"... having been raised on the American Dream (tm). OUCH!, but it's a painful perspective! "
We - that is you in the U.S., but me as well as all the common people in the entire Anglophone world, and those in NATO-aligned nations, and dare I say it, anyone anywhere that thought we saw a flicker of the light of freedom and heard the peal of the bell of liberty (as opposed to the Liberty Bell) - we all believed in the American Dream, and we wanted, so desperately for it to be(come) real.
We have all been either deceived, or we have been robbed.
I would still like to believe that the Founding Fathers were sincere and that they toiled in earnest for the benefit of their new nation that it might truly be a beacon of light to the world, but I can't help suspecting they, too, were made instruments of the deception precisely by perfidious Albion (or better still, the banker/financiers that made England their instrument of perfidy) against whom the Founding Fathers fought.
But it goes back further still, much further. For as long as society, its resources, and power have been vertically distributed, concentrating at the top, the top has been paranoid that the chicanery that propelled them up there might one day be exposed and they might be brought down - violently perforce. From this principal deception all others have emerged or sprouted off.
I simply cannot and will not ever trust any institution that was either born from, has submitted to, or has been subsumed into Establishment power. Not any thing and nothing, neither secular nor sacred. On the contrary, I am committed to the utter annihilation of all of them and the hidden and more conspicuous scoundrels behind their façades.
I wouldn't be too humbly grateful, I'm not the most learned person!
The "founders" appear to have been truly attempting to right a lot of wrongs, but sadly there always seem to be compromises in order to get anything done. Whether freedom rings or the bell is ultimately discarded as a cracked relic, depends on which direction our actions (or inactions) run -- toward an honest attempt to gradually improve the lot of all society, or apathy, or downright vice and corruption.
My perspective is that we had a good chance at an equitable and free society, but we were too childish, lazy, and corrupt once things because too easy for us. Those with good intentions have simply not been as energetic as those without. Our faults have been exacerbated rather than abated.
The only course I can see for folks of good will at this point is to not entirely fall asleep at the wheel, and to always do the BEST thing -- go in the BEST direction, even though we are far from assured of reaching a good conclusion to our struggles.
Makes you almost question, "what is law?", doesn't it?
Laws were/are codified for the primary (sole?) purpose of arbitrating the settlements between, and procurement activities of (aristocrat) proprietors.
The imagined rights, let alone justice for the proletariat were/are not even peripheral concerns.
It is high time we disabuse ourselves of the delusions that the institutions are or ever were for the benefit of the common.
(egad! How's this for necroposting? You posted your comment in October of last year - I've only just seen it and responded!)
Thanks for the response (I do the same thing with the belated posting, no judgement here).
I had never really considered law from that perspective before, having been raised on the American Dream (tm). OUCH!, but it's a painful perspective!
I'm humbly grateful to you for engaging!
"... having been raised on the American Dream (tm). OUCH!, but it's a painful perspective! "
We - that is you in the U.S., but me as well as all the common people in the entire Anglophone world, and those in NATO-aligned nations, and dare I say it, anyone anywhere that thought we saw a flicker of the light of freedom and heard the peal of the bell of liberty (as opposed to the Liberty Bell) - we all believed in the American Dream, and we wanted, so desperately for it to be(come) real.
We have all been either deceived, or we have been robbed.
I would still like to believe that the Founding Fathers were sincere and that they toiled in earnest for the benefit of their new nation that it might truly be a beacon of light to the world, but I can't help suspecting they, too, were made instruments of the deception precisely by perfidious Albion (or better still, the banker/financiers that made England their instrument of perfidy) against whom the Founding Fathers fought.
But it goes back further still, much further. For as long as society, its resources, and power have been vertically distributed, concentrating at the top, the top has been paranoid that the chicanery that propelled them up there might one day be exposed and they might be brought down - violently perforce. From this principal deception all others have emerged or sprouted off.
I simply cannot and will not ever trust any institution that was either born from, has submitted to, or has been subsumed into Establishment power. Not any thing and nothing, neither secular nor sacred. On the contrary, I am committed to the utter annihilation of all of them and the hidden and more conspicuous scoundrels behind their façades.
I wouldn't be too humbly grateful, I'm not the most learned person!
The "founders" appear to have been truly attempting to right a lot of wrongs, but sadly there always seem to be compromises in order to get anything done. Whether freedom rings or the bell is ultimately discarded as a cracked relic, depends on which direction our actions (or inactions) run -- toward an honest attempt to gradually improve the lot of all society, or apathy, or downright vice and corruption.
My perspective is that we had a good chance at an equitable and free society, but we were too childish, lazy, and corrupt once things because too easy for us. Those with good intentions have simply not been as energetic as those without. Our faults have been exacerbated rather than abated.
The only course I can see for folks of good will at this point is to not entirely fall asleep at the wheel, and to always do the BEST thing -- go in the BEST direction, even though we are far from assured of reaching a good conclusion to our struggles.