Somebody Asked a Question...
Ya Just Hadda Ask, Didn't Ya....
"Should government inspire loyalty, freedom or dependence in citizens?"
So asks cam8510 under the heading, Political Ideology.
A fair question, don't you think?
I mean really: Just what should government inspire in its citizens? Should it inspire anything at all?
Can it even inspire?
FREEDOM
As I said in my answer to the question, freedom is not inspired. It is a birthright. Freedom however, can be affected by government.
Freedom itself is an inspiration, and an aspiration.
Free people are inspired. We are inspired to achieve, to excel, to find that which makes our lives most satisfying.
Freedom allows us to choose our own path, to create, to believe. To live, not merely exist.
The oppressed look to free people, and aspire to freedom.
Freedom is hard-won. Freedom has a cost, all too often paid in blood.
Freedom requires vigilance, lest it be taken away by government.
Freedom cannot be inspired by government, but it can be affirmed and defended by government.
RESPONSIBILTY
There can be no freedom without responsibility.
Government can and should inspire personal responsibility in its citizens.
Each of us should be responsible for our own lives and our own actions. It should be we, and not government who feeds, houses, clothes and yes, even sees to our and our family's health.
We, as citizens, have responsibilities not only to ourselves, but to our communities, our society and our nation. It is we who decide what path we as a nation will follow through the ballot, not a monarch on a throne, or a dictator in a bunker. If we do not assume the responsibility to educate ourselves as to our choices and take those choices to the polls, a dictator will surely lift that burden from us.
It is we who have the responsibility to keep our homes safe.
At our nation's founding we, the people assumed the responsibility to decide the guilt or innocence of the accused, and we the people assumed the burden of proof against the accused. We must be responsible enough to decide such based on fact, not whether or not we find the accused personally likable. And we must be responsible enough to serve when called upon to do so, and not find some excuse or other to shirk that responsibility.
SELF-RELIANCE
At the top of the list of that which the founding fathers most cherished and expounded upon almost daily is self-reliance.
I can only rely on myself to provide for my family and will not depend on government.
You and I have no right and no business depending on government, you are not owed a living. The government hasn't the time and, as our national debt demonstrates, the wherewithal to provide for you.
Do I really have to explain further?
WHAT WERE ONCE VICES ARE NOW HABITS
Great album from the Doobie Brothers, by the way...
But dig this under that heading:
"It is precisely this clinging to victimhood as a means of demonstrating one’s virtue and advancing one’s well-being that has led us into a society in which welfare and quotas are “civil rights,” government handouts are “entitlements,” and payment to girls having babies out of wedlock are “compassionate,” while hard-working, ambitious people are “greedy,” punishment of crime is “oppression,” and an independent thinker who stands for courage and self-reliance is dismissed as an “Uncle Tom.” J. Tucker Alford.
Couldn't have said it better.
Related
Comments
All the governments try to inspire people to do good that helps the country to develop more and more. Actually, the difference is created by the policies not only by just oral just motivation.
what ever makes you feel good pally.
CreeViking- Nor I do you BX hero. I have you pushing pencils in the supply room myself.
OK Frog, you do what you want. Makes no difference to me what happens to you in the end anyways
CreeViking - I spent 23 years as an infantry Ranger. Bring it and see. I don't need guns son. Good grief.
The Frog
Do it, and read mine.
Guns in the hands of private owners do nothing at all to protect them mostly because of attitude of the gun owner. They think they can stand alone in their houses and fight off an army. You can't of course, the army in question will simply bomb your house from the air or run through it with a tank and crush you and your family, then take the pretty guns you horded and divide them up among themselves as trophies.
6 years in the infantry taught me something about this subject that every gun owner alive needs to learn. You cannot defend your home. It is impossible. It doesn't matter how many guns you have or how much ammo you have as the 'army' in question always has bigger, more of them and better. You can defend against a criminal home invasion but most gun owners vastly overestimate what it takes to do that and usually wind up with a house full of guns totally unsuited to proper home defense against the criminal element. I'm inspired now, gonna write a hub on this.
The thing is that government is something that we have created, to protect freedom, something that is innate. Our government at the present moment is falling short of the obligations for which we created it, and continue to buy in to it's laws, taxes etc. The government should the arms of the people, doing the work of the people. I don't care what political view you espouse, we are all feeling let down by our government. We cannot shut down our civic duties, and they have no right to do so either. I am not gaming for a revolution, and I don't think those guns in your house will keep you safe and sovereign. (see my gun article) I do feel that we need a MAJOR shakeup and people need to continue to show that they are not happy with the job that Congress, the house, the president, or even the supreme court are doing to provide us with the freedoms that we deserve and the services that we earn. Our government has become adept at ignoring its people and our people have become apathetic and used to being ignored.
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