Thank you for writing. I think you have an astute analysis of several things, and I liked a lot what you said about having an honest assessment of where we are at for our upcoming 250th anniversary. The system, like all systems, wants to survive, and there is much that we need to grow up about in recognizing the real machine at work. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." comes to mind.
I do, however, want to respectfully disagree with your conclusion that we need to stop celebrating myths. Now, if you mean we need to stop celebrating myths to the extent that they hide our ability to grow up and see the real problems that need to be solved, I agree. But to stop believing them altogether is, in my humble opinion, a mistake.
To build off your analogy, we may stop believing in Santa when we grow up, but as we have children of our own, we see how the magic of Christmas morning is strengthened with a little faith in the mythological. As this faith is renewed in each generation, the tradition of magic can continue on.
As we work on this great American experiment, I would argue that we need to not let myths keep us from seeing the problems of reality, but that we also need to renew faith in the truth that the myths represent. Else, what are we building towards? Is there nothing at all but the machine?
We might be using different definitions of "myth", but I wanted to share my perspective and advocate for their belief because they can give us the hope that lets us see the real machine and not feel that all is lost. That we can build a working society again.
I appreciate that. I also still very much believe in what America could be which to some degree is believing in the myth. I think when I speak of believing, I mean it in the manner of blindly accepting all of the premises. What the declaration and the constitution established are not what we live in. Yet we believe that the system is what we wish it to be, and it simply isn’t. If there was a way to return to a smaller more liberty centered government, then I would be fully in support of that. I just no longer want to believe that we have the ability to fix this within the constraints that have been placed upon us by the people who have placed themselves in charge. I long for a better America. Every time I’m in colonial Williamsburg, I wish that the ideals and rhetoric of that time were still the ethos of who we are as a people. I would like to work to reestablish that as the American premise of government.
Yeah, I can see us agreeing a lot. You're right that sometimes we celebrate the vision that the founders created without recognizing where we have fallen short of it. I'm grateful that you understood the distinction I was trying to make between blindly celebrating myths and finding the good in our myths and merging it with reality. I have a post about this called "What is the Third Telling?" which might be interesting to you. I like your focus on a less powerful federal government, and think your voice will be important in envisioning how to get to a place where we can reestablish that American premise and promise.
"There will have to come a time of civil disobedience in all of this. We may have to band together to not pay taxes or to ignore their edicts."
Bullseye. Further development of these ideas is probably not a really good idea on this platform. There are probably a good number of deep state squint-eyed toad botherers tasked with keeping an eye on such things despite the Trump administrations efforts at transparency.
I apologize for not being a paid subscriber right now, Aaron, because your material is worth it. You should sell a homeschool American History class. You could teach a film class too. I wish I had found you in 2021 for that purpose.
As a fellow Coloradan, keep me in your contacts for future alliance.
No apologies necessary! I’m glad you’re out there. Thanks for reading what I write and I am trying to figure out how to do an education thing. I would love that.
Thank you for writing. I think you have an astute analysis of several things, and I liked a lot what you said about having an honest assessment of where we are at for our upcoming 250th anniversary. The system, like all systems, wants to survive, and there is much that we need to grow up about in recognizing the real machine at work. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." comes to mind.
I do, however, want to respectfully disagree with your conclusion that we need to stop celebrating myths. Now, if you mean we need to stop celebrating myths to the extent that they hide our ability to grow up and see the real problems that need to be solved, I agree. But to stop believing them altogether is, in my humble opinion, a mistake.
To build off your analogy, we may stop believing in Santa when we grow up, but as we have children of our own, we see how the magic of Christmas morning is strengthened with a little faith in the mythological. As this faith is renewed in each generation, the tradition of magic can continue on.
As we work on this great American experiment, I would argue that we need to not let myths keep us from seeing the problems of reality, but that we also need to renew faith in the truth that the myths represent. Else, what are we building towards? Is there nothing at all but the machine?
We might be using different definitions of "myth", but I wanted to share my perspective and advocate for their belief because they can give us the hope that lets us see the real machine and not feel that all is lost. That we can build a working society again.
I appreciate that. I also still very much believe in what America could be which to some degree is believing in the myth. I think when I speak of believing, I mean it in the manner of blindly accepting all of the premises. What the declaration and the constitution established are not what we live in. Yet we believe that the system is what we wish it to be, and it simply isn’t. If there was a way to return to a smaller more liberty centered government, then I would be fully in support of that. I just no longer want to believe that we have the ability to fix this within the constraints that have been placed upon us by the people who have placed themselves in charge. I long for a better America. Every time I’m in colonial Williamsburg, I wish that the ideals and rhetoric of that time were still the ethos of who we are as a people. I would like to work to reestablish that as the American premise of government.
Yeah, I can see us agreeing a lot. You're right that sometimes we celebrate the vision that the founders created without recognizing where we have fallen short of it. I'm grateful that you understood the distinction I was trying to make between blindly celebrating myths and finding the good in our myths and merging it with reality. I have a post about this called "What is the Third Telling?" which might be interesting to you. I like your focus on a less powerful federal government, and think your voice will be important in envisioning how to get to a place where we can reestablish that American premise and promise.
I’ll give it a read. Thanks for engaging with this stuff!
"There will have to come a time of civil disobedience in all of this. We may have to band together to not pay taxes or to ignore their edicts."
Bullseye. Further development of these ideas is probably not a really good idea on this platform. There are probably a good number of deep state squint-eyed toad botherers tasked with keeping an eye on such things despite the Trump administrations efforts at transparency.
Probably true
I appreciate your analogy in this post very much. I agree that the solution to what ails us looks different. We the People need to build it!
I’ll be in touch!
Look forward to it!
Me too!
I apologize for not being a paid subscriber right now, Aaron, because your material is worth it. You should sell a homeschool American History class. You could teach a film class too. I wish I had found you in 2021 for that purpose.
As a fellow Coloradan, keep me in your contacts for future alliance.
No apologies necessary! I’m glad you’re out there. Thanks for reading what I write and I am trying to figure out how to do an education thing. I would love that.
100 % agreed, Aaron! And, like Hugh said below, we need to figure out a system where we can communicate with less control, less intrusion.