Thursday, July 04, 2019
July 4, 2019
Today is American Independence Day. Who cares? Why is America important? Is America important?
America is the first country, and really the only country, founded on the principle of individual natural rights. It is founded on the concept that government exists to serve the people, and therefore defends and promotes individual liberty. Government is a mere means for protecting our rights, and nothing else. Contrast that with the idea that government is an end in itself, or a vehicle for serving the purposes of those who hold power, and the people must be subservient. Or compare to the idea that government is the fount of everything -- that it is to provide everything to the people (and they'll have to be satisfied with whatever the leaders deign to give them). Individual liberty is the bedrock of modern civilization. The 4th of July is Liberty Day. It's the most hopeful thing that a nation can be conceived in liberty. Regardless of who you are, any place, any time, this is something to celebrate.
There are two fundamental and diametrically opposed positions in political philosophy, liberty and totalitarianism. Liberty holds that each individual is sovereign, that each of us ought to be free to run our own lives and make our own decisions. Government -- the "state"-- exists only to promote this. Totalitarianism puts "the state," which is really some elite, in charge, and everyone else is reduced to pawns, to building material for the elite's grand schemes. Under Liberty, people are ends. Under totalitarianism, people are means.
Individual liberty gives rise to the most productive and powerful economy possible: capitalism. Capitalism -- the *free* market -- is the greatest, most beneficent "invention" in human history and has built modern civilization. Individual rights and capitalism do nothing for those who would rule, hence the creation of socialism, the totalitarian pseudo-alternative, in all its various tyrannical forms: Nazism, fascism, Marxism, Chavezism, Bernie-ism, etc. It doesn't work and all socialism can do is tear down civilization.
As things stand today, The United States of America are the bulwark against socialism, statism, and tyranny, the fortress from which individual freedom is defended and will be expanded. The U.S. are currently under attack, particularly from infiltrators, but they will prevail. Our enemies who hate us and would destroy us -- America's left, Islamists, Chinese and Russian tyrants, the"international community," and other statists -- may have strong tactical positions, but are ultimately doomed by the inconsistencies and failures of their ideologies.
Robert Vincent has written an excellent piece on American Thinker explaining what the enemies of America and individual liberty are up to. If America were to go down, liberty would be lost. And when America triumphs, as it will, Liberty triumphs as well. Be ready for the fray. The Fourth of July commemorates the founding of the most moral country in the world. "We" at Unforeseen Contingencies celebrate that, and urge all of our readers (we have readers after google shadow-banned us???) to join in the celebration, and also join us in vowing that we'll never let the totalitarians rule.
Happy American Independence Day!
