Who is Sapping Us Americans of Ancestral Courage and Confidence?

. . . it may be that we are losing some of the boldness which characterized our ancestors and losing the confidence which was once our calling card. If the American of 1890 believed that 'nothing was impossible to him', today's American, after a half-century or more of demoralizing propaganda, is less sure of that. If that characteristic confidence is in part genetic, as I think it may be, there is hope of re-finding it, if we can turn off the berating voices of the media and academia, and listening to the voices of our ancestors and our heritage.

from
What makes an American an American?
Vanishing American
http://vanishingamerican.blogspot.com/2008/08/what-makes-american-american.html

[bold and color emphasis mine. lw]

COMMENT:

We have become afraid of using the "wrong" word, of saying the "wrong" things, about those who have arrived from foreign lands unwelcome into our midst. We are almost unaware that we are rapidly being deprived of our First Amendment rights. And our government is complicit with that.

And it is not because we are all cowards, afraid of trampling on the sensibilities of this group or that "race." It is because people who speak up and write about what is happening to our country are accused of "hate speech," and being "racist." Accusation that are not overlooked by those in authority in our government.

We can be shut up and out from the media in this country by the mere accusation of having a "phobia" (a misunderstood term because it does not mean "anti" or "hatred of" but "fear of").

While we are made to "tread on eggs" so to speak so as not to be completely shut off from any public venues, it is interesting to note that the "hate speech" and "phobia" label applies only when a certain ideology, that has the trappings of a religion, is exposed. Attacks by the adherents of that ideology on Judaism or Christianity are ignored.

Why? Because only the adherents of that ideology threaten violence--murder--if they find any statement or communication to be a "slight" to their beliefs. Were any threats of an even unspecified disturbance to be considered a "terrorist threat," such actions could be throttled at birth.

American corporations tremble when threatened by these ideologues, and their employees are muzzled and threatened with job loss.

We have become less bold--on the surface. Under our hesitant demeanor, however, there is an awakened emotion that, as it grows, bodes no good for those who would subjugate us.

NOTE
What will be the outcome of this stifling of expression? Audacity. Not in the sense that is found in the title of one presidential candidate's book that unabashedly declares “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction,” but the audacity that arises when conditions are no longer supportable.
"Audacity, more audacity, always audacity."
[Fr., De l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace.]
--Georges Jacques Danton, during the French Revolution