"For [thousands of] years society has depended upon individuals for those creative achievements of mind and spirit that have guided us along the path of civilization. The spark form heaven falls. Who picks it up? The Crowd? Never. The individual? Always.

"It is he and he alone, as artist, inventor, explorer, scholar, scientist, spiritual leader or statesman, who stand nearest the source of life [and its] essence. Wisdom and virtue cannot be forced from a Crowd as eggs from chickens under electric lights. There is no such thing as general intelligence. There is only individual intelligence communicating itself to other individual intelligences . . . " – Arthur Balfour, author of the Balfour Declaration

"I" STANDS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL, as in God's "I AM THAT I AM." Or Neil Diamond's "I AM, SAID I." I can think of no other language that capitalizes the personal pronoun. In German, it's "ich" – with variations in other European languages.

The early Americans were a special breed of human beings. They left their lives behind and they wanted to get as far as they could from Europe's wars and tyranny over the individual. But in the 21st century, people are taught to blend in, not to stand out. Modern education and culture are essentially telling us to "go back to where you came from," Europe. Freedom of conscience and critical thinking are now out of style, condemned as "division" – or maybe even "Fascism."

That breed of cat that said "Question authority" in the 1960s now demands conformity, not diversity of opinion, because they ARE the authority. They are the Deep Swamp, and they are very angry that their belief in "inevitability" is being challenged. They will even assassinate our champions. Or at least celebrate their deaths. Being a liberal means never having to say you're sorry. Only they are sorry that two assassination attempts on the people's President were unsuccessful. FIGHT. FIGHT. FIGHT!

P.S. Well, that's the gist of a new version of one of my most unique, or "unique-est" columns, but here are some more quotes that bear on the crisis of civility:

"It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth." — Arthur James Balfour (1848-1930)

"Indeed, all of what we observe in the mirror of recent history about political leadership recalls day-flies warming themselves in the autumnal sunshine without an inkling of the fact that the winter is coming." — Dr. Arthur Voobis (1955)

As General Patton warned us, "When everybody is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking."

Yogi Berra once said: "Theoretically there isn't much difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is."

"The reason we accepted Darwinism even without proof is because we didn't want God to interfere with our sexual mores." – Aldous Huxley

PPS: Yogi to Casey to Huxley? Sounds like a double play combination, eh?