What would the Founding Fathers think? Did they devote the best years of their lives to create a nation which spawns a generation which squanders the bounty of future generations?
Look Kids, a $60 trillion deficit for you to fix. And oh yeah, do it with diminished resources and a ravaged natural environment.
When Jefferson worked with the others to frame a government where justice, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were possible, he drew from deep philosophical foundations.
Platonic ideals, Aristotelian teleology, Kantian Categories, Shakespeare's Complementarities, Locke's Natural Law, Mill's Utilitarianism...he challenged us to pursue truth in the search for justice.
Martin Luther King understood this. In his PhD thesis, King said, "Philosophy necessarily asks the question of reality as a whole...the structure of Being....". In his letter from a Birmingham Jail, he wrote, "Just as Socrates felt it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths...to the unfettered realm of critical analysis...we must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies..."
And when Martin died, Bobby said, quoting Aeschylus, "...we need to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world."
When was the last time you heard one of the guardians of our freedoms articulate such ideas?
Socrates said that if he was wise it was because he understood how much he didn't know.
Can you hear Sarah Palin or George Bush saying that?
Lee
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