Not-a-Lemming : Liberty

If It's Wrong, It's Wrong

FutbolGuru — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:05:00 GMT

America means something.

America is different. It really is. As far as I know, and I don’t know everything – close, but not all – there has never been a situation where a man from a class of people imported as slaves, has risen to be leader of that nation, without a violent rebellion, in just a few generations. My last blog was about that and I stand behind every word.

When our forefathers started this nation, they conceived of a place that would be different than the Europe from which they were fleeing. Europe to our ancestors was not a kind place, full of ruthless monarchies in which freedom was virtually non-existent. Mobility between classes was basically impossible. Religious persecution was widespread. And racism was like nothing we’ve ever seen – vestiges of which live in Europe to this day.

So they left and started a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. America really did, for most of it’s history, have a stranglehold on the moral high ground. Yes we have our black marks, among them slavery and the genocide of the native peoples. But the very fact that a black man is now president is proof positive that these evils are gone, and even when they were being committed always faced a strong opposition that, unlike Europe, couldn’t be imprisoned for their opposing view.

Sadly, America has allowed fear to steal much of the moral credit that we had built up over the years. We have stooped to what the founding fathers felt was one of the most abhorrent of evils – torture. At least five of the amendments in the Bill of Rights was aimed directly at eliminating torture. Why? Because Europe tortured. Nazi Germany was just the last incarnation of a continent overflowing with torture since time immemorial. And while it isn’t torture, you can add denial of due process to that as well. In America, you don’t simply hold people, indefinitely, without due process. Stories of people rotting in castle dungeons in Europe are legion. But Not Here. Because We Are Different.

Were different. We torture now, too. And we also confine people indefinitely without due process. And somehow, we justify it. The question goes something like this, “If you could stop the deaths of thousands by torturing, would you do it?” This implies the answer is, “Yes,” but it also exonerates the North Vietnamese from torturing our downed pilots. It exonerates the Nazis for torturing those who they thought might have information of Allied actions. Both of these groups were defending their countries, and while we may not agree with their governments, we seem to have adopted their methods, and in so doing, associated ourselves with them.

The most amazing thing about our new found methods, however, is how it has split along partisan lines. The people who are most strongly in favor of torture and indefinite incarceration are on the Religious Right. The very people who should be most concerned about human rights and morality! While the people most strongly denouncing torture are on the Left, which is much less religiously influenced and has a far higher percentage of atheists. And even though I have to count myself as having far more right-leaning tendencies than left, the people on the left are completely correct in this regard.

In point of fact, torture is wrong no matter what you use it for. This can be proved through the following simple exercise called, “Where Do You Draw The Line?” Suppose you have a ‘torture’ that doesn’t do any physical damage. Say, waterboarding. Waterboarding doesn’t hurt anybody. It just uses the body’s natural physiological responses to break down will. At least, that’s the argument. Okay, so that kind of torture is alright. I guess rape as torture is okay then, too. Rape doesn’t ‘hurt’ the victim. And used as torture it just uses the body’s natural physiological responses to break down will. Rape a woman, or a man, enough times and maybe they’ll tell you what you need to know. Even you waterboarders have to balk at that. Or, maybe not.

So you get a little information waterboarding. But you’re only doing it to save lives. And you know there’s more information. Well, you’ve already said that it’s okay to invade the body of your subject, so what’s to keep you from taking the next step? You know the information is in there. You know people are about to die. Or at least you think they are. Close the door. Turn off the cameras. How is this any different than the methods used by the Gestapo to get information on invasion plans. To save millions. To protect their country. Some of the intelligence gatherers in America actually envy the liberty that other nations have to torture! And send people there to be tortured. Inconcievable.

I can’t think of anything more un-American than torture, under any circumstance. But I’d be wrong, because indefinite detention is even worse. We’ve gone all the way back to the Dark Ages now, where feudal lords and caliphs would hold enemies in their dungeons basically for the rest of their lives. Yes, they were enemies of the state. But does this make indefinite detention okay? America was founded on the pretext that it does not.
In fact, by protecting the freedom of speech, we are in effect giving protection to our enemies, who are free to speak out against us in our own country. On the surface this seems insane from an internal security standpoint. But it goes to the very core of what makes America different. The ideas of Freedom and Liberty. America is not about security through silencing her foes. America is about winning them with her shining light. Doubtless some of them will not be won and we may have to fight them. But they should die on the field of battle, looking in our eyes, not rotting in a prison cell wearing a blindfold. That is the act of a coward. Are we not strong enough to survive the ranting of a terrorist? Has detaining them without due process actually helped or hurt our cause?

It is time for America to return to her core values. Not the values of family and God. Those are not our core values. In fact, our values of Family and God flow from our core values of Freedom and Liberty for all. It is only when we begin to curtail our most precious values that others begin to suffer. Do we trust the Founding Fathers in their wisdom born of hardship and suffering? Or will we make the mistake of thinking that we, born in luxury and raised in a life of ease, know better? Have not America’s values been the gravity that has attracted immigrants the world over for two hundred years, and kept us powerful and strong? Will we so easily abandon them for a ragged band of terrorists who managed to score one, grotesque victory that will live in history as perhaps one of the most heinous acts of all time? Right up there with torture.

-Futbol Guru

A Truly Great Day

FutbolGuru — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:57:00 GMT

Today is a great day to be an American. For the first time in the history of the United States, a black man will become the President of this land. Today a black man becomes the most powerful individual in the world.

It would be easy to become a lemming and join the herds of fuzzy brown creatures hurtling in opposite directions towards the cliffs. In one direction are the nay-sayers, not only horrified of the thought of a black President, but once again facing the prospect of a liberal leader. In the other direction are those convinced that no matter what happens it will be better. Both are wrong for so many reasons I’m not even going to talk about it.

Today isn’t a great day because Barak Obama ascends to the Oval Office. Today is a great day because his inauguration proves, once again, that the United States is the finest, most progressive nation on Earth, and her citizens have no parallel.

A mere forty years ago, within my shockingly inconsequential lifetime, black people were, by virtue of their skin color, denied access to colleges and universities. The very idea seems absurd to us today but here we are, barely a generation removed, and a black man is President. The sea change in attitudes is very nearly impossible to quantify or even express. Civil Rights was a long hard struggle and black people have every reason to be proud of their achievements. And I am proud of the achievement as well, for it highlights that We are still the melting pot. That We still hold these Truths to be self-evident: That All Men Are Created Equal. No where else in the world is this the case.

Sixty years ago Nazis were murdering Jews but you won’t see a Jewish Chancellor in Germany any time soon. What are the odds of an ethnic Khazak being elected to the Russian presidency? Or an immigrant from India becoming the Prime Minister of England. Does anybody really think there will ever be a non-Arab leader of Saudi Arabia? Or a non-Italian leader of Italy? What about an Inuit PM in Canada?

People talk about racism in America. Yes, at one time it was as bad here as anywhere. A black man could be lynched for nothing. A Native American could be murdered and there would be no investigation. That’s gone, now. Gone. America is no longer a racist nation. In fact, we are the ONLY non-racist nation on the planet. If you want to see racism, go to China where Mandarin Chinese oppress all other ethnicities, like Han, Mongol, Tibetan, etc. Did you even know that China had more ethnicities than the United States and if you’re not Mandarin you’re pretty much screwed? But they all look the same to us. And Africa. Every atrocity there is race based. Rwandan Hutu’s murdered as many as one million Rwandan Tutsis during the genocide of 1994. Do you even want to talk about Sudan? And yes, there are people who dislike Iranians even more than Americans do. They are called Iraqis. Or didn’t you know they are different races? Iranians consider themselves Persians while Iraqis are Arabic. And naturally, both feel superior to the other so of course they hate each other and try to kill one another whenever they get the chance.

But America is special. It is different, and that is a good thing. It is different because it wasn’t founded based on race. It was founded based on the idea of freedom, liberty, and equality. It took a while even for us to realize what that meant and there were injustices along the way, but even then it was at the core of what we are. And in time that idea has finally erased the most widespread vice of humankind – racism.

To be called an American, to call oneself an American, is a thing of tremendous power and pride. Nowhere in history, nowhere in the world, has there ever been a place like this, where a race can go from slavery to leading the entire nation in a few generations. For the past sixty years our victory in World War II has defined us as a nation. What we were able to accomplish in a few short years said more about us as a people than any other event in our history. I believe that milestone has now been exceeded. We, as a nation, have now beaten an even greater enemy. The enemy at the heart of World War II and every war ever fought. An enemy that no other nation on Earth has ever defeated. And that enemy is racism.

There are still racists, and there always be racists, but institutionalized racism in America can now be officially laid to rest. And whether you are on the left, or on the right, Republican or Democrat, man or woman, that is a thing you can be proud of. For the nation to which you’ve sworn allegiance, a Nation of the People, for the People, and by the People, has achieved what is perhaps the greatest victory of all time.

It is a great day to be an American.

-Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/Community/blogs/not-a-lemming