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UMAH-Universal Momvement Against Hypocrisy!
Page 3
Defeat of Terrorism
“Only the educated are free”-Epictetus
100 A.D.
Although there were sporadic attempts all over the world to change the tragic course of bondage
of human beings, it was the American Revolution that took the first large-scale step in that direction.
Briefly,
some 250 years ago only a handful of American Revolutionaries-extremists managed to free the American colonies from the yoke
of the most fearsome colonial power on earth. Nothing short of complete victory of good over evil weakened the resolve of
these colonized men, not even the brutal massacre of their innocent fellow citizens, destruction of their libraries, hospitals
and even burning the White House by the brutal colonial power they deposed. Another almost forgotten fact is that prior to
its humiliating defeat, the colonial power arrogantly called the revolutionaries “terrorists” and had set price
on their heads! Yes, heads of people like Thomas Jefferson for saying, “Enlighten people and tyranny of body and
mind will disappear like evil spirit in the dawn of a day”; Thomas Paine for saying, “The mind, once enlightened,
cannot again become dark,” his ushering the people from the bondage of organized religion into the age of ration and
reasoning and for considering religion as a private matter, and even advocating one's mind as one's church!
Jefferson,
Madison and Paine are, but a few of a handful of the America's founders in the eighteenth century who advocated universal
rather than tubular view of the world. John Locke's “self-evidence principles”that supported James Madison's Constitutional
guarantee of freedom of conscience and separation of church and state. To these men legislating morality and creation
of state religion would violate the people's freedom of choice and would not serve the best interest of either church or the
state! The founders' religious belief and their reference to Creator should never be taken as subscribing to one religion.
Theirs was Providence or Divine care. The founders' refuge from the ravages of religious dogma was Free Masonry, founded in
Europe that advocated rational thinking. Like a contagious disease, that revolution energized the freedom-loving peoples starting
with the French Revolution. The ultimate goal of this movement was power sharing and placing the people rather than the governments
in the driving seat in controlling their own destiny.
The greatest single contribution of the American Revolution
was its First Amendment-I call the jewel of the American Constitution that made America the first safe haven in the world
for the people of all religious persuasion to coalesce and make the Nation of Immigrants. Here is that jewel:
“
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for
a redress of grievances. ”
Many foreigners who found it futile to tolerate their repressive regimes flocked
to America in drones in search of freedom of speech, opportunity and pursuit of happiness denied to them in their homelands.
The founders of America received their inspiration from liberal scholars of Western and Eastern world who had overtly
and covertly opposed tyranny with minimal or no success. They were a handful of highly educated and well-versed men, who steadfastly
believed that when educated and informed, the people are capable of governing themselves. More importantly even though they
were mostly self-taught and home-schooled their sense of responsibility, ethics and their ability to integrate knowledge into
wisdom are still unmatched by products of our “modern” education system. As a natural science educator and advocate
of nature's rule of law behind all existence , I also believe a major reason for the founders' healthy outlook and their defense
of the rule of law was their direct inspiration from nature. Recall that these men were full-time farmers, more in tune with
nature and part time politicians and relatively far less inclined to be corrupt like most of the succeeding generations
of politicians from more urban environments with more dazzling , but relatively less meaningful lifestyles. As Joseph Campbell
said, “Life is without meaning. You bring meaning to it,”- obviously by being informed and educated.
There are at least two valuable historical lessons to be learned from this major event. First; all great changes are initiated
by a small number of people. Second; the few men effecting the change are called extremists-a source of fear for the public
that, by default prefers status quo. However, the truth is that like coin, extremism has two sides-good and evil, depending
on one's depth of education, ethics and conviction. When Samuel Adams said, "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," he meant that we
should never underestimate the power of the minority extremists with evil intention who keep bombarding the minds of the unaware
public with sugar-quoted falsehood.
The great founders of America knew that an enlightened and informed public
was the best antidote and buffer against the return of colonialism and replacement of government of the people with
the government of a few. This was also the founders' idea of laying the foundation of the cheapest and most effective Homeland
Security.
Obviously, both the ideals of the American Revolution and the Public Education spread throughout the
world like a lightening. That indicated that the world then and now has a great thirst for education. I, myself, am forever
indebted to America and Thomas Jefferson for my public education and becoming a lifetime advocate of it.
The founders
of America called their new and unique republic “An Experiment in Democracy,” meaning that their words were not
final and were subject to the test of time and questioning, interpretation, revision and upgrading, in an environment of freedom
of expression. In fact, the word democracy is not even mentioned in American Constitution because America's founders
feared that democracy, too, had the potential of leading the nation into chaos by the extremists. In fact, devising
Electoral College on top of popular vote was from the fear of mob rule that was inevitable in free society. That was the reason
that American system of government has always been a compromise between oligarchy and democracy or a republic, as is known.
This was a compromise between the Jeffersonian philosophy of believing the people to govern themselves with minimum government
control and the Hamiltonian philosophy of maximum government interference.
Of course, America committed some atrocities
while building itself as a nation. As an example, no impartial person would forgive America's massacre of non-yielding and
"hostile” Native Americans. However, for all practical purposes this initial effort to expand is typical
of all revolutions and discussing it is considered as exercise in futility especially when we consider the fact that America
did not venture into other countries was significantly reduced unless there was a solid evidence for it. A good example was
Jefferson's punishment of pirates in Libya for their harassment of American forces . We can only reduce that guilt feeling
by remembering that most of the founders like other nation builders in world history were not expected to be prefect human
beings in every respect. it seems fair to say that as long as the algebraic sum of a nations' behavior is positive we
are on a right track. Based on that perspective, it would be fair to claim that the algebraic sum of America's influence on
the world events was positive until the appearance and growth of its own extremists who placed this nation on a destructive
path especially during the most recent years. There are also those who fault the founders for not eradicating the slavery
and racial inequality, not granting equal rights to men and women and religious tensions. The truth is that the founders were
far ahead of their time and the Constitution they devised required the passage of much more time to resolve these issues.
The validity of this wisdom becomes clear because we have not been able to resolve these issues after some 250 years.
What is important is that most unique feature of the America's revolutionaries or the secret of their success was their
relatively far more reluctance in getting involved in other countries' affairs and the fear of becoming another colonial power.
We should never refrain from admiring George Washington's refusal to be named a king or Thomas Jefferson's humility in handling
his presidential responsibilities even though many believed that he qualified to be the “philosopher king” that
mankind had always dreamed of and never achieved.
Nevertheless, the prerequisite of an educated and informed public
was never disputed for preservation of America against repression of any kind. Here are some of the most energizing and most
powerful basic tenets of that noble revolution. Our technological world would better serve humankind with these great ideas
in mind:
“Resistance to tyranny is obedient to God”-Motto on Thomas Jefferson’s ring
"The
condition upon which God has given us liberty is eternal vigilance."
-J.P. Curran, 1790
"Those who expect
to be ignorant and free, expect what there never was and never will be."-Thomas Jefferson
Page summary: The
American Revolution in spite of its imperfections was the largest and the most successful attempt against colonial rule, tyranny
and terrorism and an excellent example for the freedom-loving people all over the world.
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