Freedom. "The United States has no purpose. That is perhaps its greatest achievement." - Granite Grok

Freedom. “The United States has no purpose. That is perhaps its greatest achievement.”

No purpose but HappyI knew that I had used that “Yamamoto” quote (guns, blades of grass) before and in trying to find it for this post, what was at the top was something just as good to contemplate a second time:

When I first read this at BusinessWeek (of all places!) after doing the show yesterday with our interview with NH State Senator Gary Lambert , it stopped me dead in my tracks (emphasis mine):

The United States has no purpose. That is perhaps its greatest achievement. America’s founding document, its Declaration of Independence, allows that a state exists only to secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That’s it. There’s a curious lack of ambition in those words. The United States was not founded for the greater glory of anything, or as the necessary outcome of history, but for the freedom to collect figurines, to join a clogging troupe, to take a road trip. Yet these words, which carry no ideology whatsoever, are the ones that keep winning. This is the lesson of the past 10 years, and one Osama bin Laden, a man animated by a grandiose vision of restoring a 7th century Muslim empire, never grasped. The most successful organizing principle the world has ever known is a simple guarantee that we can buy and do things that have no point greater than the satisfaction of our own happiness.

Freedom is just.  That’s right – it just is.  It needs no purpose, it needs no explanation.  It just IS.  Too often, those at the top of our society (re: Progressives) believe that we must be organized and marshalled for some purpose all the time.  They believe that they must give us purpose – for being cogs in their machine, we must be progressing FORWARD! and allow ourselves to be evolved for otherwise, we’d just sit around and do nothing. But isn’t that the purpose of Freedom – to decide for ourselves what we should do with ourselves – including nothing if that is what we want?

Problem is, that’s contrary to what and how we were founded as a country – we are not here to “serve” just because someone says we should or have to.  If one decides to – their decision to make.  And I am not responsible for you if that’s what you want to do – be purposeless.  But that’s your decision.

Freedom just is – millions of people following their own lead and hearts.  I guess that’s what drives Progressives so crazy nuts – whaddya mean, you HAVE to be doing something!?!?!  If I don’t want to care, or do, or think, or follow your crowd, I will.  Stop forcing me to before something, some one, or some advocacy thingie that I don’t want to.

I guess that’s why Progressives hate Freedom – they just don’t get the concept.  Nor do they care.

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