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On the Fourth: to liberty — 11 Comments

  1. “Destroying is so much easier” – Neo

    One of our occasional theological speculations (there is not to my knowledge any “doctrine” on it in Christian thought; someone else might know a reference) is that a primary attribute of God (by whatever name) is the ability to hold back entropy in the Universe, or even reverse it, as at the time of the Creation.

    The Unmaker, on the other hand (and by whatever name), revels in accelerating any increase in disorder.

    I made one visit to NYC in 2004, when the HS orchestra our youngest son played in received one of those “auditioned invitations”. Had a great time! My mother and two sisters went with me and we took in all the “sights” that we had always read about. Mostly we checked off Mom’s bucket list: Central Park, Ellis Island, Metropolitan Museum, and others I no longer recall; and, of course, the WTC craters.
    “Driving by it is like passing a war memorial and graveyard combined; the urge is to bow one’s head.” – walking past it, even more so.

    Never had a moment’s trepidation strolling around by ourselves, even at night.
    Giuliani’s reforms were still holding the fort at that time.

    We only saw my kid the night he was on stage (rehearsals and school-monitored sightseeing were not something WE were interested in). He says he had a good time too!

    Thanks for the memories — these updated retrospectives are a good exercise (as in music or dance) for evaluating history, personal and in general.

  2. The movie “Dog Day Afternoon” opens with a series of random scenes of New York City while the opening credits roll. For just a brief heartrending moment you see the twin towers, then a truck rolls by obscuring them, not to be seen again in the movie. It is so poignant and a bit chilling since the movie was filmed over 25 years before the towers were attacked and destroyed.

  3. That was an interesting video. Thanks for sharing. Yesterday I spent a fair amount of time searching the Internet, trying to learn how the Washington Monument was constructed. A video like this was what I was searching for, but I couldn’t find anything this concise and relevant to the subject of construction. I am fascinated by the nuts and bolts of how big things get done. I would love to see plans and records of how Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great coordinated the movements, feeding, sheltering of their troops.

    I recently watched a National Geographic program, “Unlocking the Great Pyramid.” I highly recommend it. A french architect quit his job and devoted 10 years of his life attempting to reason out how the Great Pyramid of Giza was constructed. He developed some clever theories that the program examines in detail.

  4. A big difference between the current ‘Progressive’ protestors and the late-1960s protest movement is that much of the movement back then at least *talked* about wanting more freedom. There isn’t much of that in today’s movements; on the contrary, much of the movement is all about a demand for more constraints.

  5. “Liberty is threatened in a more intense way than I can remember from previous times in my life, and that threat comes mostly from within rather than without.”

    I’m afraid you are correct. See my 2016 post The Seven Threat Vectors Against Free Speech

    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/53650.html

    …which unfortunately needs a major update; it doesn’t talk about monopolization and censorship by social media.

  6. I felt a pang of sadness when you wrote about leaving your hometown in the ’60s, never to live there again. It was the same with me and Chicago. For a little over 20 years I was almost a 2 dimensional stereotype of a Chicagoan*. That city was in me and I in it. I never imagined it would not always be so. Yet, like you, I left in my early 20s. I don’t regret the path my life took. In many ways I think I am a better, more rounded person for having lived in other parts of the U.S. and done so much work abroad, but a small part of me feels like a traitor to my hometown.

    *In the ’70s there was a radio personality who did short movie reviews as “the regular guy.” Instead of a lot of pretense, and comparison of films to French cinema, etc., he would just talk about whether the movie was any good or not in typical, Chicago vernacular. The performer intentionally spoke in an exaggerated Chicago accent. It’s hard for one to “hear” one’s own accent, but I had many people tell me that I sounded exactly like that performer.

  7. Lovely memories. Thanks for shaking them free, and gloriously updating them.

    My future brother in law was a regular on the daytime soap “Love of Life.” He and my sister had a brownstone on Flatbush not far from the Brooklyn Museum. And I had come to visit them, and attend a conference at NYU. It seems like a lost age, now.

    And now? My niece from Seattle lives in Brooklyn with her SWJ-immigration lawyer man-friend – really, a grifter, a little Robespierre wanna be. Such a waste.

    The unfortunate reality is that I must educate my naive older sister, duped by too much time, neglect, and yes, physical distance into dumb indifference to it all. The duped valedictorian? Yes. Such a sad, sad pity, such a waste of time and monies. But it must be done. Now, more than ever.

    Thank you for this luminous reminiscence. Yes, like others say, a good and worthwhile exercise in…archaeology of memory. A mind walk.

  8. We have come a-cropper due to the machinations of the worst ruling class we’ve had in our history, and half the population seems content with that. Absolutely out of ideas.

  9. David Foster on July 5, 2020 at 7:54 am said: (link)
    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/53650.html
    * * *
    I want to lift a perceptive comment and bring it to the table here.

    Veryretired Says:
    August 11th, 2016 at 9:48 pm
    The list in the article is very good, but these issues are not a development of our era only.

    It is important to remember that our political and cultural system is an anomaly in human history. It isn’t the censors who are unusual, but those of us who reject the idea of censorship except in very specific cases.

    Before our Bill of Rights was approved, there was little freedom of speech or religious affiliation in history.

    Indeed, the history of the human race is nearly an unbroken series of repressions and persecutions violating those rights as a matter of common practice.

    And, it is well to remember that the attempts to violate those rights began early on in our own country, and occurred repeatedly for political, moral, or religious reasons.

    One of the basic reasons that those of us who value these rights so highly are so adamant about their preservation is the simple fact that there have been numerous attempts to violate them from all sides of the political spectrum, and some have been successful for a period of time before they were rejected.

    The primacy of individual rights has always been a work in progress, and continues to this day, and will into the future, as long as there are those for whom control over their fellow citizens is a basic motivator.

    In our current era, we have allowed the collectivist ideologues to gain control over much of our educational and entertainment systems, much to the debasement of both.

    It will require a strong commitment to upholding the rights
    guaranteed by the Constitution at every level, and in every context, in which they are threatened.

    It will be the determination and courage of ordinary citizens, as it always has been, which will determine whether these basic elements of our culture are maintained, or allowed to be undercut for this alleged need or that claimed injury.

    We have been given, as a birthright, a pearl of great price, something that many great minds and creative people have only dreamed of down through the centuries.

    It is our duty above all others that we pass this precious inheritance on to our children, and teach them the reasons it is so valuable and rare.

    Only by this unrelenting effort can we overcome the continuous attempts to subvert and curtail the rights we have been able to enjoy, purchased by the blood and sweat of uncounted thousands of our ancestors.

    It is rather depressing, though, reading through David’s post and the comments, to realize that the Watchmen on the Walls have been shouting the same warnings for at least four years (and before that, and before that, and before that).

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