And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
(T.S. Eliot, “Four Quartets”)
In a recent issue of WCN, we estimated America’s progression on a seven-stage socio-economic timeline that other major civilizations have gone through in the course of their history. Our basic conclusion was that with our continued apathy and increasing dependence on government for a variety of “benefits,” we are negotiating a slippery downslope somewhere in the sixth stage. The seventh and last stage, of course, is a state of bondage, which is where we started in 1776 – and anyone who survives to the now-approaching bondage stage will “know the place for the first time.”
Normally, the downward slide from dependence to bondage would be a gradual one, but today’s progressives are bent on accelerating the process with a variety of catalysts – like the Green New Deal, never-ending attempts at gun control, measures to thwart any state abortion restrictions, open borders, and last but not least, proposed legislation like the benign-sounding “Equality Act,” under which gender identity would be added to the classes of people protected by U ...
