Thursday 4 July 2019

"America, born of the Enlightenment, is the first nation founded on the principle that man the individual has a fundamental, inalienable right to his own life, and that government’s responsibility is to protect that right… that the people act by right, while the government acts by permission." Bonus #QotD


"The birth of the United States of America represents a towering and unprecedented philosophical achievement. America, born of the Enlightenment, is the first nation founded on the principle that man the individual has a fundamental, inalienable right to his own life, and that government’s responsibility is to protect that right… that the people act by right, while the government acts by permission."
        ~ Mike LaFerrara, from his post 'July 4, 1776: Words that Will Never Be Erased'

“It is . . . from the perspective of the bloody millennia of mankind's history . . . that I want you to look at the birth of a miracle: the United States of America. If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence."
        ~ Ayn Rand, from her article 'A Nation's Unity'
.

6 comments:

Roj Blake said...

Well, that is the narrative that Americans have been sold, but it only applied to wealthy, white, male, landholders.

The myth that the "War of Independence" was about freedom and tax is just that; a myth.

The truth is that the UK had abolished slavery and that would soon flow through to its many and varied colonies. The wealthy, white, male, landholders were afraid of what this would do to their slaves, and their profits.

The "Revolutionaries" were almost all to a man slave owners and emancipation and independence for slaves did not come until 150 years later. And don't even mention the People of Turtle Island and the suffering they still endure in "The Land of the Free".

paul scott said...

Pathetic to see the junk written and festering in the mind of Roj Blake.
Just for him and the other weakling zombie socialists who infect aspiration and goodness.
4 July 2019
"America, born of the Enlightenment, is the first nation founded on the principle that man the individual has a fundamental, inalienable right to his own life, and that government’s responsibility is to protect that right… that the people act by right, while the government acts by permission.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Andrew B said...

The UK did not abolish slavery until 1833, having made made the purchase or trading of slaves illegal within the British Empire (excluding St Helena & Sri Lanka) in 1807. Jamaican slaves weren't liberated until 1838.

The DoI explains why the Americans separated and was written in July 1776. America inherited slavery from the UK's colonial policies and should have abolished it then but were politically vexed by having to gain the support of southerners' investment in staple agriculture which relied heavily (wrongly) on slavery. So they subordinated the abolition of slavery to the larger goal of securing the unity and independence of the United States.

Though abolition of slavery was struck from the DoI in 1776, some founding fathers opposed it and wanted it abolished, working against it in the articles of confederation (1781-1783).

Your facts are wrong. Your interpretation is wrong. Your name is wrong. You, anonymite, are no Roj Blake (of Blake's 7 fame).

MarkT said...

Rarely is any great idea 100% consistent in its theory or application. You're attempting to pull out one anomaly, a contradiction; and portray it as the norm, or the essence of what defined America. If there were any truth to that the US would have become an impoverished backwater (similar to what you see in parts of South and Central America today), and not become the huge success and magnet for immigration (from all corners of the globe) that it became.

MarkT said...

From ex-slave and fiery abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1852):

"I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. It is a slander upon their memory.... In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a glorious liberty document. Read its preamble, consider it's purposes. Is slavery among them?... Take the Constitution according to it's plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery."