Chapter 28 Chapter 25 A True Patriot Should Ask Questions

It is a fact of human life on our troubled little planet that widespread torture, famine, and malfeasance by the governments themselves are far more common in countries run by authoritarian governments than in democracies.Why does this phenomenon occur?Because in the event of wrong behavior, the former ruler is far less likely to go to the field than the latter.This is the error correction mechanism in politics. The scientific method - with all its flaws - can be used to improve social, political and economic systems.I think this is true no matter what standard of improvement is adopted.If science is inseparable from experiments, how can experiments be carried out for social and political improvement?Humans are not electrons, nor are they lab rats.But every act of Congress, every Supreme Court ruling, every presidential national security order, every change in the prime rate is an experiment.Every change in economic policy, every increase or decrease in funding for development priorities, every increase in criminal sentences is an experiment.Replacing needles, making condoms free for the public, decriminalizing marijuana use are all experiments.Not supporting Abyssinia against Italy, preventing Nazi Germany from invading the Rhineland was an experiment.Communism in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and China was an experiment.The privatization of psychiatric care or prisons is an experiment.Japan and West Germany invested heavily in science and technology but not in defense - resulting in rapid economic growth - was an experiment.Seattle allows citizens to hold guns for self-defense, but its neighbor Vancouver, Canada does not. Therefore, Seattle's gun crime rate is 5 times higher than Vancouver's, and the proportion of suicides using handguns is 10 times higher than Vancouver's.Guns make it easy for people to kill impulsively, which is also an experiment.In all of these cases, insufficient control experiments were performed, or the variables were not fully separated.However, policy ideas can be experimented to a certain and often useful degree.Because the results of social experiments seem ideologically unidentifiable, the enormous waste they create is often overlooked.

No country on earth today is optimistic about the mid-21st century.We are faced with a large number of small and complex problems, so we need ingenious and sophisticated solutions.Since there is no deductive theory of social organization, our only recourse is to scientific experiments—experiments in multiple ways on small scales such as neighborhoods, cities, and states.In 5th century BC China, one way to get chancellor privileges is that you have to build a government model in your home region or province.This was the great mistake of Confucius in his life. He never tried it, and he felt sad about it.

Even if we take a casual look at history, we humans have a sad tendency to make the same mistakes over and over again.We fear strangers or other people who are slightly different from us.When we are afraid, we start manipulating others.We have emotional systems that are readily tapped, and when these systems are triggered, strong feelings are unleashed.We will be manipulated unaware by smart politicians.When we have a leader we feel good about, we are like the hypnotist's most manipulative subjects, willing to do whatever he wants us to do—even if there are things we know are wrong.The framers of the Federal Constitution were students of history.Recognizing the human condition, they have been trying to invent a means to guarantee our freedom, apart from our own limitations.

Some opponents of the U.S. Federal Constitution insist that it never worked.New York Governor George Clinton argued that a republican form of government was impossible in a country "different in climate, economy, morals, politics, and people."Patrick Henry of Virginia declared that such a government, such a federal constitution, "contradicts the practice of the nations of the world."Even so, humans performed this experiment. Many of the men who founded the United States of America made scientific discoveries, and they also had basically the same views on problems.Beyond any personal opinion, the supreme authority for any writing, for any revelation—as the Declaration of Independence puts it—is "Nature's Law and Nature's God."Benjamin Franklin is revered in Europe and the United States as the founder of the new field of electrophysics.At the 1789 Federal Convention, John Adams repeatedly turned to mechanical equilibrium simulations, and others were interested in William Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood.In later years, Adams wrote: "All men are chemists from birth to death . . . The physical world is a chemical experiment." James Madison in his The Federlist Papers Metaphors of chemistry and biology are used in the book.American revolutionaries were people who were deeply influenced by the spirit of the European Enlightenment, which laid an important foundation for understanding the origins and goals of America.

American historian Clinton Rossiter wrote: "Science and its philosophical inferences were probably the most important intellectual force that determined the fate of eighteenth-century America . . . Freedom of research, free exchange of information, optimism, self-criticism, pragmatism, objectivity—all these elements that would form a future republic were formed and developed in the already prosperous scientific community of the eighteenth century. Vibrant and full of energy.” Thomas Jefferson was a scientist.This is how he describes himself.When you visit his home in Montesiro, Virginia, you will find ample evidence of his great interest in science as soon as you enter the house-not only the huge number and variety of books he owns, but also the copiers, automatic Doors, telescopes, and other fixtures, some of which were made with the cutting-edge technology of the early 19th century.Some of them were his inventions, some he copied, and some he bought.He conducted comparative studies of American and European flora and fauna, excavated fossils, and used calculus to design a new type of plow.He is well versed in the principles of Newtonian physics.He said he was destined to be a scientist, but that there was no chance of becoming a scientist in Virginia before the Revolutionary War.There were more urgent matters for him to do, so he threw himself into the historic events of the time.He said that after the victory of the Revolutionary War, future generations could devote themselves to science and scholarship.

Jefferson was one of my early heroes, not only because of his profound scientific attainments (although scientific knowledge has greatly helped the formation of his political philosophy), but also because of his role in promoting democracy around the world. Contribute more than everyone else.This thinking - exciting, radical and revolutionary then (and still is in many parts of the world today) - points to the fact that it is not kings, priests, big city bosses, dictators, army blocs, wealthy people Not a cabal in the world, but ordinary people, working together to run the country.Not only was Jefferson the chief theorist of the revolution, but he also threw himself into it in the most realistic of ways, and with others began the great political experiment that the world has since admired and emulated.

Jefferson died at Montesiro on July 4, 1826.It happened to be the 50th anniversary of the United States publishing the exciting document he authored, the Declaration of Independence.The proclamation was reviled by conservatives in countries dominated by dictatorships, aristocracy and state-sponsored religious forces, which conservatives of the day fiercely defended.In a letter he wrote a few days before his death, he wrote that it was "the brilliance of science" that taught us that "it is not the mass of mankind that is born in chains," nor that a favored few are born " High-ranking officials are prominent, prosperous and rich."He wrote in the Declaration of Independence: We all have the same opportunities, the same "unalienable" rights without a doubt.If the definition of "all people" in 1776 was shamefully incomplete, the spirit of the Declaration of Independence could not have been so noble that "all people" has a broader meaning today.

Jefferson was a student of history.This history is not only the one that celebrates our own time, nation, or race without complaining and doing no harm to it, but it is also the one that speaks to who we really are as human beings, our frailties, and our strengths.History told him that if the rich and powerful were given half the chance, they would steal and oppress others.During his tenure as U.S. ambassador to France, he described European governments from what he saw and heard.He said their country had been divided into two classes under the government's advocacy: wolves and sheep.Jefferson said that a government becomes depraved when it leaves all power in the hands of rulers without supervision.Because the rulers—the ones who actually rule—will abuse the trust of the people.The people themselves, he said, are the only trustworthy force with vision.

But he worries that the public - a view that goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - is easily misled.So he advocates protective measures and insurance policies.One of these measures is to establish the separation of powers in the Federal Constitution.Correspondingly, various interest groups that pursue their own interests must check and balance each other to prevent state institutions from losing control and harming national interests.These agencies include the executive, legislative and judiciary, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the state and federal governments.At the same time, he continued to emphasize with passion that it was important for citizens to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to participate in the political process.Without such measures, wolves would take control of the entire country, he said.The following excerpt from the Virginia Transcript highlights how the unscrupulous in their positions of power find areas of weakness they can exploit:

Every government on earth bears some trace of human weakness, some corrupt, depraved moth.Sooner or later, their cunning will be discovered, and their moral depravity will be known, probed, and investigated by the public without their being aware of it.When a government owes its allegiance to an unsupervised ruler, the government begins to degenerate.In this case, the people have no choice but to protect themselves.Even if they are safe, they are still in this situation and their minds have to be elevated…. Jefferson was not involved in the actual drafting of the United States Federal Constitution.He was serving as the U.S. ambassador to France while the Federal Constitution was being formalized.He was very pleased when he saw the Articles of the Federal Constitution, but made two comments.In his view, a flaw in the federal constitution is that it does not limit the term of office of the president.Jefferson feared that if this was not established in the federal constitution, it would turn the president into a king.Another important flaw is the lack of a Bill of Rights.Absent this act, Jefferson argued, citizens—every individual—would be inadequately protected from the inevitable abuses of power by those in power.

He advocates freedom of speech, and only freedom of speech can enable different opinions to be expressed freely to some extent, and only freedom of speech can allow opinions that are different from traditional common sense to be seriously considered.Personally, he was a very genial man, unwilling even to criticize his sworn enemies.He took an attack by his arch-rival, Alexander Hamilton, in the great hall of the Montesello theater with impunity.But he holds that the habit of looking at all things with suspicion is the first of all the qualities of a responsible citizen.He believed that the cost of education was nothing compared with the cost of ignorance and handing over the government to hungry wolves.He cautioned that a country is only safe if it is run by its people. Being close to the government and doing things according to the will of the chief is not an obligation of citizenship.I wish the recent immigrant civil rights declarations and student-recited oaths included things like “I pledge to question anything my superiors tell me to do.”That would really capture Thomas Jefferson's point. "I pledge to use my critical faculties. I pledge to develop my independent mind. I pledge to be educated so that I can judge for myself." I also hope that when the President takes the oath of office, the pledge of allegiance to the United States should be allegiance to the Federal Constitution and the Bill of Rights, not to the flag and the country. When we think of the founders of our nation—Jefferson, Washington, Samuel, John Adams, Madison, Monroe, Benjamin Franklin, Tom Payne, and many others (we have at least ten, and possibly even Dozens of great political leaders), we are reminded that they were educated men, products of the European Enlightenment, students of history.They are well versed in the fallible nature, weaknesses and tendencies of human beings to corruption.Their English is accurate and fluent.They write their own speeches.They are realistic and practical.But at the same time, they have a noble code of conduct.They don't need to ask pollsters what to think about this week.They know what to think.They like to think long-term and plan beyond the next presidential election.They are content with what they do and do not claim to be politicians or lobbyists for a living.They are the best of us human beings.They are very interested in science, and at least two of them are proficient in science.They are trying to chart a direction for America's long-term future—not to create laws, but to set limits on what laws should be passed.The question of what laws should be allowed to pass is less broadly adopted by enacting laws than by setting limits. The Federal Constitution and the Bill of Rights have done a very good job in this regard. Human beings have their own weaknesses, but these Acts have done more effectively than ever to establish a system capable of correcting its own direction. mechanism. When these two acts were established, there were only about 2.5 million citizens in the United States.Today the number of citizens has increased by about 100 times.If there were 10 Thomas Jeffersons then, there should be 10×100=1000 Jeffersons today. Where are these people? One of the reasons why the Federal Constitution is a bold and innovative document is that it guarantees the continuous development and change of society, and even the form of government itself can be changed if people choose.Because no one is wise enough to foresee what ideas are needed to solve society's most pressing problems—even if some ideas clearly conflict with our intuitions and have caused some trouble in the past—this document can guarantee that it has The right to the fullest and freest expression. Of course, this comes at a price.Most of us are in favor of free speech when our personal opinions are in danger of being suppressed.However, we don't feel unhappy when opinions we don't like are banned everywhere.But within certain narrow limits—Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes' famous example that it should not be a crime to falsely claim to be "on fire" in front of a crowded theater and cause panic—the United States allows its citizens to enjoy a great deal. freedom of. ■Gun owners have the freedom to use the portraits of the Chief Justice, the White House spokesman, or the FBI Director as practice targets; ordinary citizens who have been harmed have the freedom to burn the portraits of the Presidents of the United States. ■Even though worshipers of ghosts and gods ridicule Buddhist-Christian-Islamic values ​​and laugh at everything we regard as dear and lovely, they have the right to do so as long as they do not violate the valid legal provisions stipulated in the Federal Constitution. their religious activities. ■Scientific articles or popular books asserting the "superiority" of one race to another should not be banned by the government, no matter how harmful.The best way to deal with fallacious arguments is better arguments, not the suppression of ideas. ■ Individuals or groups are free to speak about Jewish or Masonic conspiracies spreading throughout the world, or the federal government allied with Satan. ■ Individuals have the right to praise the life and politics of people of undisputed notoriety such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, etc. if they wish.Even hateful opinions have freedom of expression. The system established by Jefferson, Madison, and their companions provided avenues for the expression of those who did not understand the origin of the system and wished to replace it with another.For example, U.S. Supreme Court Justice and principal law enforcement officer Tom Clark suggested in 1948 that "those who do not subscribe to the ideology of the United States should not be admitted to the United States." But if there is a major and effective representative American ideology, then there is no coercive and forbidden ideology.Let's look at a recent case from the 90s: John Brockhoft, jailed for blowing up an abortion clinic in Cincinnati, wrote in a Reminiscing Life newsletter: I am a very narrow-minded, intolerant, fundamentalist who opposes reform and progress, defends the teachings of the Bible, ... a fanatic and a fanatic. . . . America was once a great country for reasons other than God's grace that it was founded on truth, justice, and greatness. Randall Terri is the founder of Operation Rescue, a group that locks down abortion clinics.She told a rally in August 1993: "Let the thoughts of intolerance strike you. ... Yes, hate is good, our goal is a Christian nation, and God calls us to control this nation.  … …We don’t want pluralism.” These expressions of speech are protected, and under the terms of the Bill of Rights, such expressions of speech are indeed protected.Even given the opportunity, these protected speech would even repeal the Bill of Rights.And for the rest of us, the way to protect our human rights is to use the freedom of speech that this Bill of Rights allows us to make every citizen know that this Bill of Rights is essential. In what way can humans prevent themselves from making fewer mistakes?Do other doctrines and institutions provide us with mechanisms to prevent error?A leader who makes no mistakes?Race?Is it nationalism?Or is everything separate from civilization except explosives and automated weapons?Especially in the darkness of the 20th century, how can they guarantee that they will not make repeated mistakes?Don't they need candles? The English philosopher John Stuart Mill, in his famous pamphlet, argued that silence about an opinion is "a peculiar evil."If this point of view is correct, then we are deprived of the "opportunity to turn falsehood into truth"; but if the point of view is wrong, we also lose the opportunity to deepen our understanding of truth when "truth collides with falsehood" .If we know only one side of our argument, it is difficult to know the other, and the point of view becomes obsolete, and before long people learn by rote this unproven, feeble, and useless The truth of life force. Mill also wrote: "Society itself is to blame if it allows a considerable number of its members to grow up as mere children, so that they cannot decide to act on the basis of rational thinking about long-term goals." Jefferson once Expressed the same point in stronger language: "If a nation desires to coexist ignorance and liberty in a civilized state, it has not been able to do so, and it will not be able to do so in the future." In a letter to Madison, he Elaborating on this idea further: "A society that wants to trade a little liberty for a little order will get nothing, nor should it." When people are allowed to hear other points of view and engage in actual debate, they often change their minds.This kind of thing can happen.For example, Hugo Black, who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in his youth and later became a Supreme Court justice, was also an important figure in the major Supreme Court decisions in history.This is so in part because of the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution.This act ensured the citizenship rights of all Americans: that is, when he was young, he wore a white robe to terrorize black people, and when he was old, he wore a black robe to terrorize white people, which, it is said, was allowed by law. In some criminal trials, the Bill of Rights also recognizes the temptation for police officers, prosecutors and judges to intimidate witnesses and speed up trials.The criminal justice system is prone to miscarriages of justice: innocent people may be sentenced because they did not commit a criminal crime; and governments are particularly adept at deliberately fabricating excuses for people they dislike who had nothing to do with the deliberate crime. charges.Accordingly, the Bill of Rights has provisions for the protection of defendants.This is a cost-benefit analysis method.Criminals may occasionally go free as a result, but it keeps innocents from punishment.This is not just a matter of moral beauty, but also prohibits misuse of the criminal justice system to suppress unpopular views or despised minorities.This is part of the error correction mechanism. New ideas, new inventions, new creations are often always the vanguard of freedom, breaking free from the fetters that bind human thought.Freedom is a prerequisite for precise scientific experimentation, which is one reason why the Soviet Union was unable to maintain a totalitarian government and compete in technology.At the same time, science—or rather a clever combination of openness and skepticism, with the encouragement of multiple perspectives and debate—is a prerequisite for precise, unfettered experimentation in industrialized and highly technological societies. When you questioned the prevailing religious belief that the earth is the center of the universe, why did you accept that "God sent a king to rule over us" that was repeatedly emphasized and firmly established by church leaders?In the 17th century, if you asked this kind of question, you were likely to attract the great wrath of British and colonial juries, accuse you of disloyalty to God, or be considered heresy.They can torture you to death at will because you have your own beliefs.But in the 18th century, they dared not do so. Rosset wrote again (from "The Germination of the Republic" 1953): Under the pressure of the American social environment, Christianity has become more benevolent and gentle, more tolerant of inter-denominational strife, more freedom for the development of optimism and rationalism, and more experimental opportunities for the rise of science. A more laissez-faire approach to the advent of democracy.Equally important, as many missionaries have lamented loudly, more and more colonialists have given up secular ideas, become curious about all kinds of things, and gradually begin to examine things with skeptical eyes. The Bill of Rights separates religion from government, in part because many religions have become an extremist way of thinking, each religion seeing itself as an embodiment of truth and eager to impose that truth on other people.Leaders and practitioners of extremist religions are often unaware of the difference between truth and falsehood, and are unaware that truth can emerge from seemingly opposite viewpoints. The framers of the Bill of Rights followed British precedent, where there was little distinction between Christian apostasy and secular treason.Many early immigrants came to the United States to escape religious persecution, though some of them were perfectly happy to persecute others for beliefs different from their own.The founders of our nation recognized that the close relationship between government and quarreling religions would be a deadly threat to liberty as much to religion itself.Justice Black described the government clause of the First Amendment in the 1962 Supreme Court decision in Engel v. Vital: Its first and immediate object is founded on the view, that the union of government and religion would be the ruin of government and the degradation of religion. Moreover, the Bill of Rights also has a restrictive force on the separation of powers.Walter Savage Landau once said that each sect and denomination is a moral test for the other: "Competition is as beneficial in religion as it is in business." But the cost is high: for For religious groups, competition is an obstacle to concerted action for their common interests. Rosette concluded: The twins of separation of church and state and freedom of individual consciousness are the essence of our democracy, and indeed America's greatest contribution to the freedom of Westerners. Now it's a bad thing when people get these rights and don't use them - free speech but no one to speak out against the government, free press but no one wants to ask hard questions ; freedom of assembly but no protest marches; universal suffrage, but less than half the people who vote .Since the public does not use their power effectively, they become votive offerings and lip-service patriots.Rights and freedoms: use them or lose them. Thanks to those who framed the Bill of Rights for their foresight, and to those who put themselves at personal risk in upholding these rights.Because of their efforts, it is very difficult to suppress free speech now.School library boards, immigration, the police, and the FBI, as well as ambitious politicians looking for cheap votes, may try to suppress free speech from time to time, but sooner or later the suppression explodes.Although the Federal Constitution is the law of the country and public officials have sworn to unwaveringly enforce it, some activists and the courts occasionally defy the law. However, if educational standards are lowered, intellectual competition is relaxed, enthusiasm for debate on important issues is dampened, and social restraints are enacted to limit the development of skepticism, then the foundations of our liberty are slowly eroded and our rights are withdrawn.The founders of the Constitution understood this well: "When our rulers are honest and trustworthy, and our unity is firm as a rock, every fundamental right is established on the basis of law." Thomas Jefferson Say: From the end of this (Revolutionary) War, we have been going downhill.From then on, it is not necessary to seek support from people every moment.As a result, people are forgotten and their rights are disregarded.Men forget everything about themselves except their sole instinct to earn money, and they never think of solidarity and giving their rights the due weight they deserve.So the chains that were still in place at the end of the war will still bind us long, and will grow tighter, until we regain our rights or die in convulsions. To be educated about the importance of free speech and other freedoms available to people under the Bill of Rights, what happens when you lose these rights, and how to exercise your rights and uphold them is an important part of being a Prerequisites for U.S. citizenship.Of course, this is something that citizens of any country must know. In addition, they should understand that these rights may be violated at any time.If we are not able to look out for our own interests, if we are not willing to ask the authorities questions, then we are at the mercy of those in power.But if people are well educated and have their own opinions, these powerful people will work for us.In every country we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the rationale for a Bill of Rights.At the same time, our children should be taught to be decency, humility and team spirit.In this demon-infested world, we inhabit it as human beings, and that may be all that separates us from this growing force of darkness.