This morning’s show was dedicated at great length to AG Barr’s speech at Hillsdale earlier this week. Including the Hillsdale Hour featuring Larry Arnn who moderated the A.G’s presentation. The speech was remarkable. This first thing I note is a substantial difference between the prepared remarks and the delivered remarks. Most notably, as prepared the remarks quoted C.S. Lewis, but the quotation was omitted in delivery. The quote is from “God In The Dock” and is remarkable of itself:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

That so perfectly encapsulates where we stand today, particularly regarding the virus. That is very much in line with the A.G’s remarks concerning the lockdowns in which he declared them one of “…the greatest intrusion(s) on civil liberties in American history.”

But it was the Q&A that followed the remarks, also recorded in the delivered transcript linked above, where things got really truly interesting. In particular, this passage stands out:

Our constitution was meant for a discerning, informed, virtuous people. And you have to raise the question of whether we still have that in our country. We certainly have forces that are attempting to cultivate a dependent people. And it’s, you know, it’s the same old game. What’s our bread and circuses today? It’s all distraction. You know, as Pascal said, it’s all about distracting people from anything that’s important and principle and what’s happening. That’s why so many people don’t pay attention. They’re distracted. They’re distracted by, you know, all the stimulation of their senses that go on, and that goes part and parcel with creating dependence. So you have more and more people that just don’t care.

That is an almost pitch perfect summation of where we stand today. Astonishingly, so much of the “bread and circuses” that distract us so is rooted in politics. During his remarks, the A.G. said, “This country is in serious problems with all the problems, with real problems, we face in international affairs and domestically, when most of our news coverage — or what passes for news coverage — are bloviating talking heads discussing whether some action in Washington, some action taken by an official, constitutes some esoteric crime.” We have so separated our politics from our governance that we use our politics as a distraction from our governance. That’s enough to make your head spin.

But back to the comment about “discerning, informed, virtuous people.” If you read this blog routinely and not simply here because someone has linked to it to describe what imbeciles the host or I might be, then you probably qualify as one of the people our constitution was “meant for.” But there are two comments I want to make.

First of all being discerning, informed and virtuous does not equate to being conservative, not in any fashion. There are any number of conservative “distractions.” While the ones from the left outnumber the ones from the right, we cannot kid ourselves. There are way too many flamers on the right. They hurt us, they do not help us, and we must avoid the temptation to fall prey to them. So the first thing I want to know if you are up to is avoiding television? To be successful, television almost has to be provocative. The strongest evidence of that I can give you is the host’s short lived MSNBC show. The host, seemingly with pride, describes it as “the least watched show in MSNBC history.” That’s because it was informative, not provocative. It was not even particularly conservative. Thus it failed to attract an audience. So, TV is no place to be discerning, informed and virtuous. Learn to use the internet (no small task for it coughs up more garbage than a disposal) and read, then read some more.

But given the observations by the A.G, it is not enough to be discerned, informed and virtuous yourself. We find ourselves in a hole regarding such people – we have to make a concerted and purposeful effort to create more such people. So, are you up to that challenge – to making more people like yourself? Hopefully you have done so in your child-rearing. But not all of us are blessed with children, and some of us have failed in that job with our children. But that does not mean we quit trying. There are lots of other people out there, young and old, that can be convinced and educated. If you do not think you are personally up to it, maybe you help a young person you know go to Hillsdale? Maybe you give routinely to a religious school? You should be volunteering somewhere that you can can help someone find their way. Be creative, but help.

POSTCRIPT: The Browns beating the Bengals is not an accomplishment. My high school team from 46 years ago could beat the Bengals.