The Empire of Liberty vs the Dictatorship of Hate
Watching the parallel television coverage of the American celebration of our 250th anniversary and the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave me a deep sense of contrast.
Watching the parallel television coverage of the American celebration of our 250th anniversary and the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave me a deep sense of contrast.
These parallel events represented two dramatically different worlds. In America, we were celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of what President Thomas Jefferson called the Empire of Liberty. For a quarter-millennium, free people have been exercising their Creator endowed rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In Iran, a religious dictatorship that killed 46,000 of its own people this year was pledging to destroy the United States, Israel, and President Donald J Trump.
I could not find a single incident in which American authorities chanted “death to Iran” or “death to the Iranian people.”
The tone and focus of these two celebrations were reminders of how far apart we are in our approaches to life.
The Iranian religious dictatorship organized a massive series of funeral events that included feeding people who showed up and communicating that people would be better off attending. The crowds were large, but the spectacle appeared more popular than it was.
In a decentralized, vastly more popular demonstration of celebration in America, there were more than 16,000 organized fireworks displays (and several million private homes that put on their own).
In terms of the scale of the celebration, the fireworks in Washington used 850,000 fireworks — clearly the largest number ever used. Normally, the Washington fireworks use about 17,000 individual fireworks. A typical city fireworks display includes 5,000 to 20,000 fireworks. Even the big Macy’s display is only 60,000 to 80,000 fireworks. Of course, with Trump as President, the national display was going to be historic and huge.
Another big difference between the American celebration of birth and the Iranian ceremony of death was attitude. In Tehran, crowds chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel.” There were also some chants of “death to Trump.” The Iranian religious dictatorship is fueled and defined by its hostility to what its founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, called “the Great Satan” (the United States) and “the Little Satan” (Israel). For 47 years, this religiously defined dictatorship has maintained this level of hatred and determination to destroy our two countries.
By contrast, the core of the American system is positive, optimistic, and focused on creating a better future. Even when thousands of attendees on the National Mall had to get evacuated into various federal buildings due to dangerous weather, they continued the celebration. Some reportedly broke out into singing the national anthem in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
If you wake up every day believing that you have been endowed by your Creator with inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, you have a profound reason to be optimistic.
Culturally, Americans have believed in a better future for the entire history of our country. It is this bedrock belief that things can be better — even when they are not going well — which leads to a pervasive desire to go out and accomplish things.
Individual Iranians are incredibly smart, hard-working, and optimistic. The Iranian-Americans I know personally are amazing people, and their optimism fits in with the American dream. However, the Iranian dictatorship imposes a harsh, militant, fighting attitude and an apocalyptic worldview. It has been the largest state funder of terrorism in the world since 1984, according to the U.S. State Department.
Iran’s majority faction is Shia Islam, a sect which represents only 10 percent to 15 percent of global Islam (Sunni makes up the remaining 85 percent to 90 percent). So, there is a beleaguered and militant component which reinforces the paranoia of the Iranian religious dictatorship.
By contrast, the United States has freedom of religion, has been a triumphalist society which defeated the British Empire, opened up a continent, invented most of the technology of the modern world, and produced the wealthiest and most open economy and society in history.
The optimism which pervaded President Trump’s speeches in the Dakotas, and late at night in Washington D.C. after a huge thunderstorm, is an optimism which grows out of the American spirit and experience.
We want to liberate the Iranian people, not destroy them. We want to encourage life in Iran, not death. We want to find a way to live together in peace, safety, and prosperity.
The contrast over the Fourth of July could not have been greater. It is a reminder of how big our challenge is in the Middle East.
America’s 250 Birthday Celebration
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