"When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality." -Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Stael, 1807.
Jul 07
“Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle”
~Thomas Jefferson
"When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality." -Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Stael, 1807.
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Mon, 08/25/2008 - 10:28am
The morality of silence causes some of the greatest inner turmoil within people. If u know that a killer is looking for your freind, should you tell him the truth when he ask you where she is? If you know a child is being abused, should you tell the authorities even though it will make the abuse worse?? My beleif is simpily this: If it terrifies you to tell, then tell. If you know that your silence causes no thought of guilt and risk no one's well being...then hold your toungue
Morality
Sun, 07/27/2008 - 12:35pm
So we should remain silent because these opressed peoples don't share our history or beliefs? I think I speak for the whole world when I say, "I'm glad you aren't in charge of foreign policy decision making". Excuses are easy to find. It is easy to do nothing. We should look for a reason to do something rather than an excuse to do nothing.
Sun, 07/27/2008 - 12:30pm
Our current government has chosen to have it's voice heard in Iraq and not to remain silent. We brought down an evil dictator and helped establish a new democracy. What should we have done if not that? Remain silent? Help establish a new dictator? I think not.
We have done the same in Afganistan. These people welcome democracy as do all peoples of the earth regardless of religion or race. Do you think they like dictators and they would choose them over elected officials. It is the Fascist leaders who fear Democracy.
We have an obligation to finish what our founding fathers started. And we should not just look abroad for violations of basic human rights, but here at home also. Our rights our being threatened all the time by our own governmnet and our fellow citizens.
Free speech ( NY Post refuses McCains editorial but excepts Obama's?), To have and bear arms (Cities, Counties, and States continue to restrict and try to ban gun ownership), To assemble peacefully , Right To Privacy, to name a few. Stay vigilent America. Staying free has it's price.
Sun, 07/13/2008 - 10:18am
When Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, Madison and the others set about creating the American state they were already steeped in the principles of democracy. The colonies had elected assemblies, to meet the political crisis they created a Congress. Their essential understandings of rights and freedoms came from the traditions of England, reaching back as far as Magna Carta, 1215 C.E.. Even with such common ground, the democratic systems of government created in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India are all different in some ways. And even with nearly 800 years of development, we still work on fine tuning the system.
To expect that we can graft our systems, full blown, on to a nation that has no traditions supporting democracy, no history of democracy, does not think in democratic terms, has religious and social systems oppositional to democracy, and that they will work is at best optimistic. To work, a government must reflect the will of the people who created it. It is arrogant to think that our way is best simply because it has worked for us.
A democracy imposed upon a people has already failed because democracy must be chosen. We in the west, and America especially, can show them, by our example, that democracy can work, and is a system the should consider. Then they will need to build it themselves.
- A Canadian
G. Verduin, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sat, 07/12/2008 - 4:07pm
Jefferson's thought on the immorality of silence was foreshadowed by a remark attributed to Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- A Virginian
Fri, 07/11/2008 - 11:10am
@ Mr. Shipperly: I spoke of the "current administration" only as a contemporary reference. As you will see in my response to the Floridian, no political party is perfect in protecting the Constitution. I agree with you about our plight to find an "educated citizenry." I do wish that educational reforms would consider the benefits of studying our national history, instead of ignoring them. It is shocking and disturbing that there are no national standards for the study of the social sciences including history, economics, and government. Perhaps this is why our country is in such a poor state of affairs? Mr. Jefferson might suggest that we step up to the tree of liberty and become the Sam Adams, Thomas Paine, and emulate Mr. Jefferson himself as we strive to right the violations of our liberty.
@ DGV: Your points are so valid, my dear citizen! How I wish you could speak highly from the pulpit of liberty and equality!
Signed,
"Silence Nogood"
Fri, 07/11/2008 - 11:04am
Dear American in Florida,
I wish the Constitution held such hope for us. When the President and Congress allow constitutional rights such as habeus corpus to be taken away, who then protects the Constitution? Jefferson certainly was not perfect, yet he would abhor such violations of liberty. There is no political party which is perfect...no one suggested that. Our political parties are based on different interpretations of the Constitution. This is why Jefferson suggests we speak out, instead of remaining silent. As citizens, it is our duty to remind our leaders and our political parties of their duties to uphold our Constitution.
Sincerely,
"Silence Nogood" (whom, by the way, is a woman, not a man)
Wed, 07/09/2008 - 4:42pm
Have you read the Constitution? It is the instrument of our nation that holds hope for us in these apathetic times. Mr. Jefferson was not perfect, for, after all, he was mortal man. Who among us, who among the political parties, is perfect? Who among us today can come forth with the inspiring goals Mr. Jefferson dreamed, worked, hoped, for our United States of America? Throughout history, which country has accomplished all that we have for the betterment of others? There is none, for there is none founded on the principles of our Founding Fathers. An American in Florida
Wed, 07/09/2008 - 12:20am
I believe in what "Silence Nogood" has to say. Unfortunately the masses are distracted with other matters such as: gas prices and everything related to it, the younger masses are only interested in having fun. People watch controlled media and eat it up as if it is ALL of the truth. Not very many people are questioning what we are told and in return trying to find the truth. Hopefully people like "Silence" will influence those around him, people will seek the truth and stand up for what they believe in. Maybe then we the masses will unite against what has been wrongfully been taken from us. America... Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Death to Tyrants.
--"John Whipple"
Tue, 07/08/2008 - 10:58pm
In a political republic, who decides what is "morality," or what is "immoral?" Who determines for the rest of us even what is to be "amoral?"
Certainly not Saint Thomas Jefferson, the keeper of an enslaved concubine. (Alf Mapp loyalists agreeably tolerated.)
It is not clear that particular concepts of morality have any more place in a system of ordered liberty than do the flavors of religion. At bottom, both are metaphysical, and unserviceable in the cause of liberty.
Reduced to their essentials, are any of the founder's catchphrases more than platitudes composed by people in power to maintain themselves in power?
I think—at least I hope—there is something in Jefferson's sentence more noble than self-interest, but I doubt it.
In 1776, Dr. Johnson asked,“How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”
These 232 years later, the question lacks a serviceable answer.
- A Virginian
Tue, 07/08/2008 - 11:36am
Let's add Benjamin Franklin into the equation.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty or Safety." Nov. 11, 1755. Interestingly, a slightly altered version of this quote is inscribed on a plaque in the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
Bill Barker speaking as Thomas Jefferson in the "Politics, Elections & the Presidency" portion of this site, speaks to the responsibilities of the voters: "That they are ultimately responsible thereby for their government, and they should realize that their government, our government, will only be so virtuous, only be so wise, only be so moral, as we are ourselves. And thereby to discover anyone in government to be un-virtuous, immoral, dishonest, that they should be the same in any walk of life. And if we are to condone it then, well then we will surely elect it to office." Do we get what we "deserve" as we elect people to public office? Are we as voters ultimately responsible for our actions and the actions, or lack thereof, of our country?
DGV
Mon, 07/07/2008 - 4:51pm
While I must agree with the spirit of this post, I believe you do not cast your net wide enough. When one speaks of "the current administration" it seems to place all blame on a President and those aligned with him. All parties have allowed the diminishing of rights they do not value and the promotion of powers not provided by the Constitution. It has been the death of a thousand pin pricks. But since most of the population is not the "educated citizenry" that the Founders hoped for, Liberty's slow erosion is likely to continue.
We need a Sam Adams, a Thomas Paine, a Patrick Henry and a Thomas Jefferson to begin a fresh Liberty movement in the minds of the people. Silence is destructive but resistance must be pursued purposefully and in an argument that both educates and unifies. Otherwise resistance is just a man flailing at the wind.
May the tree of Liberty revive and thrive,
Dan Shippey
Mon, 07/07/2008 - 1:26pm
As I listened to the podcast promoting this new blog, two images ran through my mind: Zimbabwe and Myanmar. Both nations have been condemned for decades by the West for the brutality of their dictatorships. Both have experienced thwarted efforts of their citizens to implement democratic rule. Even the censure of the wider world through isolation and sanctions has failed to dislodge the regimes currently in power.
One need only read recent headlines to see that the "flames of democracy" may be easily tamped down by the "jackboot of tyranny."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/04/AR200807...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/05/AR200807...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/06/AR200807...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/25/AR200806...
Tamped down, perhaps, but not entirely snuffed out. Though the citizens' efforts have not, as yet, met with success, they continue. These citizens are to be admired for their tenacity. May Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change and other oppressed peoples throughout the world draw strength from the knowledge that the free world is watching.
Until the community of nations becomes unified in condemning tyranny, oppression will continue. Until it stops propping up dictatorships through economic and military support (in which our own government is complicit), oppression will thrive. Until there is true global agreement that basic human rights must be guaranteed to all, it will still take force of arms to win freedom. That is unfortunate, but true.
D.G.
Columbus, OH
Mon, 07/07/2008 - 11:48am
Ahh...Mr. Jefferson, as our two 2008 presidential candidates debate the meaning of patriotism, you bring us a worthy question. I believe silence can be immoral. Why have Americans not questioned the current administration as we were stripped of habeus corpus? Why did Americans sit idly by as the Patriot Act stripped us of so many of our freedoms? From silence, we have lost many of our freedoms. Those who clamor for answers to such questions are the real patriots. As you yourself once wrote, Mr. Jefferson: "The tree of liberty should be from time to time refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants." By keeping silent, we stop the tree of liberty from growing.
--Signed, "Silence Nogood"
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