{"id":10987,"date":"2026-08-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=10987"},"modified":"2026-05-19T17:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:17:18","slug":"how-does-american-literature-shed-light-on-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-american-identity-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=10987","title":{"rendered":"Looking at E. Michael Jones’s Book (2025) “Walking with a Bible and a Gun”\u00a0 (Part 27 of 27)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0337 The colonies expanded into the wilderness of the frontier west<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The states expanded into the wilderness of nature<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States of America expanded into the wilderness of empire<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, we, the people, expand into the wilderness of a house of mirrors<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0338 The final three chapters and the epilogue convey a sense of resignation.  Is the fiction that critical theorists write<\/em> to be regarded as a comedy or a tragedy?  Or is it a liberation or a trap?  Nothing is as it appears to be.  Not even the author remains undistorted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0339 Even though Jones does not label the house of mirrors that constitutes Critical Theory <\/em>“the new postmodern American fiction”.  Jones’s treatment of Joe Ritchey<\/em> tells of someone who was not only canceled, but ruined, because of his American Identity<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0340 Without explicitly asking the question, Jones poses the quandary, “Do the institutions that support critical theory as a way to turn their world into a fiction<\/em> have historical precedent?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which of the following pairs of comparisons<\/em> does it parallel?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0341 The student is left to formulate an answer to the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0342 My own epilogue begins with a cheer for E. Michael Jones for this thought-provoking exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0343 My examination begins with the introduction of a model through which I (the reader in 2026) can appreciate contemporary meaning, presence and message within historic American literature.  This is discussed in points 0027-0042.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out, a big picture of his original model of “existence precedes essence” may be diagrammed as a two-level interscope where identity3b<\/sub> virtually situates structure3a<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0344 Here is a picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This examination has been informed by a postmodern version of Jones’s Thomistic insight<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0345 What about Jones’s provocative writing style?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Readers from Catholic backgrounds might have a little difficulty accepting the text as written, because it (sort of) sounds like apologetics.  My own difficulty?  The model application, although consistent, does not shine, as it does in this examination.  Jones applies the model.  He does not articulate it.  In this, my examination adds value to Jones’s text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Readers from Protestant backgrounds may have serious difficulties with Jones’s text, in so far as the author does not respect Martin Luther, John Calvin, King Henry VIII and other founders.  Plus, there is continuous mention of Satan as the hero of John Milton’s Paradise Lost<\/em>.  Plus, Jones seems to have no fondness for the situational import of sola fide, sola scriptura<\/em> and sola gratia<\/em>.  This slogan situates the title of Jones’s book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0346 Indeed, the first historical step to the American Identity<\/em> contains the Protestant slogan as situation level and the title of Jones’s book as content level, as shown below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0347 A meditation on this nested form<\/em> tells me that Jones presents a gift to the Protestant and the American.  Here is the first expression of the American Identity conforming to the scholastic ideation that existence precedes essence<\/em>.  Existence associates to the content level.  Essence associates to the situation level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the esse_ce of scripture2a<\/sub> is contiguous with the essence of us2a<\/sub>, as Americans to be<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0348 And the gun?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it really a talisman<\/em> for self-protection from those who pretend to be absolved of the doctrine of original sin,<\/em> that is, from those who deny the fall of man?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surely, this question will inspire future inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0349 Overall, Puritanism (Calvinism)<\/em> ran its course for a century before the American Revolution<\/em>.  Then the romantic rehabilitation of nature<\/em> ran its course for a century before the Civil War<\/em>.  Then, the nemesis and its mirror<\/em> of abolitionist and northern aggressor, democratic theorist and voter-rights advocate, secular scholar and value-free administrator, aggrieved theorist and agenda-pushing educator, and (lest I forget) rabbi and jew, has run its course for a over a century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a good title for the coming end of the current saeculum?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is my suggestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Shattering of the House of Mirrors<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or maybe, A Reconstitution of the American Identity<\/em>, will do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0350 My thanks to E. Michael Jones for this work.  I hope that this examination adds value to his exposition and serves as a companion for the student interested in the topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0337 The colonies expanded into the wilderness of the frontier west. The states expanded into the wilderness of nature. The United States of America expanded into the wilderness of empire. Now, we, the people, expand into the wilderness of a house of mirrors. 0338 The final three chapters and the epilogue convey a sense of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[619,175,455,1],"tags":[643,645,39,650,525,65,647,107,648,649,353,31,35,644,646],"class_list":["post-10987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confounding","category-peirce-and-aquinas","category-reverberations-of-the-fall","category-unveiling-words","tag-american-history","tag-american-literature","tag-category-based-nested-form","tag-catholicism","tag-charles-peirce","tag-essence","tag-existence","tag-identity","tag-protestant","tag-reformation","tag-satan","tag-scholasticism","tag-semiotics","tag-structure","tag-tartu-moscow-school-of-semiotics-2"],"yoast_head":"\nLooking at E. 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