The Appearance Of Character

A party is perpetually corrupted by personality. Whilst we absolve the association from dishonesty, we cannot extend the same charity to their leaders. They reap the rewards of the docility and zeal of the masses which they direct. Ordinarily, our parties are parties of circumstance, and not of principle. The vice of our leading parties in this country is, that they do not plant themselves on the deep and necessary grounds to which they are respectively entitled, but lash themselves to fury in the carrying of some local and momentary measure, nowise useful to the commonwealth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote those thoughts in 1844. Politics and Politicians haven’t changed much over the last 171 years. America has been kidnapped by its laws and the men that design them. Americans are the fish that follow the bait and never take a bite. The Sharks dressed like legal eagles swoop down and fill the water with their rank undigested disparities.

We have a vote, but we have no idea what or who we vote for. We put faith in God, but God has no vote in a world where truth is covered by a film of flickering fantasies. Our priorities have no position in a system that honors itself more than the people that created it. There is no justice where there is no truth. Truth is locked away in the basement of antiquated beliefs.

Emerson knew what the solution to our political problems were 171 years ago, but he wasn’t a lawyer, judge or politician. He was just a man that knew the truth.

Hence, the less government we have, the better, - the fewer laws and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual; the appearance of the principal to supersede the proxy; the appearance of the wise man, of whom the existing government, is, it must be owned, but a shabby imitation.

That which all things tend to educe, which freedom, cultivation, intercourse, revolutions, go to form and deliver, is character; that is the end of nature, to reach unto this coronation of her king. To educate the wise man, the State exists; and with the appearance of the wise man, the State expires. The appearance of character makes the State unnecessary. The wise man is the State. He needs no army, fort, or navy, - he loves men too well; no bribe, or feast, or palace, to draw friends to him; no vantage ground, no favourable circumstance. He needs no library, for he has not done thinking; no church, for he is a prophet; no statute book, for he has the lawgiver; no money, for he is value; no road, for he is at home where he is; no experience, for the life of the creator shoots through him, and looks from his eyes. He has no personal friends, for he who has the spell to draw the prayer and piety of all men unto him, needs not husband and educate a few, to share with him a select and poetic life. His relation to men is angelic; his memory is myrrh to them; his presence, frankincense and flowers.