Hey Glenn, thanks for sharing your insights again. Regarding patriotism, I served 4 years active duty in the military and saw some God awful countries in Middle East and eastern EU. Later in my private sector career, i traveled through EU and Asia. USA is far from perfect but it sure beats at least 95% of the rest of the world in my personal experience and view. Also, Glenn, check out Vince Ellison’s piece on Dem’s slavery practices over the centuries. Ty again.
I should be noted that it tool a long time for white Americans to accept black Americans as equals, because it took just as long for English Americans to accept German Americans or in my case Irish Americans. The small town my mother came from had two Catholic churches. One for the Irish and one for the Germans. Love Jesus but the Irish aren't welcome! And vice versa. Pretty hard to move on to equality for people who don't look like you when you hate people for no reason, who's only difference three generations after immigration, is their surname. But I agree with Mr. Lowery's assessment that it was the founding principles of Western Philosophy in the Constitution that in the course of time, resulted in the improvement of our society for the various white Europeans and in time the Blacks, Hispanics, Natives and Asians. If not for that we may have gone fully down the road of the Chinese, Russian or German Pogroms to eliminate and purify our country. I am thankful daily that even though we are far from perfect, that we are at least working to be better. Even the result of the current "woke" movement will likely result in a positive change to our country as it is dialed back to reality.
What a wonderful discussion that, to me, seeks to bring us all up to present time so we can go forward!
If I were to sit and wallow in the very bad things that were done to me in my childhood, I’d not have made a decent adult of myself. “Life is suffering” and our challenge is to overcome and grow despite the challenges.
I just listened to a talk by Victor Davis Hanson speaking for a Hillsdale College mini-course in which he points out that slavery never originally had anything to do with race! It had to do with civilization, economics, and the old way of life. We in the West have eradicated slavery by instituting government thru Citizenship. It is the gift to us by our country’s founders. We should embrace IT, not our past failures from before that. That’s the only way to go forward as a united people.
There's an old idea of 'tacit consent' in a lot of social contract theory, which basically posits that you have obligations to your society as a result of benefiting from it, and that you effectively consent to the systems of that society through living in them, and making use of them.
Just because you didn't pay a price for something doesn't mean no price was paid for it (which is why the concept of privilege is the wrong way to evaluate status on any society): people have sacrificed millions of gallons of blood, sweat and tears in building our society, and in making use of the benefits that they generated we tacitly consent to contributing our part when the time comes.
Patriotism is a way that we affirm that responsibility, and recognize the ways in which our society generates value, and the ways in which our making use of those values generate responsibilities. I don't think it's 'optional' for any decent person who has carefully considered how the virtues and valuable institutions of their society might generate responsibilities on their part. To attempt to dispense with our privileges without considering the responsibilities that they entail, or to otherwise disregard those responsibilities, is an attitude which is supremely ungrateful, immoral insofar as it causes one to fail to repay one's obligations, and unsustainable insofar as dissuades one from continuing building up the valuable parts of society.
That said, I think that 'how has this society treated me in the past?' is one of the important questions one should ask when considering one's responsibilities to that society. One should also ask 'what kind of society would I like to contribute to building?', since that obligations as well in regard to one's society.
Anyway. Good talk: this question about patriotism is one of the only reasons that I'm a conservative and not a libertarian.
Heather Mac Donald has become my favorite political writer. Every single piece she publishes is a barn-burner. True to form, her insights in this post are so thoughtful and eloquently put.
More ought to be made of the fact that the British and Americans abolished the institution of slavery, while it still persists to this day in other parts of the world.
I really enjoyed listening. I feel I need to take time to wrap my head around all the numbers and statistics I hear on these podcasts. Sad part was learning about the child killed in Orlando. I am vaguely familiar living here and seeing it appear on local news, but it was gone the next day and on to something else.
Hey Glenn, thanks for sharing your insights again. Regarding patriotism, I served 4 years active duty in the military and saw some God awful countries in Middle East and eastern EU. Later in my private sector career, i traveled through EU and Asia. USA is far from perfect but it sure beats at least 95% of the rest of the world in my personal experience and view. Also, Glenn, check out Vince Ellison’s piece on Dem’s slavery practices over the centuries. Ty again.
I should be noted that it tool a long time for white Americans to accept black Americans as equals, because it took just as long for English Americans to accept German Americans or in my case Irish Americans. The small town my mother came from had two Catholic churches. One for the Irish and one for the Germans. Love Jesus but the Irish aren't welcome! And vice versa. Pretty hard to move on to equality for people who don't look like you when you hate people for no reason, who's only difference three generations after immigration, is their surname. But I agree with Mr. Lowery's assessment that it was the founding principles of Western Philosophy in the Constitution that in the course of time, resulted in the improvement of our society for the various white Europeans and in time the Blacks, Hispanics, Natives and Asians. If not for that we may have gone fully down the road of the Chinese, Russian or German Pogroms to eliminate and purify our country. I am thankful daily that even though we are far from perfect, that we are at least working to be better. Even the result of the current "woke" movement will likely result in a positive change to our country as it is dialed back to reality.
I said my piece on the main video thread but Tim Scott recently said something that relates to the subject...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34DAFZgwg20
What a wonderful discussion that, to me, seeks to bring us all up to present time so we can go forward!
If I were to sit and wallow in the very bad things that were done to me in my childhood, I’d not have made a decent adult of myself. “Life is suffering” and our challenge is to overcome and grow despite the challenges.
I just listened to a talk by Victor Davis Hanson speaking for a Hillsdale College mini-course in which he points out that slavery never originally had anything to do with race! It had to do with civilization, economics, and the old way of life. We in the West have eradicated slavery by instituting government thru Citizenship. It is the gift to us by our country’s founders. We should embrace IT, not our past failures from before that. That’s the only way to go forward as a united people.
There's an old idea of 'tacit consent' in a lot of social contract theory, which basically posits that you have obligations to your society as a result of benefiting from it, and that you effectively consent to the systems of that society through living in them, and making use of them.
Just because you didn't pay a price for something doesn't mean no price was paid for it (which is why the concept of privilege is the wrong way to evaluate status on any society): people have sacrificed millions of gallons of blood, sweat and tears in building our society, and in making use of the benefits that they generated we tacitly consent to contributing our part when the time comes.
Patriotism is a way that we affirm that responsibility, and recognize the ways in which our society generates value, and the ways in which our making use of those values generate responsibilities. I don't think it's 'optional' for any decent person who has carefully considered how the virtues and valuable institutions of their society might generate responsibilities on their part. To attempt to dispense with our privileges without considering the responsibilities that they entail, or to otherwise disregard those responsibilities, is an attitude which is supremely ungrateful, immoral insofar as it causes one to fail to repay one's obligations, and unsustainable insofar as dissuades one from continuing building up the valuable parts of society.
That said, I think that 'how has this society treated me in the past?' is one of the important questions one should ask when considering one's responsibilities to that society. One should also ask 'what kind of society would I like to contribute to building?', since that obligations as well in regard to one's society.
Anyway. Good talk: this question about patriotism is one of the only reasons that I'm a conservative and not a libertarian.
Heather Mac Donald has become my favorite political writer. Every single piece she publishes is a barn-burner. True to form, her insights in this post are so thoughtful and eloquently put.
The real slavery today is mental and spiritual. How do Democrats have the nerve to honor MLK by reimposing segregation by medical status and race?
More ought to be made of the fact that the British and Americans abolished the institution of slavery, while it still persists to this day in other parts of the world.
I really enjoyed listening. I feel I need to take time to wrap my head around all the numbers and statistics I hear on these podcasts. Sad part was learning about the child killed in Orlando. I am vaguely familiar living here and seeing it appear on local news, but it was gone the next day and on to something else.