September 9, 2008

Review: Plain Truth by John Tait

by John Young

Title: Plain Truth
Author: John Tait
Publisher: Xulon Press
Date: 2008
ISBN: 978-1-60647-558-4
Price: $9.99
Pages: 64
Availability: Amazon and other online retailers

John Tait has a remarkable ability to encapsulate complex issues, complete with appropriate value judgments, in compact sentences that spring off the page. He begins his indictment of the status quo in Plain Truth eloguently:

"American government, in its natural state, served as Western civilization's crowning achievement; in it's current state, it is our most devastating failure. the former represents an entity comprised of great men dedicated to protecting and preserving culture; the latter is made up of traitors intent on its destruction. ... What was once an indispensable friend has become our most dangerous foe."(pg. 7)

Tait reveres America's founding fathers, and is thus a strong advocate of both Constitutional Republicanism and representative government. Noting that despite the best intentions of our founding fathers, the ship of state has sailed far off course, he offers an explanation that echoes many of the sentiments expressed in Western Voices podcasts, though more succinctly:

"As a district becomes more diverse, its representative must fulfill expectations of people from different cultures and with contradictory expectations. Those of a particular background will ask for special privileges. However, special privileges for one group always come at the expense of another. As the groups grow more substantial in both size and number, the representative's job will become increasingly more difficult. A politician expected to address the concerns of his constituents will find the task impossible."(pg. 10)

This explanation certainly deals factually with the essential contradiction between multiculturalism and freedom as our founders understood it because, as John Tait describes:

"Being that a nation contains many more people than a simple gathering, it is necessary for a group of people to grant themselves representation through one or more people. Expectations of those representatives will be similar if members of the group share a common history, heritage, and culture. In that situation, every man will have a voice."


John Tait's explanation is elegant, and describes why many political movements that claim to be motivated by liberty continue to fail at meeting their ostensible objectives while embracing multiculturalism. Multiculturalism and liberty are mutually exclusive realities.

At the same time, this particular explanation fails to adequately unravel the chicken-and-egg issue surrounding how the United States -- designed from the beginning as a unified culture -- became "multicultural" and "diverse." Clearly, before anyone ever heard the diversity mantra, forces were at work within our unicultural country that sought to undermine our culture. So while uniculturalism is a prerequisite of liberty, it is not ipso facto a guarantor of liberty.

Tait has a wide perspective, and this fact doesn't escape his notice. Tracing back, he cites the Woodrow Wilson administration as the true "beginning of the end" of liberty as our founding fathers understood it. Wilson's administration was certainly the turning point, marking the beginning of the Federal Reserve System, the Income Tax and the War on Drugs. And Wilson, for the first time, sent thousands of unsuspecting Americans to their deaths fighting a war against nations with whom America had no quarrel on behalf of special interests.

Wilson also authored The Fourteen Points, a propaganda tool which was intended to induce Germany to surrender during WWI in expectation of a fair settlement of claims. Of course, such was not to be. Germany's surrender was followed by the most punitive terms ever imposed upon a defeated nation in the history of European warfare. The Treaty of Versailles which ended WWI is widely acknowledged to have given rise to the conditions in Germany which led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism -- and World War II. As Pat Buchanan pointed out in his most recent book, World War II was the proximate cause of both the collapse of the British Empire and the impending doom of Western civilization. And it all goes back to that single, pivotal, Woodrow Wilson administration.

How could this single presidential administration be so destructive? For his explanation, John Tait turns to a subject I wish he could have expanded upon at greater length: The Council on Foreign Relations. Woodrow Wilson was the first American president to have been advised by this shadowy organization created sometime between 1914 and 1917. While Tait doesn't explore the CFR in depth -- which would be impossible in a book only 64 pages long -- he names the Council on Foreign Relations as the core of a very small group of people who hold all the real power in the United States, and who pull the strings of politicians. As the author relates, the politician/figureheads change, but the real power behind the scenes never changes hands.

Because of the short format of Plain Truth, Tait's cursory treatment of the CFR would not be convincing to a person who wasn't already fairly familiar with the organization. Nevertheless, he is absolutely correct. Joseph Kraft, a former member of the CFR described it thusly:

"... an organ of what C. Wright Mills has called the Power Elite � a group of men, similar in interest and outlook, shaping events from invulnerable positions behind the scenes.")

If anything, this is a modest assessment. In one survey of high-ranking government employees, more than half were members of the CFR(2), and current members include all major news anchors. Moreover, corporate membership includes pretty much all major media ownership in the country and a great deal more.(3) Here at Western Voices World News, we have even cited CFR involvement in the Security and Prosperity Partnership that is a harbinger of the NAFTA Superhighway and the intended North American Union. The importance of CFR membership to politicians is demonstrated when the author states: "Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush are the only non-CFR members to receive the Presidential nomination of either major party since Harry Truman occupied the White House."(pg. 19)


So Tait's assessment in this regard certainly has merit. Nevertheless, laying all of our ills at the feet of a single organization is certainly an oversimplification. There are many organizations that exert a corrupting influence on our political system. Membership-based organizations of this sort include the Ford Foundation, Brookings Institution, Trilateral Commission, Skull and Bones and the so-called "Bilderbergers" among others. What all of these organizations have in common (besides membership, because members of one organization are often members of one or more of the others) is a deep and pernicious push on politicians to pursue objectives that are contrary to the best interests of the American people and counter to the fundamental tenets of Constitutional Republicanism.

The author's short treatment of the matter, necessitated by the short format of the book, doesn't allow a full exploration of the subject of organizational corruption.

What Tait's treatment definitely demonstrates, more importantly, is the mechanism of corruption, how incredibly susceptible our government has become to corruption generally, and how pervasive that corruption has become. To this end, Tait reveals the crucial role that CFR offshoot PNAC (Project for a New American Century) played in the Iraq war, and describes how our government has come to serve the interests of a very few well-connected people rather than the people it is supposed to serve:

"Over the past half century, six Republicans and six Democrats have occupied the White House. Several times during that period, the source of perceived power switched hands. However, change, if it occurred at all, was minimal. Both parties have been guilty of increasing taxes, spending and government authority while waging counter-productive war. While we suffered the consequences in wasted money and lost lives, those obtaining tangible power reaped the rewards."(pg. 24)

Naturally, all of this endemic corruption results in a government that acts in an objectively criminal manner completely at odds with the vision of America's founding fathers:

"... let us suppose history's greatest Western thinkers attempted to create an idea government from nothing. ... While various forms of taxation would be accepted by some, proposing the current tax system would be absurd due to its complexity and high rates. Not only allowing but pursuing a course of immigration consisting primarily of people from other cultures would be regarded as foolish. ... Government was created to protect society, not destroy it."

Beyond this simple statement, Tait dedicates a chapter to describing the crimes of government, and gives priority to perhaps our government's most criminal act: immigration policies aimed at replacing America's population with that of other peoples. Being a Christian, the author holds no hatred against people of other races and ethnicities stating that "As with individuals, each nation is unique." At the same time, he challenges the core premises that gild "diversity:"

"Within diverse societies, a hero of one group is often despised by the others. ... The father of our country provides another example of American heroes being despised within our own nation. New Orleans adopted an anti-slave owner policy that resulted in a school named after George Washington being renamed with Charles Drew. Another revered Virginian, Robert E. Lee, had his name taken down from a school and replaced with that of Ronald McNair. Two giants of American history have been excluded from proper acknowledgment and replaced with minor figures in black history. Diversity celebrates difference, while nations are based on similarities." (pg. 32, emphasis added.)

The author goes on to demonstrate that the crimes of diversity affect not only culture, but physical safety as well, citing examples from the U.S. and around the world. He even provides real-world examples of nations that are breaking apart, right now and in the immediate past, due to diversity. He notes, quite tellingly, that:

"Many proponents of diversity have enjoyed the good fortune of living away from the neighborhoods they tout; the costs are not evident on a daily basis, making them ignorant of America's fragile state. Just like most cowards, they leave others to suffer the consequences of their actions."(pg. 34)

Following this, Tait makes a solid argument in favor of adopting a Washingtonian foreign policy that would solve the problem of terrorism for Americans; pointing out that our placement of the interests of a tiny Middle Eastern nation of only a few million people above that of our own citizens has sown bitter fruit that our children must reap.

With all of the foregoing, plus too much more to be mentioned in this review, author John Tait lays out a devastating indictment of the current government in which not a single word is wasted. But the indictment is not really the core of Plain Truth. At its core, Plain Truth is a call to action. Tait puts the matter before the reader clearly, and doesn't tip-toe or mince words:

"Two choices lay before us. We can either realize our duty or subsist without regard to posterity. The former makes us heroic to future generations. the latter leaves contemporary Americans rightfully regarded as traitorous." (pg. 25)

And, here, John Tait doesn't leave us without hope. Too many books of this sort paint the sort of dreary pictures that make the reader wonder why he should bother getting out of bed in the morning. Other books of this genre portray the enemies of America as it can and ought to be as overwhelmingly omnipotent and omniscient, indirectly inducing potential patriots to surrender mentally and become part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Tait, thankfully, knows better than this. We have freedom of action, and may still defeat the enemy:

"Inaction ensures that the chains clamped to our children will be heavier than those with which we are currently overwhelmed. Those chains, however, are not necessary; we are neither suppressed by a force greater in number nor imposed upon by a foundation of abuse."(pg. 53 - 54)

The call to action is unmistable, and strongly echoes the words of our founders:

"The enemy is formidable, as they control the media and the seats of government; the former they use to destroy our will and the latter our ability. So when will our situation improve? ... Shall we wait until all effective means of protecting and preserving ourselves have been destroyed? Our foe may be an imposing figure, but they are no match against nearly 200 million dedicated to the cause of creating liberty and ensuring justice for posterity."(pg. 54)

Following the call to action, author John Tait lays out several points of important concentration for action.

What are they? I'm not telling -- you'll have to buy the book.

There is much to like about this book, provided that it is accepted on its own terms and judged on the basis of what it IS rather than comparing it to things it's author never intended it to be.

Especially within our circles, we often get spoiled with the academic treatments and peer-reviewed materials in periodicals like The Occidental Quarterly or Mankind Quarterly. We get to where we expect ten citations per page and in some cases footnotes and annotations nearly as long as the articles they accompany. And this sort of material has its place, and is incredibly important. Much of our work at EAU is based upon a comprehensive absorption of that material.

At the same time, there is another type of writing that is too often undervalued and neglected; and that is writing the relies purely upon reason. Examples include the writings of great philosophers such as Locke, Nietzsche and Kant. Quite often the most inspirational political writing, such as the writings of Thomas Jefferson, fall into this latter category. While it is not, in and of itself, purely philosophical work, it is tightly embedded in a discernible philosophical framework and worldview that appeals to the reader through both the mind and the heart.

John Tait is not aiming for philosophy here. Rather, he is aiming to inspire people who already know that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark" to get out of their chairs and get busy. Plain Truth then lies much closer to the Declaration of Independence in its intent than to Thus Spake Zarathustra. Plain Truth is not merely an indictment of the government, but an indictment of ourselves for allowing it to become what it has. But true to his Christian character, Tait offers forgiveness through redemption in answering his call to action to take a stand for our people.

If you have an interest in the plight of our people; this book is a short read, gripping, and very well-written with tight logic and wide appeal. It is a superb call to action, and you owe it to yourself to read Plain Truth.

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