I increasingly feel like I’m in Monticello listening to Thomas Jefferson
I feel increasingly like an abolitionist or anti-slavery politician around 1800 living in Monticello. Mainstream culture looks and sounds like Thomas Jefferson:
He said some of the most important words in history on liberty and freedom.
He knew how wrong slavery was.
He knew owning people corrupted him.
He knew he was violating his own values.
Likewise, we all say we don’t want to drive a system that hurts and kills people (in orders-of-magnitude greater numbers than slavery did in the US).
We know we’re violating our values.
We know paying for gas, plastic, and services based on them cause death and suffering, which corrupts us.
We know we’re violating our values.
Yet, like Jefferson not freeing his slaves, we don’t stop driving today’s system by paying for polluting and depleting that drive the lobbying, advertising, and politicians driving the system.
If we think Jefferson should have freed his slaves, we think we should stop paying for things that drive today’s system.
All of the above is to describe a trend in my writing: observing today’s American culture from the outside (specifically, from a culture that still values the Golden Rule, a government that protects life, liberty, and property, and other values that mainstream America has jettisoned).
My goal is to restore a culture that values the Golden Rule, a government that protects life, liberty, and property, and other values that mainstream America has jettisoned.
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