Better The Second Time Around And Moliere

See The Anchoress for one of the best Independence Day posts, anywhere. After you’re done that post, read this effort- and come to understand fruit, justice and the American way.

Shrinkwrapped has a post about freedom and liberation- and just how far some people will go to restore freedom, viciously stolen by evil men. On July 4, 1976, on the anniversary of our bicentennial, freedom’s worth was highlighted in the most breathtaking way.

Dr Sanity’s Why The Left Hates America, is at once depressing and illuminating. She notes,

And to destroy America, it is first necessary to destroy our history; to deconstruct the Founding Fathers and insist that they were evil and racist and sexist and probably homophobic too. It is necessary to make us guilty for creating all the problems in the world; and it is necessary to pretend that the rest of the world is so much better…

Sobering thoughts, for sure- and more importantly, her words puts into sharp focus the real value of freedom as opposed to silly navel gazing of those who care little for our achievements and the society and culture that made those achievements possible.

Moliere, the great French playwright and philosopher once noted, “The less we are like our ancestors, the less we deserve them.”

We have noted that if one were to look at the evolution of human society and history, it is evident that once a society and culture reaches the point where the wants, needs and belief of self replace and supplant the wants, needs and beliefs of the community as a the center of importance, that society is at the beginning of a downward spiral.

That is exactly the culture and society we live in now. We live in an environment and time where many seek to impose ideas and values on others simply because they believe those ideas and values are ‘good for you,’ without discussion or compromise. That said, dissent is a good thing. Challenge, debate and argument, with the intent of improvement always are.

We need dissent as much as we need harmony. Without dissent, we atrophy and lose our edge, our sharpness. Dissent and harmony are the necessary evolutionary balance we need to move ahead. Vigorous debate has on more than one instance, been the catalyst and foundation for ideas that have changed the world. Dissent and harmony are the also the basis for meaningful spiritual serenity. It is only through the real struggle that we find meaning and inner peace. 

Throwing rocks through windows, the destruction of private property and using deceit as a legitimate form of political expression isn’t dissent. Dissent does not mean you get to shove your ideas down our throats, or anyone else gets to shove their ideas down yours.

Affluence allows us to take for granted our very existence. We go into court and demand justice. We go into a hospital and demand care. We demand these things as if they were God given birthrights. Well, those things and a host of other luxuries are not God given birthrights.

These luxuries are available to us because those that came before us, built a culture and society that called for a common good- a common good that was applicable to all- unlike those who demand ‘my way or the highway’ and throw temper tantrums if they don’t get their way. 

People that have differing ideas are not stupid. People that come from certain parts of the country, are not stupid. People that believe in God are not stupid. You cannot espouse and propagate those kind of ideas or ideas like them, and expect to be taken as a credible voice.