Some Understanding [of the REAL issues]

Part Two of Two
by Arthur R. Thompson, CEO-- The John Birch Society
Solutions
It is always easier to focus on problems, not on solutions.
Why? Because problems tend to be more obvious;
solutions a lot less so. Pointing to a problem involves
minimal effort. Coming up with an acceptable solution
usually involves a great deal of effort, especially when
the problem emanates from what government is or isn’t
doing. There will be a need to educate fellow citizens
who, sadly, have little awareness of the Constitution’s
limitations on government. And there are a multitude
of other subjects within classic liberal arts that must be
addressed. Getting others first to recognize the worth
of a solution being offered, and then getting help to
have it adopted, requires a lot of work.
In addition, we may think the person we approach
understands the problem when he or she really doesn’t.
At least, not the way we would understand it. We may
know that a principle is being violated, whereas others
might look at the problem’s cause as a mere example
of faulty operation. Consider the United Nations. If the
problem is one of principle, then our nation should get
out of the UN. But if someone else thinks only that it
is being run poorly, then the solution becomes reform
or reorganization.
First, with each problem, one has to understand the
principle involved. Regarding the UN, the principle is
national sovereignty. Once that is understood, there are
other, less difficult hurdles to pass.
For instance, many will recognize the proper solution
to a problem, but due to fear or a personal comfort
zone, they will be reluctant to actively support it. An
example of this situation would be Social Security and
its sister Medicare.
All sorts of emotions surge to the fore when talking
about Social Security and Medicare: “You mean I will
have to assume the responsibility for my own retirement?
How do I do that? I’ve heard all sorts of financial
advisers giving bad advice and various proposals that
amount to defrauding the elderly. Whom do I trust?
When will it phase out? How will it phase out? Will
I be prepared? This will mean I will have to bear the
responsibility to care for my parents. I can’t
afford that. It will greatly interfere with my
family life, recreation, and hobby, etc.”
These considerations show that simple
“head knowledge” isn’t the only problem.
Morality and moral responsibility have to enter
the picture as well.
Self-reliance built this nation. Programs
such as Social Security have weakened this
essential aspect of the makeup of an American.
Self-reliance is being destroyed in favor of
reliance on government, a very dangerous
development.
Supposedly to address the failings
of Medicare, our government has enacted
ObamaCare, making the overall problem worse
by making it universal and calling it the solution.
This is precisely an example of the process
we quoted from The Communist Manifesto in
last month’s Bulletin: Create a supposed solution
that fails and then address the failure with
an even worse solution.
To fully recognize both the problem and the
correct solution, one must have knowledge of
economics, political science, human nature, and the
Constitution, then have the moral responsibility to do
what is right, simply because it is right.
Tough, but not impossible.
Another example: It is a rare individual in America
today who is unaware that illegal immigration is a
problem needing meaningful attention. The solution is
multifaceted and we have outlined some of what needs
to be done in last month’s Part One of this discussion.
Let us not forget that less than 100 years ago,
General Pershing crossed into Mexico to put down
Pancho Villa after the Mexican bandit had crossed
into the United States and terrorized one of our border
towns. Our border towns are again being terrorized,
yet we concern ourselves more with Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc., than we do our own territory
and our own fellow citizens.
It is time to show that we mean business and that the
freedom of the American people and the sovereignty of
this nation will once again be protected. If we do so,
we will also punch a hole in the plans to create a North
American Union.
Proper solutions to illegal immigration also require
certain knowledge on the part of an American: the
meaning, necessity, and right of sovereignty; the economic
dangers and debilitating affects of welfare; the
cultural Balkanization of our country that can be used
as a divide-and-conquer tactic by the Conspiracy; and
the resolve to get the job done without generating malice
toward the Mexican people.
These considerations also require understanding
why false solutions such as national ID cards and
fences constitute dangers to American freedom. We
must always oppose solutions that will lead to more
control over Americans.
Many solutions offered by the Insiders and those
who follow their lead will indeed subjugate us. They
either create or help to worsen a problem, such as
illegal immigration, in order to be in position to offer
a solution that leads to more government and more
controls over the American people. These false solutions
rarely deal with the problem, but they do create
increasing taxation, regulation, and indebtedness for
the American people.
Increasingly, the false solutions to illegal immigration
and other problems are coming from those who
profess to be conservative leaders. As we pointed out in
last month’s Part One, those who mean to rule us come
from both sides of our current political persuasions.
If you are still with me, I come now to the hardest of
all solutions, one which most of our faithful members
have knowledge of but, deep down, may not really
accept. Bear with me because arriving at this solution
will seem a bit circuitous.
We should not be surprised when those who cannot
see the Conspiracy at work also cannot see the
beneficial work of The John Birch Society. There are a
number of reasons for this.
One, there is the natural tendency for people to
want credit for the work others do. This is not always
a selfish thing, since some sincerely believe they have
brought about the good results they see. What they do
not see is the tireless groundwork of our members that
has already set the stage for the good results. What JBS
members do is done out of their sight.
Also, the first one to claim credit for some victory
usually gets it.
Two, many believe that they are responsible for
results simply because of publishing an article or even
a series of articles. This can be true, but normally, it
is shoe leather and personal relationships that count
more. Getting the article in the hands of those who can
do something about the problem takes organization.
Organizational work involves far more than the printed
word. The printed word becomes far more potent when
it is part of an established agenda, not simply a wisp of
wind. Organizational work will almost always be outside
the work of the publishers and writers since they
rarely try to influence people face-to-face.
Reading an article or book is like placing a phone
call to tell someone their apartment house is on fire.
What is the result, assuming someone is there to
answer the phone? Some will not believe it. Some will
think the fire will be put out before it affects them.
Some will flee. Some will tell a neighbor. A proper
response will include organizing to tell others, evacuating
the complex, and helping put out the fire — after
having called the fire department. Yet while the person
who made the original call will have had little to do
with the organized effort, he or she will frequently
claim credit for all the lives saved. And such a person
is correct, at least in part. But organizing to solve the
problem is more important than simply acknowledging
that a fire exists.
Three, many conservatives and libertarians do not
understand effective organization and, when it is suggested,
most run away from it. For it demands at least
two things on the part of the individual: the willingness
to work as part of a team and all that this means,
and the work itself that requires expending effort
to achieve success.
Far too many conservatives and libertarians
won’t join anything. They can not or will not follow
direction because they are too independent.
Their stance reminds me of Benjamin Franklin’s
warning about teamwork — that we must hang
together or we will surely hang separately. Our
Founders had the same problems we face —
people who would not get involved or felt that
there was too much being asked of them.
Four, the media regularly ignores our efforts,
discounts them, or even declares them counterproductive
of “true conservatism.”
Understanding Who It Is We Fight
Success isn’t superficial and, therefore, the
effort put into achieving it can’t be superficial.
To be successful at what we seek in The John
Birch Society requires more effort than most
other organizations ask of those they reach. And,
the rewards when success is gained are generally
only the self-satisfaction of completing a
job well.
We reach out to new people and bring them to a
new level of understanding that includes a solution
as well as identification of a problem. And then we
involve them in a long range, broadly based program
with the goal of preserving family and freedom. This
takes work.
We understand that we are fighting people, not ideas
and issues. In and of themselves, issues don’t exist.
People conceive and drive ideas. Evil — in and of itself
— doesn’t exist, not without people engaging in evil.
Even in the spiritual sense, evil is Personified.
It is rare indeed that other organizations recognize
the need to identify the enemy. Usually, the understanding
of their leaders about who or what is the real
enemy is deficient. This is why the Christian Right has
been so misused. Its partisans often end up supporting
the enemy because they don’t understand conspiracy
and they aren’t aware that the people who seek power
will call themselves anything whatsoever in order to
gather support to gain that power. Do I need to mention
any other name than Bush?
Does anyone think that because Mafia dons sit
in church that they will get to heaven even while
they continue their crime spree? They attend church
to establish the facade of respectability even while
they exercise criminal rule over the neighborhoods.
Similarly, certain politicians sit in church while continuing
to violate their solemn constitutional oath in
order to maintain and extend power.
We all know of the existence of La Cosa Nostra
(sometimes called the Mafia). Do you see it? Not
unless you find it in a film or documentary. You see
its effects in crime and vice, even control over certain
service industries. But all of its activity is real.
The same applies regarding recognition of the
Satanic Conspiracy. Few ever recognize the effects
of the Conspiracy and then attribute them to the
Conspiracy. There is a serious lack of understanding
preventing many from reaching a proper understanding
enabling them effectively to combat prevailing evil.
I have often used the example of a line drawing of a
forest or jungle in which children are asked to identify
the lions, elephants, etc. hidden within the drawing.
It takes time and a new mental approach to begin to
see the shapes of the animals and not just the cleverly
drawn depictions of foliage.
The same holds true if one is to see the Conspiracy.
And it is equally true if someone is to see the effects of
the work of The John Birch Society.
Impatient Gradualism
Unlike the Conspiracy, we operate in the open. But if
others don’t read our Bulletins, how would they even
begin to know our agenda? Many times you can tell
the fruits of our labor by the nuances contained in
our agenda requests and their results we report. For
many reasons, we rarely ask our members to undertake
a task in the manner others might because we often
have a different perspective about what is needed to
create understanding that will see a solution through
to its end. This usually means that we regularly offera different solution than will be suggested by others.
For example, you will not see us offer a solution that
curtails the liberty of our own citizens in the process.
Likewise, we do our work without fanfare. While
it is essential that we brand The John Birch Society
and our work, nonetheless, we are not in the business
of saving our country to benefit ourselves, except in
knowing that preserving freedom will enable us to go
about our own business and pass on the same freedom
to our children.
So, for these and other reasons, we seem to be invisible
to the world. Therefore, some conclude that we
don’t even exist. How many times have you heard, “I
didn’t know The John Birch Society was still in existence.”
Even among our own members we can seem to be
ineffective because we normally go about our efforts
without fanfare. Therefore, those who have loud trumpets
get attention, even if they don’t have anything
close to an army answering the call of the trumpets.
Of course, the conspiracy-controlled media is more
than happy to give credit for any success on our side
to anyone but JBS, so as to prevent our members and
our organization being noticed in a favorable way. We
are bypassed for no other reason than it’s known that
people who want to be involved go where they think
they can do the most good. Usually people believe the
most good will be accomplished by the one who gets
noticed by the press, whether deserved or not. It is
rather like the magician who wants you to watch one
hand and not the other where the real “action” is being
accomplished.
The enemy knows all of this because the enemy
knows organization. And that is why its leaders confide
among themselves that The John Birch Society is their
chief enemy, the leading organization combating their
efforts. The worth of the Society will, on rare occasions,
receive mention by the media and then quickly
fade away. We have seen this happen just within the
last several months in the midst of almost daily unflattering
mentions of The John Birch Society somewhere
in the media.
Due to the efforts of our members over the last few
years, it has been difficult for the Insiders to keep the
media from mentioning us. This is so even though the
word still seems to be: don’t even note that The John
Birch Society exists. Recently, it appeared we were
being set up for another massive smear campaign. But
it didn’t happen. There were several factors involved,
not the least of which is the Insiders’ inability to find
and use a leader with sufficient but false “conservative”
credentials to lead the attack. But this may soon happen
again. Stay tuned!
Lately, when we are mentioned, the goal seems to be
to make it appear that the Tea Party movement grew out
of the efforts of that “old extremist organization of the
1960s,” the JBS. Some articles make it appear that we
are defunct and that we have passed the baton to some
current “extremists.” This theme is so recurrent that it
is impossible to think that it has not been orchestrated.
JBS Influence Growing Dramatically
We should be increasingly proud of the fact that we do
play an influential role in the continuing groundswell
of good sense. Yes, we are bragging about this, even
while being fully aware that some individuals and
groups are playing important roles even without holding
membership in JBS. However, the other side realizes
all of the recent activity would mostly be for naught
if there hadn’t long been a sizable organization from
coast to coast with members working in unison on the
same agenda at the same time. The very existence of
concerted action scares the enemy.
Through the use of a wide variety of tools and means
to build concerted action — the Internet, videos/DVDs,
flyers, speakers, magazines, literature, etc. — we create
a synergy level that results in waves of influence
that go well beyond our numbers.
An example I like to use to show the influence of
members is when Member A educates Citizen B to a
level of understanding about an issue who, in turn, educates
Mr. C. Then Mr. C tells Opinion Molder D about
it. Since he is in a position of great influence, Opinion
Molder D does something positive to solve the problem
and gets credit for doing so. Meanwhile, Member A
sees that D is an effective individual who gets things
done, but he fails to realize that his own efforts started
the ball rolling in the first place. The point is that, if
Member A had never taken the first step, the problem
would likely never have been solved. Member A is far
removed from the person who arranged for the solution,
but he deserves great credit.
As a whole, our members are often very far removed
from the good result they have spawned. They don’t
always see the fruits of their labors. On the other hand,
there are very capable members who build and organize
influence in their communities and do see the end
results of their work. This is increasingly occurring,
and we look for it to become more the case in many
other locales.
We know through experience that the combined
effort of our members will lead to 100 votes per member
favoring the most constitutionally minded candidate
for the House of Representatives. It is true that
even though some members can’t seem to influence
their spouse, they do have impact in the community.
Others operating as a team influence thousands with
their organized outreach.
One might think that this is also the case with other
groups, but it isn’t because they are not organized as
we are. They concentrate too much on the existing
base of friends rather than engaging in true outreach
programs; they don’t have the variety of tools to educate
people; and, most importantly, they miss the mark
by concentrating on the issue and a possible solution
rather than ever mentioning the source of the problem
— the Conspiracy.
We have always to be wise and patient in how
we address the existence of conspiracy, recognizing
the degree of awareness in our audience at all times.
Nonetheless, exposing conspiracy is vital. Without
doing so, the conspiracy’s cleverly placed agents will
continue to assume the leadership of the Americanist
movement, sidetracking it again and again, or preventing
activists from hitting the bull’s eye in the target. As
frequently happens in the latter case, success may seem
imminent because the arrow is flying right to the target
until, at the very last moment, it falls short.
This scenario is not unusual; in fact it is often the
case. It produces the worst sort of effect in the long run:
discouragement. We are well aware of sizeable conservative
organizations formed to gather good people
together and then misdirect them. One is reminded of
the leader who wrote a book exposing the New World
Order and then supported both Bush and Giuliani.
Since The John Birch Society was founded, there
have been four groundswells within America whose
purpose was to change the direction our country was
headed. Each of them was the result of the educational
work of our members.
In the first three instances, the Insiders neutralized
the efforts over the ensuing few months and years.
They were able to do this because of the lack of experience
in each that made its followers vulnerable to
neutralization. This occurred primarily because newly
awakened people trusted false leaders who said some
of the right things but captured the leadership and
direction of the movement and sidetracked it into partisan
politics controlled by establishment politicians.
It takes a certain level of knowledge and experience
to tell who the real patriot leaders are. It remains for us
to do a better job in this fourth groundswell by helping
its key people recognize so-called “friends” who want
only to neutralize them.
The difference between the JBS and other “educational”
efforts is three-fold. One, we teach the
Constitution including its original intent and that no
aspect of the Supreme Law can be ignored. None! Two,
we teach responsibility. It is part of our motto. Three,
as already discussed, we teach that the battle is with
men more than with ideas. Men breed ideas, organize
ideas, and finance ideas. This is not a debate, it is not
a war of ideas, it is a war between two opposing forces
and whoever creates the superior organization will win.
Yes, truth is a powerful weapon, but it will only become
dominant when great pains are taken to disseminate it.
That means building an organization to do so.
Elaborating on these three differences could consume
another Bulletin article all by itself. It may be difficult
to see the effect of these differences, even while
believing that other groups and individuals teach many
of the same lessons. But it is in the results of peoples’
actions that we recognize whether they really mean
what they seem to be saying.
So what’s the point? It is this: The ultimate solution
has to be a much larger, and therefore more effective,
John Birch Society. This is the solution that must be
kept in mind at all times.
Throughout our 52-year history, we have always
stressed that recruiting is the number one item on our
agenda for good reason. We can win battles, but not the
war if we don’t have sufficient size. The road back to
constitutional government runs through the Congress,
and it starts in the House of Representatives. In order
to see that constitutionally-minded individuals are
elected, a JBS membership base of from 500 to 1000
members in virtually any congressional district, will
accomplish the goal.
And, let no one forget that an ill-informed populace
ill-equipped to elect a constitutionally minded
Congress surely will not elect a decent president. It is,
after all, the same voters.
Building the membership is not something we
advocate just to make us look better; it is essential for
victory. This is the ultimate solution.
So we again urge that you do all you can to recruit
on an individual basis, and particularly place new
members into chapters where the synergy of a group
aids in convincing other new people to get involved.
Teach them the value of our organization that is the
solution through the use of video/DVD activism, preferably
in your homes. We will discuss why there is a
need for using one’s home in a future Bulletin.
What’s the job of every member?
Build the organization so that its goals can be achieved.
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