Do hard times really build the American character?
In a group discussion this week, it was agreed that our current political quagmire is ultimately the result of the collective character of Americans being too low at present to maintain their own government well---that they don't care enough, don't understand enough, and aren't committed enough to be involved as is necessary to maintain a constitutional republic.
Some suggested that the only way for them to get this level of character was to "hit rock bottom"....to see the collapse of the nation, or perhaps a severe depression.
On later discussion, another friend told me she thinks this is demonstrably false. Look at the Great Depression and how the people EMERGED with a greater dependence on Government than ever before. Look how many ways FDR et al trampled the Constitution---ways that the depression-veteran people never fought to overturn.
Similarly, look at the Civil War, where both war and depression were in play. They came out of that experience with a brand new nation---the former republic having been permanently altered---not by constitutional amendment, but by the fascistic decrees of Lincoln and Congress. Again, the war-veteran nation lacked the character to stand up for the rule of law.
It seems to me that the only character change from the Depression was that they learned to eat less and to save their tuna cans, and not that they became better guardians of the Republic.
Any thoughts on this?
Jack Pelham
Rule of Law Revolution
www.ruleoflawrevolution.com
definition of American Character vs. personal character
To me, these 2 items are separate. Hard times can be a great tool for personal growth but how do you make a country grow? Grandparents habits developed during the depression are surely an inspiration of personal character triumphing physical/economic limitations. I think it is hard to get individuals to work towards a good government because we are busy developing ourselves, our businesses, etc. This is a good question that really needs to be asked.
Thanks for posting.
LivingTheDream
Hey, Living. When I write about...
...the "American character", I'm simply talking about that aggregate quality of the nation that either maintains or fails to maintain the republic and the human rights as written in the Constitution. I don't mean to suggest anything more than that.
I agree with you that many may be consumed with personal character. I believe, however, that the crowning achievement of personal character is a certain responsibility to and for the society. I do not at all mean this in the socialist sense of the sharing of wealth. Rather, I'm referring to the responsibility of each person to support the concepts of justice and of the rule of law.
I was driving by a city park yesterday when I saw two young kids (probably 4 or 5 years old) climbing over a guardrail into the street. A car coming the other direction stopped and I could see the driving pointing and scolding these kids, directing them to climb back over the rail toward the safety of the playground. A dull-looking teenager inside the park looked up and sauntered toward the kids, apparently taking some sort of notion that perhaps he, too, ought to be involved. (It seemed to me that he was the only apparent guardian or chaperon.)
How dare someone demand that someone else's kids conform to their wishes, right? Who could possibly have the right to make such demands on others? But wait a minute......if the mandate was for something that is self-evidently right and just and good, then perhaps we do have a right to look out for each other....and even to make it a law: "No children in the street".
The Rule of Law is certainly more complicated than the rule of self, with many more pitfalls. But the demonstrable fact that millions of people don't do very well ruling themselves to be just, fair, and good towards, requires that the brighter ones among us take a little initiative and come up with a set of laws that are just, fair, and good. Such laws, including declarations of rights, restrictions on the citizens' behavior, and restrictions on the government's behavior, are all part of the rule of law.
My overall point is that not enough Americans are investing into the maintenance of the rule of law to keep it afloat. And no amount of suffering witnessed to date has driven us to get any better at it. Therefore, it is apparent to me that the necessary critical mass of "American character" necessary to bring about a meaningful reform must be gained deliberately, and not passively in some "rock bottom" event.
Jack Pelham
Rule of Law Revolution
www.ruleoflawrevolution.com
Jack Pelham
www.jackpelham.com
www.ruleoflawrestoration.com
question? How much does the school system play in this?
I remember a story about a boy whose father had died in the civil war. He had fought on the side of the south. One day the teacher asked what his father would think of post civil war america, he said that my dad would be ashamed he fought against lincoln and the teacher responded that his dad would be ashamed that his son didnt stand up for liberty. But unfortionatly that was the only teacher that seemed to care about the subject.
Most kids are now taught to believe anything (be gullable) that goes along with what they were taught. But they were never trained to think. I come across it time and time again in my family, I come across it time and time again in me, and I was kicked out of classrooms for asking too many questions (They were real honest questions, not sarcasm).
this has helped me understand a lot on the subject. http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm
Schools? A lot. Parents? Even more.
Regardless of whatever the government schools are doing, the parents could work wonders if they would but teach their own children the Constitution.
John Taylor Gatto's work is profound and compelling. He is so right that we are conditioned in government school to be a mere worker/consumer class. The establishment simply does not want an abundance of philosophers, statesmen, innovators, and entrepreneurs out there competing with them. Rather, they want us to work in their industries and to buy their products when we get off work.
Jack Pelham
Rule of Law Revolution
www.ruleoflawrevolution.com
Jack Pelham
www.jackpelham.com
www.ruleoflawrestoration.com
My thoughts on this, very detailed:
"Can we move forward without a foothold on the past?":
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/67899
We can abandon that foothold...
on the past, only if our handhold in the future is secure. The only way to know is to trust your education and instincts, and know where your foot's going next.
Risk is the scariest proposition.
Assert Your Authority
Assert Your Authority
Well said.
I was not there in the "past." It is all heresay and speculation, to me.
Good question
I guess we won't have to wait long to find out how this all goes.
Prepare & Share the Message of Freedom through Positive-Peaceful-Activism.
I think I agree with your friend
I used to think that it would take a complete collapse of this republic to restore it, but I've come to think that that won't lay the groundwork for restoration because we are no longer a nation of "republicans", but of centrists--believers in large, central, controlling government--the antithesis of the very foundation of American political philosophy.
Your post gives great examples of how this dissolution has taken place over a century or more. It is this realization on my part that now makes it possible for me to consider leaving this country--something I could never have imagined even just a short while ago. Yet, I strongly suspect that when the complete ruination comes, the country simply will not have enough "Americans" in it to restore anything close to the republic bequeathed to us from our Founders.
I agree
and this week I had two different individuals tell me they cant wait to put chips in themselves and in their family members.
Suprising as that is I have also had Bible believing christians tell me that they cant wait to have chips put in them and their family members, even though the Bible makes it pretty clear that is when the shtf.
My husband and I considered several times to leave this country
and go back to Canada. Truth is, this collectivist mentality is just about everywhere. That is why they call it 'new world order'.
We have resolved that we stay here and 'restore' United States back to its Republican roots. Our Sovereignty is already not being recognized for the most part and neither are other peoples around the world. If 'they' think they can just treat all us like they do in those other countries in Asia and Africa, they have another thing coming. We noticed the same tactics being used in our State conventions as they do in these other countries when they 'plant' their puppets.
I see a lot of shifting happening right here in Minnesota in the grassroots. People getting wise. Amazing what a small bunch of like-minded individuals can do when we organize!!! I am not only hopeful, I am optimistic.
Thanks for your positive words, Anisha.
We need them right now. I do especially.
To further your point
A college type, middle-aged white professional told me he was supporting Joe Biden for president, and in further conversation eluded to the world someday being a one world government. I was taken back not because this guy was talking this way, but because he was intelligent and talking this way.
When you find a good place to go, let us know ((wink))
Devoted,
Do you suppose that it's POSSIBLE for enough of us to get together and to drive a gargantuan campaign to restore the American character such that the people are indeed capable of overseeing their own government?
Jack Pelham
Rule of Law Revolution
www.ruleoflawrevolution.com
Jack Pelham
www.jackpelham.com
www.ruleoflawrestoration.com
Hey, Jack Pelham, sorry for the delay
in response to your question and thanks to everyone here for their comments on my comment about having had many thoughts of leaving this country. Believe me, it does not make me happy to do so.
With respect to your question, Jack, it would have to be a gargantuan campaign. Given that humans appear immune to facts until their emotions catch up with them, it would have to be a very emotional campaign--one that appeals to the senses--not the intellect. (Brain research backs this point by revealing the anatomy of thought as beginning in the reptilian brain--always and every time. This means that all thought begins with very primitive emotional responses, the only kind of which the reptilian brain is capable. Only with effort do thoughts move from that initial emotional response through the rest of the brain to the frontal cortex--but I digress! I'm just trying to drive the point about how to develop a campaign that would have any hope (an emotion) of restoring the republic). As an example, emotion played a huge role in shifting the nation away from slavery...I think emotion will play a huge role in shifting this republic back on to its philosophical footing--if it is to happen at all.
No problem on the delay, Devoted.
Agreed. No matter what form it takes, it would indeed have to be "huge-icantic", as we used to say.
OK, but are YOU like this? And I like this? Are we emotion driven as a fundamental rule of our psyche? Or are we merely talking about MOST people?
I am generally given to fundamental analysis, so I naturally wonder whether there's a way to make people not so demagoguery-prone. Therefore, I'm naturally repulsed by the idea of launching my own campaign of demagoguery.
Is there a way to transform the characters of enough Americans into being fact-driven people? Or must we resort to tricking them for their own good?
Secondly, when you lead with demagoguery, there's nothing to keep your opponent from doing the same thing. But when you lead with facts---and assuming that your position is indeed correct---then your opponent cannot afford to reply in kind, for he has no facts to back him up.
So is there a way to get the nation to appreciate fact more than emotion?
What do you think?
Jack Pelham
Rule of Law Revolution
www.ruleoflawrevolution.com
Jack Pelham
www.jackpelham.com
www.ruleoflawrestoration.com
Socialist love hard times
Why do you think Obama got elected, because he was a capitalist ?
Obama got elected because Bush was a fascist.
Had there been no odious eight years of GW Bush, had there been no neo-con takeover of the White House, there would have never been a President Barack Obama.
It is very important to the powers that be to maintain the integrity of the two-party system: eight years Republican; eight years Democrat. Each president is more dangerous than the last, and the idiot electorate continues voting in the two-party cycles, ensuring that there will never be any meaningful change except for the constant growth of government.
SUPPORT OUR FOUNDERS' AMERICA
Support the Constitution of the United States
SUPPORT OUR FOUNDERS' AMERICA
Support the Constitution of the United States
Well put, Kevin.
Eight years of Bush tyranny, fascism, and disobedience to the Constitution certainly didn't reform the American people into diligent defenders of the Constitution. Rather, they showed their true colors by voting for the next guy in line for whom they were told to vote. And the "progress" down the slippery slope continues.
Jack Pelham
Rule of Law Revolution
www.ruleoflawrevolution.com
Jack Pelham
www.jackpelham.com
www.ruleoflawrestoration.com
Obama got elected because he...
IS a fascist too. Bush got elected because he is a fascist as well. And on. They are not different, do not let the change of scenery and dialogue throw you.
Assert Your Authority
Assert Your Authority
Perhaps
we have to plow virgin ground and make something happen (or try to make something happen) that hasn't really happened before. Local community education removing a significant number of people from the system---opting out of taxes, using an alternative currency, maintaining community adequate to do so, feed ourselves, defend ourselves, eventually overthrow the system.
Yes, I think so
Here is one fun example, Who needs the police when we can have real life Superheros. www.edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/06/04/real.life.superheroes/...
I believe the only way anything becomes 'valuable' or 'dear' is
when one has to 'struggle' or lose something valuable and it becomes scarce.
It then transforms from 'valuable', to 'precious' once the suffering becomes unbearable. Many may have to die and others suffer and endure unimaginable mental, physicall, and emotional pain.
As far as I can tell by all evidences exposed these last eight years now of the last century, we have been duped of our 'inheritance'. Plain and simple.
The political trust has been breeched since the Civil War and incrementally, the monarchist/bankers have moved in.
Our founders knew this could happen and tried every which way to protect such precious 'Sovereignty' they claimed for humanity for their posterity.
The protection relied entirely upon the intelligence, education, civic vigilance, and right action, which today has all but disappeared until Dr.Paul raised attention to it.
Not to say its too little too late, because there is still a slender chance, only, it will probably be the last time some Americans will be exposed to such ideas before all hell breaks loose.
We have been bamboozled, distracted, divided, compartmentalized, and herded, essentially, to behave and think as a slave.
Thomas Jefferson said, "I tremble for my country when I think that God is just."
I truly believe that our founders understood 'Universal Laws' and lived by them.
Extremely difficult for those enlightened men to pass on something that was so philosophically, 'ahead of its time'. Also, this philosophy requires a 'pure heart' to fully realize it. Not everyone can truly appreciate it, especially today.
Here's a couple...
"When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast, that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachment upon the American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality, become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole society."
--John Adams
SOUND FAMILIAR????????????
"The Constitution has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it."
--Lysander Spooner
GunTrap, this is a great quote--the Adams, that is.
I had not yet run across this one. If I can vet that quote, I'll be sure to include it in my upcoming book---which I hope to publish in July.
Jack Pelham
Rule of Law Revolution
www.ruleoflawrevolution.com
Jack Pelham
www.jackpelham.com
www.ruleoflawrestoration.com
I've been doing
some reading and it looks like Wilson in World War I was the leader of the Progressive Era, which is what modern day liberals are. It looks like he had a lot of unconstitutional things instituted also.
Yes, even with the trauma of WWI,
....the people of the US were still sitting ducks for the stock market monkey business of 1929. The war had not made them into super patriots.
Jack Pelham
Rule of Law Revolution
www.ruleoflawrevolution.com
Jack Pelham
www.jackpelham.com
www.ruleoflawrestoration.com