An American Prophet* Named James**?

James Madison
from Wikimedia Commons,
the free media repository

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people…. [There are also] opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and… Degeneracy of manners and of morals… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare …”¹

Considering the current state of US (and world) affairs, could it be said of this James and those other American prophets (George and Thomas,² et al.) that

A prophet is not without honour, BUT in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house, he is mostly disregarded in principle and practice?³

Or, in a parallel déjà vu to the writings of Isaiah, might these prophets say:

[T]his people draw near [us] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour [us], but have removed their heart far from [us?]⁴

Perhaps we could also begin to listen more attentively to a latter-day American prophet, Chris Hedges. Here is a recent interview:

▪  http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-may-13-2015-1.3072112/chris-hedges-says-america-on-road-to-revolution-even-in-baltimore-1.3072170
▪  http://www.cbc.ca/radio/popup/audio/player.html?autoPlay=true&clipIds=2667103670
▪  (Or check out his numerous interviews and speeches via YouTube.)

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* A person who foretells or predicts what is to come.
** James Madison, Jr. (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, political theorist, and the fourth President of the United States (1809–17). He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for being instrumental in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution and as the key champion and author of the Bill of Rights. … Like most of his contemporaries, Madison changed his political views during his life. During the drafting and ratification of the constitution, he favored a strong national government, though later he grew to favor stronger state governments, before settling between the two extremes late in his life. (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison | footnotes omitted; bold emphasis added.)

1. As quoted in America's Forgotten History, Part 1: Foundations by Mark David Ledbetter; Kindle Edition (2010-04-12), Locations 3693-3698, (bold and size emphasis added).
2. http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/12/remembering-george.html
http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/Jefferson-Thomas
3. Reference: New Testament | Matthew 13:57 and Mark 6:4, (bold & cap emphasis added). Déjà vu Old Testament Jeremiah in Jeremiah, chapters 42 & 43.
4.Old Testament | Isaiah 29:13.

Mayday? Mayday? Mayday!*

Perhaps on this historic May Day,^† we could profit from mourning these words of Thomas Jefferson:

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country. (Thomas Jefferson ~ 1816¹)

Have we not observed how the noose of hypocrisy has tightened as we have “globalized”?—

▪ how wages & benefits have plummeted as “profits” (and CEO compensations) rise;
▪ how loyalty to the corp has no reciprocation by the corp;
▪ how international sister corps protect each other’s profit turf, despite “free-trade” and law;²
▪ how big corps are into control, tyranny, bullying, spellbinding, etc., etc., despite human rights and freedoms (speech, association, a free press, religion, etc.) (Read a recent manifestation of control as Netflix, HBO, and their content providers try to control the viewing options of “foreign” paying subscribers. (Yes, PAYING, but masking their “foreignness”³);
▪ how the pursuit of big profits is poisoning our climate, deforming our weather, killing competing innovations, suppressing unprofitable truths, corrupting and/or homogenizing diverse cultures, damaging our food (& well-being), etc., etc. (Just read the Déjà Vu ~ Times posts labelled “corporatism”⁴ to get a broader notion of how prescient Mr. Jefferson and others were); and
▪ how the list goes on and on.

So what is the remedy to this call of distress? Since the majority of governments seem to have taken a luxury berth on the doomed ship Babylon,⁵ it seems we shall have to look elsewhere for help. Could it be—at ourselves?—at “We the People”? OR maybe even God?!! Could much of this be but déjà vu?—a semblance of nigh 240 years ago in America? (Have we forgotten already, the Brits and their globe-trotting tea partner?!⁶)

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* Mayday^x3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday
† May Day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day

1. This is a verifiable quote. See the transcribed copy of Jefferson’s letter to George Logan, Nov. 12, 1816 (p. 68-69) at Hathi Trust Digital Library: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t3pv6bn68;view=1up;seq=92 . The original letter is at The Library of Congress, The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651-1827, and their digital copy of the original is at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj1&fileName=mtj1page049.db&recNum=641 (Digital Images 641 and 642: see the second page—image 642—for the quote.)
2. http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/04/has-anyone-noticed.html
3. Cross-border “watching”: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/netflix-and-hbo-border-hopping-is-anyone-getting-caught-1.3050460?cmp=rss&cid=news-digests-canada-and-world-morning
4. http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/Corporatism
5. “They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.” (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 1:16)
6. Then & Now; Tea Party 1 & Tea Party 2: http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/04/econ-010-then-now.html