Humans have experienced a surprisingly limited range of conditions since we arose. Slavery, war, genocide and serfdom were humanity’s prevalent conditions in centuries past. Personal liberty is a recent convention, ignited at scale by America’s founders in 1776.
The accompanying chart attempts to depict those broad categories of human condition by year. Feedback, as always, is appreciated.
Note the red “X” at top right. It represents where you and I today stand.
Throw the dart. See where else you could have landed on the continuum of human condition. Take your chances.
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment (roughly 1685–1815) was the intellectual and cultural movement centered in Europe (especially France, Scotland, England, and the German states) that emphasized reason, science, individual rights, skepticism of tradition, and human progress.
It challenged the authority of monarchy, aristocracy, and organized religion, promoting ideas such as liberty, equality before the law, separation of powers to prevent government tyranny, religious toleration, and the belief that societies could be deliberately redesigned for happiness and prosperity of the normies.
America’s Founders were steeped in Enlightenment theory. They believed they were advancing the practice of individual liberty. They were not inventing a new philosophy from scratch; they were applying 18th-century European (especially British and French) Enlightenment ideas to create a new kind of republic.
The names most cited by the Founders were Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau, Locke, Hume, Adam Smith, and Kant.
Consider the stunning panoply of life-altering innovations introduced since America’s founding. Flight, antibiotics, telephony, alternating current, the Internet, medical imaging, space travel — to name but a few — have all been spurred by what some call “the 5,000 year leap.”
Elon Musk has predicted that these exponential gains in productivity will result in the elimination of poverty: in effect, everyone will be rich. Consider the rate of change:
Would you rather be the richest man in 1925 or here today with your mobile device?
It is clear.
Capitalism is the only route to the Utopian equality that Socialism seeks.
Giving Thanks
This Thanksgiving… take a deep breath and thank America’s founders. Thank America’s founders daily for the gifts we have been granted.
We were born under the beauty of a construct of government — a Constitution and a highest law — yet unparalleled in history when measured by human achievement.
No one can point to a more successful system of organizing human activities ever, whether measured by improvement in human longevity, average standard of living or any other rational metric.
Thank America’s founders.
And reject those who decry America.
Reject the Democrat Party.
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Top 20 Insanities DOGE revealed in 2025
Ladies and gentlemen, we did it before and we’re doing it again.
It’s not being taught in schools so
Kids are not even aware of how blessed they are just for the privilege of being born here!
Unless and until the entire educational curriculum is completely overhauled with an emphasis on Civics, American history and that of Western Civilization, how can they possibly grasp it themselves, much less pass it on to the next generation?
We seriously, shamefully dropped the ball and now we face the consequences.