When I was five, my Dad told me I love God, my country, my family, in that order. When I was at the playground, on the swings, I wished I knew how you could love a country. How could you love a country? It wasn't a person.
But now I know he meant democracy. Freedom. The will of the people. The sacred trust. What is just. And as I watch hours of testimony undermine illusions of a free society, where the leader of the free world storms the capital he has sworn to protect, and is permitted to run for office again, and enough people love him that he will probably win, I am amazed that more people do not recognize that we are in the demise of democracy. Dad?
I agree with you. Freedom does not mean that we are free to act on our desires when they are detrimental to the representative democracy that has been challenged so many times. We were split apart before but the Union won the slaves were freed, not by the Congress, but by one man, courageous enough to proclaim free with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I recall reading a shorter version of BF Skinner's bike 71 book, Beyond Freedom and Dignity. it made a lot of sense to me as I read it.
Although we obviously have differing outlooks and philosophies in some sectors of thought, we seem to agree that prospects are not auspicious for the smooth and untroubled continuity of the Great American Experiment well into the future. That ventured, inveterate pessimist that I am, I would submit that (and taking your title into account as a mind-hook) that the hour-hand of the National Clock (whatever that might be construed to be) is not at 5 o'clock but is rather nearer the 12 o'clock midnight marker... Sadly enough. -K2
