A Reflection for the 4th of July

Cross-posted at the Jawa Report.

I have taken the liberty of delivering a message from a patriotic America-firster to the legions of grumpy America-lasters, if I may be so bold: Get off your soapbox this 4^th of July and reflect on history.

Hear me out, if you dare.

I’ll begin with a central question that on its face seems simple enough. What is the difference between living in freedom and not living in freedom? This is a broad question, and one that can be answered in a multitude of ways. For my humble purposes, I think the question bears some reflection. Many in our midst here in America seem to be at a loss for what makes this country special, what makes them as individuals in America special and what America has historically provided the peoples of the world.

Permit me to draw an analogy to World War II (gee – that’s never been done!). There are striking similarities in the overall attitudinal tendencies we see in the international community and from the American left that strike me as unwise and short-sighted when viewed through the prism of world and United States history.

It goes without saying that we woud be nowhere to begin with without the souls of the American military. It is as simple as that. If the Continental Army had not taken up arms and shed blood fighting the colonization of the British, there would be no America. We’d be British (and perhaps German, had the American Armed Forces not intervened in World War II).

This, of course, is opined in hindsight and amid reflection. Any attempt to rewrite history to portray “what could’ve happened” is by in large an exercise in futility (not that it will stop me), since history is not exclusively a collection of narratives, but also a collection of facts (not truths). It also holds that there is no true way to know what may have happened if Hitler had not been defeated with the aid of the Americans, but there are few people alive today and in yesteryear that were prepared to let the specter of Hitler span the globe, or even the continent of Europe. With the possible exception of hard-line Islamists, there is no love or sympathy for Hitler, his statist religion, his intentions or his methods. It was necessary for the continued existence of Western Civilization as a whole to stop Hitler, and to destroy the nightmare he had unleashed by force and by will upon Europe.

There were opportunities to do so before he got out of control. Neville Chamberlain, convinced he had brokered “peace in our time,” will go down in history as the appeaser of Hitler. Chamberlain had in fact effectively, through diplomacy, neutered Europe. There were also several early opportunities when Hitler was agitating and organizing the National Socialist Workers Party before he became a force in pre-bellum German politics to take him down. After spending years mingling with “revolutionaries” and groups responsible for all manners of socialist and populist uprisings, he tried to make a power play in Munich. Hitler was jailed for his leading role in the fabled Beer Hall putsch (a failed government overthrow attempt), but used his solitary time in prison to codify and refine what he believed to be the reasons for his movement and the forces that underpinned that vision (anti-Semitism, anti-religion, “superior race” fantasies, etc.). Upon his release form prison, Hitler spent the next several years doing exactly what he was doing before he was sent to jail – organizing and recruiting for his “movement” by agitating, orating, playing on the economic and social fears of a severely depressed and humbled German public. It worked, as one looking back on history may have expected it to (for example, it worked for decades in the Soviet Union, which used anti-Western propaganda to keep its people in a state of perpetual ignorance about what was being done to them, backing it up with unmitigated authoritarian force). Totaltarianism contains the prefix "total" for a reason - it requires the total control of everything to exist - information, military, the people, the state, etc.

By the time the Germans in the government who would have been in a position to stop him democratically realized what Hitler was attempting, it was too late. His thugs had threatened and elbowed their way into parliamentarian majorities, and President von Hindenburg bestowed his blessing upon Hitler when it became apparent that the Nazis were the new ‘thing’ in Germany. Those who would’ve stood up against Hitler in his own government, at that point, either joined him out of fear or were summarily drummed out of their positions or were killed. Apart from an assassination attempt in 1939, there was little internal opposition to Hitler after he proclaimed himself Chancellor (Furher).

The results of not standing up to a person who was known to have visions of glorious revolution and implementation of an oppressive ideology? The Holocaust, tens of millions of war dead from dozens of countries, the near destruction of a large part of Europe, and sobering realization that the failure to stop such individuals and movements would yield similar destruction. I'm not going to get into a lengthy analysis of what lessons aren't being learned in this generation from the mistakes that led to Hitler's ascention to power. The point is that Hitler could have been stopped many times before he became what the world came to know him as - the epitome of evil in the flesh and one of the most destructive leaders ever to walk the Earth. Likewise, there are a host of individuals and groups around the world that are directly antithetical to Western values and nations - oh, say, radical Islam - that recieves its ideological and financial lifeblood from countries that are preaching many of the "values" that Hitler was preaching in his time. The fervent anti-Semitism is present, coupled with a hatred and intolerance of any other brand of human belief, followed by violence and intimidation to threaten those who don't comply. How many more innocents must be threatened or killed by these ideals and these people before there is significant and decisive act against them? Sadly, the answer to many in this country appears to be "after we're hit again - then we'll get serious" This, of course, is bunk. Those who do not learn from history (and it appears from modern leftists beliefs about America and its war on Islamic terror that there are many who have not), are condemned to repeat it.

Cue the Stalin supporters shouting “Hey! Stalin never went to war with Europe or the West, and we didn’t stop him!” Despite Stalin's position as an ally in the war, the United States (and other Allies) were in a Euro-resistance-posture once World War II ended. The United States wanted to limit the influence of communism in Europe, as the two superpowers had grown distrustful of one another. Stalin attempted to take Berlin for himself (seeing Germany as the most important country in the newly emerging bloc) and tried to blockade the flow of goods and ammunition to those into the capital of Berlin to quell resistance. Due to the Berlin Airlift, Stalin backed off and settled with dividing up Berlin between Communist and Western powers. As we know from reading our Stalin history, the silent creep of authoritarian communism was also a concern for the United States and its interests. The Stalinists ordered massive political purges of real and imagined enemies in order to maintain its chokehold on political power. Millions of people were killed in these purges, and tens of millions more died of mass starvation when the collectivist policies of the Stalin regime failed miserably. In doing so, they earned a reputation for more or less turning “Iron Curtain” countries into large prisons. Rightly so. There is something profound about the 4^th of July when American accomplishment is taken in the geo-political and historical context of what the world would have looked like had America not existed. If it wasn’t for the sacrifice, the blood, the suffering and selfless toil of millions of our parents and grandparents, we would not know a world like we know today (as confused and contentious as it is). Would Israel have had a chance to flourish as one of the world’s foremost democracies? Would Britain still exist in its current form? Had Hitler been able to do to the UK what he planned to, it is very unlikely. Korea would be another completely communist country (contrast life in the North and the South, and tell me which is more suitable for humanity. Hint: Eating dogs to stave off starvation is uncommon in South Korea). What would the world have looked like without the presence of a strong and willing America? I shudder to think.

Because of America, Nazism has been relegated with communism to the ash heap of history (with exceptions – the lingering ideals and effects of communism exist quite close to their original crystallizations in most Western universities and colleges). Despite this strange adherence to ideals that are indisputably responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, the lure of freedom from communism remains stronger than the pull towards its ideals. Hence, you have nobody killing themselves to get into Cuba, but you do have many killing themselves to come to the United States. What kinds of truth does this speak to dead-ideological power? Lots of truth.

Consider where you would like to live in the world in the current day, assuming you’re an American and you had to choose. Most likely, those complaining that they hate America would not be the first to volunteer to go live in communist utopias like China, Cuba or North Korea. Most likely, the citizens of this country who hate it would not be the first in line to repatriate to an Islamic country like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria or Egypt (it is doubtful that they would be accepted as full citizens should they attempt it anyway). How about France? France is often stridently anti-American and pro-socialist, and yet they can’t seem to get a handle on their (largest in Europe) unassimilated Muslim population or their “disaffected youth,” since there are riots several times per month across the country. The UK? What anti-American would give up their gas guzzlers to drive from the passenger’s seat in an anchovy canister on wheels? No real anti-American, that’s who. It strikes me as odd that the people on the left side of the political philosophical paradigm often extol the virtues of Europe, and yet won’t themselves move there to live under those virtues and laws. All too convenient for the anti-American Americans, wouldn’t you say?

And here, I would return the original theme of the post. It is through this inherent contradiction that the captivating beauty of the intrinsic freedom this country affords its citizens (and others, who may or may not be citizens) shines through. One of the principle reasons for this preach-but-not-practice mentality has been so prevalent in our great nation for decades has been that there have been little or no government-mandated consequences for believing and espousing it. This kind of ethos has allowed genuine human competition to flourish. It has led to the general welfare and proportional representation of our populace. The people who hate this country fall into two categories. One is a violent group, and the other is passive. The vast majority of anti-American Americans are passive, but one can’t help at think sometimes that the violent/anarchist strain of leftism isn’t what some more fervent passive members of the group actually want (afraid to undertake “revolution” themselves, since they know it would be a futile operation against a well-armed and immense anti-leftist populace). Revolutionary fantasies aside, what is it that allows this strife to exist – even thrive?

One word – freedom. We have it, others want it, and those who hate us want to take it away. A nation of people free to pursue their own rational self-interests, as well as to formulate their own belief systems, is a unique and powerful force that millennia-old European stalwarts and other nations around the world have yet to wrap their collective heads around. Europeans and others, while accepting our help when their asses are in the fire, seem to harbor a secret (or for others overt) wish that America be brought low or humbled from its status in the world. It is precisely the reason that they need to be resisted at every step, with all the vigor and resolve that can be mustered.

Given that America is the freest, most prosperous, and most benevolent force the world has ever known, the argument goes, there have to be some unique reasons for it. What are the over-arching principles that have guided America to its rightful place at the top of the world heap? I’ll leave you to ponder what the penumbras and emanations of those principles might be – among them, for sure, are individual liberty, free-market capitalism, strong national pride, a strong military and a two-tiered system of Federalism based on a democratically adopted Constitution. There are more, though, each value and perspective tailored to each individual American. Given what we’ve learned from history, how free would you be to be you in another country? How free would you be able to breathe in Europe? Cuba? Britain? Do you want to find out just how free you are here? Try living someplace else for five years, and then return. Tell me what you’ve seen, and I'll show you America.