I Just finished reading:
(buy here on Amazon and I get a cut)
I've found it prescient. It was written in 1972, yet speaks to many issues of the day, such as Occupy Wall Street and our stalled congress. I thought I'd share an excerpt from the book's closing chapter, enjoy:
...It is not belief in or loyalty to the status quo that is essential to responsible citizenship. It cannot be overstated: we must believe in the purposes for which the government as created; the democratic process by which those purpose can be achieved; and a commitment to an open society with individual liberty, political freedom and equal opportunity for every citizen.
We must believe in law because where there is no law there can be no freedom, particularly for the less advantaged members of society. When law breaks down, anarchy prevails. We must look at law, however, not only as an instrument of authority designed to punish but as a means for declaring what is right and prohibiting what is wrong to provide protection for every individual.
The responsible citizen does not live in isolation. He recognizes that he is a part of a community, a state and a nation, and that in playing his part he must act in relation to, and with consideration for, all others. His relation to his government, then, is not exclusive-it is shared with all others on an equal basis. That means that is we are to be useful none of us can be arbitrary and insist upon everything being done to our liking. There must be an underlying appreciation for the necessity of tolerance. As our Founding Fathers understood, even when our country was small and homespun in its way of life, there was a need for adjustment and compromise to bring the nation into being with a reasonable prospect of success. Now in our greatly enlarged society, every citizen must recognize the infinitely greater necessity to adjust his thoughts and actions to those of the community.
I'd be curious to hear people's thoughts on these ideas, please share them.
