Posted on 11/21/2004 5:23:54 PM PST by Albion Wilde
There have been many contests for the soul of America, some predating the founding of the country but forming the bedrock America was built upon. Fortunately for us, ours is a legacy of builders, not adventurers. The treasures of the Aztecs and the Incas were not to be found on the North American continent, which I believe was one of the greatest fortunes of history for what would become the United States. The English colonies by and large attracted people intent on building a life, not personal fortunes. Our heritage is that of Puritans and Catholics escaping religious persecution. Our heritage is that of the lower classes, indentured servants and paupers who saw the colonies as an opportunity to improve their lives through hard work.
America was built by the outcasts of Europe living on a hostile frontier that started at the shores of the Atlantic. The builders left the safety and security of Europe for the risk and hazards of freedom in the New World. Freedom to worship God. Freedom to rise above your station. Freedom to work your way out of poverty. Freedom to enjoy the fruits of your labor, no matter how humble, primitive or scarce they might be. Faith, self-reliance and industry made America great. Those virtues sustained Americans encamped at Valley Forge, who chose to endure bitter cold, disease, starvation and every sort of deprivation when they could just as well have given up to return to the meager comforts of home. They could have rejected freedom for dominion, safety and security, but they didn't.
Faith, self-reliance and industry have sustained Americans through many crises where a weaker people would have given up and resigned themselves to a lesser fate. Even when our capital was occupied and burning, or when the hulks of our fleet were resting on the bottom of Pearl Harbor, or when we suffered defeat at Bataan, Correigidor and Kasserine Pass, Americans did not give up. When American ships were being torpedoed off the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, we fell back on our faith, self-reliance and industry and built more ships. We did not fall back to the safety of isolationism and surrender, or withdraw to hide behind coastal fortifications.
We have always had to endure a defeatist element in America, and thankfully they have always been a small minority. The faithless, dependent and lazy have never triumphed because they are anathema to the American soul and their destiny is self-destruction. But today they have their champions, they grow in number and seek to corrupt and conquer the American soul. In their perverse way they see America as being corrupted by its faith, self-reliance and industry. We know their credo. Religion is the opiate of the masses. Self-reliance is contrary to the collective good. Industry is the exploitation of the proletariat. As sure as Satan tempted Eve to taste the forbidden fruit, they tempt the faithless, dependent and lazy to hedonism, envy, sloth and materialism. The elite would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
If this is too esoteric for your taste, let's reduce it to its raw primitives. America is too powerful and must be weakened. Absolute morality blocks personal ambitions and must be replaced with relative morality. A morally uncertain people are easily dominated and brought to collective thought. Self-reliance is the cornerstone of individualism and individualism is a threat to absolute control of the collective. An industrious person is a useful tool to promote envy and seduce the collective. We can take what we want from whom we want when we want because it is the power of the collective. Industry is only useful if it promotes materialism and materialism is the means of control by reward and punishment.
The battle for the American soul is about right versus wrong. It is about cloaking wrong to make it acceptable. It is about claiming to be compassionate as a license to steal. It is about claiming a right to privacy as a license to murder the innocent inconveniences of the pursuit of pleasure. It is about the freedom to be immoral without consequence. It is about self-indulgence without personal responsibility. It is about claiming to care for others as long as the burden is not yours. It is about the rejection of God and God's law simply because we can. God's gift of free will is why we must fight for the American soul.
You know, until a couple of years ago I never heard anyone but Nazis or Russians in war movies use the word defeatist. Sorta weird.
Really? Perhaps you've never heard of Lewis and Clark, Neal Armstrong, Burt Rutan, Dr. Bob Ballard, and thousands of other Americans who sought new frontiers.
I would not compare these people to Cortes, Pizzaro, Cabral, Coronado, etc. It was Mom and Pop growing crops that paid for them all. They were explorers and discoverers, not adventurers.
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