I cannot resist posting the following thoughts, which are in response to my “Rumination” posting earlier today. These words come from a member of the NH State House of Representatives who tells me…
“I don’t tend to publish soapbox utterances like this. If there is anything you see you want to publish (without attribution) go right ahead. Just don’t blame me for it….”
Heh. The thoughts are noteworthy, so here they are:
Despite our similarities, our “closest relatives” in UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, even the rebellious Irish, are used to the idea of an aristocratic class, a nobility. Heck, even to this day there is a “House of Commons” and a “House of Lords,” and there is still a “Her Majesty the Queen.” Even the rebellious French, once our kissing cousins during the Revolution, have fallen back into this way of thinking. The idea of a “nobility” above everyone else, permeates EVERYTHING. The USA, singularly, is the ONLY nation of any significance on the world stage (other than Switzerland and Israel) which is NOT like this. At least in theory, we abandoned the idea of an aristocratic class with the Revolution, and (thanks especially to the Anti-Federalists, who were New Hampshire’s founding fathers) continue that tradition, at least in Spirit, to this day.
But let us not be mistaken—the American “common man”—especially those who are NOT well educated (classic liberal, from “liber,” Latin for book)—take comfort in the belief that the Government (surrogate for nobility) should “take care of them.” This is a comfort — almost a drug — for the masses. Our political opponents want America to abandon our opposition to a new “government nobility,” so they can create the Nanny State that so many of us verbally deplore. Nevertheless, this is a seductive siren call, and it is sung, like the Sirens, in a melody heard by ALL OTHER PEOPLES OF THE WORLD except for those who have traditionally fled to our shores as immigrants. Can we stave off this urge? I pray we do. In the meantime, we must continue to educate the masses.
Makes me proud to know this NH State Representative: Thank you for the thoughts and the words, whoever you are!