FREEDOM, DEMOKRASI AND CIVILISED HUMANITY
In defense of freedom, democracy and civilised humanity is an increasingly intolerant Western world.
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John Ford died on the 31st August 1973 already acclaimed as one of the great creative geniuses of cinema.
Richard Nixon considered him the best director of all-time.
His first box office smash was The Iron Horse released in 1924.
The micromovie above uses footage from this film to ponder important truths about what men need to be for their sons.
And, therefore, for our culture.
Geoff Fox, 31 August, 2020, Down Under.
Nobody should be fooled by President Trump’s blowhard style of political campaigning.
POTUS is firmly in the tradition of great Republican peace makers in the White House.
Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and saved the Union.
Dwight D. Eisenhower inherited a mess in Korea from Harry Truman but he acheived what has been a lasting peace.
Richard Nixon, a man of the Quaker faith which is profoundly committed to the pursuit of peace, started talking with his communist adversaries.
Ronald Reagan achieved genuine reductions in weapons of mass destruction and, using peaceful methods, the Gipper won The Cold War.
Donald Trump has chosen dialogue with the leader of the worlds’s newest nuclear power, while others try to score political points about this by practicing the demonisation which is second nature to far too many modern progressives in The West.
I believe this current POTUS has shown a better balance of restraint and strength in The Middle East than any American President since George H. W. Bush.
In the little movie above, I have endeavored artistically to create a seamless transition between the thoughts of Eisenhower in his astonishing farewell address and the thoughts of Candidate Trump in 2016, because:
I like Ike.
And Donald Trump.
Geoff Fox, 4th March, Melbourne, Down Under
For a long time the progressive side of western politics has largely owned the issues relating to the environment. (Apologies to Margaret Thatcher and Arnold Schwarzenegger.)
I predict that conservatives will become the best conservationists because conservatives care about conserving what is good.
Conservatives are often better at being humble about their responsibilities to the created world gifted to us (as I believe) through the evolutionary process from A God worshipped by most of the world’s people. As I wrote for the concluding words spoken at an international Islamic environmentalist conference in Bogor, Indonesia, about a decade ago: “God is green.”
How can progressive thinking which so often ridicules faith in God connect with the whole world on issues vital to the whole world.
Progressives are their own gods. They seem to think they themselves are omnisicient. In the real world, intellectual humility works better. This requires a balance of respect for past, present and future not trendy self-absorption.
Progressives cannot stop themselves from making the world worse by trying to change things which don’t need changing. Look at the way the Presumption of Innocence and the principle of Beyond Reasonable Doubt in Australia have gone out the door in Victoria’s shameful persecution of Cardinal George Pell.
Pell’s persecution was initiated by the same police who trashed my rights in the same court system where Pell suffered. The progressive side of Australian politics produced my sufferings at the hands of police when I wanted to combine environmental tree planting with memorial tree planting on vacant defence department land in my own neighbourhood. Interviewing me to hear my side of the story before locking in court action was never considered by them.
Progressives aren’t happy unless they are changing something, anything. This can mean they then toss out what is good from the past and feel that just because things have changed things will be better. They don’t always assess whether the change is needed. Consequently the heavy lifting on what really does need to change is frequently done by conservatives.
Does anyone who knows how America and the Democratic Party were tearing themselves apart in 1968, seriously think that Lyndon Johnson created a great society? But who can deny that it was Richard Nixon who gave America an Environmental Protection Agency?
In Australia, the White Australia policy was dismantled, Aboriginal people were first formally recognised as Australians and gay marriage became law under conservative governments.
This happened because conservatives can be better at freedom and openness and respect which are preconditions for the consensus essential for change.
Human fallibility has not ruined all of this world yet. I believe we can probably survive.
But we must find ways to come together to conserve.
In Australia right now that leadership job falls to conservative Scott Morrison not the apparatchiks of the Australian Labour Party.
The world is watching. The fires got their attention.
What will happen next?
Geoff Fox, 12 February, 2020, Melbourne
Americans love celebrating their tradition of freedom, especially through the words of presidents on January 20, every four years when the presidential inauguration takes place on Inauguration Day.
In his 1953 Address, Dwight Eisenhower said, “We are called as a people to give testimony in the sight of the world to our faith that the future shall belong to the free.”
On January 20, 1961, JFK said “……. the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”
In 1969, on the same date, Richard Nixon said, “The essence of freedom is that each of us shares in the shaping of his own destiny.”
Australia does not have the same robust and articulate commitment to liberty.
A few days ago, I asked a bloke, who is the Australian equivalent for me of England’s Samuel Johnson and who knows a fair bit about my situation, “….. do you recognise the trashing in 2016 of my rights under articles 19 and 21 of UDHR?” (freedom of speech and the right to participate in government in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Aussie Sammy answered, “I do. You and many other citizens and non-citizens will experience such outrages but when a Court is involved, they are lawful under the law for the land that applies them – even when, as I say, the greater human right is being trashed.”
This fella was talking to me about a country he loves more than I can. He showed great personal integrity in speaking so honestly.
I cant live with this sort of “legality” where The Law and those responsible for it can destroy the foundations of democracy with impunity. In my case this was done when I was trying to celebrate democracy and freedom.
I cannot pretend to be willing to be a part of such a country.
Geoff Fox, 20th January, 2020, Terra Nullius.
FREEDOM, DEMOKRASI AND CIVILISED HUMANITY 