Do you value individual liberty or do you embrace collectivism?

@SimplyTracie I've maintained for years that the natural state of man locally has always been communist (collectivist), but that regionally and nationally and internationally we all tend to be more capitalistic in nature. Maybe this is a fault of humanity, idk, but we tend to want to help those we see in front of us.

But as for how I want my government to behave (which is the implied question here), I do stand for individual liberties and believe that they elevate more people. :)

@sarabee1995 We all want our freedoms (more the merrier) but I think individual liberties ceases to exist once government steps in. 🤷‍♀️

@SimplyTracie And this is why we need a piece of paper acknowledging that governments are instituted by and among men (not from "God") and derive their just powers from the consent of the governed (Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776) and we need to document that rights do not come from the government, but rather are possessed at birth due to the nature of the free state of man (ibid).

Further, we need to enumerate some of those most precious and pre-existing rights and prohibit in the powers we grant to our government the authority to infringe upon them (US Constitution - Bill of Rights, 15 December 1791).

And by far most importantly, we must remember from whence our citizenship derives and the responsibilities thereto.

@sarabee1995 Well said but how do we do all that?

@SimplyTracie Well we start by teaching it in school. How many average Americans do you think would be able to identify the source of the concepts in my last comment here if I had not included the references?

And even including the references, how many do you think understand the significance of these concepts (rights being pre-existing and not granted by governments, government power being derived from the consent of the governed, etc)??

My dad and grandfather always told me that these things that I learned in university were taught to them in grade school. And yet, these concepts are central to the very idea of what it is to be an American. We need to get back to teaching this stuff. Let Google handle useless memorization, lets teach higher concepts.

@sarabee1995 I’m not sure how many could even repeat what you stated.

But it sounds familiar to Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”. Which I remember memorizing a little of it.

@SimplyTracie Oh I so love that speech... [i][c=#003BB2]"conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal"[/c][/i]!!

Yes, Lincoln was, of course, referring to that government born of and defined by the very documents I referenced above (Declaration, Constitution, Bill of Rights). The Civil War could not bring down that government, but ignorance just may. 😔

@sarabee1995 You’re right of course, about the ignorance. 🙄

@SimplyTracie Yup 😔

@sarabee1995
I like these words too:
"conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal"!!

@SimplyTracie Abe had a way with words. I love the whole speech. :) And love that he wrote it himself.