Excellent

Our U.S.A. history began early in the seventeenth century ( 1600s ) with the establishment of a colony in Virginia, Jamestown in 1607 and then in 1619 a colony in Massachusetts at Plymouth. We all get taught some version of the story for each colony which includes, more or less, emphasis on some people prospecting to start commercial ventures, following British law, in a wide-open ‘new world’  and other people looking to set up a new society with established laws from Great Britain and Christian gospel and doctrine as their guiding rule – on a stern and rock bound coast.
I have to remind myself repeatedly about the blatant and undeniable – conservative – reality of those first attempts at creating a viable society in America when I am endlessly harassed by news about our  ‘modern’, ‘transformed’, ‘digitized’, ‘woke’  wonderland where Conservatives are maligned and targeted daily. For the past century, at least, we have been force fed a steady diet of anti- Christian, socialist-promoting, crass entertainment culture, low class warfare, and centralized government police state propaganda all contrived to defame, degrade and destroy Our Right Honorable Country. The notion that America is some neon-lit Garbageland for bragging, worthless nobodies is Not True for Our Country and it has Never been true – from those early origins all the way to Our Time – our Present Situation.

The Virginia Company, a joint stock venture sanctioned by the British government, planned and accomplished the VERY difficult establishment of a permanent settlement in the woods of North America 3,000 miles across the Atlantic. The people who took the risk and did the hard work of transferring civilization from Britain to the ‘new world’ were thoroughly, entirely acting in accordance with and allegiance to British rule – Monarch, Parliament and citizen-subjects.When the Virginia General Assembly met in 1619, as elected representatives in the brand new House of Burgesses, they put in writing their plan for proceeding, as citizens ( British) with a government of laws, written by themselves with plain reference to that British law, King and Parliament. THEY DID NOT JOT DOWN  a list of crapshow idiocy, petit crime hobbies, kiss-my-butt contempt for law, or sucks-to-be-you attitudes about neighbors and property etc.

That first document written down for governing organized society in the woods of America ( to replace the Royal Martial Law that was in effect then) was a – declaration of conservative principles – put into action. The elected Burgesses were attempting to legislate Goodness for a community of Goodness in the Reality of Goodness that is present everywhere on this planet – ‘new worlds’ included. 400 years on we are a long way down the history road, still dealing with the  Problem  that came over with the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish locals who brought that – free man/disciplined man – existential challenge with them.   America was always going to be a tremendous success – it was OBVIOUS to anyone in Britain back then with a lick of sense. Any rational colonist could not avoid the plain truth that America would grow into an INDEPENDENT NATION in some near future. Patience is a virtue that can PAY huge rewards for wise investors. ( ref. Canada, Australia) Rash decisions can lead to ‘revolting circumstances’ and require a ‘story’ to ‘explain’ difficulties that ensue. When we are given a choice between ‘free’  you-name-it and disciplined Goodness the correct choice should be easy for intelligent people to see and choose.

Prosperity has been a steady, near certain feature for Americans and it invites people to casual mistakes in understanding how we participate in a Reality of Goodness and how we RULE our Good selves in that Reality. One necessary Mission that we Americans have not yet accomplished is the clear, effective understanding of the Truth that Goodness in mind, in heart, in life is the BEST that we aim to achieve and the freedom that we prize is the freedom that happens when we are Best. IT IS NOT THE CASE that clamoring for freedom of whatever kind makes any behavior valid – and thus that is our American way of life. That was false in Old Virginia, it has always been false everywhere in America, and it is false today – and will be forever.

While the settlers in the Old Dominion were getting their conservative government up and running that other group of new arrivals were faced with a slightly different situation. Having spent – 2 months – packed into a ship going up-and-down across the Atlantic they had to decide how to  organize two groups of hopeful newcomers who wanted to get off the Mayflower – NOW! The Pilgrims who instigated the voyage had (foolishly?) brought with them various people with useful skills to help with the task of starting from scratch, (in late November in New England)  to build a community that would, first survive the winter and then continue to thrive in the new year. Some of the ‘helpers’ were making noises about not being bound by any agreement made back in Britain since Plymouth was not in the Virginia territory they had originally intended for a new colony. Various people have various attitudes and behaviors which leads to any community making a decision on what RULE for living will be agreed upon – for the Good of all. So something had to be done

That something was the Mayflower Compact known to all school kids in America. The Compact was a social, moral, legal, political statement which included… ‘Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign King James; the advancement of the Christian faith; a covenant for our better ordering; frame such just and equal laws.. thought to be most meet for the general GOOD of the colony. It DOES NOT include any statement about – King James and Parliament can kiss our butts, they have no say in what we do; or  since we are now in a place other than Great Britain we can do whatever we want; or   any culture, customs, norms and laws that were practiced back in Europe do not apply to us, we will make up our own NEW WORLD way of doing things.

The strange current notion or attitude in Our Country that America began or was ‘founded’ as a breaking away from, or a rebuke to, or a what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it brassy contempt for the LAWS, the established civil society, the Christian virtues, the respect for mental competence that is our heritage from Great Britain and other European countries – is a product of the Problem that plagues America, and has been around from those beginning days

The Pilgrims took the initiative at the crucial moment and let the craftsmen know that Good, Better, Best and Personal Excellence were going to be the standard procedure – for everybody in the new Plantation. As they were facing an immediate life or death situation ( which concentrates the mind) it must not have taken a lot of persuading to get the voyagers agreeable to sanity and productivity. The story of the the first Pilgrims settling in the New World is about people who sent themselves on an adventure of Goodness on a planet that doesn’t care whether you live or die. The BEST that we can do is OBVIOUSLY NOT anything goes, but an intelligent respect for the Fact of Goodness and for Personal Excellence which was true in 1619 and is still true today.  Their ‘conservative’ way of being was a testament to the Truth of Goodness that guides our lives always. Solving the free man/disciplined man Problem should be an easy lift for us. We need to lift up our eyes to the BEST that calls us forward  and advance, each day, toward it – in thought and in deed.