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Values
America is in trouble, and we all know it. We've reached a degree of plurality that is unhealthy to a democracy. Every issue is polarized. Those in power, including the toothless democrats, are all espousing the same "values" which justify our continued wars, reversals of social progress, and crimes against human rights both domestic and foreign.
The religious right has hijacked the very concept of values, by associating their arbitrary rules with the very word itself, implying that anyone who doesn't share their values has none at all.
It's damn hard to find a group of people that agree on moderate politics. Everywhere from mainstream TV media to cutting-edge Web 2.0 social networking sites seems to be dominated by ultra-partisan thinking. People who are completely in line with the Bush agenda argue with people who accuse Bush of orchestrating 9/11. Some people want to burn the Middle East into the ground, while their opponents want to abandon it completely, so they will do it to themselves.
Just what do we value in this country anymore?
Why can't we allow abortions but fund efforts to reduce their frequency and necessity?
Why can't we allow people to marry whoever they damn well please, but do everything we can to help children in unhealthy families of any kind?
Why can't we end the war, but still do everything we can in peace to help the people of one of the least developed and most unstable regions in the world?
Why can't we recognize the traits of our people that led to the unprecedented heroism and self-sacrifice of ordinary people and rescue workers alike in the wake of 9/11 and Katrina, and abolish the un-American and immoral laws which limit our freedoms while providing no real security? If those events aren't proof of the inability of the government to either prevent a disaster or effect its recovery, as well as the remarkable ability of ordinary, free citizens to work as hard as they can to do just that, then I don't know what is.
I value life *and* liberty. I believe our abundance of resources gives us a obligation to help those without, though we are free to effect this obligation. I believe we are liable for the damage we do to the world with our excesses. I believe we are not responsible for the well-being of any other country or people in the world, but that we should choose to help those consent, because it is the right thing to do.
In times of trouble, we start choosing between freedoms. "Well, liberty is important," we say, "but we can't let these terrorists murder anyone else, so let's take away liberty." You can't choose. Life is not more important than liberty, nor is the opposite true. If you value freedom, then you must honor ALL freedoms. If you cannot find the solution to a problem that respects all freedoms, then keep looking. It is a shame when we can't do as much to safe life or protect liberty as we want, but it's a damn crime when we fail a freedom completely.
I don't think we need a national dialogue to determine a shared set of values. I think the founding fathers set it out for us. We've got three self-eivdent, inalienable rights. If you've got a value that comprises any of those, it's wrong. If you disagree with any of those three, you're dead wrong.
If we feel we've outgrown those three rights, then we've outgrown America. If so, we should dissolve the Union immediately, and form one or more new governments that more adequately reflect the state of the people. Otherwise, we're just big fucking shit-talkers, who have become everything we ever rebelled against.
The religious right has hijacked the very concept of values, by associating their arbitrary rules with the very word itself, implying that anyone who doesn't share their values has none at all.
It's damn hard to find a group of people that agree on moderate politics. Everywhere from mainstream TV media to cutting-edge Web 2.0 social networking sites seems to be dominated by ultra-partisan thinking. People who are completely in line with the Bush agenda argue with people who accuse Bush of orchestrating 9/11. Some people want to burn the Middle East into the ground, while their opponents want to abandon it completely, so they will do it to themselves.
Just what do we value in this country anymore?
Why can't we allow abortions but fund efforts to reduce their frequency and necessity?
Why can't we allow people to marry whoever they damn well please, but do everything we can to help children in unhealthy families of any kind?
Why can't we end the war, but still do everything we can in peace to help the people of one of the least developed and most unstable regions in the world?
Why can't we recognize the traits of our people that led to the unprecedented heroism and self-sacrifice of ordinary people and rescue workers alike in the wake of 9/11 and Katrina, and abolish the un-American and immoral laws which limit our freedoms while providing no real security? If those events aren't proof of the inability of the government to either prevent a disaster or effect its recovery, as well as the remarkable ability of ordinary, free citizens to work as hard as they can to do just that, then I don't know what is.
I value life *and* liberty. I believe our abundance of resources gives us a obligation to help those without, though we are free to effect this obligation. I believe we are liable for the damage we do to the world with our excesses. I believe we are not responsible for the well-being of any other country or people in the world, but that we should choose to help those consent, because it is the right thing to do.
In times of trouble, we start choosing between freedoms. "Well, liberty is important," we say, "but we can't let these terrorists murder anyone else, so let's take away liberty." You can't choose. Life is not more important than liberty, nor is the opposite true. If you value freedom, then you must honor ALL freedoms. If you cannot find the solution to a problem that respects all freedoms, then keep looking. It is a shame when we can't do as much to safe life or protect liberty as we want, but it's a damn crime when we fail a freedom completely.
I don't think we need a national dialogue to determine a shared set of values. I think the founding fathers set it out for us. We've got three self-eivdent, inalienable rights. If you've got a value that comprises any of those, it's wrong. If you disagree with any of those three, you're dead wrong.
If we feel we've outgrown those three rights, then we've outgrown America. If so, we should dissolve the Union immediately, and form one or more new governments that more adequately reflect the state of the people. Otherwise, we're just big fucking shit-talkers, who have become everything we ever rebelled against.
Comments
I've got a lot more to say about your post... but it will have to wait until I have the time.
If you want to look at a picture of a truly polarized nation fighting against pluralism and desperately split by political and social gaffs, look at the currency disputes in the 1896 election, the Dredd Scott political and social division in 1857, the mass persecution of German-Americans after the first World War and the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II, the Red Scare in 1919...
If there is one thing that our nation has learned, it's that patience and "subversive" thinking will eventually galvanize Americans behind the right causes. Look at our tremendous strides toward minority equality since even as recently as 1960. Look at our massive abandonment of homophobia since 1980. What will be next? We're only getting better with time.
Kenjura, it's easy to point fingers and scream ourselves hoarse about how bad America is; after all, every other nation on Earth seems to be doing it. But we're the leaders. We're the ones actually making a difference. We're the ones funding the rest of the world, feeding it, giving it medical aide, cleaning up the global disasters like the tsunami in southeast Asia, and spreading the ideas of tolerance and peace.
Yes, it's easy to forget about all that while we're also waging war. But this, too, shall pass. We want everything to be perfect now, but all good things take time, and we're moving in the right direction. The level of education is growing, the crime rate is dropping, awareness is burgeoning... America isn't ruined. We've got lots of positive energy left.
I'd write more, but the wife is calling. It's time to go get pizza.
Jason mentions the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. The only reason it was necessary is because we failed to deal with the problem of racial inequality and equal citizenship on our first two or three passes at the issue, and we would still like to forget that we ever had the problem in the first place. The Civil Rights movement should have been unnecessary in this country, we fought a war that was started because of the divisions slavery caused, and we never bothered to build a society or try to change our society to treat them as fully human for a hundred years. You're fucking kidding me, right? It's been brought up here before, our nation exists on a sea of debt, we're being floated a loan by the people manufacturing our goods, and we give less of what we have in aid then almost any other industrialized nation. I'm not talking about what our asses being owned by the Chinese means, I'm just saying that our asses are being funded by China.
The problem is every time we fail at one of these problems, it takes us a long while to go back and right it. Ken is very much right about how the religious right has hijacked the vocabulary in this country, stolen, beat and raped the very ideas of values and of patriotism, and turn liberal into a curse word that few politicians bother to fight back against. They have asked us to trade our Liberty for security and a continued life; and they seek to deny the pursuit of enlightenment, tying us to their false idols and manufactures ways of living.
We do not have discussion in this country anymore, we have either sound bite debates or vitriolic rants denigrating the very base of humanity of the opposing side, which offer no chance for rebuttal and far too often no demand for apologies. If we do not push to make things as perfect as we can, then we fail every following generation for the hurdles that they have to jump that we should have removed from their path. Who knows how far, how fast our following generations will run if we try to remove all of the obstacles that bar their path?
Liberals love to complain about the religious right. What are you so afraid of? They've got a right to voice their opinion - no matter how strongly they choose to do it. What do you propose? Do we force them to feel differently?
I love this... "I'm for freedom of speech... but the people I disagree with have gone too far."
In my experience, both the far left and the far right are intolerant. That's why I'm a moderate. When it comes to moral issues such as abortion, there really is no right answer. You can't apply science to issues such as this. You either think it's okay or you don't. What's the crime in admitting that?
Our democracy supports some issues I believe in, and it doesn't support others. That's the way a democracy works. I've never expected our democracy to be created in my own image - nor should you. You can fight for what you believe in, but the second that you think you are above democratic principles, you're in big trouble.
The major change I see since the founding is the level of respect that religion deserves. A man deserves to be treated as crazy if shouts that evolution never happened or that the world is only several thousand years old. A man who claims to believe in demonstrable false things, such as a working communist government or a seven-day creation, deserve exactly the same amount of respect.
- Newsflash: We've never had absolute freedom and we never will. I agree that we should stay within the constitution, but the constitution allows state intrusion into our lives. (police searches, taxes, etc.)
- Whether or not a law is un-American or immoral is your subjective opinion. Trust our democracy to sort out what is right.
- You believe that the government can't prevent further terrorist attacks? I'm amazed. No doubt we can't stop everything, but we sure as heck will stop some terrorist attacks. I, for one, don't want to depend on "free citizens" to stop the next terrorist attack. I'm more than happy to have the government (within the constitution) working to prevent the next attack.
- If the government botched Katrina, then you fix what was broken. I'm not sure why you're saying we should just throw our hands up in the air and have government do nothing in response to natural disasters. Whether or not "free citizens" can help in the recovery - somebody has to coordinate the effort.
I'm actually impressed with how well our democracy seems to be working. I've always been against the war in Iraq. It looks like the democrats will sweep into power based on the public's disdain for the war. Those who support the war are either changing their position or getting booted from office. What's not working here?
Keep in mind.... a democracy is compromise. Compromise means that you don't get everything you want. Time to get Zen with that - since I can't think of a better form of government.
It is a fact that the amount of money we have spent on the war could have solved virtually every problem we complain about today. The CIA sure could have used a few hundred billion before 9/11. Our energy independence would be all but assured with hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in alternative technologies. Universal health care would be pretty easy with hundreds of billions of dollars to spend.
It was absolutely crazy to go to war. It's the stupidest war, bar none, that we have ever been involved in. Vietnam was more deadly, but at least there was a concept. Some people actually thought that communism would spread like wildfire. It's not like it was ever firmly proven that our involvement did no good on some level (not that I believe it did, but you get the idea). 1812 was stupid, but there was something to gain. The Spanish-American war was naked imperialism, but we did have some success. This war is lunacy, and everybody on the planet except a tiny core of Bush supporters and himself agree.
Bush is characterized by his absolute adherence to his own policy. He doesn't care what anyone says. He just does whatever he wants, regardless of facts, reason, or sensibility. In the face of this kind of absolutism, opposing viewpoints have taken a similar stance. Polarization breeds more polarization.
I guess, technically, the Democrats represent some sort of moderate position. They're sorta against the war and sorta not. They're sorta for energy independence and sorta pro-oil. They're a little of this and little of that. That kind of bullshit isn't going to work. It didn't work for Kerry and it isn't going to work in 2008. What happened to the January 3rd Democrats? The ones who initiated a whole slew of reasonable, very progressive bills? They haven't even managed to pass their non-binding resolution to do nothing about the war.
So I guess I see where the extremists come from. It doesn't look like moderation really succeeds. Instead, politicians come at the issue with polar opposite viewpoints, then mash out a compromise, which is far less sensible than a viewpoint that started out moderate. It's the inevitable result of a seemingly inescapable two-party system.
All philosophical musings aside, I'll be happy if all the bullshit Bush and his cronies have done is reversed. I'll be happier if he and they are impeached, especially if they are actually convicted. Nothing dissuades like consequences.
I've been against this asshole from the very beginning. I wasn't pro-bush even on the very day of September 11th, 2001. Never, ever, did he convince me that any of the wrong things he did were right. It's so old to me that I'm long past simple contemplation of policies put into place many years ago, and have been left only with the option of thinking critically (and perhaps rather esoterically) on the nature of American politics.
One thing is for damn sure. Let us all learn from this presidency that such things can and do happen, even in our democracy. Our system alone does not render us immune to the abuses of power possible by the government. Since our republic was founded on the concept of rebellion against that very thing, it should be foremost in our mind at all times.
Something else: when faced with danger and general troubles at home, we lose our better nature. We Americans, and everyone in the developed world, are a prosperous people in a world filled with poverty and despair. We are no more entitled to that prosperity than those without are deserving of their fate. In times of peace, we are generous with our prosperity and seek to help those without. But in times of fear and uncertainty, we suddenly stop caring about the rest of the world, and instead embrace paranoia, racism, and bigotry. That alone is reason enough to stop acting like the so-called "terrorist threat" warrants the action we've taken. The number of people in the world who we could save with minimal effort dwarfs the deaths of everyone in the United States and the EU who has ever been killed by a terrorist.
I lament that Americans will so freely give up their values in the presence of danger. Certainly that contradicts the intentions of those who founded our country.