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Cancelled
The meeting that man is addressing had better not be a school board meeting, or he will be in danger of being investigated as a potential terrorist for failing in unquestioning obedience to the educational establishment.
The adjacent image is, of course, Norman Rockwell’s famous painting commemorating Freedom of Speech, and it was one of the first things I thought about after reading about Merrick Garland’s now-infamous letter. This letter is just one small part of the massive campaign against free speech now being conducted by the ‘Biden’ administration, its private-sector partners, and its media allies.
The painting is one of four that were created by Rockwell to represent Roosevelt’s ‘Four Freedoms’. It strikes me that all of these freedoms are under attack by the current administration and by the Democratic Party in general.
Freedom from Want? The cornerstones of American prosperity are being systematically bulldozed, from low-cost energy to a rational government spending policy. Biden is so clueless about the working of the global economy that he said only a couple of years ago that China is no competition for us. He is so clueless about the realities of energy and technology that he believes any coal miner can become a coder, and apparently thinks there are a significant number of Americans who are employed in stoking coal furnaces manually. One important cornerstone of prosperity…that of a well-educated or at least literate/numerate population…is being destroyed by failed government schools and the unwillingness to either seriously improve these schools or to consider and enable serious alternatives to these schools. The excessive spending and irresponsible marketing conducted by many/most of America’s universities…which are core members of the Democratic coalition…has burdened millions of people with decades or lifetimes of debt. And the highly related growth of excessive credentialism is becoming a major inhibitor to social mobility.
Freedom from Fear? Many Americans live in fear of violent crime, and the number of such crimes has increased sharply since the inauguration of the Biden administration and its policies. And while fear of international bad actors has not reached the levels it did in the late 1930s, the 1940s, and the nuclear standoff of the Cold War era, you can count on increased fear of such actors (at least among those who are paying attention), given the ‘Biden’ administration’s policies re Iran and China, its empowerment of Putin (via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline), and its willful abandonment of any control over the southern border. And there is also fear of our own government–the growing knowledge that you may be arrested, you may be made unemployable, you may be destroyed financially, if powerful government figures wish it so and if you are on the wrong side of the political divide. And widespread fear–outright crazy levels of fear of Climate Change, for example–is being encouraged among the young to the point where such fears are a major factor in inhibiting the having of children.
Freedom of Worship? The concept of ‘each according to his own conscience’ seems to increasingly be cast in doubt, unless one’s conscience happens to match up with Dem policies and with the ideology of Wokeness, as those policies and that ideology vary from day to day and from moment to moment. There is a level of vindictiveness against nonconformists which I won’t say has never before been seen in this country, but which fortunately has been fairly rare. And strictly secular matters–vaccination policies, for example–are being treated using religious language, calling to mind the way kings and emperors once used claims of “God’s Will” to justify their plans of conquest. (See also this) There is considerable hostility toward Christianity (I myself am not a Christian), based not I think so much on theological considerations or on the claimed opposition between religion and science (many of those opponents are themselves followers of various mystical beliefs which are entirely outside a science-based worldview), but because it represents a powerful factor which is outside the control of the State.
In the current political, institutional, and media environment, almost everything that has made America, America is under threat. Some may consider this statement as unwarranted hysteria, but I regretfully state that it is sober realism. It is not too late to turn things around, but it is rapidly reaching that point.
Published in General
My children’s elementary school on Cape Cod had a four-foot-tall reproduction of that print that greeted them in the foyer every morning.
The Democrats seem hell bent on ruining everything that is good about this country.
I followed this with a post of my own also with an emphasis on the importance of a knowledgeable electorate to sustain the American republic. Our public education and media are failing to contribute to that requirement. Thank you for this article.
Dude, where’s my Country?!
The painting is based on an actual event and concerned a local school issue.
Freedom of Speech Painting | The Switchel Philosopher
FDR’s four freedoms mostly undermined our constitutional freedoms.
Government has one job; keep the other riff-raff out.
Everything else is just
gravygravy-train.Excellent! I keep this info for use in my study of township-school issues!
re Freedom from Fear, see this:
Biden White House Removes Sanctions on Iranian Missile Company
It says something when a New Deal Democrat would be better than the current occupant of the White House.
Remember, most of the big New Deal spending programs actually built something. Old school pork created roads that might not be needed. Nowadays the money gives no benefit to the public whatsoever.
One interesting distinction: energy. Both the New Dealers and the Soviets were very proud of their hydroelectric dams. Many of today’s ‘progressives’ would like to destroy them.
Democrat Party.
And both were willing to deport populations that were in the way of their projects.