  These people not only have the vision and will to lead, but the drive and even need to do so; though mercifully some lack the personal charisma to make this leadership wide or far reaching.  They are true alphas, and make poor followers, always being a gadfly and cutting down whoever is in charge due to their resentment at not being the one in the center stage. Do note that this characteristic does not always come paired with the talent to be respected or the personal power to enforce their will, but merely the desire - craving - to be at the top of the heap.  Often they are petty bullies, and often they are swatted down but will forever get back up and plot, and scheme to put themselves at the head of the pack unless they are squashed for good.  They are congenitally incapable of taking a back seat to anyone, always having a better way, and always seeking any opening to be paramount.  “Seldom (they) smile, and smile in such a sort as if they mocked and scorned their spirit that could be moved to smile at any thing. Such men as they be never at heart’s ease whiles they behold a greater than themselves.” They are untrustworthy as underlings, for truly was it said that “There is no place but the grave for the man who once was King.”

Being a member of any of these categories, please note, is not a predictor of personal success.  It is not a predictor of morals or ethics or principle, except that those in the lower categories are unable to form principles through their own self-reflection and meditation, but adopt whatever is thrust upon them.  The nobles and kings are the ones who do shape society, and who do influence the dominant morality of a generation or a nation.  A “king” or “noble” type may be as benevlent as they come, guided by deep rooted principles and convictions.  Or they may be depraved in the extreme, ad totally unethical.  As noted, the willing slave may be a saint - or a monster - in the name of their cause.  The former, though, are always captaining the ship - or being first mate - while the latter are always pulling an oar.

You can see, through this rambling, the crux of the matter.  About a quarter to a third of humanity craves to be led.  A little more than half of it is easily led.  And it is the rest who do the leading, some eagerly and some by necessity.

This is why the country is fucked, because of how things tend to go no matter how well or well-intentioned a thing is started if it is not carefully maintained.

Our founding fathers had it right at the beginning in that they extended the voting franchise only to property owners, and balkanized the power structure.  This was to insure - or to attempt to insure -  that only those not easily led, the leaders, the ones with the real stake in society, would have a voice; and that those with who by circumstance or fortune who were naturally commoners or lower who escaped their natural class would be few.

An imperfect system made by imperfect people.

While I believe that monarchy is the natural political system of mankind, it has a glaring weakness, namely, that one may be the child of kings and be a natural slave; since a monarchy is hereditary and not a meritocracy you wind up with weak kings wearers of crowns, and corruption.  A “king” type wants the power - not necessarily the crown.  As the real power behind the throne, they can be content with the notion that someone else wears the bull’s-eye shirt.  They often arrange things like that.

The problem with our system is that you need to allow people who are born into the lower classes, but who are naturally nobles and kings to climb upwards - social mobility, a thing lacking in a hereditary monarchy.  Trouble is, when the voting franchise was extended to blacks, the racists of the time extended the franchise beyond property owners to include heretofore disenfranchised white commoners in order to dilute that vote.  When Senators were changed to being elected by people, rather than appointed by the States to look after State’s interests and rights, the Senate became just another “House of Representatives At Large.”  This put no brakes on the sheeple, who then - as inevitably happens - learned they could vote themselves largesse from the public till, and unethical and unscrupulous kings and nobles manipulated that tendency for their own ends.

We were given a republic.  We have not kept it, and did not heed Ben Franklin’s warning to that effect.

Now we are paying the price, and I fear that things have reached a point where they will have to get worse before they can get better.

So are you a sheeple?

Or have you behaved like one?

If we have reached that point I fear, history tells us that we have dark days ahead, dark days in which tyrants and kings waiting in the wings make their move for a centralized and authoritarian regime, to conform to their vision.  Sometimes this state, as we have seen, starts out idealistic and benevolent, but even in such cases it invariably becomes inherited by those with no such idealistic principles.  Keep in mind as well that tyrants rarely see themselves as evil and embrace it openly; there is always the masque and masquerade, and sometimes they even fool themselves - assuming they even bother to lie to themselves.

If we would avert this, the effort will be immense.  And one would be wise to prepare for the worst, but maintain optimism, and hope.  Hope that the desire fo freedom and liberty stays strong, and if we must pass through the fire, that the next time the lesson of eternal vigilance is one that is learned more closely.

Learn that the laws you pass now are the ones which your political opponents will be enforcing when they inherit them, and that Mao Tse-tung, communist asshat that he was - understood a simple truth, that all power comes from the barrel of a gun.

The time has come with those of us who are liberty-minded nobles must assert our role of being the brakes on the excesses of kings, that those of us who have no burning need to rule rise out of our slumber and take the reins from the hands of ill-motived would-be overlords.  It is time for us to rouse ourselves from our tendency to become disinterested once our small demense is running smoothly, to become re-engaged with things that do not affect us personally, to become re-aware that the rule of kings is a thing to be feared, as they do not suffer easily those who are not easily ruled.  It is us who are the first targets, the first ones who are zeroed in on as dangers to the rule of those who would be our masters.  We are the sleeping giant, and we mst become filled with the terrible resolve that kings so rightly fear, even more so than another King.

And in the words of another of us, we must hang together, or those who are tyrants will most assuredly see that we hang seperately.