We can change the world. You’ve heard that before, but it’s almost a truth with a capital “T.” It’s just a matter of commitment.
Hear me out.
Just because I woke up in the middle of the night and grabbed my iPhone and excitedly started voice memo-ing about atoms, power, revolution and Kevin Bacon does not mean that I was inspired by God.
Or does it?
To this day, I remain perplexed that the United States of America reelected Barack Obama. In so many ways, his orientation and policies are antithetical to my understanding of America. However, can a majority be wrong or misguided? Of course they can. And the soothsayer in me says that this last election will someday be a classic case study of political misdirection that rivaled the skills of David Copperfield.
The President couldn’t run on his record––in the private sector he probably would have been fired. Yet, because of brilliant and repugnant tactics by his team, he has four more years to social democratize this country and institutionalize quasi anti-American principles––big government, limited freedoms, entitlement dependency, redistribution, religious hostility, family disembowelment, moral diminution, constitutional adventurism, judicial activism, capitalistic restraint, and so on. He’s probably a nice man, but he’s putting America into a figurative death spiral.
So, how do we stop him and his ilk? They have power, the bully pulpit, much of the media––pretty big microphone I’d say. Is a lawful, grass-roots revolution to put America back on its proper foundation even possible? Is transforming this country a legitimate and achievable endgame? They’re doing it, can we counter? (Hopefully, it’s not necessary for me to define “they” and “we.”)
Let me first make a point about the atomic bomb. The power of the atom was unleashed to an unimaginable degree in 1945. The potential energy had always been there from the moment God created time and space. However, people were required to unlock the secrets and harness it.
Then we have six degrees of separation. It’s “the idea that everyone is approximately six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world, so that a chain of ‘a friend of a friend’ statements can be made, on average, to connect any two people in six steps.” In other words, you shrink the world by leveraging relationships. A game of linking any actor to Kevin Bacon was a play on this idea.
Now here’s the crux. I want to leverage content and media––the Message of Enlightenment for want of a better term––to counter and reverse the decline of America. It’s my tweak of six degrees of separation. By connecting folks to the nth degree (“n” is assumed to be a really high number), let’s unleash them by communicating the Message to all of them so that, in unity, they become an atomic-like force. Let’s rebuild America by inspiring hearts and minds and changing them, if necessary. Let’s blow six degrees right out of the water. Let’s develop a mantra for our times––so that an endgame of transformation is possible. The potential is there.
I’d probably bullet my o’dark-thirty inspiration as follows:
- Nth Degree of Connection.
- Message of Enlightenment.
- An Endgame of Transformation.
- NDoC 2 NGaME (in its entirety or parts thereof) could be emblazoned everywhere.
My concept seems reasonable but how, exactly, do you battle the progressive ideology that has been building for one hundred years?
By sharing.
Everyday I read astute and powerful writing on a whole host of relevant issues that are consistent with Magisterial teaching or natural law or virtuous principles or a good life––writing that would bolster the Message of Enlightenment. However, reading them is not enough. A Facebook “like” is a good first step but more action is required.
In these times, educating myself and liking something are indeed positive but I have an obligation to inform others. If 1,000 people read a Message article, 1,000 people should share it (there are share button icons in many places). If you read a post or see a video on National Catholic Register, New Advent or Big Pulpit that moves the needle toward enlightenment and transformation, share it. The best case is that every Message goes viral.
Sharing is evangelizing. Sharing increases knowledge. Sharing means exposure. Sharing gives power to voices that can enlighten and transform. Sharing creates new leadership. Sharing doesn’t cost but can produce immeasurable value. Sharing can change America and perhaps the world.
Just imagine if everyone committed to this idea.
NDoC 2 NGaME.
Please let me know what you think. Morning revelations are always kind of fun.
