Termites

Individually, a termite is a small insect, but termites cannot live on their own as individuals. Like bees and ants they form colonies where the individual is utterly subordinate to the whole. At the centre of a colony is a queen who herself is absolutely subservient to her role as a producer of eggs. This has proved a very successful strategy if it's true that termites make up the largest biomass on earth.

Termites have the ecological role of disposing of dead trees, being one of the few creatures able to convert cellulose into animal tissue. It's a talent that benefits the forest and makes it possible for aardvarks and similar animals to make a living, too. Where termites thrive people tend to build there homes out of stone and brick, because a house made of wood is for a termite just another tree to gnaw at until it's gone. And unless measures are taken, the wooden house will soon be gone.

Maybe western civilization is a dead tree. I hope not, and I am optimistic that we are in a dormant phase from which we will awaken and renew ourselves. But for the moment we are infested with a breed of termites commonly known as liberals, socialists, progressives, environmentalists, et al. While most citizens have been puttering about the house raising families, going to work, and then settling down in front of the TV after work, an army of termites has been chewing away tirelessly and relentlessly at the social structures and moral understandings that have made it possible for us to live in such a prosperous, peaceful and well-ordered society.

Strange. It wasn't that long ago that it was taken for granted that the ultimate goal of a well-ordered society was the well-being of mankind. Gradually, the termites eroded that seemingly self-evident proposition. Mankind was not of itself any more important than any other life form on the planet. It didn't take long for this logic to take another step. Humans are destroying the earth. Humans are the enemy of the earth. This philosophy has a name. It's called deep ecology, and for many it has become an article of faith.

Contrary-wise, the older, Christian faith it is trying to supplant, is based on the notion that man was created in the image of god. We are the culmination of God's creative acts. We may have stumbled and forfeited the ability to directly experience Him, but we have it in us, with the help of faith, to earn our way back to his presence. Whether you believe it or not, as a creed to live by, it has had a tremendous civilizing effect on those of us who have inherited it.

Our western civilization stands on two legs. Besides the Christian faith, we are also heirs to Greek rational thought, which has given us science as well as models for our arts and literature. The two legs aren't always coordinated well, but they have taken us a long way in the past few thousand years.

But that's history, and our children are now taught that of all the varieties of humanity on this earth, those of us descended from the inhabitants of Western Europe, ie white folks, and especially white folks of the masculine gender, are by far the worst. Thus, it follows that the history of fair skinned Europeans, my history, my forbears, is despicable. Now the problem for the termites who have been trying to excrete this by product of their metabolism, the written record does not support that view. And so it has become an important part of the termites' mission to eradicate knowledge of our past and substitute a new one designed to demoralize our youth.

The termites have made a lot of progress, but their work is far from complete. We still have libraries and bookstores and not all they contain is absolute rot. Most of it is, true, but for the curious reader enlightenment is still possible. As a breed we haven't died out yet, but many of us haven't realized that we have to fight back.

Luckily Victoria is well-endowed with bookstores. I find older books immensely more interesting than new ones. These are books written before the spread of termite language, otherwise known as political correctness. Political correctness is truth inverted. The truth may never be mentioned, lest you arouse the termites, who have grown bold and are able to bite. But they are still timid creatures. They may be shrill and loud, but if you say boo with an authoritative voice and stand your ground they will scamper back to their burrows.

Until recently the termites stayed hidden where non termites couldn't see them but a termite is now president of the United States, and other termites run congress. This is a very dangerous situation for those of us who value our freedoms, because the termite way is to control everything, to turn everything into a termite colony. There is no room for freedom in the termite hill. Heretofore, the termites have been at work on our educational system, attempting to recruit new termites, and having a termite president is a measure of their success.

But now they are in the daylight where everyone can see them. The question now is, is it too late? Or did they come out of their burrows too soon? That remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the termites are very close to bringing about the collapse of constitutional government in the US. This is very bad news because for at least the last half century it has been that constitutional republic that has made it possible for the rest of us to flourish.