Western cultures live in the here and now. Rarely are our policies geared to handle more than a few years at a time. Sometimes that's OK but looking ahead fifty, a hundred or even hundreds of years into the future is not our strong point.
More than any other consideration, especially short term benefits, any policy should consider the long term impact it will have in preserving and protecting the free Republic for future generations. In just a few hundred years we have created the greatest nation in man's history yet just a few generations it has fallen into the same trap that doomed other great countries and empires, that is, selfishness. Are we going to become a flash-in-the pan success? Will we still be here in a thousand years and what will we look like?
Sometimes, conditions arise that seem to call for immediate, drastic measures to confront danger or catastrophes. We say it would be inhumane to ignore them, so we act. The morality of decisions made and actions taken under these circumstances can be argued from several points of view, namely, is it more moral to save those now at the expense of those who follow us or should we accept this calamity for the sake of those who follow? Is it worth the sacrifice to preserve the Republic. Our defense forces bet their lives on the latter. The old "life boat dilemma" asks the same question. The ship is sinking, all the life boats are in the water and filled to dangerous limits but there are still people in the water. Do you let more people into the boat and risk everyone perishing or do you save those who are already in the boat?
Is it possible that we are selfish enough to want everything now at the risk of letting future Americans drown in debt with an eventual collapse of the Republic?
More than any other consideration, especially short term benefits, any policy should consider the long term impact it will have in preserving and protecting the free Republic for future generations. In just a few hundred years we have created the greatest nation in man's history yet just a few generations it has fallen into the same trap that doomed other great countries and empires, that is, selfishness. Are we going to become a flash-in-the pan success? Will we still be here in a thousand years and what will we look like?
Sometimes, conditions arise that seem to call for immediate, drastic measures to confront danger or catastrophes. We say it would be inhumane to ignore them, so we act. The morality of decisions made and actions taken under these circumstances can be argued from several points of view, namely, is it more moral to save those now at the expense of those who follow us or should we accept this calamity for the sake of those who follow? Is it worth the sacrifice to preserve the Republic. Our defense forces bet their lives on the latter. The old "life boat dilemma" asks the same question. The ship is sinking, all the life boats are in the water and filled to dangerous limits but there are still people in the water. Do you let more people into the boat and risk everyone perishing or do you save those who are already in the boat?
Is it possible that we are selfish enough to want everything now at the risk of letting future Americans drown in debt with an eventual collapse of the Republic?
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