Why Are We Here?

Published: Category: General Estimated Reading Time: ~5 minutes

     I have one question.

     America sits in waiting.

     It’s a moral precipice of our own making: We’re not facing any external existential threat, or any serious economic crisis. Nonetheless, we’re at each other’s throats in a shocking and unique way. At least in the 1960s, serious issues divided us: the national attempt to grapple with legally enshrined racism, the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War. We have no such excuse now. With no real reason to hate we do so mercilessly. We call for the death of one another, we boycott each others businesses, we burn down each others religious homes in the most free and prosperous nation to ever exist. In the face of goodness, we, as people, have shown that we are not worthy of it. To be blunt, “this is why we can’t have nice things.”

     The United States of America has given the world opportunity like no other, a place to pull your family out of poverty and to create a life for your children. America is a safe haven for people of all faiths. In a nation where we live free from government intervention in our religion, we burn each others churches, synagogues, and mosques. In the freest place on Earth, we humans strive to destroy it.

     The United States of America is also the one place on Earth where the people have the freedom to speak their minds. The freedom of speech is something that the founders saw as a natural right, a right in which exists outside of government and that a good person can and will use. This happened for a long time. The people of the United States used their voices to fight against government tyranny. Our ancestors used their voices to fight for racial equality. They used their voices to get the right to vote, the right to own property and our ancestors used their voices to fight for what they believed in.

     In 2019, there is no gloomy disaster to tear us apart. There is no threat of foreign invasion, economics crisis or even a social tragedy to create such a thick fog of war between factions of American people, yet here we are. At each other’s necks. Instead of using our first amendment right to speak our opinions, we have contests to see who can cause as much verbal pain to one another. We use our right to free speech, that our ancestors died to preserve, to bully each other on the television. The American people, or, at least, the people who live in America now, do not seem to want to create a better America. The consensus that the media shows us is that the vast majority of Americans want to get rid of large portions of our foundational rule of law. Rights that we have had for ages must be done with. People believe that the right to free speech, the right to protect yourself, and the right to freedom of association should be replaced with government handouts. The federal government should be in charge of forcing people to become doctors and to force said doctors to give medical care to all people. The freedom of the press should be replaced with the right to a government job and a government house to live in.

     My question is simple, really. America was formed around the idea of individual liberty. That each and every person has the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The rights that were given to the people were rights revolving around the saying, “you can swing your sword around in a circle, until you hit someone.” As John Adams said, the United States was made only, for a good and moral people. Now, in 2019, vast swaths of Americans want to get rid of the freedoms and rights that our founders fought for in place of government semblance.

     Were our founders wrong, in that they were not a good and moral people? The nation that they created, was it not created for a good and moral people? Were our founders nothing but old racist white bigots? Or, where did America go wrong? Without a shared history or shared ideals, culture and institutions crumble. Our culture has fragmented - can we celebrate July Fourth and stand for the national anthem together, or even watch a football game without arguing about our divisions? Can we attend a movie together without feeling sandbagged by the questions that divide us outside the theater? We certainly no longer attend church or even go bowling together. And as for institutions, Democrats have now discussed packing the Supreme Court, destroying the Senate and ending the Electoral College thanks to their recent spate of political defeats. All of that follows hard on former President Barack Obama simply abrogating power to himself when he couldn’t get Congress to go along with him. Our institutions won’t restrain us if we decide to tear ourselves apart. So, what can hold us together? We can start with gratitude, gratitude for this unique moment in human history, for our unique country, for our unique ideals, for our unique institutions. If we’re ungrateful, spite will win the day. And that means that we could be setting the charges for a spectacular implosion.