| | Evil is impotent so it has to "piggy-back" on -- or try very hard to resemble -- the good. That's how you can get to the deliberately-confusing, contradictory phrase: "Independence from selfishness."
In his speech, Obama said that we need the idealism of the Founding Fathers (i.e., a systematic body of concepts about life) but then -- in the next breath -- he said that we need independence from ideology (i.e., a systematic body of concepts about life). He's says in one breath that we ought to adopt the values of the Founding Fathers while dispensing with the notion of adopting any particular set of values.
Does anyone else's head hurt from that?
:-)
When Obama says ideology, he means "other people's ideologies" (OPI) -- and he means to use it in a disparaging sense. However, when it's his ideology, then he calls it "idealism" --i.e., he conflates it with what the Founding Fathers thought and valued, and therefore exempts himself from any criticism. It's an example of cosmopolitan ("ivory-tower" liberal), single-sided snobbery. It's how evil survives.
Ed
(Edited by Ed Thompson on 1/18, 9:14am)
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What's required is a new declaration of independence. Not just in our nation but in our own lives. Independence from ideology and small thinking. Independence from prejudice and bigotry. Independence from selfishness. An appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels.
