Lost, Lost

by Bolivar

Seventeen million Americans tuned in last week to one of television’s surprise hits this season: “Lost.” Many millions more sat in their living rooms feeding off the propaganda of the State, thinking, “I was once was Lost but now am found,” worshipping at the high altar of Bush and ingesting a gospel of violence and bloodshed.  

Among the “Lost” fans, I sat glued to the TV, spinning my mind on the reality portrayed by the show through a complex plot of clues and fictional flashbacks. It’s just a show, right? It’s only actors portraying they’re lost when a plane mysteriously tears in half and miraculously keeps 51 of its passengers alive, right? . . . at least for now, right?  

It is amazing to consider the so-called reality Americans watch on a daily basis, glued to the screens of FoxNews and CNN--waiting, watching, hanging on every verbal morsel that spills out of the mouths of media clowns and corporate news pushers. They would learn so much more by turning off the TV at news time, and instead turning it on to see a fictional story with realistic truths, rather than a live newscast with fictional deceptions.  

I watched as a troubled and much hated character on “Lost,” named Sawyer, who admitted to reading a copy of Watership Down after it washed up on the island. Could this be a clue to the writers hinting about what this mystery show will portray? See Bob Wallace’s article titled “Libertarian Rabbits” for a good analysis of the novel. “Lost” uses suspense, action, magic and science fiction themes in order to exquisitely draw us into the complex psyches of each persona and its volatile community.  

It appears that it is the viewers who inadvertently become lost. They are trying not only to figure out who is who and what is what on the island, but are lost as they watch the growing of constant fear and the gnawing of what might happen in this not so accidental microcosm of civilization. Will 51 men and women turn themselves into a voluntary society respecting one another and allow each other freedoms of expression and talents to survive? Or will beastly paranoia and selfish lusts of power turn these survivors into child-like savages like Lord of the Flies? My sense is that the latter will likely prevail.  

Why I am I so drawn into the show? I do not really wish myself cast away on some forsaken island having to deal with pompous Americans and Australians, fighting over where to find food and water. I am, however, intrigued by what human beings will do stretched to their utmost limits--forced to cast away their childish notions of justice, fairness and government and come back to the drawing board. The plot’s twisting and turning also fascinates me as it delves deep into human emotion and motivation, showing how each one of us are wretched human beings who make things worse by giving more power and glory to our wretched distortion of self-preservation: the State.  

The show surely is fascinating, but this is not free advertisement for the ABC corporation, owned by Disney, a powerful player in the military-welfare wing of our government. The point here is to demonstrate the parallelism and the hypocrisy of our “American nation,” whatever that may be, to claim moral superiority and the “words of eternal life.”  

As a Christian man who lives and owns property in one of the sub-states of the “ united states ,” there are certain allegiances that I must hold to. There is a fundamental patriotism and call to service that I must uphold in the face of naysayers and liberals who question my love for others and who say I am lost because I love freedom and the truth.  

I pledge allegiance every time I sit down to eat a meal with my family. I celebrate Memorial Day every time I meet with poor believers in a rented YMCA room to celebrate the death and resurrection of my Lord. I commemorate faithful veterans when I think of those martyrs and protestants murdered at the hands of politicians and popes because they would not worship their idols or honor Caesar. I watch the skies fill up with red, white and blue fireworks as our boys pound Baghdad , Fallujah and Mosul back into the Stone Age. Inside I cry for little Muslim children whose arms are blown off by missiles and cluster bombs dropped by cross-wearing soldiers, hitting Allah where it hurts the most.  

I pray with my wife that God would remove George W. Bush, the scourge of this land; that He would show mercy to all Americans whose sense of freedom has been numbed; that He would show judgment to all those who built pagan altars worshipping the White House at every synagogue and church.  

The actors on “Lost” may be the microcosm of a tenuous society thrown together in the midst of terrifying circumstances, grasping at any sense of reality and purpose that will pull them all together. But America is the true macrocosm. It is the quintessential laboratory of freedom born to test liberty and the naïve constructs of a constitution that promised freedom but only ensured slavery.  

When political giants like Washington and Franklin secretly met to devise the Constitution and scrap the Articles that united the colonies, how can we consider that a victory for truth and light? There is no doubt that if politicians obeyed the Constitution, we would have 90% less welfare and warfare programs. But how can we justify the other 10% on the basis of principle?  

The lack of individual sovereignty, the far away centralist control in Washington , DC , the hypocritical sham of a balance of federal powers – these would always cause politicians to steal, kill and destroy. We cannot justify it! How can we ever convince the electorate, the masses, or more accurately, the individuals, to accept the notion that they should not act like beasts as they lord it over one another instead of protecting their own rights. Or can they ever be convinced by campaigns and lobbyists unless they are transformed within and their eyes are opened to the one terrible horror: they are lost.  

The “founding father” Madison had this to say about his fond view of government:  

But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence upon the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions. (The Federalist)

In taking the risk of blaspheming one of America ’s revered “patriots,” I take issue with what came out of this Federalist, slavetrader’s mouth here. Where is the denunciation of the British system that stole the lives of black skinned men and women, the Spaniard system that murdered and ghettoed millions of natives, the European systems that inquisitioned and put millions of Jews and heretics to the rack and flame? Instead this boaster comes out with the preposterous statement that government is the “greatest of all reflections on human nature.” Hogwash.  

As a Christian I believe that God instituted “higher powers,” but the State as we know it is nothing like it. I would not for one second deceive myself to think that government is a reflection of my glory, my brilliance, or my inherent knowledge as a human to rule others as I rule myself.

Government, as it was meant to be, is a reflection of God and his utter command to respect one another by not killing, not stealing, not enslaving, not raping – those actions which are outward and manifest most often in the acts of politicians. All those actions of the heart and mind which Republicans and Democrats love to outlaw instead belong in the realm of the voluntary pulpit and the communities of faith that judge with the words of truth, not the violence of the sword or the tyranny of unjust law.

Madison must not have read the Scriptures much, for if men were angels, they would live in the blessed dictatorship of heaven with Him alone who is wise and would provide for our every need. I speak not of George W. Bush, but of the eternal God, in whose hands the hearts of kings and presidents are like water. He allows evil men to cause judgment upon nations. He allows nations to defile themselves and become beastly barbarians, bringing death and destruction--becoming lost when they thought they were found, fools thinking they were wise. There is perfect government in heaven which dictators want to translate to earth for their own evil devices and lusts.

Madison wanted to frame a government of men over men. It doesn’t sound anything like the freedom I believe in. Freedom to worship. Freedom to earn the value of your own labor. Freedom from politicians, prelates and pontificators. What we need is a “government” of men leaving other men alone. An approach that prevents the State from coming into existence. Laws that punish politicians and not the common man for simply living, loving, making offspring and obeying their individual consciences, not the community’s.

Madison makes a fundamental flaw by stating that the greatest difficulty lies in controlling the governed. Ask any child how to point a toy gun and shoot and you have discovered the great and sobering truth of control by violence. That Madison lived to see the American rebellion yet lost the principles of the American revolution is tragic. Those principles dictated that all men were gifted by their Creator with natural rights. Rights that men were not to be controlled or enslaved by, but rather served by them. This is why politicians use deceitful names such as ministers and representatives signifying inferiority when they are in actuality petty princes and ruthless aristocrats.

The government can never be obligated to control itself. It is like asking an alcoholic to drink one less beer. A sex addict to not think about women so much. A mother to love her child a little less. If my principles are called fanciful and whimsical because I abhor the beastly power of government, here then is true fantasy at play! That we can trust any politician or government worker to work in our best interest and curb their own abuse of our rights is true fiction. Here is found stupidity in its fullness with a gravestone inscribing: once a wise man created by God free who voluntarily made himself a pauper and a peon!

Here is my last comment on the Madisonian foolishness. He states that the primary control on government is the passive disposition of its dependence upon the people. Nothing could be farther from the truth! The Communist Party of China is so fundamentally and sensitively aware that it parasitically feeds upon the common people that it cannot survive one moment without its host.

It is this understanding of utter dependence on the squashing of peoples’ rights that causes the primary control on the people, not the other way around. What a bunch of humbug.  Ask the Chinese how their control of government works when they cannot practice Falun Gong or read about it on the internet without hundreds of plain clothes cops rushing out to sack them.

Most Americans are interested in being lost in the news that Scott Peterson is finally declared a murderer. They are taught to rage against those whom the State singles out and persecutes. How much false evidence, jury tampering, prosecutor intimidation and media bias went into the final verdict? Probably more than I care to know. But all is safe. We are lost in the verdict and the president has been safely re-elected.

No, we are not trapped in our own wilderness of despair and ignorance. We are free Americans, proud of our bloodstained flag. Willing to make the ultimate sacrifice so we too can be used as cannon fodder and news clips for the White House Press Secretary. We are not lost. It is the rest of the world who is lost and blind to our greatness, our power and our divine mission to bring freedom to the rest of the world. You are either with us or with the terrorists.