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Settlement Full Introduction 2021

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The Settlement Project strengthens Principled Conservatism with the power to transcend history's

relentless Left-Right conflict.


Settlement: The starting point for a political era free to grow open societies unencumbered by opposition
from unprincipled political and cultural forces rooted in ideologies of conflict and resentment

America is at the epicenter of a global crisis. The elections of November 2020 brought to light a
long and corrosive tradition of corruption in American elections. Presently, America looks to be
entering into a period of one-party rule, with the Democratic Party controlling all branches of
government and implementing a radically Left agenda. Some 75 million citizens who voted
against this outcome are saddened, outraged, and desperately concerned for the future of the
United States and the world. A weakened United States portends the global expansion of the ma-
lignant activities of the Chinese Communist Party, at home and abroad.

Most troubling is that big media, big tech, and Wall Street elites are collaborating with the
Democratic Party and its radical Left allies to attack the US constitution and our representative
republic, suppressing all dissent and labeling faithful, patriotic Americans as potential domestic
terrorists.

This sudden descent into a dark period for America and the world raises a number of questions:

• How has this unprincipled and anti-democratic outcome taken such rapid and vengeful
hold, seemingly undeterred?
• Why did the collapse of the Soviet Union and European Communist regimes three
decades ago not result in the decline and demise of Communist ideas?
• How is it that the Chinese Communist Party is able to pursue world domination in ways
every bit as ruthless and dangerous as its Soviet elder brother?
• Why, too, have Western cultural institutions, like news and entertainment media, educa-
tion and corporate boards, been overtaken by Marxist, neo-Marxist and postmodern
philosophies?
• Why are our schools indoctrinating young people to hate traditional values, hate their
own country, and even create confusion about their biological identity?
• And why is it that these poisonous ideas have come to wield so much influence in society
and government, undermining the progress of human civilization?

One contributing factor is a fundamental asymmetry between the Right and the Left. The Right is
characterized by ideas and organizations that strive to create just and prosperous societies based
on political and economic philosophies rooted in Judeo-Christian values that stress the impor-
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tance of individual initiative and responsibility. These religious values are supplemented by re-
naissance and enlightenment principles of human freedom and creativity, protected by demo-
cratic forms of government.

The Left, by contrast, is focused on societal groups achieving a Utopian state by eliminating in-
herent social inequities. Employing any and all means to achieve these ends, it rejects religious
foundations of society, along with their moral and ethical standards. They are deemed to be ob-
stacles to securing justice that therefore must be destroyed. In their place, the Left turns to hu-
manist and materialist-rooted alternatives, allied with government power, as the basis for creating
an atheistic Utopia.

As a result, one important difference between Left and Right relates to conflict and power. The
Right constrains itself to inviolable rules that prohibit harming or deceiving others. Of course,
these violations do occur on the Right, but they are always known to be wrong. On the Right, it
is fine to fight for one’s views, but it is wrong to do so by employing unprincipled methods.

Marxism, along with its offshoots, is the most influential philosophy of the Left. However, unlike
ideologies of the Right, it is not constrained by religious ideals and morality. It is guided by two
articles of faith, philosophical materialism and the metaphysics of conflict, which make the use
of violence, deception, and indeed any means to power, fully legitimate.

The second key difference between Left and Right concerns their respective views of justice,
moral responsibility, and the importance of our earthly life. The Right, based on religious presup-
positions, has a built-in tolerance for earthly inequality and injustice. Jesus taught his followers
to love their enemies and ‘turn the other cheek’ rather than seek revenge. He offered his own life
as a sacrifice for the salvation of those who believed in him and followed him, asking God to for-
give those who brought about his death. The promised reward of salvation tends to leave the
Right less concerned about human suffering and injustice in the here and now, believing that fi-
nal justice will be achieved in the next life.

The Left exploits this inherent weakness by offering a pathway to its own version of ‘the King-
dom of Heaven on earth’, a Utopia not provided by a loving God but built by human beings
based on a government imposed distribution of wealth. In Marxist dialectical materialism,
progress is possible only as a result of violent struggle between thesis and antithesis. This strug-
gle is believed to be the cause of evolution in nature and the engine driving human history to-
wards a Communist state of perfect equity in which all give according to their ability and receive
according to their need.

In reality, the Communist state is an ephemeral myth. It requires the blind faith that Socialist
leaders steeped in bloody revolution and oppression are the very people who will usher in a ma-
terialist Utopia in which their control of society will be absolute.

The Right labors for ideal societies but provides no reliable roadmap to a world of justice and
equality. The Left offers a roadmap it claims will lead to an egalitarian ideal, and presumes there-
from its right to exercise power unconstrained by principle or accountability. Their ‘goodness’ is
sufficient to demand compliance. The pursuit of power by any means is not wrong in canons of
the Left, but in fact employs its core pillars of ‘truth’: resentment, violence, and atheistic materi-

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alism. This excuses it from any moral accountability for a history of annihilating tens of millions
and destroying the lives of countless others.

In America, the political Right is informed and guided by the Declaration of Independence and
the US Constitution with its Bill of Rights, which were written by individuals of faith who re-
spected Western Civilization. The political Left is informed and guided by atheistic dialectical
and historical materialism, Critical Theory and deconstruction philosophy, and animated to polit-
ical activism through books such as The Communist Manifesto and Rules for Radicals. Most dis-
turbingly, the American Left is now accommodating Communist China’s expansionist agenda.

Internationally, the Right comprises groups that value religious principles and personal freedom.
The Left comprises groups and regimes built on Marxist and similar ideologies. Epitomizing this
phenomenon is the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, which continues to oppress its people at
home while aggressively expanding its influence abroad.

America’s Founding

In many respects, the founding of America on the principle that individuals are created by God
and enjoy God-given rights represents the pinnacle of enlightenment and reformation thinking. It
enabled this young country to flourish under classical liberalism which supported a democratic
system of government of free people, free markets and the rule of law. With the ideals embodied
in the Bill of Rights, America would throw off slavery, embrace people from around the world,
and create a dynamic capitalist economy that made it the most wealthy and powerful country on
earth. America was also critical to victory over the Central Powers in Word War I and over the
Axis Powers in World War II, and it was the only significant obstacle to the rise of Communism
in the Cold War, winning the contest with the USSR and its satellites without having to fight a
third world war.

Since its founding, America has been a nation based on ideals that have inspired people around
the world. This noble identity is now being fundamentally undermined as the radical Left seeks
to destroy America’s foundations. The Founders recognized the dangers inherent in democracy,
in particular if a majority becomes detached from the nation’s moral underpinnings. They built
in recognition of divine authority and religion-based morality as a way to anchor the country in
transcendent human values of goodness and justice, secured by the rule of law. The Left is now
rapidly undermining those foundations as it seeks to radically transform America. If America
fails, the rest of the world has no protector from the militant atheism that showed its sheer brutal-
ity in the 20th Century, and has shown its unmitigated brutality in today’s China.

The Settlement Project recognizes that the advance of the Left is not based on a history of
achievements, but on the repetition of promises that have never been fulfilled and will never be
fulfilled. In fact it is democratic societies based on capitalism that has greatly improved the con-
dition of people worldwide, reducing poverty and delivering previously unimagined freedom and
wealth. The record of the Left, by contrast, is one of destruction of traditional societies, economic
disaster, death, and ever-increasing misery.

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The Settlement Project

The Settlement Project appreciates the incredible contributions of American patriots, whose
blood and sacrifice have enabled the creation of this nation, which is a beacon of hope and inspi-
ration for freedom-loving people throughout the world. However, we recognize that the response
to the Left so far has been inadequate. The fallacies and myths of the Left have not been thor-
oughly exposed and debunked, enabling them to gain more and more influence in America and
worldwide. Marxist and postmodernist ideas are sweeping a nation built by devout believers in
divine providence, leading to the crisis we are facing. The new strains of Marxism are so much
more powerful and dangerous than what we had to deal with during the Soviet era that we need a
whole new level of response.

It is identifying the true nature of this new danger, and then shaping and advancing an effective
response, that is the mission of The Settlement Project. This response must go beyond our previ-
ous thinking and the assumptions on which it has been based. People of faith and good will have
to realize that existing beliefs and practices have proven insufficient to thwart the rise of this new
evil. Now is the moment to acknowledge our inadequacies and work together to create a response
sufficiently potent to demolish the power of the Left.

The Settlement Project for this county is based on the following Ten Principles.

1. Marxism and other radical Leftist ideologies are not the root of evil in the world, but they
are the vehicle through which divine ideals and culture are being destroyed.
2. The root of evil lies in the original separation of human beings from their Creator.
3. This separation created a history in which human life is inexorably trapped in a struggle
between good and evil.
4. This struggle is resolvable, but not by violent revolution or oppression, as memorialized
in the Biblical narrative of Cain’s brutal and unjustified murder of Abel.
5. Marxism took root because of the limited success of religion-based societies to secure a
divine standard of equality and justice for all.
6. Marxism and radical Leftist ideologies have Cain’s characteristics of resentment and vio-
lence embedded within them.
7. The violent Marxist response to injustice has utterly failed, in every case, to deliver on its
promise of justice and equality, and has inevitably produced grievous human suffering in-
stead.
8. The solution to the social ills that Marxism and Critical Theory claim to solve does not lie
in conflict and destruction of others, but in Abel finally succeeding in overcoming and
dissolving Cain’s bitter, historical resentment.
9. To achieve reconciliation between Cain and Abel requires divine wisdom and love.
10. Transcending the current divisions of religious denominationalism and partisan politics
will be required to achieve this outcome.

A Call to Action

The Settlement Project is non-partisan and non-sectarian. It is dedicated to mobilizing all possi-
ble resources to achieve the realization of its Ten Principles through serving and collaborating

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with like-minded individuals and institutions in the United States and worldwide. Its core activi-
ties will include:

1. Developing and disseminating educational materials.


2. Supporting and collaborating with like-minded individuals and organizations.
3. Establishing an international network of representatives.

Visit: The Settlement Project


Contact : Frank Kaufmann
fkaufmann@sp12.org

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