Old America

He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.” – George Bernard Shaw

Years from now, if my grandchildren approach me and say,

“Grandpa, why did America fail?  Why would you allow it?  It seems to us that, if the People had the ability to vote their course, they would choose to vote for one that would allow the collective Us to live, to survive, to excel.  So why didn’t you do that?  Tell us Grandpa, what can we do to prevent making the same mistake?”

I know what I will say:

My young cherubs, this is a good question, and you are wise to seek the answer.  Make no mistake, the answer I give you today is worthy of putting in the annals of history.  For we must learn from our mistakes if we are to grow, if we are to be successful, if we are to live to reach our proper destiny.  Our individual lives are short and, as such, we must listen to our ancestors if we are to hear our soul… if the collective Us is to mature.  We must slow down enough to study them and then quiet ourselves enough to hear them.  We must acknowledge that we are but a child of them.  We must leave our arrogance, cast away our desire to be right, and admit that we are ignorant.  Only then will we see the light, the path forward… only then will we truly learn.  And lastly, we must have the courage to apply what we discover to our present.

These are not simple tasks, for they go against our nature.  I warn you, the odds of you being able to do this are set against you.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.” – George Bernard Shaw
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My young cherubs, I will now give you what you seek.  The reason the America of old failed is that it’s political process was broken, and we refused to recognize it.  We were too proud to admit that our position was unsound.  And we were fearful – those who recognized the truth failed to act on the news.
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You see, Man naturally fears change – we always resist it.  It is why most of us refuse to listen to anyone who advocates it, even when our very soul knows that it is needed.
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This is what happened to old America, we succumbed to fear, we refused to live, we decided to believe the lies we were told…  because to refute them would mean not only admitting we were wrong, but to change.  The nature of man is pride, and man always resists change.
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Rather than following our soul, our spirit, our inner self, we accepted that we had only two choices.  Rather than acknowledging the nature of Man, rather than admitting our wrongdoing, rather than embracing the necessary change that would be required, we decided to argue that we were right.  Despite all evidence to the contrary, we held our course.
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Nothing so obstinately stands in the way of all sorts of progress as pride of opinion. While nothing is so foolish and baseless.” – J. G. Holland
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You see, every four years We the People were given a “choice.”  We went to the voting booths and they would ask Us,

“So which do you want to vote for this time, Greed or Envy?”

And instead of saying neither, we cast our vote…

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