Sine Qua Non—Or The But For Cause Of Failure (Or Success)

One man’s vote may have led to America’s current racial divide—and your one vote may be the difference between saving our constitutional republic or watching it fall.

M. E. Boyd | October 21, 2026

Sine Qua Non means “without which, not.”  In other words, “but for” is a prerequisite for factual cause.  Factual cause is the bread and butter of metaphysics (the study of the nature of reality), which is considered a branch of philosophy (the study of large questions that cannot be scientifically measured) – also known as the study of wisdom.  Are there changeless universals around which societies can structure themselves?  Or are scientific predictables but a thin slice of the tangled nature of existence?  Why is this important to an individual American voter?

It is important because an individual does not always know or come to know whether his or her action in voting (or failing to vote), and what or who is voted for, is the “but for” that changes civilizations.  Small events, not votes, can also be the “but for” that changes the course of history.  For instance:

Attila the Hun fought both the Western and Eastern Roman Empire with great success and was ready for the final kill until suddenly dying of an esophageal hemorrhage following a drunken stupor on his wedding night.  The Hunnic Empire of Eastern and Central Europe subsequently ended in 468 AD -- Western Civilization was preserved.

A freak fog emerged at the Revolutionary War Battle of Long Island in........

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