It has come to the point, for many, that to understand “America First” one must agitate for it.
Go outside without a mask, visit family in the next town over. Go to the park and hang-out with friends.
The American ethos, the American experience, the American Way has always been one of pseudo-selfishness. And I am selfish. These are MY freedoms, not a collective freedom dependent on the whims of a “society”. Sorry millennial libertarians, you are wrong.
The Bill of Rights are my God given rights, given to ME according to my existence here on earth. It is these rights that keep the American society peaceful and respectful of the individual according to our individual relationships. To wit, if I know my neighbor owns a printing press, I won’t publicly deride his manhood.
If you (royal you) want to give them up, you can but DO NOT project your acquiescence of those rights onto ME. Do not request that “society” remove those rights from me for my own safety. I’m selfish in that way.
Yet, some will point to the phrase “We, the people.” fine and good, work that mobocracy canard. The People give consent to be governed but are not “endowed by their creator” to diminish MY God given rights...or yours. That is what pure democracy looks like.
Doesn’t the Left already interpret the Constitution as rights given to The People by the government as if no one thought of individual, God-given rights before they were written down by the Founding Fathers? We speak all the time of these INDIVIDUAL rights but many will be bullied into believing that they are actually societal rights and can be removed according to the whim of society.
Tell me, comrades, can you go next door and converse with your neighbor? Do you fear being arrested (custodially) and given a summons if the police observe you shaking hands on the street? Do you suspect others are watching you to violate some fiat given by the governor of your State.
Well, you can’t fight city hall, right?
Or, can you?
the American experience, the American Way has always been one of pseudo-selfishness.
In the Randian meaning of the word. Better defined as 'self interest'. Everybody benefits when the people's government protects the individual's right to pursue his own self interest.
Our ancestors knew that. And they wrote it down.
Self interest is what makes that rocking world go round.
Excellent piece.
You need to come visit Cletus! Picture if you will: city people, who buy a house in the country. Not some developed country ranchette area but an area referred to by humblegunner as "meth-head city mixed with some cool places in between."
Said city people have a lovely large brick home on .4 acre surrounded by 12 acres of Mr. and Mrs. Wneighbor. We have a hiking path down to our fishing spot on the lake, goes right by their driveway, I've planted a bunch of fruit trees all around the property in the last 2 weeks. No mask, just running around our acreage with her freaking the heck out.
I was in Arkansas the first week of the "15 days" because my great grandkid needed childcare. My neighbors and mother-in-law freaked the heck out. Yeah, granddaughter was exposed to a wuflu positive person at work, US Air Force. The 8 month old kid needed childcare. It's what grannies do! And the USAF doesn't tend to give excuses for people "exposed but not positive." Anyway, all of us are healthy, no symptoms. But my neighbor acts like I'm encased in a dirty bomb, but I have only left our acres once since coming home. But I walk my happy buns all over this 12 acres, down to the lake, puttering with garden from morning to night. Freaks neighbors out.
P.S. I've been nice too. I offered her a loaf of homemade bread last week and TP if they're out. No dice. She sits outside for Vit D but retreats to her back door when I hollor my hellos. Honestly, trying to be neighbor-like, but will not abandon my rights, and the whole scenario is a hoot. And dadgummit if you move to the "real country" you need to listen to the locals.
What is meant by "pseudo-selfishness" is more properly described as rational selfishness. Rational selfishness can be simply summed up as, "I take care of ME, then I can take care of YOU". Epistemologically it stems from the a priori (aka G_d Given) right to life. From there all other INDIVIDUAL rights are derived.
Rational selfishness in real life:
+1
Borrowing, if you say I may!
Well said, CDY.
The founders feared two things: Excessive power of government, and mob rule.
The French Revolution, just a few years after the American War of Independence, opted for mobocracy, aka Jacobinism, which was a direct precursor of communism.
https://www.marxists.org/history/france/revolution/mathiez/1920/bolshevism-jacobinism.htm