Getting Out of Babylon!

In my Six-point Plan for Taking Back America, one of the points is for traditional Americans* to not participate in the Fall of America and Western Civilization. This idea has been given in many different ways by many different people: Get out of Babylon. Don't feed the beast. Go Galt. Be in the world, but not of the world. In other words, get out of the system.

Make no mistake - the new system that is being established by the Elites and progressives is unsustainable and will ultimately collapse. This system will be especially harsh for Christians, Jews, and traditional Americans, who will eventually experience open persecution from the new system (and will be initially blamed when its inevitable collapse comes.

If you are a Christian, Jew, or traditional American of any stripe, you need to get out of Babylon (the system) to protect yourself and your family. By getting out of the system now, you will be less controlled by the elites and less exposed the dangers of their system. You will also be denying them the resources, opportunities, and influences they need in building their system. And by surviving the coming collapse, you will be in a position to help restore traditional America, and even to build a better system for your children and grandchildren. But this begs the question,  how can you get out of the system? Here are some ideas:

Get out of the cities and suburbs. It may be possible to live in a big city without being tainted by Babylon, but it would be incredibly hard, and you are putting your family at risk. Move to more rural areas of the country. Set up an off-grid homestead (or at least as off-grid as reasonably possible) in an out-of-the-way location. This doesn't have to be an isolated mountain retreat, but it defiantly isn't in a city. The outskirts of a small ton in a rural part of the country, with no mega-cities nearby, may be an excellent location to build a new life. Preferably build it with a community of like-minded traditional Americans, even if you have to create that community yourselves.

This and the other ideas presented here will be difficult to accomplish, and will require hard work and sacrifice to achieve. But the time of business-as-usual is past. You family's survival is worth the effort and sacrifice.

Get out of the pop culture and entertainment system. Cancel your cable or satellite TV. Seek out wholesome entertainment, and learn to entertain yourselves. Take a walk with your spouse or with a friend. Play with your kids in the backyard. Invite friends over for a movie night (with the DVD checked out from your local library for free). Next week they can invite you over. Have family game nights. Have a cook-out with your neighbors or fellow church members.

Get out of the doomed financial system. Stop using credit cards and get out of debt. Remember the saying "The borrower is slave to the lender." Greatly reduce your expenses. Get you finances in order (see my article Prepping 101: Finances - Get Back to Basics). Develop useful skills that you could turn into your own business. Begin moving to a barter and cash-only basis as much as reasonably possible, minimizing your dealings with large banks (prefer credit unions and small regional banks for what banking needs you have). Turn some of your money into junk silver (or even a few gold coins if you have the money).

Get your children out of the public school system. Homeschool your children, or at least send them to a good private or parochial school. Separate your family from the failed public school system. Public schools, even the few good ones, are little more than indoctrination camps for the new system being built by the elites and progressives.

Get out of our failing healthcare system. Take care of your health. Learn to eat simple, healthy foods. Avoid over-eating (Americans typically eat huge serving sizes which is a major cause of the obesity problem). Get fit. Have a physically active lifestyle. Get adequate sleep on a consistent basis. Learn about herbal and alternative medicine.

Get out of liberal/progressive churches and synagogues. Many of our churches have tried to adapt themselves to the modern world system, compromising the Gospel message in the process. Does political correctness reign supreme at your church, or does the Lord Jesus Christ reign? Is right and wrong determined by the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus, or does your church look to "modern sensibilities" in issues of right and wrong?

Other Tips: 

Become a part of a home church, even if you continue to participate for now in your larger church. Future crackdowns on traditional-values churches by the government are likely in the coming years. Having a small group bible study that could become a worship group (home church) may be very useful should the church in America ever be forced underground.

Build Self-Reliance (see my articles What is Self-Reliance? and Three Foundations of Self-Reliance). Learn skills. Especially learn useful skills that you could turn into your own business (yes, this is the second time I've mentioned this point - it is important). Get prepared for the worst that may happen (see my article A quick, no frills, down & dirty guide to preparing for the End).

Reuse. Repair. Repurpose. Recycle. Reduce. The less you need from sources other than yourself and your family/community, the better off you will be.

Reduce your "stuff." De-clutter your life. Selling off your unneeded junk can help you pay off debt and raise money for more important matters. You'll be surprised by how much this will uncomplicate your life. It also opens up storage space for important supplies, like food and water.

Grow as much of your own food as possible. New to gardening? A good resource is Daxton Brown's book Going Galt: Survival Gardening.

Stockpile food and water. Same goes for medical and first aid supplies, cleaning and sanitation supplies, personal hygiene supplies, clothing, batteries, ammunition, etc. This will limit your exposure to our just-in-time manufacturing, distribution, and inventory systems.

Develop a taste for a simpler life. Simply your lifestyle and reduce your spending. Separate yourself from the system of rabid consumerism. The simple life is less costly, more wholesome, more enjoyable, more honorable, and allows you to retain more control of your life. Be less materialistic, less trendy, less fashionable, and more happy. Get your priorities in order - God and family first. Focus on Jesus and his teachings. Don't try to "keep up with the Joneses." Care much less about what others think.

NOTE: An interesting You Tube video to watch on this subject is by Joe Fox (VikingPreparedness): "Come out of her" - what's that even mean? (link is to the video on You Tube).

* I define Traditional Americans as those folks who still believe in the Constitution and the founding beliefs and values of our country, including Judeo-Christian ethics and beliefs, hard work, self-reliance, personal accountability, free-market capitalism, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, and the traditional family. 

Federalist 1: General Introduction

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The following is the text of the first Federalist paper, published on October 27, 1787 under the name Publius (the pseudonym used by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay). Federalist 1 was written by Hamilton, and is a general introduction to the debate over whether or not to ratify the new U.S. Constitution.

Federalist No. 1

General Introduction

To the People of the State of New York:

AFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the union, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.

This idea will add the inducements of philanthropy to those of patriotism, to heighten the solicitude which all considerate and good men must feel for the event. Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the public good. But this is a thing more ardently to be wished than seriously to be expected. The plan offered to our deliberations affects too many particular interests, innovates upon too many local institutions, not to involve in its discussion a variety of objects foreign to its merits, and of views, passions and prejudices little favorable to the discovery of truth.

Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new Constitution will have to encounter may readily be distinguished the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold under the State establishments; and the perverted ambition of another class of men, who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the confusions of their country, or will flatter themselves with fairer prospects of elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial confederacies than from its union under one government.

It is not, however, my design to dwell upon observations of this nature. I am well aware that it would be disingenuous to resolve indiscriminately the opposition of any set of men (merely because their situations might subject them to suspicion) into interested or ambitious views. Candor will oblige us to admit that even such men may be actuated by upright intentions; and it cannot be doubted that much of the opposition which has made its appearance, or may hereafter make its appearance, will spring from sources, blameless at least, if not respectable--the honest errors of minds led astray by preconceived jealousies and fears. So numerous indeed and so powerful are the causes which serve to give a false bias to the judgment, that we, upon many occasions, see wise and good men on the wrong as well as on the right side of questions of the first magnitude to society. This circumstance, if duly attended to, would furnish a lesson of moderation to those who are ever so much persuaded of their being in the right in any controversy. And a further reason for caution, in this respect, might be drawn from the reflection that we are not always sure that those who advocate the truth are influenced by purer principles than their antagonists. Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support as those who oppose the right side of a question. Were there not even these inducements to moderation, nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties. For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

And yet, however just these sentiments will be allowed to be, we have already sufficient indications that it will happen in this as in all former cases of great national discussion. A torrent of angry and malignant passions will be let loose. To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions, and to increase the number of their converts by the loudness of their declamations and the bitterness of their invectives. An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government will be stigmatized as the offspring of a temper fond of despotic power and hostile to the principles of liberty. An over-scrupulous jealousy of danger to the rights of the people, which is more commonly the fault of the head than of the heart, will be represented as mere pretense and artifice, the stale bait for popularity at the expense of the public good. It will be forgotten, on the one hand, that jealousy is the usual concomitant of love, and that the noble enthusiasm of liberty is apt to be infected with a spirit of narrow and illiberal distrust. On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten that the vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well-informed judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.

In the course of the preceding observations, I have had an eye, my fellow-citizens, to putting you upon your guard against all attempts, from whatever quarter, to influence your decision in a matter of the utmost moment to your welfare, by any impressions other than those which may result from the evidence of truth. You will, no doubt, at the same time, have collected from the general scope of them, that they proceed from a source not unfriendly to the new Constitution. Yes, my countrymen, I own to you that, after having given it an attentive consideration, I am clearly of opinion it is your interest to adopt it. I am convinced that this is the safest course for your liberty, your dignity, and your happiness. I affect not reserves which I do not feel. I will not amuse you with an appearance of deliberation when I have decided. I frankly acknowledge to you my convictions, and I will freely lay before you the reasons on which they are founded. The consciousness of good intentions disdains ambiguity. I shall not, however, multiply professions on this head. My motives must remain in the depository of my own breast. My arguments will be open to all, and may be judged of by all. They shall at least be offered in a spirit which will not disgrace the cause of truth.

I propose, in a series of papers, to discuss the following interesting particulars:

The utility of the union to your political prosperity
the insufficiency of the present confederation to preserve that union
the necessity of a government at least equally energetic with the one proposed, to the attainment of this object
the conformity of the proposed constitution to the true principles of republican government
its analogy to your own state constitution
and lastly, the additional security which its adoption will afford to the preservation of that species of government, to liberty, and to property.

In the progress of this discussion I shall endeavor to give a satisfactory answer to all the objections which shall have made their appearance, that may seem to have any claim to your attention.

It may perhaps be thought superfluous to offer arguments to prove the utility of the UNION, a point, no doubt, deeply engraved on the hearts of the great body of the people in every State, and one, which it may be imagined, has no adversaries. But the fact is, that we already hear it whispered in the private circles of those who oppose the new Constitution, that the thirteen States are of too great extent for any general system, and that we must of necessity resort to separate confederacies of distinct portions of the whole.[1] This doctrine will, in all probability, be gradually propagated, till it has votaries enough to countenance an open avowal of it. For nothing can be more evident, to those who are able to take an enlarged view of the subject, than the alternative of an adoption of the new Constitution or a dismemberment of the Union. It will therefore be of use to begin by examining the advantages of that Union, the certain evils, and the probable dangers, to which every State will be exposed from its dissolution. This shall accordingly constitute the subject of my next address.

PUBLIUS

[1] The same idea, tracing the arguments to their consequences, is held out in several of the late publications against the new Constitution.

***All the Federalist Papers can be found on the Project Gutenburg website. 

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Richard Nixon's Resignation Speech

Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, became the first (and so far, the only) U.S. President to resign from office on August 9, 1974, following the Watergate Scandal and facing almost certain impeachment and removal from office. The following is the text of the resignation speech he made on national TV from the Oval Office on August 8, 1974.

 Richard Nixon's Resignation Speech

Good evening. This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office in which so many decisions have been made that shape the history of this nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matters that I believe affected the national interest. And all the decisions I have made in my public life I have always tried to do what was best for the nation.

Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere; to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me.

In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion; that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process, and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.

But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served. And there is no longer a need for the process to be pro- longed.

I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interests of the nation must always come before any personal considerations. From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult de- cisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the nation will require.

I have never been a quitter.

To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as President I must put the interests of America first.

America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad.

To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.

Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office. As I recall the high hopes for America with which we began this second term, I feel a great sadness that I will not be here in this office working on your behalf to achieve those hopes in the next two and a half years.

But in turning over direction of the Government to Vice President Ford I know, as I told the nation when I nominated him for that office 10 months ago, that the leadership of America will be in good hands.

In passing this office to the Vice President I also do so with the profound sense of the weight of responsibility that will fall on his shoulders tomorrow, and therefore of the understanding, the patience, the cooperation he will need from all Americans.

As he assumes that responsibility he will deserve the help and the support of all of us. As we look to the future, the first essential is to begin healing the wounds of this nation. To put the bitterness and divisions of the recent past behind us and to rediscover those shared ideals that lie at the heart of our strength and unity as a great and as a free people.

By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.

I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong - and some were wrong - they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interests of the nation.

To those who have stood with me during these past difficult months, to my family, my friends, the many others whose joined in supporting my cause because they believed it was right, I will be eternally grateful for your support.

And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say I leave with no bitterness toward those who have opposed me, because all of us in the final analysis have been concerned with the good of the country however our judgments might differ.

So let us all now join together in firming that common commitment and in helping our new President succeed for the benefit of all Americans.

I shall leave this office with regret at not completing my term but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as your President for the past five and a half years. These years have been a momentous time in the history of our nation and the world. They have been a time of achievement in which we can all be proud achievements that represent the shared efforts of the administration, the Congress and the people. But the challenges ahead are equally great.

And they, too, will require the support and the efforts of a Congress and the people, working in cooperation with the new Administration.

We have ended America's longest war. But in the work of securing a lasting peace in the world, the goals ahead are even more far-reaching and more difficult. We must complete a structure of peace, so that it will be said of this generation - our generation of Americans - by the people of all nations, not only that we ended one war but that we prevented future wars.

We have unlocked the doors that for a quarter of a century stood between the United States and the People's Republic of China. We must now insure that the one-quarter of the world's people who live in the People's Republic of China will be and remain, not our enemies, but our friends.

In the Middle East, 100 million people in the Arab countries, many of whom have considered us their enemies for nearly 20 years, now look on us as their friends. We must continue to build on that friendship so that peace can settle at last over the Middle East and so that the cradle of civilization will not become its grave. Together with the Soviet Union we have made the crucial breakthroughs that have begun the process of limiting nuclear arms. But, we must set as our goal, not just limiting, but reducing and finally destroying these terrible weapons so that they cannot destroy civilization.

And so that the threat of nuclear war will no longer hang over the world and the people, we have opened a new relation with the Soviet Union. We must continue to develop and expand that new relationship so that the two strongest nations of the world will live together in cooperation rather than confrontation. Around the world - in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, in the Middle East - there are millions of people who live in terrible poverty, even starvation. We must keep as our goal turning away from production for war and expanding production for peace so that people everywhere on this earth can at last look forward, in their children's time if not in our time, to having the necessities for a decent life. Here in America we are fortunate that most of our people have not only the blessings of liberty but also the means to live full and good, and by the world's standards even abundant lives.

We must press on, however, toward a goal not only of more and better jobs but of full opportunity for every man, and of what we are striving so hard right now to achieve - prosperity without inflation.

For more than a quarter of a century in public life, I have shared in the turbulent history of this evening.

I have fought for what I believe in. I have tried, to the best of my ability, to discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities that were entrusted to me. Sometimes I have succeeded. And sometimes I have failed. But always I have taken heart from what Theodore Roosevelt said about the man in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is not effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deed, who knows the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievements and with the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

I pledge to you tonight that as long as I have a breath of life in my body I shall continue in that spirit. I shall continue to work for the great causes to which I have been dedicated throughout my years as a Congressman, a Senator, Vice President and President, the cause of peace - not just for America but among all nations - prosperity, justice and opportunity for all of our people.

There is one cause above all to which I have been devoted and to which I shall always be devoted for as long as I live.

When I first took the oath of office as President five and a half years ago, I made this sacred commitment; to consecrate my office, my energies and all the wisdom I can summon to the cause of peace among nations.

As a result of these efforts, I am confident that the world is a safer place today, not only for the people of America but for the people of all nations, and that all of our children have a better chance than before of living in peace rather than dying in war.

This, more than anything, is what I hoped to achieve when I sought the Presidency. This, more than anything, is what I hope will be my legacy to you, to our country, as I leave the Presidency.

To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.

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