This article shows how much influence the public in the US have over their leadership. Protests and letters to their leaders seem to have an effect.
In the UK it seems to be very much different. They pay lip service to it and move them off the mainline but still allow them access to the gravy train.
Is it the number complaining? I would guess that the amount of people standing up and being counted in the US is about the same proportion as objecting and complaining in the UK. Yet, our government just carries on and ignores our requirements.
So what is it? Well, whoever said the ‘pen is mightier than the sword’ was clearly not right. They were thinking long term and not short term. In the long term the pen is indeed mightier but for the short term then the sword is much,much greater.
I think that we need a constitution that gives us the right to keep and bear arms, not only for our defense but against an oppressive government. The US founding fathers certainly new what they were doing. They looked to the future, seen the issues and make sure that it could be dealt with.
People haven’t changed that much at all. The same now as they were then.
There’s a healthy attitude among the Americans in some ways – particularly about their liberties. We seem to just meekly accept whatever is dished out.
“Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.”
– General Douglas Macarthur
James,
You are right but it will not continue forever. Never have I heard so many people saying that it just can’t go on.
BobG,
I still believe the pen is mightier than the sword in the long term as it is what we read from history many years later and it takes a pen to corrupt and destroy those words. Swords are for more immediate issues and they do have their place.