THREE POSTS TODAY
PLEASE EXAMINE THEM ALL
If you think this campaign has been unpleasant, it’s been nothing compared to the events of 1800
There was no room and little or no tolerance for moral integrity and ideological purity during a time we tend to idealize, if we bother to think of at all.
Basic information provided by CBS News
 |
| David McCullough, author of John Adams |
While scathing insults and blatant lies befoul the air during the sefinal days of the 2012 Campaign, esteemed historian David McCullough has told Morley Safer of CBS Sixty Minutes that the current exchange of rough-tongued assaults, brutal distortions and outright character assassination seem mild, indeed, in comparison to our early days as a representative republic.
Recalling the election of 1800 McCullough reveals how Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams. Apparently, Jefferson paid a journalist to excoriate his opponent with tales if his being “a mentally unbalanced hermaphrodite.” Adams in turn spread the word that “a Jefferson victory would mean murder, rape, and robbery in the streets.”
 |
| Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Philadelphia's historic Carpenter's Hall provides the backdrop for this "60 Minutes" story examining past elections and the country's current state through an historical prism.
The story will be broadcast TONIGHT, Sunday, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m. ET and 7:00 p.m. PT. on CBS's 60 Minutes.
Seems we haven't fallen from our early beginnings now does it.
ReplyDeletePrinciple it seems has never been of prime importance or the great motivator.
So what, we continue to demand descent to the lowest possible ethical denominator?
No thanks, principles are important and worth thinking about and working to achieve. Maybe in the next millennium.
The POINT, my friend, is that "purity" is unattainable, and probably undesirable. There is a time and place for everything.
ReplyDeleteIdeals are discovered and developed in "ivory towers" and the sacrosanct chambers of the individual intellect.
The practical application of ideals is another matter. By its very nature implementation of noble aspirations and ideal concepts must be subject to and tempered by the rough and tumble of the workaday world.
Like or not we all live on many different levels all at the same time. Jefferson and Adams are no less because they resorted to less-than-noble tactics than you or I.
In any genuine power struggle -- not the decorous, choreographed, highly-regulated proceedings that occur on the Golf Course, at Bridge Tournaments, Chess Matches, or the Olympic Games -- it ALWAYS descends to a no holds barred. blood and guts struggle for ascendancy.
The moronic attempts to fight "moral," "decent" "sane," "decent," "temperate" wars in the post-WWII era are the primary reason we have lost our edge, and are rapidly being overwhelmed by powers militantly antithetical to OUR best interests.
Confused alarums of struggle and flight
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Matthew Arnold's stark nineteenth century poetic vision was chillingly clear. In those few words he defined the essence, the very nature of earthly existence.
We are here to FIGHT for what we believe to be right and good.
Those who refuse to join the battle will be trampled and swept by the tides into Oblivion.
American politics has always been so damn contentious!
ReplyDeleteI will say, however, that this particular election cycle has been the most contentious of MY lifetime. **sigh**
Gives a little backstory to Adams and the Alien and Sedition Acts.
ReplyDelete"Those who refuse to join the battle will be trampled and swept by the tides into Oblivion."
ReplyDeleteI do believe the thinkers of Ancient Greece, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle night find themselves in agreement with you, were they able to communicate with us. Of course I, myself, have a real affinity for Aristotle.
I will fight the batte with the man or women who most closely aligns with the principles that I have lived my life by and attempted to convey to my children and those who might honor me by listening to an aging fool.
In order to fight one must believe in the fight. Neither Obama, or the Human flipper Mittens Romney does that for me. Gary Johnson does. Perhaps I was born two hundred and sixty fie years too late. Who knows, BUT AS THEY SAY it is what it is.
Power, Greed, Power, Money, Power, the enemies of civilization.
ReplyDeleteThere is no long term answer to overcome human nature. The best we can do is to try to hold our heads above the water and survive. Maybe we can win a balle every now and then, but we will NEVER win the war. Another Powerful, Greedy, Moneyied bastard will rear it's ugly head, and take the place of the one just defeated.
balle=battle
ReplyDeleteWell, AA, I long ago came to the conclusion that we are not here to eliminate adversity but rather to be tested by it.
ReplyDeleteThat's why the Utopians are ALWAYS wrong, and why all their experiments and "revolutions" end tragically.
Of course, the short term answer to combatting human nature is to embrace Jesus Christ.
Trouble is very very few can figure out who He really is, and those who are cocksure they known tend to be among the most dangerous souls on earth.
~ FT