Posted on 01/07/2008 7:41:49 AM PST by FREEDOM11
Andrew 1st Period
Liberalism: The Death of Freedom Liberalism as it is defined today is “support for a strong role of government in regulating capitalism and constructing the welfare state.”(Dictionary.com).and it challenges the intimate connection between personal liberty and a private property based market order. The definition of Freedom is “the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint"(Dictionary.com). It is quite obvious that the new, modern definition of Liberalism and the old, traditional definition of freedom are complete opposites in the political spectrum. Liberalism: The Death of Freedom is a paper that covers a broad and comprehensive subject but due to limitations of space, it will be broken down into three key points. The first is Political Correctness and its effects on our country today. The second is Global Warming and the true facts about this phenomenon. The third and final topic is Gun Control and how the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is being misinterpreted by liberals and liberalism to eliminate the right of the people to bear arms. These three points are major Liberal arguments or policies that restrict or eliminate freedom from our daily lives.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: What started out as a good intention has now turned into a horrible beast that continues to rear its ugly head. The first amendment of the constitution, the first Right guaranteed the American people in the Bill of Rights, guarantees all Americans the right to Freedom of Press, Speech and Expression. Liberalism states that while we have this right, Americans also have the right to not be insulted or to hear certain words, expressions or phrases. Therefore, in the name of the COMMON GOOD, words such as Old Lady, Housewife, Insane, Crippled, FOUNDING FATHERS, God, the Bible, and the biggest no-no word of them all MAN have been restricted in usage in the common, acceptable language that is used in our country today. America’s education system is a perfect example of Political Correctness run amok. In her widely acclaimed book “The Language Police” Diane Ravitch describes the political correctness in the education system today and what it is doing to the children of America. Textbook companies have published “Bias and sensitivity guidelines” (Ravitch 32) for all of their authors to follow so that their books offend no specific person or group. “The entire process is designed to impose censorship. Certain topics and language are banned from the outset” (Ravitch, 43) Bias guidelines are everywhere in the textbook world. From kindergarten to twelfth grade there are guidelines that the authors must follow or not be published. “These guidelines that the textbook companies have are designed to create a new society, one that will be completely inoffensive to all parties; getting there, however, involves a heavy dose of censorship.” (Ravitch, 32) Some examples of censorship that these guidelines enforce are that women must never be shown wearing aprons or performing some Feminine activity but rather in a more Masculine activity. On the other hand, men must be shown in what has been considered feminine roles in the past such as a nurse. These guidelines are intent on reversing the traditional roles, to show the man being subservient to the woman and performing more Feminine tasks. All of this may seem odd or contrived to parents and students alike but in today’s world the real goal of textbooks is to advance a political or social agenda. “Our nation prides itself on the principle of freedom of speech contained in the First Amendment to our Constitution. It is the cornerstone of our Bill of Rights. Yet the practice of censorship, almost unknown to the general public, has been widely accepted for many years within the educational publishing industry as the normal way of doing business.” (Ravitch, 49) Political Correctness has not only taken hold of the textbook industry but also of the entire country. No politician or lawmaker openly speaks of banning any type of language. They just suggest that we avoid certain words or phrases that might offend certain people. The goal of this method is defined perfectly by George Orwell and Franz Kafka. These men understood that this method works best when it “permeates one’s consciousness and no longer needs to be explained or defended.” (Ravitch 158) “The goal of the Language Police is not just to stop us from using objectionable words but to stop us from having objectionable thoughts. The Language Police believe that reality follows language usage. If they can stop people from ever seeing offensive words or ideas, they can prevent them from having the thought or committing the act that the words signify.” (Ravitch 158)In other words, these people can control how we act by controlling what we think and say. The Language Police restrict or outright ban what we can say, think or do and as such we are fast losing our culture, what it means to be an American. They say that we cannot say certain words or phrases that offend certain people or express pride in being an American. The American people cannot celebrate what the United States of America is, what our motto, “E Pluribus Unum”, states, “that we are a nation of diverse people that are continually becoming one.”(Ravitch 165) Political Correctness states that the American people must recognize and respect all cultures while simultaneously degrading our own special, unique culture. Political Correctness is a cornerstone of Liberalism just as the First Amendment is a cornerstone to the Bill of Rights.
GLOBAL WARMING: Liberalism does not utilize just Political Correctness in its quest to restrict freedom but also the absurd notion of man-made Global Warming. While over 400 prominent US scientists have stated that Global warming is a hoax (US Senate Report), the warriors of liberalism all use Global Warming as a method to redirect American life as well as all civilized, FREE countries. These Global Warming believers state that Carbon Dioxide is building in our environment and creating the Greenhouse Effect, which essentially means that greenhouse gasses are building up in the troposphere (The first and most dense layer in the Earth’s atmosphere) and insulating the Earth, thus causing the average temperature of the planet to increase dramatically which will then end all life on Earth as we know it. These scientists state that unless drastic changes are made, the Earth will become uninhabitable in the next century due to the increased temperatures and the global flooding caused by the melting of the polar ice caps due to the increase in global temperature. This is an exaggeration which is being used as a vehicle to reduce our Freedom and redefine America as we know it. Mr. Edward Vaughn, a PhD, stated that “Global Warming is a political tool that is completely unhinged and a fallacious concept.” (Vaughn) The next few paragraphs will state some of the facts associated with global warming and how liberals twist and contort them until they conform to the liberals own vision for the future of our world. In the article written by John Tierney of the New York Times, Mr. Tierney states that we are in for “some very bad weather… Unfortunately, I cannot be more specific how this weather will appear. I do not know if it will appear as a flood or drought, hurricane or blizzard, fire or ice. Nor do I have any idea how much the planet will warm this year or what that means for your local forecast. Long-term climate models cannot explain short-term weather.” Mr. Tierney is stating that while liberals are quick to cry Global Warming, they have no idea how it will come about or when. Mr. Tierney also goes on to say that while British meteorologists stated that “2007 would be the hottest year on record”, it actually turned out that 2007’s average temperature was lower than any year since 2001 (Tierney)! Liberals then took this and proudly exclaimed on BBC “2007 Data Confirms Warming Trend.”(Tierney) Liberalism either ignores the true facts or they twist them to conform to what they want you to believe. For example, CNN, ABC, NBC all have stories running about how the polar ice caps are melting and how sea levels will rise dozens of feet and flood the whole eastern seaboard and this will destroy the world unless we, the developed world, act now to save our planet. Liberals have taken a true fact that the polar ice caps are melting, and ran with it while ignoring some other key facts such as the fact that the ANTARTIC ice caps are growing in conjunction with the melting of the polar ice caps, according to the website icecap.us. Therefore, the sea levels will remain virtually unchanged because while the ice caps are melting and shrinking in the North Pole, they are freezing up and growing in the South Pole. Liberals never mention that certain fact because they don’t want you to know the truth about global warming because then the American people would never buy into their “Save the Planet” policies. (Coffey) In another article for RIA Novosti, Russian scientist Oleg Sorokhtin declares that “A cold spell soon to replace Global Warming”. In his article Mr. Sorokhtin states that: “Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases. The real reasons for climate changes are uneven solar radiation, terrestrial precession (that is, axis gyration), instability of oceanic currents, regular salinity fluctuations of the Arctic Ocean surface waters, etc. There is another, principal reason—solar activity and luminosity. The greater they are the warmer is our climate. Astrophysics knows two solar activity cycles, of 11 and 200 years. Both are caused by changes in the radius and area of the irradiating solar surface. The latest data, obtained by Habibullah Abdusamatov, head of the Pulkovo Observatory space research laboratory, say that Earth has passed the peak of its warmer period, and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012. Real cold will come when solar activity reaches its minimum, by 2041, and will last for 50-60 years or even longer. (See Appendix B for full article) Global Warming has become a cult, a kind of religion if you may. “Among its fevered champions, the campaign against global warming has come to resemble a religious crusade.”(Kay). Global Warming is a cult to destroy the freedom of choice and the freedom of the individual. Liberals are attempting to pass through congress policy that will tell the average American what type of car he can drive, where he can live, what type of house he can build, all in the name of Global Warming. They are going to take away your freedom in the name of the COMMON GOOD or for the WELFARE OF THE PLANET. Global warming is a method liberals use to destroy Freedom of choice just as Political Correctness is a method they use to destroy Freedom of speech and thought.
GUN CONTROL: The second amendment of the US Constitution states that “A Well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to bear Arms, shall not be infringed”.(Bill of Rights, See Appendix C). Liberals are misinterpreting this amendment by saying that this amendment meant not the people of the United States but the National Guard. They say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms to the National Guard and the National Guard only. Liberalism is also using this false interpretation of the second amendment to attack your right and your FREEDOM to protect yourself from criminal acts of violence against you or your family as the next few paragraphs will explain in detail. Liberalism is using its interpretation of the second amendment to state that only the National Guard, which is today’s version of the militia, should be allowed to possess weapons. They state that the second amendment specifically stated the “Militia” (Bill of Rights) is the only group that has the right to bear arms. This is a gross misinterpretation of the amendment. In 1776 there was no National Guard, but there was a militia and this militia was the people themselves! Remember Paul Revere and the battle of Concord. In fact, the definition of militia today is “a body of citizens organized in a paramilitary group and typically regarding themselves as defenders of individual rights against the presumed interference of the federal government.” or “a body of citizen soldiers as distinguished from professional soldiers” (Dictionary.com). This definition specifically states citizens or the people, not the National Guard as liberalism would have people believe. The Founding Fathers, in their writing of the Bill of Rights, specifically stated what each individual right/freedom meant and how it was to be defined. In recent years, however, politicians have attempted to pass through Congress legislation that restricts the “freedom to bear arms” in the name of crime prevention (Bill of Rights). These politicians state that in places with strict gun control laws the murder rate per 100,000 people is much lower than the murder rate per 100,000 people in areas with little to no gun control. This could not be farther from the truth as proven by simple statistics. In the Washington D.C area, an area with strict gun control laws, the murder rate per 100,000 people was 80.6 per 100,000 people (Williamson). In Arlington, VA, an area with very little gun control the murder rate was 1.6 per 100,000 people.(Williamson) In spite of this obvious evidence that strict gun control laws do not necessarily mean less crime, liberals are still calling their policies/laws a “great success”. They then use this “great success” to further limit your second amendment freedoms all in the name of the COMMON GOOD. A major flaw in the thinking of a liberal when it comes to gun control and limiting freedom is that they think that guns kill people, but people don’t kill people. They assume that if they limit the access to guns then the murder and crime rates will come skyrocketing down because people will have no way to access guns or to hurt each other. This thinking could not be farther from the truth. The true, untwisted, logical statement is that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. People will kill people and commit crime with or without guns. A proven statistic however, is that in areas with little to no gun control the crime and murder rate is less than in areas with strict gun control such as Washington D.C compared to Arlington, VA. One of the primary reasons for this is that people with the FREEDOM to bear arms are much less likely to be attacked or have a crime committed against them. Criminals prey on the weak and unarmed not the strong and armed, which is why the founding fathers put into the Bill of Rights an amendment that guarantees the “Right to Bear Arms shall not be infringed” (Bill of Rights) (See Appendix C) so that the civilian populace would have a way to defend themselves in case of an attack/emergency. We may soon get an answer to the debate because the Supreme Court recently accepted a case dealing with gun control- District of Columbia vs. Heller.
FINAL SYNOPSIS: In conclusion, Liberalism is attempting to restrict freedom by three major methods. These methods or points as stated above are Political Correctness, Global Warming and Gun Control. Liberals wish to use all three of these methods to control how you think, live your life and what choices you make. In relation to Political Correctness, liberals attempt to censor certain words or phrases because they think that if one got rid of these certain “offensive” words, then one would also get rid of the act/acts that are associated with those words. When liberals use Global Warming they try to control your freedom by limiting where you live, what you can drive or even the temperature of your own home! (Kay)(See Appendix B) Finally, the second amendment right of all people, “The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Shall not be Infringed” is actually being infringed by liberals all in the name of the COMMON GOOD and the people’s protection! Liberalism: The Death of Freedom is not just an idea or a theory but a fact, a fact that all people should be aware of and fight against. Liberalism and its policies will be the end of this great country called the United States of America as we know it today and of all other countries whose sole want is freedom.
Andrew, the 18 year old who actually has a mind!
paragraphs are good too.
just a suggestion...
Nice to see a young person who doesn’t write like a monkey sending text messages.
yeah, when i copy and pasted it from word to the thread, it screwed that up, but in my original copy it has paragaphs haha
I figured that was the problem.
good stuff, nonetheless
Liberalism is about emotion. They want to “feel good” about government. And it is always about spending other people’s money and having the rules not apply to them.
Conservatism is about what works. They want things to work and get rid of things that do not work (to many - this seems cold). They are also more than happy to pony up their own money and live under the same rules.
Next time go to Web Page Preview (File menu). Then View the file as SOURCE. Select all and copy it to the clipboard. Then, paste it into the box on FR comment page. Voila.
I’m a fellow 18-year-old who has a mind.
I wrote a thread about An Inconvenient Truth awhile back when my AP bio teacher made us watch it last year.
I guess we are veterans of a twelve-year barrage of socialist propaganda. In other words, high school graduates.
Thanks for the bump!
Just a suggestion: Paragraphs are your friend.
Long, long, paragraphs are difficult for the eye to read, and the mind to untangle.
However....A lot of good material there, but the essay still needs some refinement.
bookmark
Excellent work. Your research was evident and supported your opinions well. I wish I knew how to write like that at age 18. Congrats to you!
bttt
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One more gentle and friendly suggestion: Try to reserve text-messaging short cuts for text messaging only. There is a good reason for this, because writing is like learning to play the piano.
When learning to play the piano, it is important to attempt to use perfect technique from the very beginning. Piano teachers encourage their students to do this because they know that these techniques must become absolutely automatic and reproducible by reflex. In the stressful situation of a recital, the student will produce an excellent performance without having to think about it.
This is true in writing as well. If you practice capitalization and avoid text-messaging short cuts here on Free Republic and elsewhere, these habits will be so automatic and reflexive that you will not need to think about it. Then in the stressful situation of an exam, or under high pressure in business, you will produce a high level product without having to think about it.
Anyway,,,For being only 18 years old, you are doing a great job! You and your parents should be very proud.
It’s a good paper, but I have one gripe. Get a third party to proofread read it before you hand it in. You forgot the word ‘keep’ when you typed out the Second Amendment as written in the US Constitution..
I was in NYC public school for 13 years and I still ended up on Free Republic.
Do you mind if I red-ink your essay from the point of view of the devil’s advocate?
yeah, anything to help my essay, if you want to red-ink it please do
From your essay:
The first amendment of the constitution, the first Right guaranteed the American people in the Bill of Rights, guarantees all Americans the right to Freedom of Press, Speech and Expression.Are you aware that the idea that the 1st A. of the federal Constitution guaranteed such freedoms is politically correct hogwash? In fact, James Madison had formerly proposed that the states be required to respect at least some of the privileges and immunities contained in the BoR when the BoR was being drafted. Interestingly the constitutional lawmakers didn't agree to this. So while the states forbade the federal government from infringing on these personal freedoms, the states actually reserved this right for themselves. But I also believe that most of the states had good intentions for our freedoms but wanted to reserve the right to be benevolent dictators in our lives if the need arose.
And if you want more evidence concerning this perspective, Jefferson acknowledged that the states had the power to limit the freedoms protected by the 1st A. of the federal Constitution even if the federal government couldn't do so.
"3. Resolved that it is true as a general principle and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the constitution that ‘the powers not delegated to the US. by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people’: and that no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to the US. by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, & were reserved, to the states or the people: that thus was manifested their determination to retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated rather than the use be destroyed; and thus also they guarded against all abridgement by the US. of the freedom of religious opinions and exercises, & retained to themselves the right of protecting the same, as this state, by a law passed on the general demand of it’s citizens, had already protected them, from all human restraint or interference: ..." --Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. http://tinyurl.com/oozooIt wasn't until the post Civil War 14th A. was made that the states were required to respect privileges and immunities protected by the federal Constitution.
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