Sunday, March 13, 2016
A Socially Constructive Aphorism
As a happy centrist, I often think about how to build up society, and how to keep it from breaking down. Lately, I have been thinking that these processes are not quite symmetrical. Thus, I propose this aphorism.
We build up for a reason;
Things break down when we lack a reason.
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8 comments:
Was Nazi Germany broken down for no reason?
It broke down because it lacked a sufficient reason to remain a democratic state and Christian (or at least bourgeois) nation.
In a modern republic, would it not be better phrased:
A Nation builds up for a reason;
Things break down when the original justification therefor is no longer accepted by a majority of the citizenry.
Nicely said.
Mac: no, on reflection, it could develop a new reason. But yes, in the main, I think the breakdown of the original reason would be the source of breakdown. But if the majority of the citizens have accepted a new reason, that would prevent breakdown.
^ Unfortunately, it's difficult to find a new reason and build the necessary solidarity when the citizens have a bad attitude about themselves and their neighbors. I think that's a big problem in modern America.
Many people have a bad attitude in all eras. I think that just increases the duty of those who do understand the positive reason for America to do.
The problem is that both sides firmly and honestly believe that their view is the positive view. It is just that some think the status quo (big, intrusive government) is the positive reason while others think that a return to the Constitutional view of the Founders (who were intent on protecting the People and the States from an over-bearing Monarchy/oligarchy) is the moral mandate.
Returning to your original aphorism, one could argue that the miracle of 1787 occurred for a reason, and it was only when the People allowed that reason to be co-opted by the incipient desire of the liberal mind to replace self-reliance and liberty with a society managed by the few who claim to be smarter and better than the many that the breakdown occurred.
I'm a lawyer. I'll argue either side of an issue, but, as another Illinois lawyer once told the Supreme Court when, in the afternoon, he argued the exact opposite of the issue he had won on in the morning, he explained to the Court "This morning I was wrong." Lawyers and academics: peas in a pod.
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