AN ESSAY BY JOHN LARS ZWERENZ
MARCH 11, 2019
THE RISE OF THE NATION STATES
After centuries of British expansionism, coupled with the successful establishment of The United States of America, the inceptions of most Nation States evolved in the middle part of the 19th Century. The fruitions of these inceptions have often led, directly and indirectly, to the most violent abominations seen in human history, from their first effects (such as the Franco - Prussian War in 1870) to the ineffable crimes of Nazi Germany in the 1940's along with Joseph Stalin's purges of innocent millions in Soviet Russia during that same era.
America's annihilation of hundreds of thousands of innocent peasants in agrarian South East Asia from 1965 to 1973 must also be recognized as another grave infraction of the basic tenants of objective morality. Among other nations, whatever their characters, to emerge since 1740, it has been the particular ideologies of The United States of America that have been the most unique and unprecedented.
Mostly based on Godly principles which were conceived prior to the age of The Enlightenment, America's Founders extrapolated and perfected the best political ideologies from Europe's most humble yet exalted concepts of genuine humanitarianism, religious freedom and equality among all persons. Such ideas were coalesced and penned most efficaciously in The New Republic's Constitution, ratified in June of 1778.
Yet by the middle part of the 19th Century, ideas such as Manifest Destiny, The Monroe Doctrine and American Exceptionalism began to shape and influence the American Republic's attitudes and policies in major ways, both at home and abroad.
Sprouting from these new ideas came the belief that America and Americans were superior to other nations and peoples by virtue of Divine choice, by providential design.
The one definitive conception which gave birth to these beliefs was first explicitly espoused in Alexis de Tocqueville's masterwork "Democracy In America", published in two unified sections, in 1835 and in 1840, respectively. It is in this seminal treatise of biased political science that we first find the ideas of American Exceptionalism fully introduced to the American people in a complete and cohesive manner.
One outstanding and conspicuous irony is that some of the most noble and influential Americans at the time these ideals emerged rejected them without exception. Among these men and women was President Abraham Lincoln who rightly perceived these new notions concerning America's position in the world dangerous to global peace and stability.
In the final analysis all nations, whatever virtues they may possess, are conceived and are crafted by the minds and hands of men. They are all therefore liable to suffer from a multitude of evils and imperfections.
The dictates of objective morality are clear in regards to the ultimate destiny of all nations and their peoples. For it is an irrefutable fact that, although often unintended, all nations are fundamentally interdependent upon all others, spiritually, politically and financially. This fact may in truth be their saving grace.
In conclusion, I state now with concrete certainty that every individual's primary personal affiliation and allegiance should be to God, his Creator, his Savior and Redeemer, not merely to one's Country. This is not to say that one does not owe a great debt to the homeland that has nourished him, rather it is to say there is an incalculable difference between what men have made and Who God Is.
For it has been said: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will never pass away." (Matthew 24:35)
John Lars Zwerenz
