Should a society shape its government, or should government shape society?

Once there was a society that, based on what it thought was good and right, designed a system of government that would best preserve and encourage those things.

People from all over the world who wanted to were welcomed to come join that society and assimilate themselves into it.  Often, the original society would itself adopt some of the customs and flavors of the newcomers.  Thus it was called a "melting pot".  But the ideals which drew the immigrants remained the same.

But over time, malcontents within who really didn’t like that society, combined with efforts from others from outside who didn’t like that society and power-hungry narcissists within that society — exploited the tolerance of that society and subverted that tolerance from bottom-up tolerance of people who wanted to come assimilate to a top-down structure where the government began to dictate what society should look like.

Any time people from the majority, original society tried to assert its values, it was denounced as Hatred, even though that very society’s openness and embrace of anyone who wished to join it allowed its enemies to gain that very foothold. It went from society accepting those who wanted to join it, to that society being forced to accommodate any other society’s ideas and ideals.  And the melting pot began to look more and more like vinegar and oil -- or crayons separated into color families.

Over time, the original society, along with its ideals, was slowly suppressed out of existence.

And in the end, another oppressive totalitarian regime would rise, like a dark, evil Phoenix — from its ashes.

It’s a sad story. I hope the ending is different.

Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only? Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change.