-Caveat Lector-
On Sat, 9 Dec 2000 14:48:35 -0800 radman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>-Caveat Lector-
>Posted 11/28/00
>Drinking Like A Revolutionary
>by Matthew Robinson
>The History Channel has launched a special on the Founding Fathers.
>Their advertisements aren't exactly promising.
But the series was very good.
> Ben Franklin is presented as a "skirt-chaser."
>James Madison a "nerd" like Bill Gates.
>John Adams is billed as a candidate for "Prozac."
>True, the Founding Fathers weren't demigods devoid of human foibles.
>But most American liberals attack the founders out of a sense of
>superiority, searching for ways to vanquish heroes.
I don't think that putting a human face on our founding fathers (or
anyone else for that matter) is an attack. Far from it. Showing that
the founding fathers (and mothers) were human, with all the strengths and
weaknesses we have, is a good way to help us identify with them.
Hindsight is always 20/20, with those who guess right, make the right
moves at the right time, and make what turn out to be important decisions
elevated to the ranks of demigods, while those who do not are relegated
to being examples of what not to do. The truth is that history is the
final arbiter of right and wrong, and the more we learn of the real
lives, thoughts and actions of those we look up to, the better we can see
that they were not different from ourselves.
>Historian Joyce Appleby estimates that the average American of the
>Founders generation drank eight ounces of alcohol a day.
Doesn't recent research support the use of moderate amounts of alcohol
for digestion and other benefits? HHHMMMM!!! Maybe our ancestors were
smarter than we thought.
>High-seas daring and creative bribes reduced British trade regulation
>to nothing. British efforts to get a piece of this action with unlawful
>sea-courts, fines, and the elimination of trial by jury helped ignite
>the Molotov cocktail of revolution.
Analguous to today's situation. The smugglers enjoy a certain local
legendary status even while the full force of government and military
have stripped away the rights and freedoms stipulated in the
Constitution.
>With just enough of life's hard edge removed, the American Whigs, as
>they called themselves, counted the blessings of America and soon
realized
>what their hard work had earned. Britain's help was mostly incidental
in their eyes. >So with a little drink, their conversations were raucous
and gritty, but also simple and
>incisive about what the superpower of England was up to and what it
would cost
>them.
Today's 'American Whigs' do essentially the same thing. Substitute
"Government" for "Britain and England" and you can see that the same
things are happening today.
> "Well," said a fourth, "If Parliament can take away Mr. Hancock's wharf
and Mr. >Rowe's wharf, they can take away your barn and any house." After
much more >reasoning in this style, a fifth, who had as yet been silent,
broke out, "Well, it's
>high time for us to rebel; we must rebel some time or other, and we had
better
>rebel now than at any time to come. If we put it off for ten or twenty
>years, and let them go on as they have begun, they will get a strong
party among
>us, and plague us a great deal more than they can now."
Do I have to point out the obvious?
>Honoring such men means remembering the earthy and soaring qualities
>that defined that generation. Men who showed how liberty and virtue lift
up
>man to unparalleled vistas and unequaled accomplishments; and men who
knew
>that in a free republic Joe Sixpack would come to be as much the image
and
>stalwart arm of patriotism as any picture of Uncle Sam.
Well, yes, it is very dangerous to point out that the very men who
formented, and then perpetrated, revolution in the last half of the
1700's are men just like ourselves. That would be tantamount to pointing
out that we, too, could overthrow a repressive government. In 1776 only
1/3 of the populace was supportive of the revolution, while 1/3 were
supportive of England and the remainder were neutral (no opinion).
Instead of "George 3" we are facing "George 2" (with Jeb in training).
But it matters not which president is in office, the real power lies
elsewhere. It is systemic, and growing stronger with every passing year.
We have a Constitution which is being slowly but surely made redundant
by the passage of evermore laws, rules and processes that circumvent it.
We are taxed, and see that money flow out of the coffers to dissappear
into an abyss. We are told that we are too stupid to control our own
lives, so government will do it for us. The "Crown Contract Companies"
have been replaced by "Corporate America". Drugs (and now cigaretts)
have replaced rum and tea as THE smuggled items. We have more people in
jail (mostly for simple possession of a controled substance) than any
other country. What will it take for the modern patriots of freedom to
spill out into the streets for a "Boston Tea Party 2"? What
"Intollerable Act" are we waiting for?
Jayson R. Jones
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
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