A Revolution Fought Over an Idea
Independence Day is about more than individual liberty. It celebrates the bravery of the revolutionaries, all British citizens who could have led comfortable lives as part of a global empire that sat astride the earth. Instead, they risked "our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor" against their mother country over the right to self-government. Unlike many civil wars today, the American Revolution was not fought for material gains or ethnic, religious, or tribal loyalties -- it was a revolution over an idea. And then the United States spread the gift of democratic self-government to other peoples that they barely knew. Just call up the photo of the Korean peninsula at night -- with only the free South brilliantly lit by electricity -- to see the blessings to the world of America's pursuit of freedom and democracy.
- Comment (7)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (0)
Comments:
Mar '11
Re: A Revolution Fought Over an Idea
If Mr Obama gets his way, and electricity costs "necessarily skyrocket", he will fulfill a campaign promise - the seas will recede, the planet will be saved, and the night-time map of N America will look like N Korea.
He would no doubt like to be "The Dear Leader", also - dictating which light bulbs to use (or preferably no light bulbs at all), where airplanes be built (or preferably not built at all), which cars be built (or preferably no cars at all), and what we all eat (only green vegetables, or preferably nothing at all).
What was that idea, again?
Edited on July 4, 2011 at 5:28pmMay '10
Re: A Revolution Fought Over an Idea
This is one of my favorite pictures, because of how dramatically it illustrates the results of freedom and capitalism.
Obama's vision for the USA ... bright lights on the coastal cities, darkness everywhere else.
Sep '10
Re: A Revolution Fought Over an Idea
If Greece gave the world democracy and Rome the rule of law, America has given the world the idea of freedom. Freedom not simply from oppression or the restrictions of class or caste or biology, but freedom to: to achieve something for oneself.
As Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of the American prairie, wrote, freedom is not how we see it now: inherent, preexistent, a gift of birth, like breathing. No, the idea of freedom had to be discovered, in the great raw materials of an unearthed land, seen through the eyes of an Enlightened mind, its expressions reaching to the sky, like the great monument bridges linking east and west, relaying the discovery on foot, on horseback, in wagons, trains, automobiles. Not for security, but for self-determination, the possible.
Lest one romanticize, the idea of freedom also means the freedom to fail, to die unrealized, untested, unchanged. But, also, to confront the bigoted anger of prejudice, first by the one, then by the many, eventually to overcome the idea of it, first within the one and then within the many. For groups are never free. Only individuals are free. And only individuals can reject the idea of America.
Edited on July 4, 2011 at 5:51pmMar '11
Re: A Revolution Fought Over an Idea
I think Obama and Kim Jong It's Time to Get Ill are a few leagues removed from one another, David. Like not even playing the same game.
Remember, too: Bush signed the lightbulb ban. As bad and over-reaching as the legislation is, America isn't going to become North Korea anytime soon.
Thankfully, though, we can look forward to North Korea's good stewardship of the council on disarmament, though (*insert sharp object in eye socket*).
John--You are quite correct. America is a nation bounded by more than blood and tradition. We are also bound by ideas and common ideals, and, on more than one occasion, great debates about them.
Mar '11
Re: A Revolution Fought Over an Idea
Crow's Nest: I think Obama and Kim Jong It's Time to Get Ill are a few leagues removed from one another, David. Like not even playing the same game.
Remember, too: Bush signed the lightbulb ban.
Well, yes, I agree that W also demonstrated how far the Republic has strayed from its original idea. We have, of course, strayed even further since W left office.
I also agree that Mr Obama is not in the same league as Kim Jong II - we still have that pesky Constitution, with all its "negative rights".
Maoist China might be a better model for Mr Obama's "fundamental change", a la Anita Dunn and Thomas Friedman.
But N Korea still represents the reductio ad absurdam of Democrat/Environmentalist ideology - so the dark picture is a good one - and will be the USA on a windless night.
Edited on July 4, 2011 at 6:50pmApr '11
Re: A Revolution Fought Over an Idea
Is that one little speck of light in the North Kim Jong-il's palace/compound?
Mar '11
Re: A Revolution Fought Over an Idea
Nope - that's the nuclear enrichment facility. You'd think with all that nuclear technology they could produce some electricity, as a by-product of plutonium production?