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Four Fingers · 09-24-2004, 09:41 AM

Many things can be said about America, good and bad. And naturally at different times, different people are going to focus on different things about this good and bad America. But perhaps any person who realizes this and yearns to see the wider image, owes it to himself to consider the other things; the things that he doesn’t normally focus on; the things – the thoughts - that once governed public opinion, but now they are mostly forgotten. No matter how you see America, take a moment and read this. It’ll take you five minutes, but its value might turn out to be much more.

The people who built America - not the old politicians, I’m talking about the hard-working men and women who defined America in its early days – they had certain ideals that motivated them. They didn’t toil because someone forced them to do so. They didn’t sweat for their survival. They worked because they thought they were creating something, and this something was very important to them. What those Americans sweated and toiled for was FREEDOM. America promised people FREEDOM. Now, you might not think much of this freedom. In fact you might choose to open an album with pictures of the great depression, and then laugh at the thought of this puny value of freedom. But for these people, freedom was more than a weird fetish or a catchy slogan. It was their life’s creation, their great wonder of the world.

People like to think that most of the people who immigrated to America were fleeing criminals or greedy men seeking treasures. But in reality those outlaws and treasure-seekers represented but a small minority of the people who in fact populated America. Many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the seventeenth century by men and women, who, in the face of European persecution, refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions and fled Europe. The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established "as plantations of religion." Some settlers who arrived in these areas came for secular motives - "to catch fish" as one famous New Englander put it - but the great majority left Europe to worship God in the way they believed to be correct. They enthusiastically supported the efforts of their leaders to create "a city on a hill" or a "holy experiment," whose success would prove that God's plan for his churches could be successfully realized in the American wilderness. Even colonies like Virginia, which were planned as commercial ventures, were led by entrepreneurs who considered themselves "militant Protestants" and who worked diligently to promote the prosperity of the church.

And it wasn’t only religion that formed the American population. In the middle of the 19th century hundreds of thousands of Irishmen escaped the poverty of their country and moved to the land of opportunities, where everyone’s got a chance. Around the same time, the terrible state of Poland, both political and economical, drove two million Poles to immigrate to America. Then, in 1880, Italy’s troubled economy, crop failures, and political climate began the start of mass immigration with nearly four million Italian immigrants arriving in the United States. And at the end of the century, the growing intolerance towards Jews in the world pushed many Jews to find refugee in America.

In the 20th century, immigration has become even more prominent. Millions left their homes in the Americas, looking for new lives in the United States. Millions fled Russia and other ex-Soviet Union states with the knowledge that in America they had a better chance of actualizing their potential. And now, thousands of Iranians and Arabs look for a way to escape the Middle East, which is plagued with fundamentalism and terror. To them, the American border marks the place where fear is replaced with hope.

Long before Lenin and Mao Tesung, there was Robert Owen. Owen was a venture-capitalist socialist. He was British. He was extremely talented and so were his sons. He believed that he could create a socialist village so flourishing that everybody would like to build a similar village. This admirable person didn’t think he knew better than everybody else. He wasn’t ready to kidnap a country and force his ideology upon it. Instead, he moved to America, which gave him sufficient FREEDOM to experiment with his ideas. There he founded New Harmony. New Harmony functioned like a real Kibbutz. People were given equal food and services, in exchange for unequal labor. He hoped that this place will prove to Americans that their “individual selfish system” can easily be replaced with a socialist heaven. Owen invested a lot of his fortune in the experiment, but regrettably it failed – and a few years after its founding.

What is truly fascinating about this story, though, is what happened to his sons. One served for two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, and later became secretary of the Freedman’s Bureau. Another one became the state geologist of Indiana and Arkansas, and then the head of the U.S. Geological Survey. The last one, Richard Owen, was the first president of Purdue University. He wrote about America:

“Here amid nature’s wild, human hope expanded, a new regime was founded, and America took up her appointed mission of exemplifying to the world the inalienable rights of man.”

His father yearned to show Americans that America was rotten. Ironically, his family’s greatest achievement was showing the world the magnificence of America.

To those outside of America, I will say – let it be. Even if you don’t like America the way it is, let it be. Respect the sweat and toil of its founders. Respect it and let it be. And to Americans, I will say: Vote for Bush. Vote for Bush if you too can see its magnificence.

09-24-2004, 09:41 AM	#1 (permalink)
Four Fingers Crazy	Things That Can Be Said About America Many things can be said about America, good and bad. And naturally at different times, different people are going to focus on different things about this good and bad America. But perhaps any person who realizes this and yearns to see the wider image, owes it to himself to consider the other things; the things that he doesn’t normally focus on; the things – the thoughts - that once governed public opinion, but now they are mostly forgotten. No matter how you see America, take a moment and read this. It’ll take you five minutes, but its value might turn out to be much more. The people who built America - not the old politicians, I’m talking about the hard-working men and women who defined America in its early days – they had certain ideals that motivated them. They didn’t toil because someone forced them to do so. They didn’t sweat for their survival. They worked because they thought they were creating something, and this something was very important to them. What those Americans sweated and toiled for was FREEDOM. America promised people FREEDOM. Now, you might not think much of this freedom. In fact you might choose to open an album with pictures of the great depression, and then laugh at the thought of this puny value of freedom. But for these people, freedom was more than a weird fetish or a catchy slogan. It was their life’s creation, their great wonder of the world. People like to think that most of the people who immigrated to America were fleeing criminals or greedy men seeking treasures. But in reality those outlaws and treasure-seekers represented but a small minority of the people who in fact populated America. Many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the seventeenth century by men and women, who, in the face of European persecution, refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions and fled Europe. The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established "as plantations of religion." Some settlers who arrived in these areas came for secular motives - "to catch fish" as one famous New Englander put it - but the great majority left Europe to worship God in the way they believed to be correct. They enthusiastically supported the efforts of their leaders to create "a city on a hill" or a "holy experiment," whose success would prove that God's plan for his churches could be successfully realized in the American wilderness. Even colonies like Virginia, which were planned as commercial ventures, were led by entrepreneurs who considered themselves "militant Protestants" and who worked diligently to promote the prosperity of the church. And it wasn’t only religion that formed the American population. In the middle of the 19th century hundreds of thousands of Irishmen escaped the poverty of their country and moved to the land of opportunities, where everyone’s got a chance. Around the same time, the terrible state of Poland, both political and economical, drove two million Poles to immigrate to America. Then, in 1880, Italy’s troubled economy, crop failures, and political climate began the start of mass immigration with nearly four million Italian immigrants arriving in the United States. And at the end of the century, the growing intolerance towards Jews in the world pushed many Jews to find refugee in America. In the 20th century, immigration has become even more prominent. Millions left their homes in the Americas, looking for new lives in the United States. Millions fled Russia and other ex-Soviet Union states with the knowledge that in America they had a better chance of actualizing their potential. And now, thousands of Iranians and Arabs look for a way to escape the Middle East, which is plagued with fundamentalism and terror. To them, the American border marks the place where fear is replaced with hope. Long before Lenin and Mao Tesung, there was Robert Owen. Owen was a venture-capitalist socialist. He was British. He was extremely talented and so were his sons. He believed that he could create a socialist village so flourishing that everybody would like to build a similar village. This admirable person didn’t think he knew better than everybody else. He wasn’t ready to kidnap a country and force his ideology upon it. Instead, he moved to America, which gave him sufficient FREEDOM to experiment with his ideas. There he founded New Harmony. New Harmony functioned like a real Kibbutz. People were given equal food and services, in exchange for unequal labor. He hoped that this place will prove to Americans that their “individual selfish system” can easily be replaced with a socialist heaven. Owen invested a lot of his fortune in the experiment, but regrettably it failed – and a few years after its founding. What is truly fascinating about this story, though, is what happened to his sons. One served for two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, and later became secretary of the Freedman’s Bureau. Another one became the state geologist of Indiana and Arkansas, and then the head of the U.S. Geological Survey. The last one, Richard Owen, was the first president of Purdue University. He wrote about America: “Here amid nature’s wild, human hope expanded, a new regime was founded, and America took up her appointed mission of exemplifying to the world the inalienable rights of man.” His father yearned to show Americans that America was rotten. Ironically, his family’s greatest achievement was showing the world the magnificence of America. To those outside of America, I will say – let it be. Even if you don’t like America the way it is, let it be. Respect the sweat and toil of its founders. Respect it and let it be. And to Americans, I will say: Vote for Bush. Vote for Bush if you too can see its magnificence. __________________ "Always do right - this will gratify some and astonish the rest."