This page is dedicated to Americans and international figures who have forged new paths, created new paradigms, gone against conventional wisdom, and stood up for their principles even in the face of sharp criticism. In short, they have made an impact on society through their independent thinking. Their leanings may be liberal, conservative, or a combination of the two. The author of this page may not always agree with what these people have said or done, but respect the way in which they have presented themselves and their ideas.
The Independent Thinkers
A page for thinking people who tirelessly challenge their own assumptions and let neither conventionality nor agenda nor political party obstruct the relentless pursuit of truth
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Google US. News- Lou Dobbs resigns from CNN - Los Angeles Times
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- Oregon woman killed by husband filed for divorce - The Associated Press
March 15, 2007 at 6:11 pm |
One of the most important people to bring a lasting contribution to public discourse was the Frenchman, Alexis de Tocquveille. His classic Democracy in America (1835) may be the most prescient and astute political commentary ever produced.
Here is one of de Tocqueville’s thoughts on American democracy: “In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.”
This statement may be more accurate in our own time than it was when Tocqueville wrote it in the 1830s.
March 16, 2007 at 3:21 am |
Another “groundbreaker” was Robert Nisbet, one of the most prominent sociologists of the twentieth century. Nisbet was widely known for his criticism of the increasing power of the state from the Renaissance to the present day. The welfare state worried him greatly for its undermining of individual liberty; the warfare state concerned him even more. He decried the militarization of society beginning with Woodrow Wilson during World War One and reaching new heights during the Cold War. Ironically, Nisbet believed that the rise of modern totalitarianism began not with Stalin but with Wilson. One of his most well-known books was The Present Age: Progress and Anarchy in Modern America (New York: Harper Row, 1989) in which he argued that necessary buffers between the individual and the state–the family, civic associations, the church, the guild system–have laregly been eradicated by modern society. To be modern, Nisbet contended, was to discard custom and transfer power from the body of the community to the body of the state. Thus government power shuts out the individual from creating new forms of community or fall back on old ones which would allow people to cope with the modern age. The result is that the individual in today’s world stands at the mercy of the state, the destroyer of individual liberty. Nisbet died in 1996, but if alive today he would have seen the War on Terror as the latest manifestation of statism, and would most certainly have condemned smaller forms of government intrusion such as smoking restrictions and the banning of trans-fats from restaurants.
October 21, 2007 at 2:00 pm |
I decided to place Bobby Jindal in this section of the blog because he became the Governor of Lousiana in the October 20th run-off election, defeating several opponents in the process. What’s noteworthy about Jindal is that he is the son of Indian immigrants who came to America to pursure the American Dream and that he’s the first non-white governor of the state since Reconstruction. At age 36, he’s also the nation’s youngest governor.