The Price of Liberty

We all face the fact that we carry ancestral and historical baggage around with us. And that society is significantly (and often badly) impacted by that. Lovers of liberty need to remember we are all individuals. Yes, we fit in many groups, but our relations with others needs to be one-on-one, recognizing we are responsible for our own actions, not those of our ancestors or other members of one of the pigeonholes we are stuffed in.

This point came up in a discussion of the current situation of AmerInd people in the Fifty States. The many hundreds of tribes (nations) that exist NOW land have societies and social orders and even political systems that reflect not just the last 500+ years of increasing interaction with people of European heritage, but for thousands of years before that.

We see the same thing going on right now in Ukraine and Russia and nearby nations. Ukraine was part of Russia from 1793 to 1991: almost 200 years. Some consider Ukraine to have been an imperial possession, while others consider Ukraine to be similar to, say, Texas. There are hundreds of thousands, even millions of people who are both Russian and Ukrainian – close relatives with ties to both. But there are also hundreds of thousands or millions who are “JUST” Russian or “JUST” Ukrainians – many of whom have been taught or learned to fear and even hate the other nationality.

Ukraine and Russia are hardly alone in this – consider England and Scotland, Denmark and Sweden, the successors of Yugoslavia, and of course most of the Arab world and the Middle East. And right here in the States. It is NOT a matter of “racism” and not just a question of politics. It is human nature.