"All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books."
-Thomas Carlyle

Primum Mobile Magazine welcomes feedback from any of our readers, and will publish many reader letters here. If you wish to send a letter to our editors, please use our Respondere page.

On States and Nations

In response to Challenging Another Phrase In The Pledge Of Allegiance by Jeff Daiell

Very good points made by Jeff Daiell in his article entitled "Challenging Another Phrase In The Pledge Of Allegiance." Our form of government is no longer what it once was and, as a result, we are suffering the logical consequences of this distortion. Kudos to Mr. Daiell for pointing out more aberrations.

Jeff Daiell's challenge to the word "nation" in the Pledge of Allegiance is thought-provoking, although he failed to persuade me. He did do a good job of pointing out the more important issue: We have lost sight of the idea that a great deal of power vests in the States and that our country is structured this way for a very good reason.

Primum-Mobile is an excellent site for Jeff Daiell's work and I hope to see more of him on these pages.

I very much enjoyed Jeff's article. He laid out a clear synopsis of the foundational events surrounding the creation of the Republic, pointing to the means by which Lincoln used the sentiments against slavery, existing primarily in the North, to justify a war whose actual purpose was to continue taxation. However, this does not ameliorate the liability of those southern states who used their own powers to create an ongoing wealth transfer from blacks through the institution of slavery or their liability to those whites within their domination who were forced through involuntary servitude in state enforced militias to enforce those practices. Blacks throughout the antebellum south would have been entirely justified to take up arms, if they had had them, and kill their oppressors. This happened during the Nat Turner Revolt and no individual who is truly freedom oriented can deny the right of self-defense.

Also, those whites forced into servitude had a right to protest, and it would be interesting to explore the possibility of liability against those individuals within southern legislatures who drastically changed the rights of blacks following the Revolution, making it impossible for them to achieve manumission and to exercise their rights of property and self determination. Whites caught in that system would have had a similar claim.

The difficulty here is that the wealth of individuals living then has in nearly all cases been lost, transferred or otherwise dissipated. But it is still worthwhile to trace the specific individuals involved for the following reason. The behavioral strategy that engages in the train of actions that culminates in this kind of wealth transfer needs to be understood on the individual level if it is to be discouraged. Shame and visibility is a primary disincentive for humankind. Although it is non-monetary, still it has the effect of changing behavior by removing the wealth related social prominence of those who are descended from the perpetrators. It also outlines the means used. This is also important because these same behavioral strategies are in use today in our present government. A dispassionate and complete examination of the truth is the mother of real freedom, so it will always be.

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