I see two angles here. The first is- yeah. I mean- look at so much baby boomer advice- “get a job you hate and stay there for 50 years and you’ll be fine in life..” “cut all the small joys from life and in 10 years you can have $5,000 in your savings and start your own business like I did- and then you can buy a 4 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood at 20 and start having kids…” I mean- that’s not even 200 years old and a good deal of it is out of date man. So yeah- we can’t blindly assume these old folks had it all figured out. They KNEW they didn’t- they specifically created a governing document that could change and was intentionally vague to allow voters and elected officials to shape it as time went on.
The second angle is…. Wellll…. Also no. I mean- they lived in a different world with different values, but it’s very arrogant to think just because we are in the “future” and people who probably weren’t us have invented and built crazy things and touched the moon- that these…
.. people were complete idiots with nothing of value to say. I mean- going back to the baby boomer advice- a lot of common boomer advice or world views are outdated and annoying- but even those guys can have some good points or fairly universal truisms. So we can’t reject everything that past generations came up with- fundamental concepts most people think are pretty good things- concepts like social welfare, democracy, egalitarianism, ethics- many of these things are hundreds or thousands of years old and often carry over largely in tact, or at least in tact in concept, from ancient times. So I mean- don’t take everything some dead folks said as gospel or anything, but also have the respect and humility to understand that a lot of dead people were smart, maybe would still be smart if they lived today and had the information we have and the time to learn…
We have to keep in mind that things like the American constitution- the freedoms outlined there were set out for reasons. We have to examine the fundamental reasons behind WHY in a broad sense these freedoms are important. Changing them and defining them through laws is how the system is supposed to work, if a set of rules aren’t flexible, a nation can’t last as times change. The freedom of speech was never intended to be used to allow people to manipulate reality, to shout “fire!” Or “help me!” When there was no danger- it was never intended to allow you to say ANYTHING you want at ANY TIME. For over a century it has been a crime to lie to congress, to lie to the court. Before that slander and libel were punishable. Freedom was never meant to be anarchy or absolute. Changing to the times is part of the system- but we are meant to change rules to the times while still protecting the fragility of democracy, freedom, and security of the union.
The second angle is…. Wellll…. Also no. I mean- they lived in a different world with different values, but it’s very arrogant to think just because we are in the “future” and people who probably weren’t us have invented and built crazy things and touched the moon- that these…