The Movement You Need…

We have too many American leaders today trying to sell us on the notion that America is merely an idea that can be easily transplanted to any place on earth. The concept has always bothered me a lot. It diminishes the efforts of those who came before us.

Some appear to want everyone to believe that America is just an idea because they seek to promote the notion that it is somehow our responsibility to transmit our brand of democracy to all the world. America the Idea is their template for all peoples. And all peoples are going to get fitted for it whether they like it or not.

Others make less of our heritage because they judge our ancestors through their own contemporary lenses, passing verdicts in absentia, making the best of our best into evil men for owning slaves or having wives at home or not being as tolerant as they should have been. And they’re willing to be outright fascist about making sure that history is revised to their liking.

Still others believe that since others from different folkways and cultures have come here and each group has provided a bit of itself to the current fabric, then we should stop reminding ourselves of what it was that made this place one of the greatest wonders of the world. We should stop talking about our origins because some might be offended or make themselves feel less attached to our culture because they come from more recently arrived stock. If there really are that many Americans today who cannot handle not sharing heritage by descent, then we probably have been too lenient regarding the sorts we have allowed to come.

In previous generations - not long ago at all, really - nobody ever considered this nation to be merely an idea.

America the Idea?

Preposterous!

America is a heritage based on an actual people. The founding fathers had a particular posterity in mind when they penned the preamble to the Constitution. Until recently, the idea nation - America the Proposition - was never an issue. It was so much not an issue that nobody ever felt it necessary to come up with an explanation as to why we are a result of heritage that cannot be adequately transmitted solely by words expressing ideas.

I will try. Let’s look upon America like a forest. Whenever we take a walk through it, we need to remain mindful that there is no way to see it all in one journey. Each path is but one of many. Each is informative.

It seems to me that many these days spend their lives talking mostly about the importance of the trees, or the branches, or the leaves on the trees. I’m more interested in the vitality of the soil. Yes, there are many good points to be made about the things we all can see before us that make our American woods. But it seems almost as if a lot of folks don’t want anyone to ever acknowledge, even a little, that everything we see in our forest would not exist were it not for the specific qualities of the soil in which it is rooted. (Continued)

Tags: american history, Conservatism, essay, philosophy