Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Edmund Burke Warned Us About The Woke
American Conservative ^ | 2/1/2021 | Casey Chalk

Posted on 02/02/2021 7:15:28 AM PST by Onthebrink

Burke warned us this might happen. No, not Tom Brady…although the 18th-century Anglo-Irish statesman’s penchant for the ancient and tried would have likely led him to predict that the “GOAT” was capable of another Super Bowl run. Rather, I’m talking about the increasing subjugation of America’s dominant cultural and political institutions to a suffocating wokeism. Indeed, reading Reflections on the Revolution in France afresh in 2021, one wonders if the good Lord gave Edmund Burke a John-the-Revelator apocalyptic vision of what the West was in for.

Perhaps if he was this prescient regarding the problem, Burke might also have the remedy.

(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Government; History
KEYWORDS: history; politics; woke

1 posted on 02/02/2021 7:15:28 AM PST by Onthebrink
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Onthebrink

So did C. S. Lewis:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”


2 posted on 02/02/2021 7:22:24 AM PST by cuban leaf (We killed our economy and damaged our culture. In 2021 we will pine for the salad days of 2020.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cuban leaf

My litmus test: Does this change give power to me, or take power from me?


3 posted on 02/02/2021 7:28:30 AM PST by polymuser (A socialist is a communist without the power to take everything from their citizens...yet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: polymuser

I put it this way:

In heaven, there are no stop signs. Only yield signs.


4 posted on 02/02/2021 7:29:13 AM PST by cuban leaf (We killed our economy and damaged our culture. In 2021 we will pine for the salad days of 2020.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Onthebrink
There were plenty of us young conservatives screaming about the dangers of Political Correctness in the early 90s but the GOPe brushed us off claiming nothing would ever come of it!

Fast forward to 2019/2020 some of us same people alerted state party members about Marc Elias and his lawsuits and once again the GOPe claimed nothing would ever come of it!
5 posted on 02/02/2021 7:30:50 AM PST by 100%FEDUP (I'm seeing RED!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Onthebrink

6 posted on 02/02/2021 7:31:25 AM PST by Bratch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Onthebrink

I have Burke’s speeches. THERE was a statesman.


7 posted on 02/02/2021 7:31:47 AM PST by SMARTY (“If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.” Winston Churchill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Onthebrink

“It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.” Edmund Burke


8 posted on 02/02/2021 7:48:55 AM PST by SMARTY (“If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.” Winston Churchill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Onthebrink

9 posted on 02/02/2021 8:08:39 AM PST by DFG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DFG

Of all of the people Trump ever appointed, Pompeo is the best at the job. Unfortunately, Trump had only a swamp to draw from, and it is unsurprising that he didn’t get much done that he didn’t do himself. Politics is all about what is good for the politician, and Trump didn’t swim very well in those waters. Pompeo was the one I most enjoyed watching and listening to.


10 posted on 02/02/2021 8:44:37 AM PST by webheart (COVID was not worth the economic misery that it took to keep me from getting it for 7 months..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Onthebrink

The path to freedom, if we must, is first thru the establishment of a new ship of state - by way of forming a new, the Third Continental Congress.

- - -

At all times, even in revolution, the construction of our forefathers’ efforts was to ensure lawful process and exercise authority under the rule of law. For example, contrary to the hysteria perpetrated in the “liberal press,” about the militia, the colonial militia were at all times answerable to civilian authority, in a chain of command reaching down from the Continental Congress and down from the Provincial Congresses of the colonies, often times through what were called Committees of Safety.

There is much in our American Heritage, in which we must seek to know and understand the construction of our country and Constitution, so that where we are going, we will ensure that we do so by a lawful process, and always keep upon the path toward our principle objectives: to restore our Constitution and rule of law over government ... instead of embarking upon a sea of rage because of our current unhappiness.

It will take all of our self-discipline, to not wander from the path. The secret of George Washington’s success, according to him, when asked by a correspondent, after the President’s retirement from public office, was this: “...the straight line.”

Sir Winston Churchill, upon the occasion of a visit to an American university after World War II, and feeling the infirmities of his age, was asked to give a speech; but he had to wait out a lengthy introduction.

At the end of this praise, Churchill stood up and approached the podium; and then said, no more than, “Never, never, never, never quit.”

You must not let go of our democratic-republic [principles]. You must not be “rattled.”

The Founding Fathers and Framers set up a structure for a government in waiting, the Continental Congress. During that decade prior to Lexington and Concord, the colonialists absorbed the principles of law, some of which were discussed in the “letters of correspondence.” There is much that the people knew -— enough people -— which is what will be needed if we are to win.

- - -

Edmund Burke said, in his March 22, 1775 “Speech on Conciliation With America”:

Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our colonies, which contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this untractable spirit. I mean their education. In no country perhaps in the world is the law so general a study...

This study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full of resources. In other countries, the people, more simple and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a distance; and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.

- - -

The Third Continental Congress

To consist of 2 representatives from each state.

Those 2 (per state) are chosen by the RED CONSERVATIVE COUNTIES of their respective states.

The RED Conservative counties of each state, to have themselves chosen 2 representative - who convene with the other sets of 2 representives at the state level.

*That* state level convention for the purpose of choosing the 2 representives, who then proceed to the meeting of the Third Continental Congress.


11 posted on 02/02/2021 8:47:00 AM PST by linMcHlp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: linMcHlp

That’s like the instructions for the Holy Hand Grenade:

Pullest thou the pin, and countest thou to three, countest not to one, or two, excepting that as you are counting to three, and count not thou to four, but to three, and only three. Then throwest thou the Holy Hand Grenade.


12 posted on 02/02/2021 9:03:42 AM PST by webheart (COVID was not worth the economic misery that it took to keep me from getting it for 7 months..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson