Pillars

The house that is American Democratic Capitalism is held up by 10 Pillars and

built on the Foundation laid by the Founding Generations.

The four building corners that carry the primary load, and are the raision d’etre:

Individual, Family, Community and Country.

Natural Law, Justice, Freedom, Commerce, Duty and Truth

complete the superstructure.

• Individual

Every Individual is the center of the Universe. No one is the rightful master of another. Each of us is both 100% individual and 100% a member of the human race. This mystery and paradox of the human condition must be maintained, for when the individual becomes an island or the group swallows the individual, disaster and unhappiness ensues.

We all share the same infinite number of relationships but none more important than the relationship with ourselves. Share yourself with others on the common elements but always retain your individuality. Seek out those that tolerate, even encourage, you as you. Ruthlessly avoid those who seek to make you conform. Do not confuse sameness with equality. You are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

Be true to who you are and do not measure yourself against others except in ways to perpetually improve.  

Tyranny seeks to destroy individuality in order to prevail in its dark intentions. Liberty survives when the individual thrives. Once one subordinates who they are to the faceless group, freedom begins to wither.

• Family

The family is the protective circle around the individual that enables and protects life, provides the reason and opportunity for exercising rights and freedoms, and offers the promise of the pursuit of happiness.  

Strong, nuclear families are the best bulwark against cultural decay and the many threats of domestic enemies. Physical anthropology points to the family unit as the best platform for the continuation and promise of the species. At their core, in a way that no other group can, families provide the key elements of success and prosperity – Love, Support, Protection, Guidance and Motivation.   

Understand that the energy and magic of family flows through you, not just from you. You don’t have to be a blood relation to provide the benefits of family, just the desire to do so. Nurture and protect your family. If your family is broken, fix it. If you lack a family, find one in need of repair or completion and make it better.

• Community

There are concentric Rings of Community, each with its own orbit around the individual –

Immediate Family, Extended Family, Company, Neighborhood, Local Community, State, Nation.

Protective layers that provide, enable and manage the life and living of the people that are Americans. These rings vary in their intensity and relevance to each individual and can evolve over time. Each layer must be properly constructed and maintained in order to serve the individuals at their center. In turn, the individuals that are served by each of these protective shells, must contribute to their health and continuation, and respect that each layer must balance the equal rights of all its members.

• Country

The quilted fabric of America is multi-faceted and unique in the history of the known world. Never has there been a confluence of superior elements – natural resources, geographic location, variety of flora and fauna, generosity of spirit and a righteous people, such as that enjoyed by our country. Revere that gift.

American Exceptionalism is a quality derived from positive achievement, self-respect and equal opportunity. It imbues the country with pride and determination, with motivation to always do better.

• Natural Law

The laws of Nature and Nature’s God, enumerated in the Natural Rights, formed the genesis, platform and continued support of the American system and binds us to the immutable forces of the world and intrinsic human values superior to those imposed by a fallible political body.

• Justice

In its rightful role as arbiter of the competing interests of its citizens and manager of criminal threats, government is meant to provide equal justice under the law. As envisioned and enabled by the Founding Documents, the Justice system provides a democratic republic with the connective tissue that balances the sometimes-contended rights of its citizens and performs one of the primary functions and responsibilities of a representative body – the common protection and security of its law-abiding population. Criminal justice protects the accused from unfair treatment by the government, with due process, but must also provide the innocent with the same respect for their well entitled rights and freedoms. The rights of the innocent must always trump the rights of the guilty.

Much of what drove the creation of the Founding Documents was the revolt against the injustice of a tyrannical government and its agents. The nature of governmental power and influence provides an ever-present temptation of the leadership to succumb to their darker influences. Every American must be vigilant to erosion of the granted protections by the bureaucracy lest the protector becomes the violator.

• Freedom

The prime reason and goal of America is to provide its people with freedom of mind, body and spirit.   All other pillars of the American spirit either flow from, or contribute to, this single, paramount tenent.

• Commerce

Fair-market Capitalism provides the sustenance and the vessel of the American dream. Private ownership of property and the means of production for profit, feathers well with the core elements of Democracy. The two are mutually supportive. Competition encourages improvement and discourages inefficiency and corruption. Free society is made stronger by productivity and prosperity of the sort brought by voluntary commerce and employment. The ambition and energy of the American character craves improvement and responds well to positive incentives and creative challenges. The fault of the Capitalist system is the unequal sharing of benefits. The promise of collectivism is the equal sharing of misery.

• Duty

The multitude of benefits and endowments of being an American come with a responsibility to return some of that largesse to the continuation and expansion of the of treasure that is this country. Dutiful actions are not required by law but by personal honor. All Americans have a minimal duty to uphold the mutual rights and freedoms of other Americans. Beyond their duty to God, their families and the larger community, Americans also have a noble obligation to fuel and maintain the fire that is the American spirit. Vigilance in protection of America against its enemies, foreign and domestic, has a long and storied history in this country and provides countless examples of those that stood when duty demanded, from the Founding forward. The American armed services embody this principle of duty to country. On the local level, first responders are the modern-day Minutemen. Honor the heroes. To those that much is given, much is expected. Those that disagree with the call to duty should consider making their home elsewhere.

• Truth

The eternal struggle to overcome the human frailty that tends towards deception, misdirection and obfuscation reflects in the perpetual pursuit of truth. Be true to yourself first and foremost and carry that quality to your interactions with others because untruth obligates and diminishes those who succumb to that temptation. The way of truth always wins out and liars eventually fail. Always.

Truth is a necessary ingredient to many of the primary elements of American Democratic Capitalism – development of worthy personal attributes, function of the Justice system, fair-market Commerce, self-respect and the respect of others. Better to suffer an uncomfortable truth than a comfortable falsehood.

Americans are worthy of the truth, especially from their politicians and the free press. They seldom get simple truth from either. Demand truth. Expose and shame those who trade in self-serving untruth.

Without fact-based information, the machine of America begins to falter and go off-course. Defend truth and reject falsehood as if your freedoms depend on it because they do.

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