Associated with these problems of lack of information and so forth, but particularly lack of information, there are a number of phenomena that are more serious, I believe, than astrology.
I, in preparation for this lecture, investigated something that was in my town, in the shopping center. There was a store with a flag in front. And its the Americanism Center, Altadena Americanism Center. And so I went into the Americanism Center to find out what it is, and its a volunteer organization. And on the front outside, there is a Constitution and the Bill of Rights and so on, and a letter which explains their purpose, which is to maintain rights and so on, all in accordance with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and so on. Thats the general idea. What they do in there is simply educative. They have books that people could buy on the various subjects that help to teach the ideas of citizenship and so on, and they have, among other books, also Congressional records, pamphlets on Congressional investigations and so on, so that people who are studying these problems can read them. They have study groups which meet at night, and so on. So, being interested in rights for people, I asked, since I said I didnt know very much about it, I would like a book on the problem of the freedom of the Negroes to vote in the South. There was nothing. Yes, there was. There was one thing which turned up later, two things which I saw out of the corner of my eye. One was what went on in Mississippi according to the Oxford city fathers, and the other was a little pamphlet called The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Communism.
So I discussed it at some greater length to discover what was going on and talked to the lady for a while, and she explained among other things (we talked about many thingswe did this on a friendly basis, you will be surprised to hear) that she was not a member of the Birch Society but there was something that you could say for the Birch Society, she saw some movie about it and so on, and there was something that she could say for it. Youre | not a fence sitter when youre in the Birch Society. At least you know what youre for, because you dont have to join it if you dont want to, and this is what Mr. Welch said, and this is the way the Birch Society is, and if you believe in this then you join, and if you dont believe in this then you shouldnt join. It sounds just like the Communist Party. Its all very well if they have no power. But if they have power, its a completely different situation. I tried to explain to her that this is not the kind of freedom that was being talked about, that in any organization there ought to be the possibility of discussion. That fence sitting is an art, and its difficult, and its important to do, rather than to go headlong in one direction or the other. Its just better to have action, isnt it, than to sit on the fence? Not if youre not sure which way to go, it isnt.
So I bought a couple of things there, just at random that they had. One of the things was called The Dan Smoot Reportits a good nameand it talked about the Constitution, and a general idea Ill outline: that the Constitution was right the way it was written in the first place. And all the modifications that have come in are just the mistakes. Fundamentalists, only not in the Bible but in the Constitution. And then it goes on to give the ratings of Congressmen in votes, how they voted. And it said, very specifically and after explaining about their ideas, The following give the ratings of the congressmen and senators with regard to whether they vote for or against the Constitution. Mind you that these ratings are not just an opinion, but they are based on fact. They are a matter of voting record. Fact. Theres no opinion at all. Its just the voting record, and, of course, each item is either
for or against the Constitution. Naturally. Medicare is against the Constitution, and so on. I tried to explain that they violate their own principles. According to the Constitution there are supposed to be votes. It isnt supposed to be automatically determinable ahead of time on each one of the items whats right and whats wrong. Otherwise there wouldnt be the bother to invent the Senate to have the votes. As long as you have the votes at all, then the purpose of the votes is to try to make up your mind which is the way to go. And it isnt possible for somebody to determine by fact ahead of time what is the situation. It violates its own principle.
It starts out all right, with the good, and love, and Christ, and so on, and it builds itself up until its afraid of an enemy. And then it forgets its original idea. It turns itself inside out and becomes absolutely contrary to the beginning. I believe that the people who start some of these things, especially the volunteer ladies of Altadena, have a good heart and understand a little bit that its good, the Constitution, and so on, but they are led astray in the system of the thing. How, I cant exactly get at, and what to do to keep from doing this, I dont exactly know.