Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Let's recreate the experiment

Early in the nineteenth century a number of African Americans - fugitive slaves and slaves freed by their masters - decided to found a country of their own. They chose to start over, form a society based on the US Constitution, and re-establish their society according to humanistic principles. They emigrated to Africa and founded the country of Liberia. The US was, understandably, not to their liking, having violated their notion of freedom.

Today I see a similar phenomenon. A minority of US citizens, vocal and even vicious in their antipathy towards the US as it is currently operating, must clearly imagine that this isn't their country, either. I agree.

Instead of a strong, central government capable of providing support, assistance, and service to its citizens, these folks want less government, no government at all, in fact. Crumbling infrastructure, in their view, isn't a problem to be remedied by government action (read "your taxes at work"), but a desirable outcome of a long-past frenzy of government spending naturally gone bad. A national passenger train service, in their view, should be in private (which is to say, no) hands.

In short, because I could go on, I think - like the ex-slaves of the 1820s - this isn't their country. They do not support the Constitution as it is written, only as they curiously imagine or wish it to be. They do not support President Obama, his appointees, considering them as traitors. They work actively to thwart his policies.

I invite - no, encourage - the Tea Party to disengage from this country and start over - somewhere else - on their own terms. I encourage them to establish a society in their terms, paying homage to the rugged individualism of Ayn Rand and the laws of social Darwinism. I want them gone, long gone, far away from our shores, to establish and dwell within their dystopia.

Go. Leave us alone. We're humanists, with a reasonably optimistic and charitable view of human nature and a belief that government is not inherently evil. We won't miss you. Not at all.

2 comments:

  1. Nice job, Pell. I like it.

    Edie
    http://edithmaxwell.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great start, Pell, can't wait to read more.
    chris moreno

    ReplyDelete