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To Independence Day, and Beyond
I lived in Australia until my early 30s and had dual citizenship with the United States. I never got around to filing the paperwork until a year before moving to the United States in 2004. Until I emigrated to the United States, I lived in a Commonwealth country which I thought was a free country overall. After arriving in the United States, I discovered that I was completely wrong. To provide a comparison, I’m going to use an example of the arts sector of Commonwealth citizens, to Americans.
Before I left Australia, I was semi-involved within the filmmaking scenes and encountered people who had tremendous ideas for short film projects. They would never really get around to making these films, and the reason why they didn’t?
It all starts with the participants and their inherent mentality.
These would-be filmmakers would first apply for an Arts Grant from the Government Department. Now, we’re not talking millions, just a few hundred or so dollars which was typical for low-budget film festival fodder. Once their applications were rejected, they’d abandoned the project.
This showed me two things. 1. Australian film novices felt obliged to remain within the “Commonwealth permission system” of only producing art that was sanctioned, 2. Tended to only spend other people’s money (preferably taxpayer funds), and never risked their own capital.
After I arrived in the United States, I started to notice how the novice American filmmaker would’ve dealt with the same situation. After finalizing their project, they would book the equipment, called up their friends to help out, and just gone out and made it. They might get some family or friends throwing in some bucks for it, but would’ve pulled out the credit card to do it. Why? Because they believed in themselves, and they didn’t need to ask permission to do what they wanted.
So why do I celebrate Independence Day? It’s because America did what every Commonwealth country wished it could have done back then. Stood up, and defeated their colonial masters.
In doing so, America avoided the rot of a public holding diminished confidence, or adopting an inferiority complex towards their Colonial masters. It also ended the superiority complex of the English elite, made the class system irrelevant, and sent the peerage system onto the history books. All that bad baggage still remains in the DNA of Commonwealth subjects.
When America won its Independence it answered to no one but themselves. It never let anyone hold them back, and it never doubted itself. That certain swagger, is why the world loves America, and why people emigrate here just to breathe that air.
What we forget about Independence Day is that our present era of Freedom could end. This Independence Day is my first in my living memory where I’ve worried it could come from the hands of those who squander it the most.
Sadly, after almost eighteen years of living in the United States, I see freedom being eroded. It’s been thanks to internal critics of America externalizing past sins of the country for empowering grievances and furthering current agendas.
When I see America en mass taking up this mentality, it reminds me of the mentality I escaped, that’s when I start to worry.
I often get downbeat about our current predicament. Mostly as how the wokeaholics sold endless falsehoods that were capable of altering Journalism, Sports, Movies, Language, Education, The Military, Science, Law Enforcement, Biology, Boy Scouts, Social Media, Classic Literature, Food Brand Names, and Pronouns according to their preferred worldview. We all can see the endgame is eventually removing everything that we celebrate on Independence Day.
So how do you stop all that momentum from occurring? After writing that passage, I suddenly realized how unnecessary it was to worry.
Eventually, not everyone will share their enthusiasm in a future that offers nothing but stagnation, disappointment, and an overwhelming lack of freedom.
That’s when I recalled the origins of American Independence. That is to say, that if faced again with oppressive adversity, or tyrannical practices, we too would be forced to make the decision between continued misery or the option of freedom like our forefathers did.
While that day is yet to arrive, I still know what will be the outcome. Only fools will squander Freedom, but those who value Freedom the most will risk everything to maintain it.
Published in Culture
Wow! You brought tears to my eyes. I despair at times and frequently say how glad I am that I won’t live long enough to see the American Experiment fail. But you give me hope.
Thank you for the perspective, Craig. I share your hopefulness that, when push comes to shove, we Americans will refuse to surrender all of our freedom, and will reclaim what we’ve already foolishly given up. I persist in believing — because I am an optimist — that our nation remains largely asleep, and is only beginning to be aware of the cancer of authoritarianism, bigotry, and collectivism that the woke left represents.
Yer post gave Me goosebumps, Craig.
I’ve never lived or visited Australia, but I sort of keep up with what they are doing, as I do with the United Kingdom and Canada.
I’ve concluded that Australia and probably New Zealand are the most authoritarian you can be and still be a democracy. Probably what prevents them from going over the edge is they are low population countries and they hold frequent national (and state?) elections. Unlike Canada and the UK (and most parliamentary democracies) which hold parliamentary elections every 5 years or less, their governments have a 3 year (or less) mandate instead. What also supports their overall method of governance is their population is much smaller. The smaller a country’s population, the easier it is to pull back from the brink when there’s overreach. You see similar examples in the Nordic countries of Europe.
They all have a more pervasive deep state. I’ve been aware for some time how regulated Australia has become, your example on how Australians make indie movies is just the tip of the iceberg. But that deep state does have a choke collar that Australians can utilize.
If the United States continues to go the route they are going, there will be a breakup. It probably won’t be a shooting war. If the U.S. wants to avoid this, the way to do so is to give power back to the states. There’s a great separation going on that Covid escalated but it’s been happening, by some estimates, for about 20 years.
Obviously, there are areas of the world that do hold regular elections, but are in danger of going bad. Venezuela is an example of a country that used to, and maybe Mexico is headed that way, which is governed by drug cartels in some areas. So a lot of this is cultural.
But the cultural firewall in English speaking countries is also being eroded. I’m not as optimistic as you are.
Craig: I can tell you that would-be young filmmakers in LA are still as determined to make films by hook or by crook as when you first came here. I have recently been introduced to this world, mainly due to my wife’s determination to turn our empty nest into her “artist’s colony”. I just went to the “premier” of one such film, made in the pandemic for $20,000. Not a studio quality film, but a good first effort.
Shortly I’ll be going to the premier of another, which was literally over 90 minutes of a single shot — no tricks as with 1917. Our house ended up as “command central” for the planning of this film, which required the skills of an experienced theater stage manager to plot out the logistics. Quite an effort!
So despite all the sound and fury of the news, I do have faith that the good old American “can do” attitude will prevail.