A history lesson

The teaching lesson of history is in accordance with the religion created in the 6th century B.C. by the Buddha. His religion, a religion of conduct, taught that unless men lost themselves in something greater than themselves, happiness could not be won much less could a life be well-lived. Buddhism encourages Individual soul-searching and personal responsibility for right actions along an 8-fold path.

The Epicureans in the 4th century B.C. varied this formula a bit with their 4-fold path to a good life. 1. God is to be feared, 2. Death cannot be felt, 3. The good can be won, and 4. All that we dread can be borne and conquered.

Both Buddha and the Epicureans presented a religion with a hopeful message of positive, behavioral changes. In contrast with the men and women at peace with life, it only takes a discontented populace needing a leader for insurrectionary purposes. Julius Caesar of ancient Rome learned this lesson on the steps of the Senate on the Ides of March, in 44 B.C. Without a steady supply of correct information and a representative government, Rome gradually collapsed. America today, post President Obama’s ascendency to the throne, could re-play a fall of Rome. Half of our populace embraced the ‘revolutionary’ religion not of the Buddha or of Epicureans, but of their charismatic leader, Barack Obama’s socialism. Furthermore, if Obama represents the standard for perfecting one’s self and one’s place and purpose in the world, America surely is in decline.