If you have courage, then you're willing to face that really stinky mess in the garage and clean it up.
You have faith you can clean it up, because you've cleaned up other really stinky messes, or seen other people do it. In other words, you have faith because you have experience of succeeding in the past.
Now Americans don't have much faith that we can throw out a bunch of murdering, psychotic tyrants (excuse my French). Why? Because we don't have experience succeeding against such people.
Sure, the Founding Fathers threw out the British; but that was WAY back in the day, hundreds of years before we were born. French revolution? Ancient history, and different country. WWII? Still generations back for many of us, and that was different. The WWII generation was fighting "the good war", and never knew that our own government probably let Pearl Harbor be attacked in order to justify the U.S. entry into WWII to help out the British. So we have no experience of having really stood up to tyrants.
Fat and Happy
Moreover, we Americans have led a very pampered life for the past couple of decades. Sure, there has been inequality and exploitation, and some have had it a lot worse than others. But, other than stopping extreme forms of racism (Ku Klux Klan, etc.), we haven't had to defend our borders or our liberties.
Basically, we complain if our tv goes on the fritz, or our team loses the game, or we can't afford that new, nicer whatzit, or if our boss is mean. We think those are big, Earth-shattering, history-changing events. But they are quite small in the grand scheme of things
And even those of us who think of ourselves as brave heroes usually only act like that when we know it is within the bounds of safety, within the limits of what we can handle. "Tough guys" tend to turn into meek mice whenever they are really threatened.
So we're basically lazy and timid, but we don't know or admit it. We like to pretend we are like the Founding Fathers or John Wayne (at least the cowboys had to rough it a little).
But we have no experience of successfully standing up to tyrants, so we have no faith that it can be done, and while the evidence is right before our noses that our current leaders are tyrants, we're so terrified that we have our knickers in a bunch.
What Would They Do?
Even if you haven't experienced success in standing up to tyrants, remember that the Founding Fathers did just that. They were just men, not gods. Sure, they were too persistent and stubborn to give up, but that's because they CARED about something: freedom.
They may have lived hundreds of years before our time, but that doesn't matter -- we can still learn from their experience as if it were happening now. Time is an illusion, since human nature is the same now as it was then. Just as many people of faith ask "what would Jesus do?", we can also ask "what would the founding fathers do?" If they could do it, we can do it.
Take Heart
There is a real misunderstanding of what it means to be courageous. In America, courage is often thought of as a testosterone-driven toughness. There's nothing the matter with testosterone. Masculinity is a great thing. But many American men secretly fear that they don't have sufficient testosterone to really be brave when the chips are down. As I said above, even those of us who think of ourselves as brave men usually only act like that when we know it is within the bounds of safety, within the limits of what we can handle.
George WashingtonGeorge Washington is a pen name. I am using the pen name, with the approval of the publisher, because I have received death threats due to my 9/11 research and writing. I am using a pen name to protect myself and my family.
If it's political courage you want try softer means
Not into the testosterone issue, personally, I tend to think of the saying "shoot if you must this old gray head." Seriously. Where does the concept of non-violence come in? And take as an issue Impeachment. Why is it easy to find individuals in private conversation who would advocate it, but then turn around and give reasons why "the country isn't ready for it now." There may twinges of real reasons. Possibly lose job. Kids would be taunted at school. No one is likely to get killed unless he/she goes at it like a barroom brawl.
Whether a person does or does not come out strongly for impeachment is something left to personal weighing of odds and risks. In my case I'm retired. No job to worry about. I'm studious of how to promote my desire to see it happen. An example involves physicians. By going to doctors over the years one finds how much they are dissatisfied with the current hoops they have to go through just to accept patients and then to treat them without taking into account what their insurance will pay. Does that make a physician a professional? Has he not become a hired hand to the HMOs and insurance industry? Two of my doctors are reading The Genius of Impeachment. I'll let them decide what they think of getting out of George W. Bush's great healthcare program.
by
Margaret Bassett (31 articles, 1959 quicklinks, 30 diaries, 1278 comments)
on Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 9:40:04 PM
1 comments
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