What would this ancestor or that, think about this (whatever it is). Sometimes I almost feel like I can sense them watching "over my shoulder" at whatever is going on, I get the feeling there would be a lot of head shaking. But not only that, because they would know our DNA too and that we have our great moments as it always is.
Your OP reminded me of a favorite quote, oddly enough by Winston Churchill. But he was speaking with his American half, I think, when he said this:
We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy. (Dec 30, 1941)
The forces undermining us today have always been here, this same struggle has always gone on since day one here, only via different means and media. (On that, just a side note, I highly recommend a fascinating, little-known book called
"Treason in America: from Aaron Burr to Averell Harriman") We have always had to deal with it, and have risen to the occasion and done so, and we always will -- as you say, because so many episodes by now show us that it is indeed hardwired into us.
At times, one side or the other is more dominant, but we are by no means finished just because the controllers are on top at this point in time. Although this is not meant to downplay the role of anybody else, I find the most encouragement about the future from people like you, JDP, and me and so many, others who come from "many times removed" grands who were here at or near the beginning... I think that's mostly because we have so much invested here, in this "experiment" in self-government. 15 generations for me, that's a lot of folks engaged in a lot of struggles, over 400+ years, to get this far -- and as you said, without slaves even here in the Mid-Atlantic, they believed in big families instead, and communities, in which people cooperated in aid of each other to get big things done. And those communities included commons, this country was
not built on the ideas of libertarian assholes, contrary to what some today want to think!
Yes, just as you said, we need to remember that we are the descendants of the people who brought us this far, and this is nothing compared to what most of them had to face. And we are no less up to our chapter of the story, whatever it may be
The NSA (and cohort agencies) is running an illegal shop, and it needs to be shut down and cut down to size. It's an extra-legal operation, that's where we stand now. And people like Snowden (who btw comes from a here-from-the-beginning Maryland family) who stand up to tell us about it are patriots. The same goes for everybody involved in the effort on that, and on countless other fronts, to keep our structure on the side of "the people". All people, not the ego-centric, ethics-challenged, law-buying, ruthless, few -- they need to be knocked down to size too, and eventually, I'm sure they will be. Again, the same as many times before.
An excellent OP, JDP.
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