Posted on 06/27/2009 7:41:27 AM PDT by quesney
While reading the following news story:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringAutoNews/idUKTRE5406CF20090501
----------------
I was reminded two very important quotes from John Adams about the American Revolution:
* As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 - 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington. o Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1815-08-24), The Works of John Adams
What do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution. * Letter to H. Niles (1818-02-13)
----------------
In other words, years before the American Revolution, there had been a revolution in people's minds about the way things were and the way things should be.
Forget the disputes over just how real are Obama's high poll numbers. This is beyond Obama, or even his current followers.
Whether we realize it or not, the US went through another mental revolution of thought over the past few decades -- maybe beginning as far back as the anti-war protests of the 1960s, maybe to Roosevelt's New Deal, maybe to Lincoln forcing a more centralized Union...whatever.
This revolution of thought has slowly eroded the entire mental foundation of the country's founding principles.
The U.S., as it was and as many of us here still think of it, is already gone. Dead. A number of us have not fully caught up to this emerging reality.
Obama, and Bush before him, are only making that obvious. Steele, Arlen Spectre, the feckless GOP, all the rest -- it's all part of bigger picture already drawn and entrenched, maybe even before many of us were born.
Many of us are holding onto a mental artifact that is gone or never existed in the minds of our "fellow Americans." That remains true no matter what happens to Obama, long after he's gone.
Does that mean we give up? No. But that if you're making a personal decision not to give up, you have to start thinking more seriously about follow-up to those Tea Parties and perhaps to secession.
The U.S. is, beyond everything else, an idea. When our "fellow Americans" no longer share the basic elements of that idea -- of even basic standards of mutual respect, logic, reason, civil discourse, respect for others as equals -- our "fellow Americans" are no longer our "fellow Americans."
Plan accordingly.
Thanks for the reference to John Adams. This was the main thesis of William Appleman Williams’ writings on the American Revolution. It’s good to see where his idea came from.
present
q.v., “That Hideous Strength”, by C.S. Lewis
Those “fellow Americans” to which you refer,
indeed, DO
want us dead.
Historically, collectivists, once they are in power,
used that power (of the state) to systematically
exterminate all individualists as “counter-revolutionaries”.
Like the author of the post said - plan accordingly.
Here, here.
I really wish the doom and gloom crowd would start their own website to post their surrender diatribes. Call it Slave Republic, or some such.
I have felt the same. However, I do not go along with the idea that “the ideological and cultural gulf is too wide”. For me, that would be giving up on our country and letting those we disagree with take over. Yes, I think it has been done to us “willfully and systematically”, but that is part of the fight we must fight. When you get knocked down, you get and fight again or you may never be in a position to ever fight again. People that want to control us want you to believe that what you are feeling is the future. It will only be the future if we allow it.
This vote in Congress to cripple our economy and enslave the population was probably THE wakeup call for a lot of FReepers.
Some had pinned their waning hopes for a peaceful holding back of the communist/fascist tide by defeating kneecap & tax legislation.
You now see it as many of us already had. Another brick in the wall, another stepping stone to Rev 2.
Janice Rogers Brown is a Godly woman who belongs on the Supreme Court.
The damage that has been done is so massive that I agree. Tea parties will not do it. King Obama and the entire RAT party has put a dent in our fabric that will never be overcome without total revolution. In the meantime we are so venerable to our enemies that watch out!!!!
Liberty is not dead until that last man who yearns to be free is hunted down and shot by the collectivists/elitists.
Make no mistake - they intend to.
You’re not “letting them take over” when you pull the rug out from under them by removing all the productive capacity from their control!
What would they be left in charge of? A bunch of OTHER elitists that consider themselves “nobility”, and a bunch of trained parasites.
We take the country WITH US, and leave them with a shell of a utopia that will soon collapse.
The trick will be keeping their ilk out of the new America.
bump for later, subject akin to my tagline
Who’s “name-calling”, or “bitching”? Not I.
I asked you a simple question.
If all is in vain (as you claim), then what do you recommend we do with the balance of our hopeless lives?
No, I didn’t reply to the original post. I replied to your statement. Are you going to defend it, or are you just going to stand there accusing me of misconduct?
I live in Michigan and the only way I’m leaving is toes up. This is where my great great grandparents settled and this is the only home I’ve ever known.
This is where I stand and this is where I’ll die.
I don’t like being “Little Gretchen Sunshine” but I must respectfully disagree with your statement. Most people just want to live their lives without the government and the agendists on their back.
American Revolution
1/3 Tories...1/3 Patriots...1/3 Apathetic
Got any fellow “wolverines”?
That’s how you’ll do the best work.
You speak of America as some living mortal thing. How does one compare a plant or tree or even a creature to fire, an idea or a spirit?
Indeed the first perishes with time but the latter exists for eternity...
I’m too crippled to be of much use in a fight but I can damn sure do my best to starve the beast of tax revenue.
Excellent speech.
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.