This submission comes from AIM Patriot Thomas Blow. He and Betsy had an email exchange on what to call this war we are fighting. Betsy calls it the Great Information War. Thomas gave it some reflection and proposes another name. If you have a thought about this, please leave your comment below.
Based on previous email with Betsy, I gave some thought to what we might call this war, and I have a proposal. Of course, it is true that we have already had casualties, which means we probably need something more inspiring than, say, the war of someone’s ear.
I was first thinking along the lines of Good and Evil, Lightness and Darkness, Truth and Deceit, but a weakness there is the enemy’s habit of co-opting these ideas and virtue signaling. I was thinking also of what it means to be humane, as we are dealing with crimes against humanity, but still there is the problem of co-option.
However there is one idea the enemy cannot even mention without a sneer. They literally cannot stand the idea, they think it belongs to the Deplorables, they see themselves as The Elite, and it is beyond the pale to have to speak the name of this disgusting idea.
That idea is Liberty.
I had to write something about Liberty, to define it in a page, a number of years ago, as follows. Part of this speech came from Pulitzer in his announcement of his fund-raising campaign to build the Statue’s pedestal:
“It takes three things for citizens to enjoy Liberty, which, more than the absence of slavery, is a state in which The People may live their lives as proudly, independently, and fearlessly as possible. These three things are:
First, Liberty needs a system of government that distributes power among the people, so that none has too much over the other. You all know the pain-staking effort our founding Fathers made developing this Engine of Freedom for us, and how they shed their blood to secure it.
Second, Liberty requires a People who understand and believe in her. There has been no greater example in our country of this understanding and belief – no, I will call it Love – than when hundreds of thousands of our Brothers arose and, “as He died to make men holy, they died to make men free.” Ending slavery was Mankind’s greatest single step
toward Liberty.
But third, Liberty needs a Lamp Of Light by which to enlighten the Darkness. The People need a tool to help them see Truth, so they may effectively and justly direct the Engine of Freedom toward the common good. I have tried to make this paper, the World, serve that cause; and it is my dream that the explosion of our circulation, powering us into the heights, is a signal that this type of revolutionary journalism has justly found its place in your hearts.
Now, you might ask, Well, it seems as though we have all the blessings a nation shall ever need, shall we not now relax and enjoy them? A reasonable thought. But, an Engine of Freedom needs Energy and Constant Vigilance – and these are needed, not only from those in government, but most importantly, from us all, every Citizen. The power of the Public Sway must be focused and adept!”
Only in this way will the System not decay, the Lamp not run dim, and the Love not become Empty.
It is in maintaining our cause for Liberty that we need the Statue. The fuel of Abolitionism has run its course! Now, we must embrace The Idea, carry it into our hearts, nurture it, treasure it. But an idea, by itself, is something one may neither see nor touch, to guide it to our Soul.
Yet here, before us now, we may embrace as our own, a great Statue, beaming with the Spirit of Liberty – a great, indomitable Lady, a Defender of Freedom, brimming with Resolve and Passion. Here is a vision, an embodiment of an idea as Great as the Greatness of The Idea she represents.
But in order to embrace her, this great gift from all of the People of France to all of the People of America, we need, for our part, to complete the Pedestal. To do this, I call upon you all now to help. Let us not wait for the Rich any longer! I ask you all to give something, however little, and to write to us. I will print your letters and the name of every contributor in our paper. Let us do this, together. For in this unity, there is Strength, Honor, and a Legacy for our great nation.”
So you see, the idea of Liberty incorporates the idea of Truth as well as the participation of the Public and a system of divided powers. And it comes with it a powerful icon, a symbol of what is great about The American Idea. The Statue has resolve, but also, in addition to a Torch of Truth, she has the energy of wisdom emanating from her crown.
The idea of Liberty is a powerful Idea, treasured and nurtured by the oppressed, which of course include the many agents of America First who planned this War over several decades.It also includes, I think, the elements of morality that one finds in the Philosophy of Liberty at kenschoolland.net, basically, government should not do things it would be immoral for us to do as individuals.
So I ask you to consider calling this war, The War for Liberty. This name, I would think, would serve well as the banner. unifying our movement. It distinguishes this war from the War For Independence because until the Constitution came into being there was no system for providing Liberty, in fact, many thought America would have a king.
What we see now is a war to restore Liberty, or even in fact to bring in its golden age.