America cannot be a free nation with a healthy and thriving society if the chaos and complete lack of discipline continue in so many families and educational institutions.
American Patriot and dictionary author Noah Webster, who died on this day in 1843, summed it up very well: “The foundation of all free government and all social order must be laid in families and in the discipline of youth. Young persons must not only be furnished with knowledge, but they must be accustomed to subordination and subjected to the authority and influence of good principles. It will avail little that youths are made to understand truth and correct principles, unless they are accustomed to submit to be governed by them.”
Ever since the sexual revolution, the launch of the socialist welfare state, the Marxist takeover of schools, the widespread loss of religious belief, and the mainstreaming of bogus but highly damaging modern psychology, Americans have been increasingly undisciplined. Now as we have multiple generations of broken families, entitled ingrates, and nearly illiterate schoolchildren, it is obvious that our downgrading of moral, political, intellectual, and societal standards was terribly destructive.
Of course, many of us Americans have realized that we do, in fact, need to renew our government, our culture, and our communities. It can sometimes seem overwhelming when we contemplate how many institutions need to be reformed, however. But that is where Noah Webster and all the Founding Fathers who were his contemporaries can give us the key. Each one of them started with discipline in his own life, and then began to bring discipline to his family, town, regiment, and country.
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To paraphrase Jordan Peterson, before you set out to save the world, start by making your bed. The little mundane chores and tasks of life help us train in self-discipline until we are ready to accomplish great deeds. And in fact the greatest achievements usually involve lengthy and wearying effort— raising a child, reforming an institution, inventing a machine, winning a war. There are a hundred or a thousand dull and tiring acts and decisions for every moment of public victory or glory.
Unfortunately, in our modern technological age, especially with the introduction of identity politics, too many Americans have been encouraged to believe that they are owed success regardless of merit and that failure is never their own fault. That’s the attitude we have to fight as we reclaim our country. No man ever succeeds 100% of the time, and sometimes there are circumstances outside our control that block success. But if we cultivate discipline, we have won half the battle and can be much more confident of success in everything over which we have control.
And by showing through our words and actions that discipline isn’t limiting, but rather liberating and tending toward greater success and happiness, we can show young Americans desperate for meaning and purpose that they have to reject the Marxists’ lies and return to our nation’s traditional Judeo-Christian values.
The restoration of freedom and greatness lies with us. We can choose to be as disciplined as the heroes of our past and achieve similarly magnificent results. As Webster said, “The foundation of all free government and all social order must be laid in families and in the discipline of youth.”
