Sponsored by:
On September 9, 1977, in a speech in Houston, TX, Baroness Margaret Thatcher said this:
Our heritage is under attack.
The basic values of a free society are threatened. Every generation must meet these challenges anew. If it faces them boldly, it emerges strengthened, its values reaffirmed in the present.
No generation can hope to live solely off the moral capital laid down by its predecessors. To renew is to conserve. We must turn over our moral capital once in every generation if we are to preserve it. The free enterprise economy which underlies our prosperity and underpins our freedoms can survive only in a society devoted to personal liberties under just laws.
The material benefits which flow from the free economy are not enough to inspire men to fight in its defence. To fight and sacrifice men need an ideal. They will fight for freedom as they will fight for flag or religion, because freedom is based on more than economic and political convenience; it embodies the sanctity and uniqueness of the individual, a keystone of our society.
When freedom is valued for its own sake, other benefits flow from it. We inherit from preceding generations: we wish to pass on that heritage renewed and strengthened.
Never have our basic values, our Christian values, been so menaced as they are today. The family, innocence of children, public decency, respect for the law, pride in good work, patriotism, democracy - all are under attack. If they are overwhelmed, the free market economy cannot survive, and the kind of life our economic efforts serve would perish.
Some criticism of our institutions comes from honest questioning and the desire to improve. But much of the attack is wholly destructive, impelled by the desire to vandalise and defile. This reflects the dark side of human nature, ready to seep out when the conventions of society weaken.
To defeat them we need moral courage based on tested beliefs and values. Armed with this courage, we can stand up to threat, sneer and defamation. Our forebears stood up against much worse, and won.
Wise words indeed from an icon...
As the left seeks to overturn decades and centuries of tradition and millennia of absolute truth and the laws of nature, we are reminded by these words that conservatism and freedom are truly the only way, as they are divinely inspired, based on absolute truths, and understanding of human nature. We owe it to those who sacrificed before us to guard, advance, and bequeath that freedom. It is our greatest obligation.
Comments