Real patriots participate
Take Part in the Greatest Scientific Experiment in the History of Earth: Democracy
By Ross Pomeroy
RealClearScience
Nearly twelve score years ago, dozens of courageous statesmen convened to both define and solve a problem that had plagued mankind since the dawn of our species: How best shall a nation of free and independent human beings govern themselves?
The learned men who tackled this question were lawyers, philosophers, soldiers, and scientists, but above all, they were perceptive students of history. They observed that systems of government in which power was bequeathed to the favored few were doomed to failure. "The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs,"Thomas Jefferson affirmed. Nor were others born "booted and spurred."
With this quintessential observation permeating throughout the often contentious deliberations of the Second Continental Congress, a novel hypothesis was advanced - one which, as Carl Sagan wrote, was "breathtaking, radical, and revolutionary." The theory was that "not kings, not priests, not big-city bosses, not dictators, not a military cabal, not a de facto conspiracy of the wealthy, but ordinary people, working together, [could] rule nations."
Thus, after achieving independence from Great Britain, a victory garnered through heroism and bloodshed, the Founders devised, and our fledgling country embarked upon, the greatest scientific experiment that this world has ever seen: Democracy.
By Ross Pomeroy
RealClearScience
Nearly twelve score years ago, dozens of courageous statesmen convened to both define and solve a problem that had plagued mankind since the dawn of our species: How best shall a nation of free and independent human beings govern themselves?
The learned men who tackled this question were lawyers, philosophers, soldiers, and scientists, but above all, they were perceptive students of history. They observed that systems of government in which power was bequeathed to the favored few were doomed to failure. "The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs,"Thomas Jefferson affirmed. Nor were others born "booted and spurred."
With this quintessential observation permeating throughout the often contentious deliberations of the Second Continental Congress, a novel hypothesis was advanced - one which, as Carl Sagan wrote, was "breathtaking, radical, and revolutionary." The theory was that "not kings, not priests, not big-city bosses, not dictators, not a military cabal, not a de facto conspiracy of the wealthy, but ordinary people, working together, [could] rule nations."
Thus, after achieving independence from Great Britain, a victory garnered through heroism and bloodshed, the Founders devised, and our fledgling country embarked upon, the greatest scientific experiment that this world has ever seen: Democracy.
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1 Comments:
Ross, hats off to you, you have a way with words. I would add that central to the founders views was individual freedom and liberty with a government that, in a more modern analogy, acts only as an umpire and not a player. A government that was concerned with equal opportunity and not with today's left side of the aisle thinking of equality in terms of outcome. As a taxpayer, I feel a bit saddled and spurred.
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