As has become well-known by now, on Wednesday conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, 31, was murdered during the fall kickoff of "The American Comeback Tour" held on the campus of Utah Valley University. Kirk was a fixture on college campuses throughout the United States, promoting debate and dialogue across the ideological spectrum, and he was killed doing the very thing he committed much of his life to—defending the sacrosanct right to free speech.
His murder, however, is not an aberration but the latest incident of political violence in the United States, which has found itself in the throes of political polarization, amplified by sensationalism across political lines.
As it happens, Matthew Santucci, a colleague of mine who works in the Acton Institute's Rome office, penned an article last July following the attempted assassination of then-candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Penn. His words are prescient and worth pondering below.
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Last August marked the 80th anniversary of the surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War. As Americans, we can be rightly proud of our successful defense against the grave threats to humanity presented by the Axis powers. We do well to remember the bravery and sacrifices of all those soldiers and civilians who fought for a cause that was certainly just. So many died. The survivors went on to become that “greatest generation” that faced down the threat of communism in the Cold War while building a nation of unprecedented prosperity.
El reconocimiento de que el mundo se hunde en sus contradicciones puede ser visto, con frecuencia, como una aceptación del fracaso que impide tratar los problemas de manera efectiva. Por ejemplo, los conflictos, el deterioro social, o la degradación del medioambiente son problemas del mundo que son enfrentados de forma incoherente hasta provocar acciones contradictorias y, por ende, son difíciles de resolver y acaban en un deplorable estancamiento; lo cual puede resultar en un declive generalizado de la civilización moderna.
No es que Colombia carezca de lideres. El problema es identificar quien de entre ellos reúne todos los requisitos para salvar a un país secuestrado por la corrupción y la narcoguerrilla. Un líder que, como en su momento Álvaro Uribe Vélez, asuma la responsabilidad con valentía y entereza. Alguien que haga lo que hay que hacer para tomar control de una nación que padece de politiculitis aguda.
In my view, what really holds a society together isn’t the laws enacted by legislatures or dictators, but peer pressure, social opprobrium, and moral approbation. Generally, society is fairly self-regulating. It’s why people pay their bills at restaurants even though there’s not a cop at the door. Criminals are the exception, not the rule—although, it must be said, they naturally gravitate towards the government.