The greatest human experiment in self rule lives another year!
Government of the people, for the people, and by the people. But do we TRULY mean it?
What does it mean to you to be sovereign, not a subject? To stand before your god with no man standing between you?
Happy Independence Day, friends!
Here’s a fantastic 2004 interview with Michael Novak.
My fave bit: “Our Founders always wondered about how long it would last. The price of liberty is everlasting vigilance. You’ve got to be on your guard every minute or you will lose it. In most of history, societies have not been free. It’s a very rare society that is free. The default condition of human societies is tyranny. Every society’s inclination is toward tyranny, unless you resist it constantly.”
Robert N. Bellah and his colleagues have written a book called Habits of the Heart which spends considerable time adumbrating the need to take care of democracy. It needs constant attention. We see in the 2016 elections how change is possible in either direction, but that the outcome still depends on the people yet the parties have neglected the people for too long.