Posted on 06/08/2021 7:16:33 AM PDT by rebuildus
I’ve been watching documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ classic series The Civil War , and I’m loving it! Since coming to the South, my interest in the horrific fight between Americans has increased dramatically.
I’ve also read Bill O’Reilly’s / Martin Dugard’s book Killing Lincoln, which I also enjoyed immensely.
Watching The Civil War, I heard Frederick Douglass quoted many times, which piqued my interest too, so now I’m also reading his autobiography! I definitely highly recommend this one. Too many have white-washed Slavery with an image of happy slaves joyfully singing spirituals. This is the other side, from the perspective of an ex-slave.
In times past, I may have watched The Civil War with a jaundiced eye, suspect that it originally aired on liberal PBS, or that Ken Burns is probably a liberal.
But I’m watching it with an open mind, and though I’m sure some people may tell me that it’s biased and is missing this or that key fact, I find it even-handed, and just as important–HUMANE.
In our mad desire to “win” in the political and cultural arena, I find a severe shortage of humanity among us (“right” and “left”). No, I will not equate the two, and pretend that humanity is equally lacking in the two sides. Many leftists are out of their minds with rage and destructive impulses. Yet, I see too little love on the right side of the spectrum as well.
That’s a problem.
As I watch The Civil War, I’m constantly struck by the good and bad on BOTH sides:
The North stood against the evil of Slavery (that’s a HUGE mark in their favor). Yet, life in northern cities could be de-humanizing, particularly in contrast with more natural and healthy rural living, which the South personified.
And the destruction of states’ rights, which Lincoln started, opened the door to today’s full-on ASSAULT against these rights. Yet nobody can rationally say that any state has the right to sanction the buying and selling of human beings against their will.
The South had a healthy distrust of the corrupting power of the federal government. Unfortunately for them, this distrust was so great that it impeded them from coming together sufficiently within their OWN government to maximize their chances for winning the war.
That so many Americans were essentially okay with a system that treated other Americans as PROPERTY is unsettling, to be frank. Of course, things have not changed all that much: the WHOLE country (North and South) permits the slaughter of unborn children in the womb. So are we any better than the slave-holders?
My point here, is that our hatred for our fellow man blinds us to the GOOD that resides within him. If the North and South COMBINED the good aspects of each, there never would have been a Civil War, and Reconstruction would have gone much better for all concerned, particularly the ex-slaves.
This principle is true of virtually EVERY division we have: black vs. white, right vs. left, rural vs. city, vegan vs. carnivore, “internal” vs. “external” martial arts, calisthenics vs. weight training, etc.
Tribes rule what was once the UNITED States of America, and this same phenomenon is playing out worldwide.
Rise of the “Tribal Chiefs”
Everywhere we see the rise of “tribal chiefs”–those who benefit via money and power from fomenting DIVISION amongst us. We see it all over the Internet–“influencers” who get clicks by insulting people who don’t agree with them.
You probably watch some of them. We all do.
Think about it–is this really productive? Does this place us in a more or less united position? Many of the people doing this call themselves “Christians.” Is this Christian?
Tribes are typically led by “chiefs” who are charismatic, have a way with words, are bold, and insatiable for attention. They cater to our worst instincts. It reminds me of one of my favorite old quotes…
"The palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise"--Thomas Paine
Tribalism is killing our unity, and thus killing our nation and the civilized world. We must overcome it or perish!
I believe healing starts when we recognize the part we are playing in this deadly game. This site will continue to promote the best in natural health, success, and freedom, and it will continue to point out those who are enemies of these, but it will not indulge in gratuitous insults to build our readership.
And I have no illusions–we will not ALL unite. Only those of goodwill, despite our differences. But I believe that will be enough to save our countries, or at least to safeguard those of us who trust God’s grace and the power of a people united.
Patrick Rooney is the Founder of OldSchoolUs.com. He communicates clearly and fearlessly during perilous times about natural health, success, and freedom. To reach Patrick, email him at info@oldschoolus.com.
That would save a lot of time, but I see a critical flaw in your idea. I won't be around for as long a time as the country would need me. We have to have a better plan, something that relies on rational thinking and common sense.
Your opposition to Plessey v. Ferguson is mildly surprising.
Separate but equal is nonsense. It is nonsense on the face of it. It was a half measure intended to kick the can down the road until society could face the reality of equal meaning equal, not conditional equality.
The Supreme court decisions are full of nonsense half measures intended to hold a position until society changes to reflect what they want.
This is not how law is supposed to work. It should mean the same thing as it meant when it was passed, and this meaning should be consistent until the law is repealed.
I follow Christian doctrine. I believe in the brotherhood of man. All are equal in the eyes of God.
Then I guess the country as a whole will have to limp along without your legal talent, and the Supreme Court in particular will have to learn to live with your disapproval.
Separate but equal is nonsense. It is nonsense on the face of it. It was a half measure intended to kick the can down the road until society could face the reality of equal meaning equal, not conditional equality.<
In Plessey v. Ferguson you had the government imposing a solution on the entire country. In Kelo v. New London you want the court to impose a solution on the entire country. So much for state's rights.
Dodge.
No one cares what you regard.
Ken Burns is an Uber Weenie. And a public TV leftist of the highest stripe. Some of the expert people he got to describe the history were pretty good. I’m think of Shelby Foote.
Maybe that’s the case, Vaquero, but you know what? Ken Burns DID something! Which is more than I can say for a lot of the armchair bitchers on this site. The people who win in life are the ones that act. That’s about as simple as it gets.
He was doing BOTH. History shows that.
You can’t explain every single move in history with conspiracy. Sometimes people actually do the right thing. Freeing the slaves—however messy it was—was the right thing. Can anyone deny this?
“He was doing BOTH. History shows that.”
If Lincoln was “fighting to free the slaves” it was a totally unnecessary fight.
The U.S. Constitution provides a peaceful method of amending the founding document.
Yes, even constitutional slavery could be abolished peacefully with no bloodshed necessary.
Come to think of it you’d better skip this post too..... especially if you only have more ad hominems and no substantive text to respond with. You are right, stay away from children’s wisdom and stick with adult fantasy. (With love)
No.Jeff Davis was a treasonous son of a bitch.
You’re a revisionist with all the historical perspective and political intelligence God gave a curb stone.
Was that before or after Stockley Carmichael and other leaders voted to exclude whites from SNCC events?
“No.Jeff Davis was a treasonous . . .”
Setting aside for a moment your display of personal rancor, on what date was President Davis found guilty of treason?
The reason I ask: it sounds like something you just made up.
That’s really naive! History demonstrates over and over the need to put muscle behind a situation that a mere piece of paper will not remedy. Just look at all the laws we have to day, including Constitutional amendments (2nd, ahem...) that are routinely ignored. The right to life—codified in our Declaration of Independence, has plainly been ignored with millions upon millions of babies murdered in their mothers’ wombs. I could go on and on. I think you really need to re-think your position here.
I don't doubt Edward M. Stanton would have wanted it.
But for political expediency and to quell any lingering Southern resistance to continue the war and ''to bind up the nations wounds'' Lincoln didn't hang him. Incidentally Davis wanted to continue the war from Mexico.
Jeff Davis died pro Union. Did he himself, consider his confederate days as treasonous? Or was he being treasonous to the South when he became pro Union. Kinda hard to figure him out. Leastwise we do know he wore women’s clothes.
That is not a moral stance. Nor was it a moral stance for those Northern congressmen who voted for it. It was a pragmatic stance, devoid of any moral direction.
Politics isn't a competition to see who can be the most saintly or the best martyr. It is pragmatic. It's about compromise and gradualism. Read or read about Max Weber or Reinhold Niebuhr on politics and morality.
We had compromised with slavery from the beginning, so nobody had perfectly clean hands. You could be with Garrison and Brown for immediate emancipation or with Davis and Stephens for the preservation of slavery, or you could work to gradually do away with slavery. That would entail making compromises and accepting half measures, but it wouldn't be immoral, certainly not more immoral than the pro-slavery side was.
If you believed, as Lincoln did that the United States was the last best hope of mankind, then yes, to save the union and keep the country together was in its way a moral stance. An amendment that wouldn't be ratified and couldn't be enforced but could have been a way to prevent war and keep the country together wouldn't have been something to condemn entirely, all the more so since the Confederacy would have kept slavery as long as they could.
If the country could have gotten through the crisis together, it's likely that over time, slavery would have grown less popular and more vulnerable to abolition at the state level. That wouldn't have happened as easily in a new country that was devoted to keeping slavery. Gradual growth of the Republican party and anti-slavery sentiment at the state level was, as I have pointed out again and again, what slaveowners feared, and that is why the amendment didn't win their support. They thought they could maintain control over their slaves better in a country of their own.
Why was it so important to keep the Southern states in the Union? We let go of the Philippines and we let go of Cuba. Why did we need the Southern states? What great loss would it have been to lose them?
We weren't ever going to assimilate those countries. And they didn't attack us.
Well said. It's how you get stuff like this:
I keep trying to tell people that the Republicans of the 1860s were the same liberal socialist Democrats we have today. They even occupy the exact same parts of the country as they did in 1860. The only thing that has changed is their party name.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who let a powerful hatred blind them to the differences between one age and another.
That is what gets to me. He will bend, twist, distort, mutilate facts until they fit his theories. It reminds me of Cinderella’s step sisters mangling their own feet to fit into the glass slipper. His mind is self mutilated. He has done this to himself. And I can’t just let the lies sit there as if they are “facts”.
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