Long ago we used to live in caves in family units, fending for ourselves and suspicious of those who might wander in. Hard to believe but over a thousand years ago Rome was a huge modern city with indoor plumbing and over a million people. Today we have huge governments, cities within counties within states and all together we are Americans.
It took thousands of years, millions of deaths and tons of compromise in order for us to figure out how to live together without one of us destroying the other's cave, to live in relative peace.
In order to achieve this we needed something in common, something we all agreed upon, maybe something more valuable than any one of us. This is a difficult task and failure is more common than success.
Even in this modern era some countries have been held together by brute force, the only thing in common being the single will of a dictator. Yugoslavia, that mix of Slavic Groups fell apart with the death of Tito, the guy who created unity with an iron hand.
Lybia will be interesting to watch. Newly freed after over forty years under the thumb of Ghadafi, it is not really a country at all. It was created as lines on a map and encompasses several divergent tribes, each with its history of hatred for the other. Isolation and self interest has been the norm of History. Countries have been created out of force.
The United States has this experience to a lesser degree than most countries. Oh, we have used force during the Civil War but mostly we are together by invitation and agreement. From our original 13 Colonies
to the 50 States that we have become it has been through the will of the people that we have become One
Nation and each State voted to do this. Oregon was a territory and we voted to join this Union as did most other States.
Private enterprise and the Government together joined forces and the Railroads crisscrossed this huge country and helped bind us together. We welcomed foreigners to our shores, made it easy for them to become Americans in an effort to conquer this vast country.
What ties us together is not force but an idea. We have learned about freedom from the likes of John Stewart Mill, Burke, Locke, our own Jefferson, Adams and Benjamin Franklin and others born of this American Experience. It is a process of continual refinement and we have created a Government that allows for change. We have learned from History that "majority rules" can have devastating effects as we are caught up in the moment. We remember that Hitler was voted into power and no one wants that.
We are a country of laws, of rights and responsibilities and changes move slowly for a reason.
Tomorrow I will prove to you that I am NOT a flaming liberal as some of you have come to believe.
If the truth were known I am very Conservative.
You can really discover everything about me right HERE
It took thousands of years, millions of deaths and tons of compromise in order for us to figure out how to live together without one of us destroying the other's cave, to live in relative peace.
In order to achieve this we needed something in common, something we all agreed upon, maybe something more valuable than any one of us. This is a difficult task and failure is more common than success.
Even in this modern era some countries have been held together by brute force, the only thing in common being the single will of a dictator. Yugoslavia, that mix of Slavic Groups fell apart with the death of Tito, the guy who created unity with an iron hand.
Lybia will be interesting to watch. Newly freed after over forty years under the thumb of Ghadafi, it is not really a country at all. It was created as lines on a map and encompasses several divergent tribes, each with its history of hatred for the other. Isolation and self interest has been the norm of History. Countries have been created out of force.
The United States has this experience to a lesser degree than most countries. Oh, we have used force during the Civil War but mostly we are together by invitation and agreement. From our original 13 Colonies
to the 50 States that we have become it has been through the will of the people that we have become One
Nation and each State voted to do this. Oregon was a territory and we voted to join this Union as did most other States.
Private enterprise and the Government together joined forces and the Railroads crisscrossed this huge country and helped bind us together. We welcomed foreigners to our shores, made it easy for them to become Americans in an effort to conquer this vast country.
What ties us together is not force but an idea. We have learned about freedom from the likes of John Stewart Mill, Burke, Locke, our own Jefferson, Adams and Benjamin Franklin and others born of this American Experience. It is a process of continual refinement and we have created a Government that allows for change. We have learned from History that "majority rules" can have devastating effects as we are caught up in the moment. We remember that Hitler was voted into power and no one wants that.
We are a country of laws, of rights and responsibilities and changes move slowly for a reason.
Tomorrow I will prove to you that I am NOT a flaming liberal as some of you have come to believe.
If the truth were known I am very Conservative.
You can really discover everything about me right HERE
4 comments:
Personally I figured you were someone who was very balanced when it comes to politics. Not to far one way or the other. If we were all more balanced I think the country would run a lot smoother and more thought would be given to the citizens rather than political opportunities.
ah, thank you Tiffiny, sometimes I feel as though I am on a razor's edge!
I agree with Tiffiny. You are pretty centrist. I think a liberal edge is when people think people are most important even if they need a bit more help than people usually want to give and a conservative side is one where people still believe a person can pull themself up by their own bootstraps. Somewhere in the middle is the helping hand to boost the person who is trying to pull up those bootstraps. No one is truly self-made and many have advantages they've never earned. Other are waiting for a handout and inbetween is the most of us. I think we can all lean more one way or another at different times in our lives. The main thing is as you said, to avoid dictatorship and mob rule. That's why we have to have a greater than 50% vote for so many things. Well, what will you be posting next. You've got me on the edge of my seat!
Sometimes I just have to move my mind away from the plight of our country. I find it so depressing, so futile. Yes, I think that is what I personally feel the most: futility. Ah, these emotions of mine.
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