The Enlightenment

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Some people are beginning to realize that "We" does not include everyone.  "We" are Americans, in particular.  I was reminded of this in an article I read this AM.

Many times I've posted that much of the problem with the Muslim world, but also much of the rest of it outside of the West, lies in that they've never embraced the ideas and ideals of the Enlightenment.  Perhaps in our own exuberance to share or spread these ideas and ideals we blindly believe that all people seek them.  This is especially true of our intellectual elites. 

Much of the world hasn't accepted the concept of individual freedoms.  Women are treated much differently, in deleterious ways, than men.  Rape is a crime that punishes the female victime.  Women cannot be doctors, lawyers, or even drive automobiles.  Freedom of religion/worship is nonexistent in much of the world.  In fact, many (Islamists) think that not only is their religion best, it should be the only one; death to nonbelievers.  Voting, free expression, property rights...they are Western values.

We make two mistakes.  One, so poignantly pointed out by Lech Walesa, is that Americans take their rights, guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, for granted.  He, personally, knows how precious freedom is.  And, in fact, he endured prison, physical beatings, and death threats to his family and himself (real death threats by commie agencies) in his quest to secure what Americans take for granted.  Two, we erroneously assume that, given the opportunity, all people all over the world will strive to have what we have.

Again, we ignore our history and, indeed, the history of the world.  The United States was a unique experiment.  It was founded on a set of ideas and ideals, unlike other countries founded on ethnicity, religion, dynasties, etc.  (Granted, as an experiment, we've made sometimes too slow progress in spreading our freedoms to our own Americans, but we've steadily moved forward.)  We don't realize how tenuous the prospect of success/survival was.  Few people in the world, even the West, expected the US to make it.  As late as the Civil War, there were some nodding European heads, "See, we told you.  It took longer than we thought, but the US is crumbling." 

But equality can't be forced on people, not even here.  We can provide, here, equality of opportunity, making the playing field as level as we can.  (And, remember, "If men were angels....)  But, as President Obama seems wont to do, we can't reward sloth, lack of skills or ability, etc. in the name of equality.  Sometimes, we should think about what the ideas and ideals upon which this nation were founded really mean.  We have strayed from them and we have misunderstood much of the rest of the world.