We left my last essay with a conundrum. “What was my Irish Setter supposed to do when he caught the UPS truck?” Or in political terms, “What do the Democrats want to do with the power they are so ardently seeking to seize?” Even so great a thinker as historian Victor Davis Hanson admits to being a bit puzzled by this.
After days of pondering, I found myself listening to that late great philosopher, Dame Olivia Newton-John, when she instructed us in song to “get metaphysical.” And this takes us straight into theories of “meaning.”
In his 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, Jordan Peterson emphasizes that it is essential for the individual to pursue a single aim higher than oneself. Meaning emerges from aligning one’s daily actions with a long-term vision that serves others or a greater good. And that is almost always service to God in some form or another. As Peterson notes (timestamp 9:00), “If there’s no unifying [single] ‘super-ordinate goal,’ the state of psychological affairs that obtains is one of confusion, anxiety, and social disunity.”
Note that the absence of higher service leads to personal chaos. Power itself is not service. It is a tool for service. Ultimately, this takes us to theology.
The oldest manuscript we have of Deuteronomy 32:8-9, the Dead Sea Scrolls, points out that the division of humanity into warring tribes at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) placed each of those tribes under the authority of individual rebellious elohim, celestial beings created by YHWH, the One True God.* Each of them chose to rebel in order to be, as described by Isaiah 14:13-14, “like the Most High,” on a throne “above the Most High.” In short, they gave up service to their exclusive higher purpose in exchange for a quarrelsome “Me, Me, Me” life.
This is the status of the modern left. Various constructions, such as the post-modern “my truth,” point out that the left has no Pole Star for service. At this point, please forgive me if I leave out your favorite example. There are simply too many. Every example has a single key element. The individual is supreme, and there are no exceptions. Any suggestion that the leftist must submit to any higher authority is met with violent opposition, or, in the face of irresistible enforcement, some form of psychological decompensation. We are all familiar with the leftist protester screaming at the sky.
This person has, for some reason, found her “truth” completely rejected by others or contradicted by reality. Lacking any sort of higher purpose, she is completely bereft of her security. Primal fear rules her life at this moment.
This set of circumstances clarifies the Democrats’ scramble for power. If you hold the keys to power, at whatever level, you are supreme. You cannot be challenged.
Consider the divine right of kings to rule. King James I of England was formerly James VI of Scotland and ascended to that throne after conspiring with Elizabeth I of England to have his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, beheaded. He later became King of England when Elizabeth died.
That paragraph is a precís of the left. James did not actually believe in the “divine right,” since he conspired in his mother’s death. But once he became King of England, he was more than happy to execute William Tyndale for translating the Bible into English. He banned the Geneva Bible (translated into English by scholars in Geneva, then smuggled into England) because it had marginal notes that denied the divine right of kings to rule. When the clamor for an English Bible became too great, he gave in, but directed the translators to avoid those offensive marginal notes. The result was the first edition of the “Authorized Version,” also known as the King James Bible.
Note the nub of the argument. King James was willing to do whatever he needed to gain power, just like today’s Democrats. Once in power, he did everything to ensure that he remained immune to any sort of accusations. So when he “declined” to pay the translators and sent the printing job to his buddy, no one dared challenge him. No one had the power to do so. The history of England is one of slow, incremental steps to reduce the king’s power, while slowly growing the power of the non-royal elites. In the end, there is little difference who is in power.
In the US, examples jump out from every corner. Anthony Fauci, even though he constantly contradicted himself, was “The Science,” and could not be questioned. He was propped up by the media and the Democrat party power brokers. His immunity led to immense personal profit from his ownership interest in vaccine and medication patents (shared by his patrons). The fact that both were manifestly detrimental to others was irrelevant.
Moving to the lowest level of power, a child in school who claims to be trans-whatever has now acquired power and the immunity that accompanies it. “He deadnamed me!” “You didn’t use my proper pronouns!” This person, who has not done anything worthy of such privilege, has arrogated it to himself. And if he hasn’t earned it, he’s associated himself with a movement that says he doesn’t need to earn it. This makes him “power-adjacent,” and the affinity group creates immunity.
Of course, the ultimate level of privilege and immunity currently comes from claiming that one’s opponents are “white racists” and suffer from “white privilege.” Anything that smacks of meritocracy must be demeaned into oblivion by such an approach.
There is no way to exhaust the examples. The attempt would only exhaust my Dear Readers. But the key elements of the Democrats’ power grabs are becoming clear. We need to allow ourselves to look beyond the various machinations to consider why they don’t want us to look behind the curtain.
The Democrats’ insatiable appetite for power comes from a bottomless pit of meaninglessness. Only by gaining power over others can a leftist create the appearance of meaning for himself. But that meaning is a mirage, sustained only by a transient immunity conferred by the momentary possession of power. That void of meaning is manifested in a complete abdication of any service to the public.
When Donald Trump gives up his life, fortune, and sacred honor to improve the lot of Americans (MAGA!), it is an existential threat to the leftists who have built lives on raw power and the immunity that derives from it.
On the other hand, Christians and others on the right serve a true higher cause. They don’t serve it perfectly, as that has only been done once. But they have true meaning in their lives because of that service. Leftists see that and work hard to destroy it because the light of true service shines into their darkness, revealing it for the emptiness it really is.
Ultimately, the faux power will fail. As YHWH says in Psalm 82:6-7 (quoted by Jesus in John 10:34), “I said, “You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High. Nevertheless, you will die like men, and fall like any one of the princes.” (Psa 82:6-7 NAS).
Will we be able to reclaim some of those who have fallen into the pit of depravity, or are they so fully committed to the evil elohim that they simply cannot allow themselves to leave the dark side? My crystal ball is cloudy, so for now, we must spare no effort to right the ship of state and, in the words of Herman Cain, “Save the saveable.”
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*A more complete discussion of this is best found in Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches About the Unseen World – and Why It Matters by the late Dr. Michael S. Heiser. His more academic treatment of the subject is The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible.
Ted Noel is a retired physician who posts on social media as Doctor Ted. His occasional Doctor Ted’s Prescription podcast is available on multiple podcast channels.
Jesus Christ is King
