Aristotle was a Greek polymath who came to the conclusion that the world consists of four elements; fire, earth, water and air. While he may have misidentified the true elements the universe consists of, he did identify the four states of matter that the universe consists of. In addition to water, earth, air, and fire being able to represent the four states of matter, they have also been able to represent different types of personality and government as displayed by the tv show ‘Avatar the Last Airbender,’ and the sequel series, ‘The Legend of Korra.’ For many months I have tired figuring out the implications of the states of matter from a social aspect trying to determine what exactly they represent form a macro scale such as what type of government they represent. I believe I have finally figured out what they truly represent and I believe what they represent is where the rights of individuals come from.
Fire: Rights come from Power
Fire represents plasma, the state of matter that has the most energy and makes up the stars, electricity, and fire. Plasma molecules are basically ionized gas molecules, which causes the separation of the electrons causing the molecules to move more rapidly than the other states of matter. Fire personality types, are often characterized as being passionate, volatile, authoritative, and achieving.
The Fire nation in ‘Avatar the Last Airbender,'(ATLA) fire-benders are characterized by having desire and will. Overall the fire mentality is that rights only belong to those who have power much like how plasma molecule movement is because of energy. This can be seen all throughout ATLA. Iroh even though he was seen as a strong competent leader for most of his life was seen as a disgrace and for the most part and outcast after he abandons a war after the death of his son, Zuko’s (the prince of the Fire Nation) father completely rejects him because he perceives him as weak and disrespectful, and in the series finale the Fire Lord tells the Avatar he is unworthy to live in his world because of his weakness.
In our own world, this mentality can be reflected in the Japanese Empire (which acted as inspiration for the fire nation). The Imperial Japanese were guided by the philosophy, that they were the superior Asian civilization and therefore they should conquer all of Asia. This of course justified them stripping the rights of millions of Asians by killing, raping, and enslaving millions of them.
Overall, the rights of man will be taken away in a fire society for the sake of progress and power. If this means suppressing other cultures and letting people starve to accomplish it, then it will be done. Just as plasma molecules movement and direction is dependent on energy, rights in a fire society are dependent on the individual’s status.
Water: Rights come from the Collective
Water represents liquid. Liquid molecules are somewhat connected to each other so they will all tend to flow together. Water personality types are passive, introspective, empathetic, and intuitive.
In ALTA/ ‘The Legend of Korra’ (TLOK), the water tribe is described as adaptable with a strong sense of community. Overall the water mentality is that rights come from the permission of the collective much like how the movement of water molecules tends to be dependent on the flow and direction of the fluid. The water villain in TLOK, creates a group called the Equalists. They are non-benders seeking equality for all by causing all benders to lose their power. Their leader however is secretly a water-bender, but he does seek to bring equality to all and believes he is acting based off the will of the collective.
In our own world, the idea that rights come from the collective was seen with the French Revolution. France’s 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man states, “The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.” This seemed like a good idea considering how horrible the commoners were treated by the wealthy in France, however the revolution had won chaos ensued. The French revolution leader Robespierre was soon killed and Napoleon seized power and brought back authoritarian rule to France.
Overall, the rights of man will be taken away for the sake of equality in a water society. If this means forcibly taking away wealth from the rich to be redistributed then so be it even though this has been continually proven not to work. As the movement and direction of fluidic molecules is dependent on the movement and direction of the majority, rights in a water society are only there with the permission of the collective.
Earth: Rights come from the Government
Earth represents solid. Because of the lack of energy, molecules in a solid don’t move or move very little and are packed very tightly together. So if they were to move it would have to be either from an outside source physically forcing them to move in a specific direction (such as throwing a rock), or an increase in energy which would cause the molecules to separate (such as ice melting). Earth personality types are characterized as persistent, enduring, loyal, and at times superficial.
In an earth society, the rights of man come from the permission of the government. There were three earth despots in ATL and TLOK. The first was Long Feng who secretly ruled over Ba Sing Se. He would do this by continually placing security and safety above the freedom of citizens even if this meant literally brainwashing citizens to convince them they’re safe and that there wasn’t a war occurring. The second was the Earth Queen who forcibly indoctrinated her air bending citizens into the military and as the character Bumi pointed out that in her particular society it was her right to do this. The third was Kuvira who at first was only tasked with restoring order to the Earth Kingdoms, but instead decided to form a totalitarian Earth Empire in order to prevent chaos from returning.
As we’ve learned recently and as Dr. Jordan Peterson points out in the video above, there is a powerful positive correlation between believing in authoritarianism and prevalence of infectious diseases. Just look at what’s occurred since COVID-19. In Hungary a formerly democratic country the Prime Minister gave himself emergency powers effectively turning it into an absolute authoritarian state. China finally illegally took over Hong Kong with most of the world barely saying a thing. Jordan, Yemen, Morocco, Oman, and Iran all banned newspapers saying it can “transmit the virus” even though there is no evidence to support it. Even in the United States with a virus with a 99.7% survival rate they forced millions of people to go out of work and continually use it as a reason to prevent people protesting for the right to work (but protesting saying America is evil is apparently fine).
Overall, the rights of man will be taken away for the sake of security in an earth society. As molecules of a solid’s movement are dependent on some outside force, the rights of man in an earth society are only allowed with the permission of the government.
Air: Rights come from Nature
Air represents gases. Gases are fluidic like liquids, but with more energy the molecules have more separation and are more free moving and independent of each other. However because of continual collisions of other molecules, the molecules direction is somewhat dependent on the movement of other individual molecules. Air personality types are peaceful, free, detached, and intellectual.
The one Air villain both series was Zaheer; an anarchists. He killed the earth queen saying she had no right to take away the freedoms of her citizens. He went on a mission to rid the world of all governments. Unlike the earth societies who believe people are inherently evil and are in need of government to provide security, Zaheer believed people in their natural states are peaceful and that man only owes allegiance to himself and the ones he loves.
In our own world, an air society would be a society that lives in anarchy. In recent history, the only country to truly be anarchic was Somalia. During this time international aid group Médecins Sans Frontières that the level of daily violence was “catastrophic.” In 2000 only 21% of the Somalian population had access to drinking water, and had one of the highest mortality rates in the world. Piracy was also very common during this time and has steadily declined over the years.
Overall, in an air society freedom is most important and no one has the right to enforce their will on another individual. The only problem is, without any government there’s no real way to enforce this. Just like air molecules, your free and independent until you collide with someone else.
United States: Rights come from God
In “The Right Side of History,” written by Ben Shapiro, he specifically points out that the reason the French Revolution failed and the American Revolution succeeded was because The French Revolution said rights came from permission of the collective but the United States Declaration of Independence says that The crucial section of the Declaration says:
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.”
How are rights coming from God different from the air philosophy? Because God declared that we were created in his image and are therefore sacred. The Air philosophy understands the importance of freedom, but without the recognition of the sanctity of people and that men are capable of evil and require the possible punishment of loss of rights if they interfere with the sacred rights of other individuals, there is no true freedom.
This also allows for a balance of all of the elements. Fire and water are directly in conflict the same earth is in conflict with air. Too much emphasis on equality and it can prevent the progress of society as a whole, or too much emphasis on progress can create massive inequality. The same with freedom and security, too much security leads to little freedom and too much freedom can lead to not enough security. The United States has done its best to try and create balance with all of these elements with just enough security to not overly infringe on freedom.
We haven’t always been the best as providing equality, but we still have gotten to a point that we’re considered the least racist white majority country in the world while while allowing fairly equal opportunity by practically guaranteeing a path to the middle class if a person graduates High School (although we could do better with this by allowing school choice), gets a job, and doesn’t have a child out of wedlock. Often today people confuse the importance of equality of outcome over equality of opportunity causing the current disparities. We also have made immense progress from creating the greatest economy in the history of man, having the highest number of nobel prizes along with most summer Olympic Gold medals, and we were the first country to send a man to the moon. I believe we were able to do this because we weren’t founded by an ethnicity or race or religion, but on a set of values that worth and rights come from God and those rights are therefore inalienable and must be respected.
Why America is Dying
The current crisis in our country isn’t about racism, colorism, sexism, or another group identified by the BLM website, its about where rights come from. The BLM is specifically wanting to destroy the police (you can’t have a proper conversation on needed police reform while screaming defund the police and abolish the police), as Bret Weinstein pointed out on Joe Rogan they are attacking STEM/science, and Western civilization itself. It’s one thing to destroy Confederate statues (I could even get behind that), but to destroy the statue of George Washington who freed his slaves and had admiration for the Black Americans who fought in the Revolutionary war? To destroy the statue of Ulysses S. Grant who helped defeat the confederacy, was the President who oversaw Reconstruction with the first Black American politicians, and who took military action against the KKK? Or destroy the statue of Abraham Lincoln that was paid for by freed slaves while elderly Black Americans attempt to defend it? As it says in ‘1984’ by George Orwell:
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
The idea of white privilege itself for example, is saying an individual can be judged based off their membership of a collective. This philosophy is the exact philosophy that “justified” the Rwandan genocide of millions of Tutsi, the relocating of Kulaks which lead to the deaths of over 6 million Ukrainians, and the killing of millions of Jews. You may not think that the BLM movement is going to lead to this, but I’m sure they thought something similar and it doesn’t change the fact that a lot of people heading the BLM movement (not necessarily all of them) are being lead by the exact same philosophy.
This is also about power. In a sense, they are taking rights away from individuals with the claim that they have a right to do so in the name of “the collective” or in the name of “social justice.” Even on the BLM website it specifically says they are seeking “collective freedom” not individual freedom. And even though with the innocent name “Black Lives Matter,” which has the facade of promoting the sanctity of man, they are in fact doing the opposite by reducing the importance of the individual to promote the importance of the collective.
BLM vs MLK and Frederick Douglas
I have specifically attempted to make a list showing how different the BLM movement is from Martin Luther King Jr. who lead the civil rights movement and Frederick Douglas who helped lead the emancipation.
Believes Black Lives matter
BLM Unclear. Many Black Americans who believe differently from the BLM movement haven’t been treated well.
MLK Yes
FD Yes
Equality for All
BLM Unclear
MLK Yes. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!”
FD Yes. Firm believer in the equality of all peoples, be they white, black, female, Native American, or Chinese immigrants.[11]
Believes in peaceful Protests
BLM Somewhat. Many BLM activists have condoned the violence even though it was primarily committed by white people (about 90%) and it has especially hurt low income communities predominantly populated by Black Americans.
MLK Yes. Staunch supporter of peaceful protests so that when police would attack them it would help justify their cause.
FD Yes
Pro Segregation
BLM Yes. Demands of CHAZ/CHOP include all black patients must only be treated by black doctors and also created a Black only zone.
MLK No
FD No
Supports Women’s Rights
BLM Yes
MLK Yes
FD Yes. Staunch supporter.
Supports Christianity
BLM No. Have seen multiple cases of Leftists criticizing Churches for not being “anti-racist” enough or for daring to pray for the police.
MLK Yes
FD Yes
Wanted to “disrupt Western-prescribed nuclear family structure ”
BLM Yes. Exact quote from BLM website.
MLK No. Started a nuclear family.
FD No. Started a nuclear family.
Supports the Democratic Party
BLM Yes. Donations go to Act Blue.
MLK Neutral
FD No. Registered Republican.
Believes Israel is evil
(It’s not, every offer Israel has been given for the establishment of Israeli and Palestinian borders, they have accepted and the Arab World has rejected)
BLM Yes. Accuses Israel of being an “apartheid state” and “committing genocide.”
MLK No. “Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect her right to exist…Israel is on of the great outposts of democracy in the world.”
FD Not applicable. Died before creation of Israel.
Marxist
BLM Yes. Co-founder Patrisse Cullors is a self proclaimed trained Marxist. They are also continually using identity politics which is the Marxist strategy.
MLK No. According to biographer and personal friend “not a Marxist bone in his body.”
FD No. Classical liberalism.
Believes Constitution Insures Rights of all people
BLM No
MLK Yes
FD Yes
Overall the biggest difference between BLM and Frederick Douglas/MLK however is their view on the United States. Frederick Douglas and MLK continually made the argument that the constitution was always intended to extend to all Americans even if America often fell short in the ideals it was founded on. The BLM activists have argued that the United States was instead founded on racism and oppression so it therefore was never meant to not be racist. And that’s what Marxists do, they create an us vs them mentality and propose the only solution is to tear everything down.
What is quite possibly the most reprehensible proposition of the BLM movement is the tearing down of the “Western-prescribed nuclear family,” when so many problems the Black community are suffering are because of women having children out of wedlock. Children from single parent homes are 5 times more likely to commit suicide, 6 times more likely to be in poverty, 9 times more likely to drop out of High School, 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape, 20 times more likely to end up in prison, and 32 times more likely to run away from home.
What Can Be Done?
It’s hard to say what can be done. It’s not exactly like the passion behind the movement is completely unjustified. The fatherlessness of the Black American community that lead to the current socioeconomic disparities was caused by the welfare state with Liberal politicians specifically going to Black communities with the thinking they were helping, and also in part by Nixon’s war on drugs. Nixon’s domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman even said:
“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities……We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
There are also some police reforms that could be made such as no longer having qualified immunity, no longer having police unions, and having more training. In addition, school choice and the dissolution of teacher unions would allow Black Americans to not be forced to go to horrible schools and incentivize schools to become better.
It’s also very difficult to oppose a group that is literally called “Black Lives Matter.” Anyone who even remotely tries criticizing this movement get labeled a racist. Even being silent about the movement get you labeled as a racist. But the thing is, by targeting the police they’re only targeting a symptom of the problem not the root cause. Along with the lack of true leadership and the adoption of Marxism this movement is only going to cause more destruction for everyone. The movement has even taken on an almost religious like aspect in which everything being blamed on racism. I even debated a person on why the mortality rate with pregnant Black women and Black babies is higher with her saying it was because of systemic racism, while I pointed out arguably the biggest factor is that Black women are far more likely to have an unplanned pregnancy (about 50%) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595019/. I’ve tried talking to others too but the movement in a sense is attacking logic facts itself. As linguist and historian John McWhorter said to Bret Weinstein, all that matters is being anti-racist. This means logic and facts don’t matter, you can’t have a conversation about this with someone who is Black and uses their personal experiences as proof (which I have personally seen on Instagram) or someone who is convinced all the problems in the United States are because of racism. So what can be done?
What Might be Able to Save Us?
I sincerely disdain how much are founding fathers are being attacked right now. I understand they weren’t perfect, but I don’t think what they accomplished can truly be overstated. I understand the inclination to want to demonize individuals who owned slaves, but the honest truth is there isn’t a person on earth who is descended from slaves or slaveholders. To continually demonize individuals based on obvious atrocities that at the time were socially acceptable (even though a lot of the founding fathers truly were against slavery even if their actions didn’t always reflect it) and to therefore conclude that they are therefore evil and shouldn’t be listened to is a very wrong thing to do. Statues erected for individuals such as Jefferson and Washington were never meant to represent their perfection, but to represent the good they achieved in their lives that allow us the freedoms we enjoy today. To people who continually demonize the Founding Fathers for owning slaves, what makes you think you would be so different? If you were in that time with the means to acquire slaves in a socially acceptable setting, what makes so sure you wouldn’t? Do you really think that you are that much better than your ancestors who committed the same practices?
The concepts present in the Constitution that the Founding Fathers understood and were able to craft is insanely admirable. Because as I mentioned above they made the rights of man inalienable and made it the role of the Government not to determine those rights nor take away those rights but preserve them put us on the path of becoming one of the freest most prosperous countries in the world and allowed us to become one of the first to abolish slavery. They also in their wisdom recognized the importance of separation of powers making almost impossible for one man to have too much power. Such concepts baffled the French Revolutionists which ultimately contributed to its ultimate failure. In addition, even though we are one of the youngest countries in the world we have the oldest active constitution in the world because it was so well crafted.
The Adams-Jeffersonian Duo
Arguably the two pillars that helped establish the Untied States, were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They along with Ben Franklin wrote the Declaration of Independence and both served as Presidents. Even though both were scholars of law, history, and philosophers like Montesquieu, John Locke, and Rousseau they both lived relatively simple lives on farms. After Adam’s presidency he went back to his farm and continued to work on it till he died (without slaves). In retirement, Jefferson pursued science and natural history through research, invention, and experimentation. Even though these individuals were close friends, they held very different beliefs.
While Adams was a Federalist, he was far more of a moderate than Hamilton. In addition while Jefferson was a bit more progressive and supported the French Revolution, even he abandoned support once it became clear how much of a failure it was. Even though both men had starkly different beliefs, through logic, reasoning, and love of country they were able to have healthy debate to create the country that we have today.
I think today more than ever we need another Adams-Jeffersonian like duo. Bret Weinstein on the Joe Rogan podcast suggested a dark horse duo. Two moderates from both parties who are reasonable, and patriots run for office. Brett’s suggestion was Andrew Yang and Admiral William McRaven. Honestly this duo would probably work great but arguably a better one would be Dan Crenshaw and Tulsi Gabbard. I believe even though they believe in lot of different things, as Dan Crenshaw himself said, they are capable of true discussions. I created a petition explaining more here http://chng.it/7MyqFVKf. Here’s a petition for the other duo https://www.change.org/p/american-citizens-draft-andrew-yang-admiral-william-mcraven-for-a-2020-independent-ticket-unity2020. We need a resurgence in unification and patriotism to reestablish the importance of what this country truly represents and bring us back from the brink of darkness. Because the path we are currently on could truly end with the deaths and suffering of millions.
Basic Humanity 