Foundation
We’ll leave aside the references to Isaac Asimov, thanks, howsoever much they may or may not be relevant, but just pontificate politically apropos of the 4th of July.

I’m very lucky to live in one of the great free nations of the earth, and lucky to come from the first to take the chance that democracy can work. In this election year, both back home and here in Australia, the fundamental principles of the free world are plain, and they are imperilled in more ways than one.

It’s a nice touch to put down the cornerstone at the new WTC site on the anniversary of the establishment of the United States of America, an experiment in democratic governance that has, by and large, worked very well indeed and for much longer than it has done elsewhere, despite the bleak, bullying nags of Noam Chomsky et al. (vis.: America was founded by genocidal religious zealots, etc. – these things have an element of truth, but are not even the central point of the history of the nation, irrespective of those occasions or periods in which brutality and religious or racial intolerance were the order of the day, even insofar as they remain potent factors in American society, so it’s worth being cautious how you define a country that now spans a continent and holds nearly 300 million people). We’ve done remarkably well for ourselves and on many occasions for others, too, not least among them being some of our most ardent critics now. Of course, that’s part of the point of a democracy: critical thinking. Unfortunately, this is an important element that has gone missing lately, at least in government, most recently at the Executive level, but we oughtn’t to let Congress of the hook, either, especially as they are more lacking in this capacity and for longer than the present administration. Presidents come and go relatively quickly here, but Congressmen sit for longer and stand for less term by term. These things are worth remembering even while we celebrate our grand experiment.

The Bush Administration has done more to erode freedom in America than even the terrorists who destroyed the WTC and struck the Pentagon had any hope of accomplishing. Whereas the mass murderers of September 11 sought death and destruction, Bush and his cronies only seek power and wealth. Freedom, as it is exercised in America and elsewhere in the world, is a threat to the tyrannical goals of both groups, and it is therefore the duty of free people everywhere to oppose these groups. Bush operates within “the system” to destroy it, at least enough for personal gain, and can be effectively opposed by that same system. The terrorists use different methods, but free peoples are not without recourse against them and must be equally resolute. How strange to come to this anniversary needing to throw off the misrule of another George, II this time instead of III.

When the events of September 11 had reached their climax, and the period of mourning had come, we all knew one important thing that we have become distracted from: as much as we had a need and a right to be sad and hurt, and as much as we needed then to be angry and to act against the perpetrators to ensure such attacks never occurred again to ourselves or others, we needed to reflect, to use judgment and critical thought regarding ourselves and our place in the world and regarding others in the world. We cannot allow our country to act without such reflection ever again, to act from a short-term perspective or opportunistically, and we’ve known that for a very long time even before autumn 2001, a point enhanced for me just yesterday, listening to a Buddhist monk’s lecture on precipitous thinking and happiness. (It’s strange how these least modern of pundits can speak with such wisdom.) We can be rash in our thoughts and actions, or worse sometimes, we can act for the right goals but subvert them by starting with the wrong motivations. The terrorists have it all wrong, goals and reasons, but we’ve had our share of error these past years as well. The war to free Iraq started from selfish motivations cloaked in the right goals. We all knew it at the time, and we know the source of it. On this day of all days, we need to start fixing that. It should be part of our celebrations. November can’t come soon enough.

PS: Join Democrats Abroad – Australia in Martin Place this week, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. during the voter registration drive.