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Would like to share a quote I just read by Thomas Jefferson "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
Absolutely true, and it's simply the nature of humans. When life is "tough", as in our early history, people stay focused on survival, and just plain getting enough to eat. Life is simple and basic, and it's rather easy to separate the important stuff from the "fluff". Even God seems close at hand to a family on the brink of starvation---it's easy to see that we "need" Him. And patriotism comes rather easy, too; ditto for thrift and responsibilty.
The years have gone by---there's no more frontiers to tame, no more obvious need for uneducated immigrants to fill up our empty spaces. Everyone, basically, has enough to eat--or the means to get it. Most widespread poverty has been eliminated (leaving behind a very angry remnant of the "unassimilable" poor), and we now have a large middle class. Racial segregation and all sorts of societal wrongs have been made illegal. We don't even need God anymore--we're doing OK without Him.
In very simple terms, having solved the "inherent" problems of life--(food, clothing, shelter, and survival)--we now have the free time and the luxury of being able to sit around and come up with "elective" problems---(are we mistreating our illegal immigrants?---are we causing the Muslims to hate us?---should we try to understand just WHY criminals act as they do?---What about our treatment of animals?---are we letting our teenagers "express themselves"---are our jobs "fulfilling"?)....
It's simple human nature. Just as an electric water pump operates best under a "load", rather than spinning freely, so does human nature operate best under at least some degree of adversity and challenge. Take away all the "roughness" from life, and we tend to "go to pieces". That's how humans are "built"...
This is all one needs to know about our country, our system, and our troubled times.
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