From “E Pluribus Unum” to “’Making the Machine, Man’: In This Do We Now Trust.”

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10

The recent release on 9/12/22 of E.O. 14081 by the President of the United States countermanded the Joint Resolution passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by another president, Dwight D. Eisenhower on 7/30/55. The updated motto by Eisenhower made the national motto, “In God We Trust” to solidify the tip of the ideological and religious spear to be thrust into the Cold War threatening secular ideology of the USSR. Realistically, this most recent change in our motto has the full force of law as now practiced nowadays by the U.S. Imperial Presidency – similar in every respect to the ancient shift in the Mediterranean world from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire under the great Imperator Augustus. The U.S. has had its Imperator in the American Imperial Palace – the White House in Washington, DC, since… oh, since LBJ when he refused, against all friendly, pro-American diplomatic counsel and that of his presidential advisors, to end the Vietnam War. Maybe FDR is a better candidate for the transformation from American republic to American dictatorship. But, after all, it was LBJ that insisted and persisted to continue the sacrifice of American youth and national wealth to the morass of the thickening Southeast Asian quagmire for the benefit of the MIC (military-industrial-complex) - its shareholders and the Wall Street crowd and culture of the financial d'élite.

In the interlude of some 67 years since the Cold War need for raising American theism as a Cold War public relations fiat against Soviet atheism for appealing and attracting the emergent, postcolonial nations of the Global South, we have all but forgotten except sometimes on special “patriotic days” like family gatherings with the old folks on July 4th, the nation’s first motto, “E Pluribus Unum.” One can do her or his own short search on Wikipedia and other websites for short histories of all this, but that first motto is finally finding fulfillment in this latest motto change by Imperial Edict. Not only Americans but now the entire global humanity can look forward to being one from the many of the world’s peoples and their unique heritages, histories, ethnographies, etc. etc. etc. The purpose of the United States as the exceptional nation with the magnanimous mission accompanying its founding to civilize the planet has come full circle to final fulfillment by this presidential evocation by Catholic President Biden in stating the new and now American national commitment and the come-out-from-the-shadows purpose to really and finally make the planet’s peoples one genus, one family, one entire common subject through the wizardry of biology and technology.

It is helpful, I suggest, that rather than think of what this portends as the massive use of American resources to infuse technology into the biologies of humans, perhaps we should see this more incisively as the making of the machine into the new humanity – yes, transhumanism’s most adorable goal of the final enhancement. But more, this making the machine the new humanity becomes the ultimate means of control, objectivity, rationality. In effect, when the machine becomes human, the irrationality of humanity with all its possible ‘wild-card’ passions (pick one…pick any) becomes nil, zilch, zippo, null, void, diddly- squat, nada, bupkis, void. In other words, the messy business of governing, of negotiating, of respecting differences, of honoring, of celebrating, of… my goodness, …loving, even in a familial way, appreciating, enjoying, etc. etc. etc. – all the ways of finding common goodness and the finer, sublime moments of gladness and yes, praise to the Creator and finally humbly worshiping Him for His Transcendent purpose in all the human messinesses…. All these old practices and moments of simply being human and an individual human being… they will all be improved and enhanced by the wonderful technologies that await us as they – the machines – become our perfect stand-ins, the precise enhancement and improved beings, … the only true and scientized way we can become “one from many.” This is the only way we can ensure that the quirkinesses of being human can be brought under wraps, and that is to create, wallah! …a new humanity to replace the old humanity. E Pluribus Unum can now finally be fulfilled and within the grasp of this pesky nation of do-gooders and techno-scientistic, entrepreneurial, making-things-happen, “bringing good things to life” people.   

I wonder how the new humanitas ex machinam will be compelled to translate the old Scriptural truths, like the following traditional verses on trusting in the Lord. You can come up with many more.

The End of Right Trust

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Psalm 32:10

The Better Way  

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. Psalm 118:8

The Way of Victory Assured  

The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. Exodus 14:14

The Sure Security in Life

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Psalm 20:7

The Final and Only Deliverance

Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. Proverbs 28:26

The Only Response to Life

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:14