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Where Did Our Freedom Go?
American Greatness ^ | 23 Feb, 2022 | Dan Gelernter

Posted on 02/23/2022 4:57:05 AM PST by MtnClimber

Our freedom went to the cities, where it’s been on a bender ever since.

In the 2000s, when I was in high school, civil disobedience was lauded as something almost inherently noble. Our teachers encouraged us to think like Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr., and grow up to be the kind of people who would disobey unjust laws. The moral groundwork for this philosophy, though our teachers were almost certainly ignorant of the fact, was the very American idea that Benjamin Franklin proposed as the motto for the United States: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”

Our teachers, though, came at the problem from a different perspective. They were a remnant of the hippie movement of the 1960s and ’70s. A movement which, like the teachers themselves, never quite attained intellectual maturity. Their desire to challenge authority and “the man” was based not on a moral commitment to freedom which Franklin would have recognized, but simply on a desire to be the authority themselves.

A true liberal and a power-hungry thug look similar when they’re in opposition. The French Revolutionaries began by patterning themselves explicitly after their American cousins. But whereas Washington rejected the proffered crown, Robespierre very much desired to be king. As did many of the comrades Robespierre killed—and those who finally killed him.

Fidel Castro in the jungle seemed like a democrat to many. American taxpayers (via the CIA) supported his movement with a gift of $50,000. Then it turned out Castro’s goal was the same as Batista’s—to be a dictator—and the CIA had to spend the next five decades trying to kill him. We learned from this experience by later sponsoring, and on a vastly larger scale, that great lover of democracy, the mujāhid Osama bin Laden.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: communism
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1 posted on 02/23/2022 4:57:05 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Fidel Castro still seems like a democRAT.


2 posted on 02/23/2022 4:57:16 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on mycreen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

I think the Constitution would have been a better document if every single piece of federal legislation required at least two-thirds of the House and Senate to agree on it. Especially big things might require 80% agreement.

Pretty much nothing could be accomplished at the federal level.

And freedom would be preserved.


3 posted on 02/23/2022 5:00:48 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Weak people see themselves as victims; such people should not be in charge of anything.)
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To: MtnClimber
Their desire to challenge authority and “the man” was based not on a moral commitment to freedom which Franklin would have recognized, but simply on a desire to be the authority themselves.

If you listen to what the typical "anarchist" wants, other than a joy in destruction, it seems to be a list of government programs, handouts and legal prohibition of their opponents speaking. Our "anarchists" are a very pro-archist crowd in the end.

4 posted on 02/23/2022 5:04:10 AM PST by KarlInOhio (Dictatorship: now available in maple flavor.)
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To: MtnClimber

I think back over the last several decades of the warnings from libertarians. Some of those we’d poo poo. “If the force you to wear a seatbelt, what else will they force you to do in the future?”

THEY WERE RIGHT!


5 posted on 02/23/2022 5:04:22 AM PST by BiglyCommentary
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To: MtnClimber

Benjamin Franklin is quoting St. Thomas Aquinas. “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”


6 posted on 02/23/2022 5:07:16 AM PST by Grey182 (Trump won, Benedict is still Pope & Jeffery Epstein didn't kill himself.)
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To: MtnClimber

High school in the 2000’s? Well, at least he didn’t say RODNEY King.


7 posted on 02/23/2022 5:08:40 AM PST by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: ClearCase_guy

Fully agree!

And SCOTUS decisions should have to be UNANIMOUS!

8 posted on 02/23/2022 5:10:29 AM PST by Westbrook
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To: KarlInOhio

Yes. That really drives me crazy.

I am, today, a small government Conservative. When I was younger, I was a bit more extreme and I did go through an anarchist phase. There is a lot of literature on the topic, and many competing visions for how society might function without any government at all, and how personal freedom might best be maximized. In the end, I decided that these ideas would not work, which is how I became a small government Conservative and not an anarchist.

But the “anarchists” who are out there marching in the streets these days seek political control. They have a long list of government actions which they desire so that they can have authority over other people (the “bad people”) and how they can be given access to resources (which other people have earned) so that these “anarchists” can live their best lives.

These “anarchists” don’t know why anarchy is. They are just Marxist Totalitarians without the brains to see it.


9 posted on 02/23/2022 5:13:46 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Weak people see themselves as victims; such people should not be in charge of anything.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

It would have been a better document if the Founders had put term limits on every elected federal office too - just to be sure we didn’t end up with an effective permanent ruling class. Can’t always count on the electorate, and they should have known this by the number of people who stayed loyal to the Crown during the Revolutionary War.


10 posted on 02/23/2022 5:16:45 AM PST by Cecily
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To: KarlInOhio

I always thought anarchy could never really exist.

Its pretty much is over once two guys get together, and the other one says “Ok, here’s what we’re gonna do”.


11 posted on 02/23/2022 5:18:31 AM PST by Sarcazmo
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To: MtnClimber

I have always wondered what makes humans in cities move left.

I wonder if it’s that they start to revert back to tribalism a little since the place is so think with people.


12 posted on 02/23/2022 5:22:22 AM PST by Sarcazmo
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To: Sarcazmo

I always thought anarchy could never really exist.

I don’t think it does exist. We have totalitarians and fascists and combinations of both but not anarchists.

This started back in the 90’s with campus speech codes and free speech areas. Now those people are in power and we must all bend to them and their current whims.

We could see it coming yet we did not fight it hard enough.

That seems to be a theme: we do not fight it hard enough.

Its what busy people trying to live survive and thrive do, I think.

And now we are their tatgets.


13 posted on 02/23/2022 5:26:20 AM PST by Adder (Proud member of the FJBLGB community: /s is implied where applicable.)
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To: Cecily
Term limits for Congress but also term limits for their staff who network with and who actually write the bills for the donors and lobbyists. Also if you were in Congress, worked for Congress, or the Federal government or have a spouse, parent ,in law, sibling or child who has then you can't be a lobbyist for 10 years after they leave Federal service.
14 posted on 02/23/2022 5:36:56 AM PST by bonehead4freedom
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To: Adder

Yes, I agree.

A little further on the anarchy topic, I always thought it funny to see communists protesting alongside “anarchists” (Occupy Wall Street).

Regarding not fighting hard enough, I totally agree. I don’t know how we got so far down the road, but I think things like allowing gay scoutmasters in BSA - we should have said not no, but HELL NO.

They would have destroyed the organization in the courts though... maybe people recognized that, said “I like the BSA, maybe it won’t be so bad”. Then went along so it wasn’t totally routed. But of course the destruction is just slower and hurts/perverts many along the way.

We face a powerful adversary.

At the risk of getting too lengthy though, I remember in some state they started putting mobile speed cameras in parked police vehicles. But people kept shooting them and starting them on fire... so the state ended the program. So aggressive resistance worked in that case. (I’m not advocating anything, just pointing it out).


15 posted on 02/23/2022 5:39:41 AM PST by Sarcazmo
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To: MtnClimber

“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man”—Solomon

This spiritual principle applies to the topic at hand. We the People are going to have to “come to” and set aside our “American Dream” to effectively deal with the corrupters of it. This starts at home with Papa assuming the mantle God designed for him. Anyone who knows Pauline truth knows that man/woman/child are called to a high calling of mutual love and respect, but the man is still to lead.

The destruction of this is culprit #1. Satan always attacks God’s designed order and promotes effeminacy and cowardice. (See: Eden)


16 posted on 02/23/2022 5:51:03 AM PST by avenir
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To: MtnClimber

A large asteroid bullseye strike on dc will do


17 posted on 02/23/2022 5:54:38 AM PST by Recompennation (Don’t blame me my vote didn’t count )
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To: MtnClimber
When revolutionaries become leaders, they don't tolerate any additional revolutions.

18 posted on 02/23/2022 5:56:41 AM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: BitWielder1

“There will not be another revolution in Germany for the next thousand years!” - Adolf Hitler


19 posted on 02/23/2022 6:00:50 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Sarcazmo

“I think things like allowing gay scoutmasters in BSA - we should have said not no, but HELL NO.”

We did. Then some leftist judge steps in and rules that queer scoutmasters must be given access to young boys. No one will hang the judge, so here we are.


20 posted on 02/23/2022 6:02:57 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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