Hi there, folks.
There’s a problem in our society. I’ll limit this statement to where I live, which is in the United States.
We have a nascent and on-going civil war in our nation, and it bothers me. I live here, so I’ll speak to it. Other nations might be suffering it to one extent or another, but I don’t live there- I live here. It’s partially cultural, and partially due to a trend many of you might also be seeing where you live. I’m not talking about the ‘news cycle’, or ‘echo chamber’ effect of social media, or even the changes in state-sponsored education of our youth. It does touch upon those things, though.
I promised you all that I would not talk about partisan politics when I embarked upon this series of blogs, and I’m going to hold myself to that promise. I will not name parties or political figures. You can read into my words what you will–I can’t stop you from assuming what you will. You should know already from reading these blogs roughly where I stand within the 2-D Pournelle Chart (Google it!) of political affiliation.
As members of a population, we US citizens can each say freely where we stand in politics and ideology. We vote for the political persons who we feel can best represent us in our legislative and executive needs at each level in the local, State and US governments. But here’s what we forgot about, no matter who we voted for (or didn’t bother to vote). We forgot that we have a morality and culture we all share, no matter how different we all are. The entity called the ‘United States’ is composed of a plurality; meaning we are many disparate peoples who nevertheless live under the same laws and (one hopes) governing principles upon which we all agree. ‘From many, ONE’. Not one religion, not one ethnic group, not one set of personal needs or particular desires; we have to be ONE and united in how we act within the ‘res publica’ we all live under in the US to give each of us and all of us as a whole a fair chance to live our lives as we see fit, under principles we can all agree to abide by. These governing principles, enshrined in our Constitution and its Amendments, dictate how the government we select can and cannot deal with our lives collectively and personally.
Seems like a lot of us have forgotten how the Constitution and Bill of Rights apply to us, our leaders, and our institutions.
No one can take legally take away the rights given us by our Creator, or Fate, or by dint of being a human. Don’t let any governmental institution or politician tell you he can ‘give them back’ or commensurately ‘take them away’ from you. The Constitution is not a suicide pact, nor is it something that ‘gives’ you rights or ‘takes them away’ from anyone else. It is a series of promises to the citizens, and (with some strictures like requiring citizenship to have the franchise to vote) anyone else residing in this nation, that the government WILL NOT infringe upon the innate rights of all human beings residing in this nation.
The only way you can lose your innate rights as a human is by letting someone take them away from you; conversely the only way you can keep them is by fighting to ensure that no one takes them away from you- or anyone else. Important point; those of you who do not live in the US, or are not citizens; you too have these same innate rights, though you might have to fight for them to be recognized where you live . . .
Note that NO ONE has the innate right to oppress others; or harm, enslave, or cheat them just because they don’t share your gender, ethnicity, birth status or football team affiliations . . . or religion.
Keep striving, folks.
Thanks, great article.
I appreciate your feedback, Bablofil. I’ll work on getting more out here.