A Civilization Has Three Responsibilities

What is the actual job of a civilization?

In this episode of THE RIGHT SIDE, Doug Billings explores a simple but powerful framework that has guided successful civilizations throughout history:

Protect the children. Secure the borders. Preserve the culture.

From family and community to national identity and sovereignty, this episode examines the foundational responsibilities that determine whether civilizations thrive, decline, or disappear.

As America approaches her 250th birthday, these questions may be more important than ever.

Prayerfully consider donating to the show at: www.DougBillings.us

 #Civilization #AmericanCulture #America250 #Faith #Family #Freedom #ProtectTheChildren #SecureTheBorders #PreserveTheCulture #DougBillings #TheRightSide #AmericanIdentity #Liberty #ConservativePodcast #America #USA #FYP

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

The Right Side with Doug Billings. Hello, America. Hello, world. I'm Doug Billings. Welcome to the Right Side. Every once in a while, ladies and gentlemen, I stumble across an idea that helps me make sense of a whole lot of other things. That ever happened to you? You know what I mean? Sometimes you're looking for, you know, a reason to explain something to somebody. You're looking at 10 different news stories, and they all seem completely unrelated. One story is about immigration, another story is about crime, another story is about education, another one's about the economy, another story is about foreign policy. And then boom, all of a sudden you realize all of those stories are connected by something deeper. So I had one of those moments just this morning. In fact, it happened while I was preparing for the radio show earlier this morning. I was doing show prep, as we say, looking at stories, you know, and trying to decide what I was going to talk about. And some of the stories that I was looking at, you know, were about various topics: trafficked children, border security, declining trust in institutions, civic confusion, cultural fragmentation, growing sense among a lot of Americans that something important has gone off track. And so as I kept myself going and reading and a question uh began to surface. What is the actual job of a civilization? I mean, that's what came to me, kind of out of the blue, while I was looking through all of those stories doing show prep this morning. What is the actual job of a civilization? Not a political party, not a president, not a government agency, a civilization. So if you were starting a civilization from scratch, what would its fundamental responsibilities be? Now, I mean, I know that there's not exactly the kind of question that most people just ask off the top of the head and off the cuff. I get it. But stay with me for a minute because I think this matters. The more that I thought about that question, the more I came to believe that every successful civilization eventually understands three things. Protect the children, secure the border, preserve the culture. Now, you know, it's not overly simplistic. A lot of people out there say, Doug, that's just too simple, man. Those three things, I mean, those sound like they're important, but it's just too simple. Well, I mean, maybe, but some of the most important truths in life are very, very simple. Ever heard of Occam's razor? It's a philosophy that states, given a choice of options or solutions, that any particular issue has, the simplest answer is usually the correct one. Most of life's truths are simple. That doesn't mean they're easy. Simple. I found that when something's true, it tends to keep showing up no matter where you look. So you can start with children, right? One of the ways that historians often judge civilizations is by how they treated their most vulnerable people. That's not a new idea, by the way. That's thousands of years old. When historians study ancient societies, they don't just look at military strength or economic output. They look at families, they look at social stability, and they look at whether children were protected or exploited. Because children tell you something about the health of a society. Children are like a mirror. If a civilization is healthy, children tend to flourish. If a civilization is sick, children often suffer first. And when I look around America today, one of the most, one of the things that concerns me the most is how frequently children have become political afterthoughts. Not because people don't care about them. Most people do, but because adults have become so consumed by ideological battles that they sometimes lose sight of what matters the most. Protecting children should never be controversial. And yet somehow we've reached a point in America where even that basic responsibility occasionally gets lost in political arguments. I mean, we live in a world where a radicalized, liberal, and anti-American agenda pushes a myth called transgenderism. There is no such thing as transgenderism. Transgenderism is a myth. If in 300 years archaeologists were to dig up the bones of Bruce Jenner, you know what they're going to find? The bones of a man. Transgenderism is a myth, and it's a serious mental disorder that deserves real, honest moral and psychological help. We have a duty to rescue those people from the myth and to cure them from their mental disorder. We really do. I'm not being cynical, I'm not being flippant, I'm being honest. Now, when I was thinking about this question, another thought occurred to me. If protecting children is one responsibility, okay, what keeps them safe? And the answer isn't complicated. Order keeps them safe. Order. Children flourish when there's order. Families flourish when there's order. Communities flourish when there's order. And nations flourish when there is order. Notice what the radical commute socialist, formerly known as Democrat Party, tries to in tries to cascade upon us. It isn't order. It's the opposite of order. It's chaos. Every one of the radical liberal commute socialists, formerly known as Democrat policies, unleashes chaos. Whether it's the borders, whether it's not prosecuting violent criminals, we can go on and on. But let's talk about borders. Because you know it's amazing how controversial the idea of a border became there for a while. I never really understood it. Every nation in the world has borders. Every nation. Nobody considers Canada's borders controversial. Nobody considers Mexico's border controversial. Nobody considers Japan's border controversial. But somehow America's border became a source of endless debate. So let's think a minute about why borders exist. They don't exist because nations hate outsiders. They exist because nations have responsibilities. A nation has a responsibility to its citizens, responsibilities to public safety, responsibilities to maintain order, responsibilities to preserve the conditions necessary for freedom. That's what borders help accomplish. And here's what interests me it's kind of fascinating. Throughout history, civilizations have lost control of their borders. And when that happens, they often lose control of much more. Because borders aren't really about geography, folks. They're about sovereignty, they're about responsibility, and borders are about maintaining the framework within which a society can function. So that's where I think a lot of people get uncomfortable. Because once you start talking about borders, you eventually end up talking about culture. And culture is probably the least understood aspect of a civilization today. And you know, if I asked people what culture is, I'd probably get a hundred different answers. Food, music, language, traditions. Those are all part of culture, most certainly. But I think culture is a lot deeper than those things. Culture is a collection of beliefs, habits, expectations, and values that allow people to live under, you know, the same roof, so to speak, together. So culture is the collection of beliefs, habits, expectations, and values that allow people to live together successfully. It's the invisible glue that holds a society together. And most of the time, people don't even notice it until it starts disappearing. Then all of a sudden, everybody notices. And what I've often compared culture to is the foundation of a house. Nobody spends much time looking at the foundation. People admire the kitchen, they look at the living room, the landscaping, you know, the visible stuff. But if the foundation starts to crack, everything then in the house begins to feel it. Culture works the same way. When a society stops transmitting its values to the next generation, the effects don't appear immediately, but eventually they do. People become disconnected, trust begins to decline, shared assumptions disappear, and social cohesion is beginning then to weaken. People begin asking questions like, what happened to our country? What is going on here? So here's what's interesting. Most people instinctively understand this. You don't need a sociology degree. You don't need a political science degree. People understand that families require culture. Businesses require culture. Even churches require culture. Teams require a culture. And if those things require culture, why wouldn't nations require culture? And of course they do. That's why assimilation has historically mattered. Not because diversity is bad, because unity matters. Folks, a nation can successfully accommodate a lot of backgrounds. It can accommodate a lot of traditions, a lot of experiences. But eventually, there has to be a common identity, a shared understanding, a common story. Otherwise, you're not really building a nation. You're just sharing geography. And history teaches us that shared geography alone isn't enough. Now, as America approaches her 250th birthday, I think that these three responsibilities become increasingly important. Protect the children, secure the border, preserve the culture. Now, notice that none of those responsibilities require hostility. Notice that. None of them require fear, none of them require anger. In fact, they're fundamentally positive things. They're acts of stewardship, they're expressions of responsibility. They represent a civilization deciding that some things are worth preserving. And that's where I find the hope in this country. Because despite all of the noise of the doomer class that's out there, all of the division we hear about every day, I think millions of Americans are beginning to rediscover those truths. They're paying attention to their children. They're asking questions about borders. They're becoming more interested in civic culture and national identity. And they're recognizing that freedom requires maintenance. And I think maybe that's the most important lesson of all, folks. Civilizations don't survive automatically. And freedom doesn't sustain itself. Every generation inherits a responsibility, the responsibility to preserve what was handed to them and to strengthen it for those people who come after. That's our responsibility. Not because we're special, because it's our turn. And if we do our job well, future generations are going to inherit a nation that still understands those timeless responsibilities. And that's a beautiful thing. Protect the children, secure the borders, preserve the culture. And the more I think about it, the more I believe that's not just a political framework, that's a civilizational one. And it might just explain a lot more about the world in which we're living than many people realize. Ladies and gentlemen, please like, share, and subscribe to this show, the platform on which you're watching. Share, like, subscribe. If you happen to be on YouTube, great. If not, head over there at the right side, Doug Billings, on YouTube, and subscribe. Click the bell so that you get reminders of new content when it drops. And please prayerfully consider donating to the show at DougBillings.us. Because, ladies and gentlemen, we are in this together. Believe it for the Republic. Cheers. The right side with Doug Billings.