A Defense of Democracy
I found this when I was digging through my drawer for old papers. I wrote it in response to the conversation that I was listening to in political science one day. It surprised me because I've been thinking quite randomly about the same stuff lately, but I'd forgotten that I'd already thought about it at some point. Anyway, here it is:
How do you save a country that nobody loves? How do you justify giving your life to repair a country that no one wants to see restored? Where do you start in a country in which half of the people are clamoring to stop you? Why rebuild the United States of America? The United States of America is no longer a cherished ideal in the hearts of her people. The United States of America ceased long ago to be a shiny new medal born proudly on the straight shoulder of a crisp uniform worn for the sake of a beloved principle. Now it is hidden, tarnished and scratched, in the sock drawer of a world that is tired of tolerating democracy--that dirty old notion of freedom on an individual basis and the responsibility that inevitably comes packaged with opportunity. Two for the price of one. But that's a lot of laundry, isn't it? Why cry out and make promises to give the people back the country they have lost in the tempest of late?
No one wants it.
Give them the country they want. A country that takes what they earn and gives it tight-fistedly to another who didn't have to lift a finger to get it. That takes the money from those who worked to generate it and doles what it doesn't want of it to those who discovered long ago that work is overrated when they get the same amount regardless. A country that trumps generosity for the sake of blanket equality, that denies spirituality for the sake of faceless and faulty equality. Everyone is NOT equal. There are those who will do the right thing and there are those who will not. But why give people the chance to be good or the chance to reach out to those who will not be? Just take the choice away. Force everyone to be falsely virtuous, and you've solved the ultimate dilemma.
Haven't you?
PS I was referring to communism/socialism and how much closer to each ideal our country is progressing.
How do you save a country that nobody loves? How do you justify giving your life to repair a country that no one wants to see restored? Where do you start in a country in which half of the people are clamoring to stop you? Why rebuild the United States of America? The United States of America is no longer a cherished ideal in the hearts of her people. The United States of America ceased long ago to be a shiny new medal born proudly on the straight shoulder of a crisp uniform worn for the sake of a beloved principle. Now it is hidden, tarnished and scratched, in the sock drawer of a world that is tired of tolerating democracy--that dirty old notion of freedom on an individual basis and the responsibility that inevitably comes packaged with opportunity. Two for the price of one. But that's a lot of laundry, isn't it? Why cry out and make promises to give the people back the country they have lost in the tempest of late?
No one wants it.
Give them the country they want. A country that takes what they earn and gives it tight-fistedly to another who didn't have to lift a finger to get it. That takes the money from those who worked to generate it and doles what it doesn't want of it to those who discovered long ago that work is overrated when they get the same amount regardless. A country that trumps generosity for the sake of blanket equality, that denies spirituality for the sake of faceless and faulty equality. Everyone is NOT equal. There are those who will do the right thing and there are those who will not. But why give people the chance to be good or the chance to reach out to those who will not be? Just take the choice away. Force everyone to be falsely virtuous, and you've solved the ultimate dilemma.
Haven't you?
PS I was referring to communism/socialism and how much closer to each ideal our country is progressing.