Politics
Out of context: Reply #570
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- TheBlueOne0
OK, one more rant here and then I am done for the day. I know most of you are too young to remember the Carter presidency. I was a young kid, barely in elementary school. Carter has been a punching bag for the Right for thirty years now. You're probably all heard about the famous "malaise" speech he gave in 1979 during that first Energy Crisis.How many of you have actually read it? Carter was basically saying to America, during this energy crisis, in the wake of Vietnam and all the social problems of the era that America had lost it's way and it would be hard work to get back on track. He essentially asking all of America to reaffirm what Freedom really was and what it meant in an American context:
"We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure....All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves. We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem."
Read the whole speech here if you'd like (and you should): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/car…
But think about what he was asking there. What he was saying, his words again - "There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others."
Then Reagan (or rather Reagan-ism) walked in and said "Hey, it's morning in America. greed is good. Take what you can get when you can get it and fuck the other guy. Government IS the problem."
And that's the way America went. Because it was easy. Because the US had just had a hard decade and didn't want to face up to the hard truths of what Freedom means in our historical context. Well, Carter was right. And those proverbial chickens we ran away form deluding ourselves that some sort of morning had broken have come home to roost. Every president since Reagan hasn't changed a damn thing. Bush, Clinton, Bush...all essentially Reagan. None has taken up what Carter threw down and all went the other way and ignored the gorilla in the room. Carter had a flawed presidency, but he was one of the most principled and honest men who has ever held that office.
If you look across the expanse of American history, of what times are we the proudest of? What moments define us as a people? What made us Great? And not great as a powerful nation, but as a nation of principle, of emulation? It is the moments of self-sacrifice for the greater good and for the principles of freedom for everyone. Somehow in the last thirty years the whole idea of greed has become synonymous with the American character - not only at home, but abroad. The city shining on the hill? Well the lights are going out. The really sad thing is, when you speak like this, or say invoke these words of Carter - somehow, with the narrow lexicon of the right you become un-american. To speak of sacrifice is to somehow be less american. Strange place we got these days.
- "It is the moments of self-sacrifice for the greater good" - a very anti-individualistic sentiment. I like.teleos