The founding fathers of the United States of America had a profound understanding of human nature. They fully understood that human nature and human nature alone could lead to the downfall of their dream of the best possible form of government the world had ever known. In their own words:
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech." ~ Benjamin Franklin"A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government." ~ Alexander Hamilton
"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." ~ Thomas Jefferson"You know well that government always kept a kind of standing army of news writers who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, invented and put into the papers whatever might serve the [government] ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper." ~ Thomas Jefferson
"The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood." ~ Thomas Jefferson"No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence." ~ Thomas Jefferson"To consider judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy." ~ Thomas Jefferson"Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike." ~ Alexander Hamilton"In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will." ~ Alexander Hamilton
"It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail." ~ Samuel Adams"It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." ~ Samuel Adams"Liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals." ~ Samuel Adams"If we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom." ~ Samuel Adams"Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason." ~ Samuel Adams
"Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness." ~ Samuel Adams"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt." ~ Samuel Adams"Now, mark my words. So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instrument (the constitution) will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness. But when we become old and corrupt, it will bind no longer." ~ Alexander Hamilton"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests. In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves." ~ Thomas Jefferson
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"But if the laws are to be so trampled upon with impunity, and a minority is to dictate to the majority, there is an end put at one stroke to republican government, and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected thereafter." ~ George Washington"This [the U.S. Constitution] is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other." ~ Benjamin Franklin"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite." ~ Thomas Jefferson
Do you recognize how our founders’ words reflect what we have seen in the United States of America in the year 2020 and the year 2021? They truly understood human nature. Unfortunately, too many Americans now have conformed to base human nature. We humans just can’t seem to learn from history. We can offer them information, but we can’t make them think.
Sadly, human nature never seems to change. In this digital and technological age, the world has never had better documentation of history, but the citizens of our nation have refused to learn from that history. Even more sadly, from a personal standpoint, is that my generation, the Baby Boomers, have led the downward spiral of America from liberty to our current cancel culture mentality and the war on freedom of speech.
No doubt the founding fathers would be disappointed in what we have allowed to happen to America, but they would not be surprised. Have we irreparably passed the tipping point to save the American dream of our forefathers, or not? Only a short time will tell.
After a 55 year career as a professional pilot in the military, in law enforcement, in the private sector, and in federal civil service, I am now retired.
In many of these positions I repeatedly took an oath to defend the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.
The founding fathers of the United States of America had a profound understanding of human nature. They fully understood that human nature and human nature alone could lead to the downfall of their dream of the best possible form of government the world had ever known. In their own words:
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech." ~ Benjamin Franklin
"A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government." ~ Alexander Hamilton
