Washington’s Farewell Address first appeared publicly on September 19, 1796. Washington characterized his address as “the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel.” He warned his countrymen to expect “the batteries of internal and external enemies” to be directed against the country. He exhorted his fellow citizens to preserve their union to gain “greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations,” and to avoid civil wars. Anticipating Eisenhower’s warning issued more than a century and a half later, Washington noted the danger of “those overgrown military establishments, which under any form of government are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.” Washington also warned that “love of power and proneness to abuse it . . . predominates in the human heart.” His view of human nature informed his counsel on foreign policy.
You can read the entire speech here:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw2.024/?sp=229&st=text
Note date and time. Mr. Trump just threatened to blow up Iranian power plants if the Strait is not opened within 48 hours.
Apparently Iran responded, indicating a willingness to do so if Mr. Trump agrees to these conditions:
America will end the war with
— Guarantees of no future wars
— Closure of US military bases in region
— Compensation/war reparations to Iran from both US and Israel
— ’End wars on all fronts in region’
— Establishment of a new legal regime for Strait of Hormuz
— Prosecution and extradition of individuals affiliated with ‘hostile media’ to Iran
In February, America cut off negotiations just prior to a sudden missile barrage. Will that happen again? The world is watching the countdown.
Are people of the twenty-first century too messed up to love one another, sacrifice for one another, or to mature in the presence of difficulty?
For modern marriages, three decades of therapeutic counselling trends are bearing destructive fruit. It's an ongoing revolt against maturity. Sanctification is today a foreign concept, even in the Evangelical world.
What do people count as relational wisdom today? Fighting for your own personal "rights"...and winning in the process. Perfecting clever snarkiness. Outdoing one another in selfishness. Juxtaposing personal dreams and ambitions against another's personal dreams and ambitions.
The way forward when life together gets unbearable? Grumble to a "counselor." Or, if you're tech-savvy, crowd source your therapy. Pour out all your grudges and aversions on the internet, in the guise of "getting a little perspective" [and advice from the mob.]
Today the internet mob is a feedback loop which has become a death spiral -- a chorus...