Oftencold
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2008
- Messages
- 5,044
- Reaction score
- 2,202
- Location
- A small village in Alaska
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Very Conservative
I have come to the conclusion that no republic can long survive in a culture where voluntary idiocy is not regarded as an affront to decency, where the uninformed are encouraged to vote, where the needlessly unproductive are shielded from suffering for their deficiencies, and where the morals of the majority are constantly held to be grossly defective. Republicanism requires a more elevated sort of citizen participants.
I'd also add that a lack of religious dedication and instruction will be lethal to a free society as well, since the value we place on the freedom of others tends to be an expression of our abstract concept of Man. In a purely mechanical, non-spiritual model, a human is simply a thing.
In fine, I think that we've botched the whole "liberty" thing, and are in the last few decades of such a concept remaining in vogue. Modern Americans, as a whole, seem to me no more likely to pass on liberty to their progeny, than a child playing with matches in a paper house is likely to maintain shelter. (And for allegorically similar reasons.)
A personal tendency to frank assessment informed by historical awareness really sucks, you know.
What do such others of you who are fond of writing in complete paragraphs think about such prognostication?
I'd also add that a lack of religious dedication and instruction will be lethal to a free society as well, since the value we place on the freedom of others tends to be an expression of our abstract concept of Man. In a purely mechanical, non-spiritual model, a human is simply a thing.
In fine, I think that we've botched the whole "liberty" thing, and are in the last few decades of such a concept remaining in vogue. Modern Americans, as a whole, seem to me no more likely to pass on liberty to their progeny, than a child playing with matches in a paper house is likely to maintain shelter. (And for allegorically similar reasons.)
A personal tendency to frank assessment informed by historical awareness really sucks, you know.
What do such others of you who are fond of writing in complete paragraphs think about such prognostication?