The small town of Elberton in northeast
Georgia is known as the granite capital of the world.
In June of 1979, a well-dressed,
articulate man who identified himself as R.C. Christian walked into the
Elberton Granite Finishing Company and ordered a monument to "transmit a
message to mankind." He claimed to represent a small group from outside
Georgia and wished to remain anonymous.
Today that monument, known as the
Georgia Guidestones, sits atop the highest point in Elbert County, Georgia.
An engraved plaque placed in the ground
near the monument reads, "Guides to an Age of Reason."
The granite slab structure has a total
weight of 119 tons, with an overall height of 19.3 feet. It consists of a
center stone resting on a support stone, four upright monoliths each resting on
a support stone, and a cap stone.
The large four upright monoliths are
oriented to the limits of the annual migratory cycle of the moon. There's an
oblique hole drilled through the center stone providing continual, eye-level
visibility of the North Star. And the sun shines through a slot in the center
stone marking the summer and winter solstices.
Inscribed on the monument, in eight
different languages (English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and
Russian) are the following ten guides:
1) Maintain humanity under 500,000,000
in perpetual balance with nature.
2) Guide reproduction wisely –
improving fitness and diversity.
3) Unite humanity with a living new
language.
4) Rule passion – faith – tradition –
and all things with tempered reason.
5) Protect people and nations with fair
laws and just courts.
6) Let all nations rule internally
resolving external disputes in a world court.
7) Avoid petty laws and useless
officials.
8) Balance personal rights with social
duties.
9) Prize truth – beauty – live –
seeking harmony with the infinite.
10) Be not a cancer on the earth –
Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.
In 1986, a book titled COMMON SENSE
RENEWED was published. Its author, Robert Christian, dedicated the book to
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), an early American revolutionary scholar and author of
COMMON SENSE.
Among other things, Christian claimed
to be the man behind the Georgia Guidestones. He wrote about his concern for
the political and economic decline of America, and reiterated his desire to
remain anonymous.
The ten guides (suggestions) seem
harmless enough. The world is clearly overpopulated and mismanaged.
There are roughly 6.5 billion people on
this planet. Guide #1 suggests a half billion would be ideal. However, reducing
the global population by more than 90 percent and maintaining the results is
beyond human practicality.
Guide #3 suggests everyone speak the
same language. This would certainly make life easier, but extremely difficult
to implement. No language is perfect, requiring the agreed-upon invention and
acceptance of a new one.
Ruling with tempered reason, balancing
personal rights with social duties, prizing truth, seeking harmony, resolving
internal disputes internally, resolving external disputes externally, and so
forth all make sense too.
While this all seems quite innocuous,
for some people the Georgia Guidestones are the work of the devil.
A website called The Resistance
Manifesto proclaims, "We are waging an incessant campaign to have the
Guidestones removed and destroyed. The Guidestones are empirical evidence of
Satanism in the world."
One man's guides to common sense are
another man's evidence of evil personified. The mere existence of these
differences is the precise reason that peaceful coexistence will never be
realized on Earth in the first place.
I have my own guide to reason – mind
your own business, don't tread on me, and I'll do the same.
___________
Quote for the Day – “That government is
best which governs least.” Thomas Paine
___________
Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark
Mountains with a few dogs and where common sense isn't necessarily common.
___________
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