How Old is Ancient?

Signing the U.S. Constitution

Good question? Maybe. While Old can be considered valuable, revered, we oftent think of it as aged, decrepit, elderly, gaga, previous, senior, stale, worn, useless. And many more possibilities. The same is true of Ancient. There are numerous ways of defining these two terms, but let me turn to U.S. history as an example.

Our purpose for the moment is about how old or ancient is our country? The simple answer is this: as of the 4th of July 2020, the United States was 244 years old. That's because the Declaration of Independence was ratified by the US Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

How old is the Constitution? 1789 (rev. 1992). Amendments? 27 or 33? (33 have been proposed, 27 ratified.) Now, if the Constitution is 244 years old, it is a youngster compared to many other Nations, but ancient if compared to the human writers of our Constitution!

But if the Constitution is considered decrepit, stale and useless by a politician, beware. If it is considered by current politicians as written by uneducated, ordinary, ancient political figures it has to be useless; but beware. Those authors were astute (smart), not uneducated. In addition, they were not infidels (irreligious). They were devout believers with virtuous principles, though admitedly those beliefs were diverse, even contentious.

Contemporaneity nowadays is far too prevalent in our schools and universities, in broken families, business, industry and even in some religious institutions encouraging incompatibility toward sacred texts, prayer, values, laws and principles in many public places and with overly secular media, entertainment and even recreation.

Add to this the subject of truth (facts vs. fiction) with its concerns over the prevalence of fake news, fibs, falsification and fabrication cleverly posing as truth (accuracy and actuality) too easily believed. Reminds us of Adolph Hitler’s words in his Mein Kampf that the great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one. It happened then and still happen, so we should seriously question Why the Truth matters—more than we think today!

Wealth, success, enormity and opportunity subtlety and blatantly victimize the innocent as well as the culpable. Regulations, laws, fundamentals and truth are ignored or under attack causing society to be weakened. Could it be possible that when the positive past (recent or ancient) is ignored or maligned needlessly, should the present be concerned with the minimization of a rich antiquity?

Come to think of it, this applies not only to nations, but the people who make them up, with many increasingly attaining "ancient" status themselves!