The current malaise abroad in the land is sort of astonishing. We noted it last year with mild surprise. We hadn’t even heard the term “malaise” in a couple decades. We know it from former President Jimmy Carter’s speech in 1979, the year I was living on an old ship in the Far East, saluting a flag still relatively new in world history.

Like it or don’t, that is up to you. For us, the ones who served it in times of both kinetic and social conflict, we like to recall that the peace we imposed on a world at war. The one that brought the most prosperous and freest time to a troubled world in the history not of our country, but of our species.

We had a good run with that. A project under final review is a diary composed on another cruise on another ocean that coincided with the collapse of a system determined to remake the way our human species acts and thinks. We opposed it with force of arms and economics, and we won. And in the winning, in the sweet feeling of victory, we sowed the seeds of our destruction. In joyous manner.

It is not the holiday this morning. That day will arrive shortly, a little uncomfortable this year with those who wish our downfall. We used to celebrate with explosives and bright lights that flashed in the night skies. This year we have public servants who believe themselves to be savants of a new world order. Apparently they will bring tranquility and a new sort of “justice” to this world if we just use a little less of it, restrict our travel, diets and firearms. Our host of Freedoms.

It seems a bit like a theme we used to hear. You will note the phrasing of it, similar to last year’s plaint about malaise. It is a sort of building block to misery. We are choosing this splendid year to not participate in their layered desire of shared but equal misery. Well, equal except for those who must oversee all the aspects of their new millennium.

If it sounds a bit ponderous and unpleasant, that is the way it has always worked. Imposing sacrifice always comes with pain except for the wise ones who mandate it. Down on The Farm we are choosing something else. Everyone gets a shot at doing better. We are going to laugh at those who are selling snake oil and lies, since the snakes here at The Farm are well lubricated and we need no assistance.

On the 4th, we intend to grill out even if it is a bit more expensive than the last. It will doubtless be cheaper than next year, but we are OK with that. This morning, we were surprised to be discussing the works of a long-deceased fellow from a State just south of here. The name in question was that of John C. Calhoun. He was a dynamo of activity in the life he got to live a couple centuries ago.

As Vice President of the United States 196 years ago (stop me if any of this rings out today) he published an anonymous tract he called “The South Carolina Exposition and Protest.” In that document he advanced a theory of “Nullification” in which legal practice in the United States he helped lead was rejected. The piece foreshadowed the withdrawal from the Union of his state- and others on the grounds of a “higher truth.”

That matter took the lives of 700,000 Americans to resolve, and the dislocation of millions. In terms of proportions of the population then and now, you can see such a disagreement over legal matters might equate to the death and destruction of tens of millions of citizens today. We only got into the matter since last year’s catchphrase of “malaise” has morphed by meme and muttering into this year’s earnest use of the word “Nullification.”

In the current fashion at this holiday, that word is in regard to our Supreme Court, which has decided some things that have been going on in our nation are wrong. Of course, there is an existing process for changing them. The Supreme Court is one of them, of course, but there are calls to abolish the Court itself to achieve desired social norms. We are a little traditional here, which is to say that our nation has been a powerful force for good in this world. Should we wish to alter it, there is a process already in place and well tested. It is called “Amending the Constitution.”

The last time it was done was not long ago. The people, through their states, amended our founding document to reduce the age of voting from 21 to 18. Amendments have been attempted dozens of times and succeeded 27 times. The process is mildly difficult, because it is intended to be that way and ensure that all citizens are aware of what is being proposed to change the best and most successful society that ever was.

If we need to do so again, we support the effort to ensure the issue is discussed and agreed to. We’ll see how things stand at the next 4th of July, and what word we will use to describe it. We have seen trials before, and will see them again. We have always overcome them. So, on this 4th of July, we will say this, with a certain amount of pride and resolve.

We stand with America. Happy 4th of July- the whole big ball of it!

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com