Democracy

     [This first appeared at the old Palace of Reason, so long ago that I can no longer remember exactly when. – FWP]

---

     To many Americans, the names of the two majority parties are words without precise definitions. The original meaning of the word “democracy” has been displaced by a host of implications and a glow of unquestioned sanctity. For “republic,” few persons have any feeling at all.

     In the Random House World Atlas, the United States is classified as a “federal republic.” Indeed, it was the intent of the Founding Fathers to form precisely that object; and for about a hundred years, the political structure of the United States was in that style. However, with respect for the editors of the World Atlas, it is no longer any such thing.

     Several historians specializing in the Constitutional period have written of the fear of democracy several Founders expressed. A number of historians have inferred that, whatever their gifts might have been, these nation-builders regarded the common man with the contempt typical of oligarchs. It's difficult to verify or falsify such a suspicion at two centuries' remove.

     Concerning the contempt felt for the private citizen by our contemporary political class, there is much that may be observed and analyzed. Despite politicians' endless public importunings for our “participation,” it is quite clear that once we favor any one of them with enough votes to install him in office, his desire for citizen “participation” vanishes. A citizen may count himself lucky to get half a minute's attention from a sitting executive, legislator, or judge, until about three months before that executive, legislator or judge is due to stand for re-election, and even then a furious waving of the checkbook is generally required. On the approachability and attentiveness of career bureaucrats, it is unnecessary to comment.

     In the early days of the Republic, the franchise was extremely limited in scope and application. The citizens of a state who were Caucasian, male, over twenty-one years of age, and owned land in that state could vote for the men who would sit in one or both of the two chambers of that state's legislature. The enfranchised citizens of the state were also empowered to choose those who would sit for them in the House of Representatives. Members of the Senate were chosen by the legislatures, not the people, of the states they represented, as required by the Constitution. The President was chosen by a College of Electors, whose members were also chosen by the state legislatures.

     Clearly, the citizen's democratic franchise, if he had it, was much less extended then, and its effects upon the federal government were much less direct than is the case today. The state of affairs described above lasted almost unchanged until 1913, when the Seventeenth Amendment empowered enfranchised citizens to choose federal Senators. The Sixteenth (Income Tax) Amendment and the Federal Reserve Act were also passed in 1913. In 1914, the fraction of the Gross National Product consumed by government at all levels passed 10% for the first time.

     Within five years, the United States had entered a war against a group of nations with which it had no contiguous borders; the federal government had asserted the power to nationalize whole industries; conscription and price controls had been instituted; the federal government had “suspended” redemption-in-gold of federal paper currency; a massive “civil service” bureaucracy, hundreds of thousands strong, had arisen in Washington; nine billion dollars (more than $200 billion in 1988 dollars) had been loaned to the governments of Great Britain and France from the federal treasury, never to be repaid; federal expenditures had exceeded the sum of all state and county expenditures for the first time; and 125,000 Americans had died in the trenches, fields and hospitals of war-ravaged Europe.

     This is not to suggest that the direct election of Senators, or the extension of the franchise to non-Caucasians and women, brought these things about. But it is remarkable that a people living in nearly complete peace and freedom could have been stripped so thoroughly of that peace and freedom for so small a price as the extension of the power to vote.

     Not one of the statist-imperialist trends set in motion during the Wilson Administration has ever been abated. The Republic had been dismantled from within, and a democracy had been erected in its place. A republic is a nation in which the permissible activities of government are limited by a written Constitution which defines them precisely; a democracy is a nation in which the majority makes all decisions, either directly or through its representatives, and imposes them on the minority by force. The doctrine of individual sovereignty had disappeared as government at all levels asserted unlimited power to arrange the lives of Americans and dispose of their fortunes as it pleased.

     Some of the Republic's finest moments were among its last, under one of its least appreciated Presidents, Grover Cleveland. Cleveland was the last of the Democrats of the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, “the party of hard money and personal liberty.” Under rising pressure from his own party, Cleveland maintained to the end that government in America had only a limited sphere; at tremendous cost to his popularity, he vetoed every emission of Congress not consistent with the moral limits on government. Among his achievements against a socialist tide whose strength is hard to appreciate today, Cleveland restrained the federal government's debt and spending, prevented the use of tax revenues for individual or corporate welfarism, blocked all attempts to legislate on personal morality, saved the gold standard, and limited the size of the civil service. The excesses of his successors would not have been possible had Cleveland not preserved the country in such fine condition.

     Old Grover knew what a republic was, and it's plain that he loved ours. He might well weep to see what has taken its place.

For Your Own Good Dept.

     “Death is the price we pay for our life, and for all life.” – Ursula Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

     “No one here gets out alive.” – Jim Morrison

     Welcome to All Hallows’ Eve, Gentle Reader. Yes, it’s better known as Hallowe’en – don’t omit the apostrophe – and the legions of candy-grubbing spratlings in weird costumes that troop from door to door in the evening. But in point of fact, this is the opening day of a solemn Christian commemoration. This day is marked for the contemplation of mortality: yours and mine.

     We shall all die. All that lived before us knew it. All that will come after us will know it, too. Fantasies of physical immortality are just that.

     Thousands are dying as we speak. For many, the event is considered premature, because their lives were ended by accident or violence. But we don’t get to say when the clock of mortality, “that two-handed engine that stands behind the door,” will smite us for the last time.

     It behooves us to be ready.

* * *

     Whew! Glad that’s out of the way. Now where was I? Oh yes, this story:

     The manosphere and online misogyny should be treated by the government as a public health issue, in the same way as obesity or smoking, experts have said.
     Writing in the Lancet, the authors of a new report argue that a coordinated response is needed, involving governments, schools, health services and community organisations, similar to the public-health response to tobacco use and ultra-processed food.
     “Men’s problems are framed [in the manosphere] as the result of feminism rather than structural conditions, and masculine identity is commodified through products and paid content that normalise and reinforce health-harming and performance-oriented masculinities,” the authors write.
     The report defines the manosphere as “a diffuse commercial ecosystem and loose collection of online communities united by shared beliefs about masculinity, misogyny and male victimisation”.

     Heavens to Murgatroyd! Men online are saying critical things about women! I could stop right there, secure in the knowledge that my Gentle Readers are all bright enough to predict the rest. However, a bit from the cited article in The Lancet deserves special attention:

     Similar to the tobacco and ultra-processed food industries,44 content creators and hosting platforms deploy strategies that individualise responsibility.45 Men's problems are framed as the result of feminism rather than structural conditions, and masculine identity is commodified through products and paid content that normalise and reinforce health-harming and performance-oriented masculinities.46 Efforts to regulate or moderate content are frequently framed as threats to men's autonomy, restricting political space for intervention.

     So treatment of the “public health issue” of men griping about women and pursuing traditionally masculine goals is being impeded by that inconvenient matter of freedom of expression! Well, the folks in the United Kingdom have already been told that that’s over with. No doubt their political masters will defer to “experts” Sarah Hawkes and Kent Buse. After all, it’s for your own good!

     Yes, we Americans take a somewhat different view of the matter. But… but… public health! Surely we can see the importance of that! What’s an itty-bitty infringement of our free-speech rights compare to the all-important goal of protecting the health of the public? Can’t we give just a little for something so momentous? It’s for your own good!

     I could go on this way, but it’s ceased to be entertaining.

* * *

     Time was, the “public health” shibboleth was reserved for dangerous infectious diseases. Maladies that can spread rapidly among the populace without anyone knowing. There was some justification for government efforts at tracking and general education, at least. But not long ago, the Left discovered the intimidating power of the phrase. It developed that even Americans are willing to allow their rights to be abridged in the name of “public health.”

     Even Robert A. Heinlein, one of the most freedom-loving of well-known writers, was willing to permit such abridgement:

     ‘Lies! I'm not going to say another word without my lawyer.’
     At which point I made yet another mistake. ‘But, Priscilla, I am a lawyer; you know that. What they're asking is quite reasonable, a matter of public health.’

     The power of that phrase is quite astounding. I hope the ghost of Ayn Rand – it’s a good day for ghosts, isn’t it? – will forgive me for slightly altering something she wrote:

     “Mr. Rearden, the law which you are denouncing is based on the highest principle—the principle of the public health.”
     “Who is the public? What does it hold as its health?”

     Apparently, “public health” demands that we not own firearms, or drink wine, or eat what we like if “experts” disapprove of it. Mind you, there’s always a degree of dissent among the ranks of the “experts,” but some have the patronage of the Omnipotent State. Their recommendations get official respect. One guess as to why.

* * *

You don't really need to find out
What's going on
You don't really want to know
Just how far it's gone

(Don Henley)

     Everyone knows how far it’s gone. Lockdowns and forced vaccinations made it quite plain. Christian Scientists, Amish, and Mennonites who resist are painted as something akin to public enemies. It’s even been alleged that surgeons who operate on children for typical childhood needs are facilitating the vaccination of those children before the operation, without informing their parents or securing their consent. All in the name of “public health.”

     But we must raise the question governments most hate to face: “What if you’re wrong? Will you restore our rights, refund our money, and apologize for your intrusion on our lives?”

     There’s no chance we’ll get an honest answer. But upsetting the State is always worth doing.

Options Trading

     Every so often I’ll see a statement from a woman that makes me wonder if she has any ability to pay attention, much less a sense for the consequences of her actions:

Recently a guy asked me out and I told him to let me think about it, and he said okay. A few weeks later I noticed I was no longer seeing his display picture, so I sent him a message, only to discover I had been blocked. He didn't ask or try to persuade me; he just blocked me. So a girl can't take some time to weigh her options anymore?

— Empress (@PempressP) October 29, 2026

     Oh, is that it? You were “weighing your options?” Pray tell, what options were you weighing? Whether the man who asked you out would provide better entertainment than some other, unnamed man? Or perhaps whether a “girls’ night out” would be preferable to an evening in his company? Did you give even an instant’s consideration to what that said to him?

     There are only two acceptable answers to an invitation to a date:

• “Yes, I’d like that.”
• “No, I’m sorry, but I already have plans.”

     Everything else is “options trading.” Not only is that one of the easiest ways to go broke; it’s also the route to a reputation no woman should want to acquire: that of a gold-digger.

     Think about it, for heaven’s sake! “I’ll think about it” says explicitly that he who issued the invitation may not be good enough to be worth your precious time! What kind of message is that? What would you have thought had your positions been reversed?

     (Nota bene: Gentlemen, never, ever pose an invitation to a lady as “would you like to go out sometime?” That’s bad. Always give a specific date, and the first item on the evening’s agenda – usually, dinner. Not to do so leaves the lady wondering just what she’s being asked to do. She would be entirely within her rights to decline with prejudice. Also, remember that three successive declines constitute a permanent negative response.)

     I’ve fulminated about this sort of idiocy before, of course. Not that it matters. Female thoughtlessness and callousness are everywhere. Yet they complain to one another – “Where have all the good men gone?” – without a moment’s reflection on how they have helped to produce the current situation.

     You want to know why so many men are “hit and run” types, ladies? Why they’ll grab what they can, sometimes a single night’s pleasure, and disappear? Their disdain for you is a response to your unabashed calculations about their “value.” Your constant “can I do better than him?” musings. As you reduce them to their net worth, they reduce you to your mucous membranes.

     “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” It’s one of the oldest proverbs. It applies to agriculture and social dealing with equal force. A young woman once learned such basic wisdoms at her mother’s knee. But a great many of their mothers either have fallen down on the job, or haven’t learned it themselves. More’s the pity.

Acculturation

     Adaptability is a double-edged sword. One who moves from a culture in which he’s comfortable to another which differs from it is expected to adapt. But his adaptation can take more than one form.

     Imagine one who moves from a dirty, violent, lawless place – a place where life is “nasty, poor, brutish, and short” – to a place of peace, cleanliness, and mutual trust. There’s no guarantee that he’ll adapt to his new environment by conforming to its norms. He may see those around him, so wealthy, clean, and peaceable in aspect – as pigeons for the plucking. Having been steeped in the ethics of his previous environments – i.e., whatever you can get away with is quite all right – he might just try to pluck them.

     Americans have been seeing a lot of that. Many of us have reacted against it, which is rational and sane. Many others have done the opposite: they’ve claimed that we, the clean, peaceable, trusting ones, have an obligation to adapt to the newcomers. They may even believe that it’s our ethical obligation to do so.

     It “should be obvious” that whichever doctrine prevails will determine the future of that society. What’s not so obvious are the sub-processes by which that future is attained.

* * *

     Mourn the passing of a great nation:

@viking_boer Desensitization is a big thing-- didn't realize how much so until I left Zimbabwe. Stop rationalizing murders & torture because it wasn't in your area. Stop excusing murder & torture because of politics. I believe there will be ethnic cleansing. Save yourselves, before you can't

— Charlene (@_4Charlene) October 29, 2026

     Rhodesia was a great nation. It was built entirely by colonists from Great Britain. Yes, it was imposed willy-nilly upon the blacks in that region. It was great nevertheless, a bastion of peace, order, and prosperity where the law of the jungle had reigned. The same was true of South Africa before the Whites surrendered political control to the blacks of that region.

     In neither land is there anything resembling public order or trust today. In neither land are Whites’ lives safe. The law of the jungle has returned.

     That’s what happens when a society ceases to enforce high-civilization norms and surrenders to those who disdain them. Actually, “disdain” isn’t the right word. They who destroyed Rhodesia and South Africa didn’t think about the norms the British and Boers brought to those places. They simply lived according to the norms of the jungle, where “whatever you can get away with is quite all right.” In the absence of enforcement, they were too many and too savage for the White minorities to cope with.

* * *

     A famous incident from a few years back had a remarkable sequel. The two Sikhs who stopped a blatant shoplifter by force were subsequently investigated for assault. Now ask yourself this:

What rational man, imbued with the norms of a high-trust society, would have blamed the Sikhs for doing what they did?

     Those two Sikhs may not have been thinking about the abstract threat to the high-trust society in which they lived. They may not have been thinking that “if we permit this, the store will close and we’ll lose our livelihoods.” They may have reacted purely from fury. Whatever the case, in the three-person microcosm depicted by the video, they imposed the norms they preferred upon the miscreant who had tried to impose his norms on them. They enforced the norms of high-trust society without embarrassment, and for a spell, the law of the jungle was warded off.

     But we must not pass on without pondering the other facet to the incident. Those Sikhs, who acted in defense of the store and the norms that made it possible, were suddenly subject to legal hazard. Had the district attorney decided to prosecute them, they would have suffered greatly even if ultimately acquitted. They were fortunate that it proved not to be necessary to defend themselves against the weight of the “justice system.”

     Acculturation can penetrate any institution. Get enough softheaded types into the system and they can remake it quite opposite to its original purpose. That’s happened in a number of places in these United States. I live uncomfortably near to one.

* * *

     In even the highest and most civilized societies, there will be a criminally-inclined subgroup. Members of that group will look for opportunities to exploit the prevalence of general trust. I wrote about such a person here:

     “And thank You, dear Lord, for keeping Onteora County well stocked with idiots,” Dominic intoned, head bowed over his folded hands. Tony looked up at him in surprise. “Thank You for making them trust those ridiculous Kruger-Smith snap locks, and for never suggesting to them that they shouldn’t keep all their valuables in the master bedroom. Your humble servant really appreciates these labor-saving conveniences.”….
     Some thieves seek riches. Others seek challenges to their skills. Dominic sought only sustenance.
     Onteora suited him. Its poor had little to defend, and were philosophical about losing it. Its better-offs were few enough not to stimulate much competition for him, and found more succor in their homeowner’s insurance than in the halfhearted efforts of the county police. He knew better than to attack the well secured, privately guarded homes of the county’s few rich. As long as he stayed fit and sharp, he could survive here.

     As long as they’re few, and kept in acceptable check by the “forces of order,” that high-trust society will survive with its norms intact. But when the forces of order become acculturated to failure, the few will attract emulators. Those who were previously unwilling to risk violating the norms will become bolder: “They get away with it, so we can too.” Evidence will accumulate that the norms of general trust are fading. Violators will multiply still faster.

     It’s a positive-feedback cycle.

* * *

     I could go on about this, but I think the point will stand. Either we enforce the norms – emphasis on force — or we’ll lose them. To that end, a particular attitude toward such things is to be eliminated: the notion that “the law belongs to the State.” It does not. The State is merely our agent. If that agent has ceased to fulfill its responsibilities, private citizens who understand the foundation of all law, the principles of right and wrong, must step in.

     Those two Sikhs got it right.
     Refuse to tolerate the intolerable.
     Reject acculturation to the law of the jungle.

A Song Of Innocence

     Apologies for the… Stop! Stop! Danger Fran Porretto!

     That’s it. That’s the last time I’ll apologize for not putting out free reading material. I’m not under contract. I don’t get paid for this… hobby. I do it out of an impulse, a desire to express myself. And to the extent that my Gentle Readers are edified or entertained by what they find here, I think it’s a generous impulse.

     But that’s a tangent, really. I’m about to do a somewhat self-indulgent thing. It occurred to me that no one can stop me! Hah! So brace yourselves, Gentle Readers: I’m about to nostalgize.

* * *

     I ran across this just yesterday:

🎬 Recorded in December 1964, this unforgettable two-minute performance was captured in one unedited take—no cuts, no tricks, just pure talent. Every note had to be perfect. Decades later, its raw authenticity remains captivating. ✨ https://t.co/wnYRoeyI2d

— Music Vibes ✨ (@GcHa229831) October 27, 2026

     In 1964, pop music was still being played on AM radio. That was where I heard that song: WMCA, 570 on your AM dial. I fell in love with it immediately. My singing it around the house drove my father slightly bonkers, but then, it really didn’t matter what I sang. His taste in music was strictly big-band swing.

     I didn’t know anything about recording studios or how they worked. Indeed, I didn’t know until yesterday that The Seekers recorded that hit in one take, without subsequent remixing or replacement of anything. But it was a simpler time, with simpler music. Probably a number of other popular songs were recorded the same way.

     But I was more transported by the innocence of the song than anything else. Consider the lyric:

There's a new world somewhere
They call the Promised Land
And I'll be there someday
If you will hold my hand
I'll still need you there beside me
No matter what I do
For I know I'll never find another you

There is always someone
For each of us, they say
And you'll be my someone
Forever and a day
I could search the whole world over
Until my life is through
But I know I'll never find another you [Bridge]

It's a long, long journey
So, stay by my side
When I walk through the storm
You'll be my guide
Be my guide [Verse 3]

If they gave me a fortune
My pleasure would be small
I could lose it all tomorrow
And never mind at all
But if I should lose your love, dear
I don't know what I'd do
For I know I'll never find another you

     Pure, innocent love. Un-suggestive, un-ironic. From when the more intimate aspects of such love were deemed private matters, not to be bruited about in public. Before music itself was politicized, turned into a vehicle for “protest.”

     Things are different now, aren’t they? Pop songs are laced with all kinds of sexual and political statements. It seems we must hear every “recording artist’s” political views. Laura Ingraham’s suggestion that they shut up and sing has gone unheeded. And don’t get me started on the actors and actresses.

     How often do we hear songs like that today?

* * *

     Dear God, how I want those years back! I know they’re gone, but the feeling of them comes back a little whenever I hear a song like “Another You.” We went badly wrong not long after that. Some of the reasons are obvious, some aren’t. But leave the politics and the sexual revolution to one side for just a moment. The innocence of the period is the greatest loss: the confidence that we could get along, be friends, be lovers, and entertain one another without quarreling over our differences of opinion.

     Forgive me, Gentle Reader. Old men can be like this, as I’m sure you know. Today it was too much for me. But I do hope the Seekers found their way to better things. There are so many ways they, like the rest of us, could have lost their innocence. I’d like to think they escaped the snares. Far too many didn’t.

Uncivil War: A New Phase

     What, you didn’t know that we’re in a civil war? Of course we are. I wrote about it ten years ago. It’s waxed and waned, but hostilities have never ceased. They’re certainly not about to cease today.

     Many of the barrages have been specifically, and more or less exclusively, about Donald Trump. Is President Trump a polarizing figure? Yes. Has he exceeded the Constitutionally specified powers of the president? No. But he’s so… so there! As has been said many times, he lives rent-free in Leftists’ heads.

     The Left’s obsession with Trump could have been a great boon to the Republican caucuses in Congress. Sadly, it’s gone unexploited. That’s made the GOP’s prospects for the midterms uncertain. But the Trump Administration has two more years to go. Moreover, a new phase in the combat is upon us.

     Trump is no longer the sole focus of the Left’s efforts. He’s been joined by Elon Musk.

     Musk has been a major contributor to the Administration’s efforts. At first, that didn’t look to the Left like a targetable matter. But with the midterms upon us, Musk has redoubled his monetary and personal efforts to persuade the electorate to support the MAGA agenda. As he’s currently one of the most admired men on Earth, he’s having an effect.

     That’s drawn the Left’s gimlet eye. Leftists have slandered Musk in many ways. They’re openly exhorting one another, and their people on Capitol Hill, to hurt Musk. The attacks on Tesla dealerships are already well known. Most recently, the venomous Robert Reich has called for Congress to nationalize Starlink and SpaceX as “vital national resources.”

     Few things could have made the Left’s malevolence any clearer.

     For the Republican Party to come out of the midterms still in the majority in Congress will require a get-out-the-vote effort of great magnitude. Democrat loyalists are already energized. An unfortunate percentage of conservatives and Republican partisans have been making dissatisfied noises and “what’s the use?” comments. It’s not looking good. The Trump presidency and the fortunes of Elon Musk would both be imperiled by loss.

     Musk can’t carry the GOP over the finish line by himself. His efforts are great and much appreciated, but he can’t do it alone, even with Robert Reich, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders to assist him with their madnesses. I’ve never been a big booster of the franchise, but if decent Americans are ever going to face a “vote or die” moment, I’d say one is upon us.

     Please don’t let anything prevent you from getting to your polling place on November 3. Congress may have disappointed us greatly these past two years, but is that really a sound argument for letting the Left take it over?

A Very Little On Loving

     Consider the following statement from a famous advice columnist:

     It is possible to love—and at the same time—a wife, a mother, a sister and a grandmother, cherry pie, football, Lincoln, Rembrandt, and Bach. But we don’t love them all in the same way. – Esther Pauline Lederer, a.k.a. “Ann Landers,” Since You Ask Me

     It’s not a complete enumeration of “loves,” but it does hit some of the high spots. Yet it omits mention of what makes love of any sort possible. Can you “fill in the blank?”

     Don’t try to answer quickly. There’s more to be said on this subject.

* * *

     Today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew is one I’ve cited several times:

     But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
     Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

     [Matthew 22:34-40]

     Christ expressed the whole of the New Covenant in those few words: It’s about love. But love, as Ann Landers notes above, comes in many varieties. Which meaning of love applies to God? Which one applies to our neighbor? Is there any common factor between them?

     You have to squint a little to see it. Most never even contemplate it. Its absence from our thinking about love is more significant than you may realize. Despite one seemingly contradictory facet, the Great Commandments are founded on it.

     Love is only possible if there is an “other.” Someone or something that’s not you.

     Our capacity for love is one of our greatest blessings. Yet it would be of no importance were there no “other” to love. Fortunately, the world is filled with “others,” and many opportunities to love them. Granted that it can take some effort.

     When Christ said that:

     If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
     This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
     Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another.

     [John 15:10-17]

     …He delineated the relationship between God and Man in a specific way. It was the one He first expressed in the Two Great Commandments. Yet note the asymmetry between the “others” involved. We don’t love God “as we love ourselves;” God is infinitely our superior. And as our superior, He commands us. We are fortunate that His commandments are few, simple, and easy to understand.

     Our neighbor doesn’t stand above us. He doesn’t command us, nor do we command him. Christ didn’t instruct us to love our neighbor “with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” but “as thyself.” That is appropriate love of neighbor, an “other” of our own stature.

     Concerning the abovementioned “seeming contradiction” in the Great Commandments: “Love” is used metaphorically by the phrase “as thyself.” It means that our natural concern for our personal well-being should extend to the well-being of the neighbor. This is one of those “should be obvious” deals that just about everyone needs explained to him at least once.

* * *

     There’s a great deal more to be said about the varieties of love, but a brief essay on the Web isn’t the place for it. Rather, look up C.S. Lewis’s exposition The Four Loves. Lewis nicely illuminates the distinctions and gradations that love can exhibit. The love commanded of us in the Great Commandments is only one phase of the journey.

     May God bless and keep you all.