Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman-philosopher who died in 1983, demonstrated an incredible prescience during his lifetime, which included this gem:  “There is a widespread feeling that our economic system and our civilization are nearing their end. … In the 1970s many people see life drained of meaning, and there is hardly a certitude left.”

Given his take on American values in the 1970s, one cannot help but wonder what Hoffer would think of today’s decaying state of the union.  After decades of capitulating to the Radical Left, it is difficult to imagine a United States of America that is solidly anchored to the certitudes that made it the most virtuous and free nation on earth.

The great value of virtuous certitudes is that they constrain the basest instincts of mankind, which is why the Radical Left cannot tolerate constraints.  Increasingly, they are ridding society of pesky Western certitudes, which include such traits as self-responsibility, hard work, honesty, loyalty, respect for the property of others, temperance, civility, tolerance, persistence, thriftiness, self-discipline, a stable economic system, deference to one’s elders, and reverence for the “nuclear” family.

The very foundation of radical leftism is, in fact, life without certitudes.  Being totalitarian by nature, these people recognize no laws, except those that hold their enemies in check and, if at all possible, punishes them.  They have no qualms about lying, cheating, and, if necessary, resorting to violence to achieve their ends.

What might surprise Eric Hoffer today is how open Radical Leftists are about their nonstop malfeasance — using the FBI and CIA to spy on their domestic enemies, putting people in jail (many in solitary confinement) for over a year for the misdemeanor of trespassing, aiding and abetting non-citizens to break immigration law, decriminalizing crime for even the most violent felons, implementing election laws that make it easier to cheat, trying to intimidate parents for protesting what their children are taught in school … the list goes on … and on … and on.

Perhaps the most important Western virtue is a belief in nonviolence, but I have a suspicion that if Eric Hoffer were alive today, he would conclude that violence is precisely where we are headed.  We already know that the Radical Left believes in the use of force, so the conundrum for peaceful, liberty-loving people is this:

If those who believe in the certitudes that made America great are not willing to destroy — not defeat, but destroy — the Radical Left and its totalitarian agenda through the ballot box and the law, what will they do when those same Radical Leftists regain full control of the government and use physical force to finish the job of destroying the foundations of American greatness.

Make no mistake about it, Radical Leftists are depraved to the core and will stop at nothing to eradicate what is left of America’s virtues and certitudes.  If good men and women do nothing, whether as a result of naiveté, the desire to be loved by heathens who hate them, or a lack of courage, evil is almost certain to triumph.