Let’s continue on with my ramblings about positive and negative liberty. As promised, first I want to talk about the USA.
The next person who claims that the USA was founded by a bunch of white, racist, wealthy land owners is going to get poked in the eye by the Joshman. I will concede “white” to you. But that’s it. A whole lot of the blood spilled on the ground of the War of Independence came out of the bodies of Ulster Scots (or Scots-Irish if you will) and if you think they were wealthy, go read a book. A lot of those foot soldiers who bled the ground were also Germans farmers, land owners but not wealthy. Did you know the government paid to have The Declaration of Independence translated into German? Take that “English must be the official language” people! (Unabhängigkeitserklärung Baby!) Did wealthy colonialists support the war? Yes, but so did the poor.
Racist? Go read a book. Slavery was a matter of huge contention at the time of the founding. It was hotly debated. Benjamin Franklin abhorred slavery for one and said it contradicted everything the new country stood for. But there were wealthy landowners who wanted to keep their slaves and if slavery was going to be made illegal they would break from the Union. Prophetic. In order to keep the fledgling nation unified, they compromised, allowing states to decide the issue for themselves. The nation began with the idea of democratic compromise. The Union paid for this compromise shortly afterward. Also, prophetic. So did racists support the war? Yes, but so did those who vehemently opposed slavery.
So what could have possibly unified all these people to fight against the British Empire? What idea could have unified rich landowners, poor farmers and trappers, racists and abolitionists, the educated and uneducated? It was the American Dream of course!
The American Dream was something different then than it is now. When pundits ask, “Is the American Dream alive?” what image comes to your mind? The American Dream now, is becoming filthy stinking rich usually by becoming a rock star or reality television contestant. Would we ever say that a legal Mexican immigrant making $100,000 a year running his own garbage truck company is living the American Dream? Not many of us would. But he might. What was the American Dream back then?
As far as I can tell, the American Dream meant liberty. The idea that one could come to a new country and live the way they wanted to. They could worship the way they wanted (or not if you’re Mark Twain). In every European country at that time, the government told you how to live, how to worship and taxed the CRAP out of you. We tend to think that the War of Independence was fought over excessive taxes (again, go read a book). It wasn’t. The average English citizen living in London paid 26 shillings a year. The Stamp Act would have raised the average colonists’ taxes to 2 shillings a year. Oppressive? Not. The fight was about, now listen carefully, “Taxation without representation.” Their taxes were raised by a Parliament they were not represented in. (Last I checked you Republicans have a representative, he’s called a “Senator”) Again, the issue was liberty. To live a life free from the fetters of a bunch of politicians living far away was the centerpiece of the revolution.
The idea of government intruding itself into our lives should be reprehensible to every American. It is to me. It is incomprehensible to me that you liberals demand that the government stay out of the bedroom, stay out of marriage, stay away from a woman’s body, stay away from what we decided to read and entertain ourselves with, should at the same time demand that government intrude itself into every other aspect of our lives. If I understand you correctly, you’re asking to be free to play with your penis and video games as you please, but oh wonderful government please choose your health care for you, educate you, inform you, and cradle you until you die. You’ve got your priorities mixed up.
Hey Republicans. Liberty. Remember that word? If there was ever a time Patrick Henry wanted you to take up a torch and riot in the streets it was when your party decided to wire tap citizens with no warrant, not when the government raised taxes about 2%. Where were you the last eight years? You were for warrentless wiretapping and torture because you TRUSTED THE GOVERNMENT to do it ethically to protect you. Trusted the government… Thomas Jefferson wept. Liberty, folks. Abraham Lincoln was a Senator during the Mexican-American War, read what he thought about that war and think about the last eight years. Go read what Mark Twain wrote about torture and imperialism. Liberty. Think about why people fought and died the next time you want the government to LEGISLATE how a gay or lesbian is supposed to live.
Liberty is the real American Dream. The American Dream is not “If I try hard and can become stinking, filthy, unimaginable wealthy”. That’s bull and it’s not true. A great many of you young men will never be professional athletes no matter how hard you try. The American Dream is this: you may be poor, you may be lonely, you may not ever be the next American Idol, but no one, NO ONE, will tell you how to live your life.
The America Dream is dying a slow death. Neither Obama nor Bush killed it. It started dying a long time ago (I say around the time of Prohibition), around the time we Americans decided that we needed other people (whether the government, churches or professors) to tell us how to live our lives.
And that leads us to my closing argument in this Civic Rambling, Negative Liberty (or: Why I think You are all Full of Crap and I’m joining the Libertarians)
It is sad. All these “victims”… sad.
Ah, to be a reality TV star.
The answer to the Democrat/Republican choice isn’t libertarianism, anymore than the middle path out of coke vs pepsi is donkey piss. Civil libertarian, cool. Otherwise please don’t turn into one of those “I don’t believe in taxes; what’s that got to do with roads?” people. HAHA! Great piece!
Recent Daily:
Our Trip to America Part 1
A Happy Wedding and Baby Video
Bottom Biting Bug
The Value of Flashing
Hugh Jackman Gets Groped
A little Enka!
I like Chinese
Napping and Bitching
Damned Hilarious
The Evergreen English Academy
Recent Random Rambles:
Think you can play keys?
Watch this! Unreal.
Inspiration from Olympia
Civic Rambling: On Negative Liberty
Civic Rambling: On Liberty Part 4
Civic Rambling: On Liberty Part 3
Sports Day Pics
Stephen Cobert's Alpha Dog of the Week
The Media
Civic Rambling: On Liberty Part 2
Links:
FailBlog - This site makes me raff.
Zombo - You can do anything
Nat's Blog - My Amigo
Mollygrubs - The Dr. is quite MAD!
Website by Ryan Crisman
… It all comes down to being able to say, “Its not MY fault. I’M not responcible. The Government did it.” Makes me very sad.