It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum
Topics => General Board => Topic started by: LadyVirginia on June 10, 2011, 12:01:43 PM
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I've been dwelling on some of the posts today.
I take a long view of history. Our story today is not much different that any other across the centuries. What is different is that God so obviously blessed and gave us a chance. We had in our first president an example unlike any other to follow--he had no children so we weren't dependent on his family line to rule us --we had to figure that out ourselves. The ideas of liberty took hold in a mostly unoccupied and undeveloped land--ideas that have largely had a difficult time flowering in other places with centuries of history.
The history of the United States didn't start with the War of Independence. It began earlier--events in Europe began occuring in the 15th century that culminated in what became the United States...lacking some of those things and the outcome may have been different.
All those self-evident truths and inalienable rights have been safe guarded by the United States. And many were happy to hand them over to someone else to watch. It seemed as if the perfect place had been found. Yet the United States have never been perfect because man is not perfect. So those ideas have been bastardized until we now know those in charge didn't have those ideas at heart and they've convinced so many others that it was all nonsense anyway.
Yes, The United States is "the last, best place on earth" but if that changes those ideas that made this country will reside in the hearts of those who understand that liberty is owned by no one.
So I will fight and teach my children those ideas. Because whether I end my days in a country I recognize or not I will have to answer at judgment day for my actions.
Though I'm no fan of Teddy Roosevelt I read this passage in Charleton Heston's autobiography and it pretty much sums up my attitude and how I've raised my kids:
To the Man in the Arena
It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
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Daring greatly and failing seems to be the odds on favorite IMO, but if it is God's will, so be it!
Fortuna favet fortibus!
Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature. - George Washington, 1796 — Farewell Address - George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (522)
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Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature. - George Washington, 1796 — Farewell Address - George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (522)
Ah, yes. THE farewell address. A favorite in this house. My daughter (the one who wants to go to CA) memorized it in high school because she liked it. She can still recite it. :)
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Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature. - George Washington, 1796 — Farewell Address - George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (522)
Ah, yes. THE farewell address. A favorite in this house. My daughter (the one who wants to go to CA) memorized it in high school because she liked it. She can still recite it. :)
::thumbsup::
Warms my heart!
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Great nations fail because its citizens become complacent with all the benefits of freedom and liberty, without recognizing the burden required of them. Citizens can become as Anthony Weiner, who pay lip service to the notion that personal responsibility can be claimed without suffering consequences for failure. Responsibility without consequences is as empty as moral relevance.
Two hundred years ago the price of liberty and freedom was paid with the blood of our ancestors. Too many in this generation believe that freedom and liberty can be purchased with money borrowed from our enemies. Unless a substantial number of men and women are willing to sacrifice their own treasure, we are doomed to the status of a once great nation, such as Greece or Great Britain. May God have mercy on us if we ever become weaker than Islam.
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It is the trajectory of all great civilizations, struggle and sacrifice leave each successive generation more wealth and power than the preceding. Over the course of generations the civilization is on the ascendant. At some point a perverted sense of magnanimity creeps into the ethos of the civilization, and it begins to tolerate weakness and decadence, and eventually outright indulges them. This plateau phase can go on for a while depending on circumstances, but it inevitably results in a generation thoroughly unworthy of its inheritance, and more to the point, a generation thoroughly incapable of carrying the legacy.
It happened so often in history, and to such different civilizations around the world, it seems almost an axiom of the human condition. Maybe it is to remind us that despite our greatest achievements, they will always pale in comparison to Nature and the Divine, because the source of our undoing is always our own moral weakness and lack of virtue.
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Glock's post reminds me of the quote often attributed to Sir Alex Fraser Tytler:
[blockquote]"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from great courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again to bondage."[/blockquote]
I think we are headed straight for "dependence" unless right-thinking people can awaken the people to the consequences of continuing to entertain Leftism as a legitimate political option. The people must be shaken from their apathy. I reject the notion that anything is a foregone conclusion.
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Glock's post reminds me of the quote often attributed to Sir Alex Fraser Tytler:
[blockquote]"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from great courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again to bondage."[/blockquote]
I think we are headed straight for "dependence" unless right-thinking people can awaken the people to the consequences of continuing to entertain Leftism as a legitimate political option. The people must be shaken from their apathy. I reject the notion that anything is a foregone conclusion.
By that measure I believe we are at stage eight: "from dependency back again to bondage"
We're way past the building phase, well into the stratification phase where bureaucrats define away every freedom and privilege (and right) we have in favor of cookie-cutter rules (that they conveniently exempt themselves from), and have a good start on creating an entirely dependent population of serfs. Any society that can look you in the eye and utter the insipid "zero tolerance" dogma or intone "diversity is our strength" is a mortally wounded society.
Significant portions of our neighbors have thrown in the towel and are limply laying there, waiting for someone to take care of them. The left knows it is creating a "dragon eating its own tail" governmental order that is not sustainable and will result in our complete destruction, but they don't care, because they worship at the alter of instant gratification. They'll happily trade all of our futures for momentary pleasure.
Jane! Get me off this crazy thing!
(http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g369/J-reb/thejetsons.jpg)