American Society and the State

Today I listened to a history lecture by Rev. Rousas Rushdoony on Alexis de Toqueville's book "Democracy in America", and the state of American society at that time. Toqueville said in his book: "society governs itself for itself." This absence of the more "official", strong state government would have perplexed many Europeans at that time. The true government at that time was a government of society and private associations. These associations were agencies created by the people to deal any problem or conflict that appeared. Because they were created whenever a problem was seen, there were very many of them. For example, as far as religious organizations were concerned, there were seperate organizations to distribute bibles, minister to indians, build chapels, etc. This abundance of societies was ridiculed by Europeans. Yet it kept America stable. For example, Salem, a small town that was founded by a few Protestant families, doubled it's population every few years, and yet as time passed, it's character did not basically change, even with a great inflow of foreigners. How did it keep it's Puritan character? Its societies taught the immigrants. The attitude in America was to try to meet every need imaginable. Large ammounts of time and effort poured in to minister to others who needed it. Most of the immigrants (for example, the Irish during the potato famine) were Catholic, but when they came to America, large numbers became Protestant . The Red Cross was extremely successful in America because of the mindset of it's people. Eventually, as America grew, relief efforts and aid spread worldwide, and America became the rest of the world's hope. Their government was not what we think of now as government. It wasn't Washington D.C. Government was to them:
1. The self government of the Christian man.
2.The government of the family.
3.The government of the church.
4.The government of your work.
5.The government exercisized by society, those that you live among.
Then, finally, there's the state. Rev. Rushdoony pointed out that it is when society ceases to govern itself that the state takes over. What Toquevile failed to notice was that the church was responsible for the old state of society. Christians fueled the old government. The tithe funded it. Today, SOMEBODY has to foot the bill for relief and welfare, and right now it's the civil government. The State has picked up what society used to do, and politics and greed have corrupted and foiled the effort. The more that the freedom to be responsible for society is taken away, the more it is replaced with the freedom to be irresponsible (hence the booming entertainment industry), and it has destroyed America.