"Shining City on a Hill" -- What does it mean.

[beekman001]

Way back when in 1611, John Winthrop said,

"For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world."

Ronald Regan was particularly fond of this analogy, but many other politicians have used it. It seems that people feel this captures something fundamental about America. So, what do you think this reflects about the US & how does, or should this affect both internal and international policy?

 

[Sooner86]

So why did you make the post?

That's the million-dollar question.

 

[opinterph]

Farewell Address to the Nation
Oval Office
January 11, 1989

excerpt

Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: “We the people.” “We the people” tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. “We the people” are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which “We the people” tell the government what it is allowed to do. “We the people” are free.

The past few days … I've thought a bit of the “shining city upon a hill.” The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still.

Ronald Wilson Reagan​

 

[smelter]

I don't think Ronald Reagan anticipated the condition of the car after George Bush and the Republican Congress got finished with it!

Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: “We the people.” “We the people” tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. “We the people” are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast.

 

[beekman001]

So why did you make the post? That's the million-dollar question.

I made the post because 1) I'm not really sure how I would answer all those questions. sort of as a challenge to my self to actually get my ass in gear and straighten my thoughts out. 2) While I may not be able to answer those questions specifically, I do think that our nations leaders (both R & D) don't seem to be acting as if they've considered what they're doing in light of what the US stands for.

She does that all the time, and thinks it's clever.

I'd like to point out that the last thread I started was on may 4th, regarding KSR v Teleflex and it's impact on US business and I hardly think one post every two weeks counts as "all the time". But, if that's really the way you feel and you dont like this, I'll refrain from participating in this forum.

 

[dw8038r2]

I think the "City on the Hill" idea is a major part of the American psyche, and it probably always has been since those days when it was first uttered.

Let's face it, the majority of Americans assume that Our Way is always the Best Way. We bring capitalism, religion, democracy, Starbucks, etc. to the more benighted parts of the globe without ever imagining that those might not be the best things for other cultures. In fact, most Americans probably wouldn't even understand the concept if you asked whether our way of life is always good to export. Look at the shock in the Episcopal Church when the "developing nations" resisted the ordination of a gay bishop. We see ourselves as a model to the rest of the world in everything. Any surprise that we're spending a fortune in dollars and lives to bring "freedom" to the Middle East?

I think unless one understands this very basic tenet of Americanism, he'll never come close to understanding us as a people.

 

[OtterJoq]

I think the "Shining City On The Hill" is Davenport, Iowa.

I really do.

 

[JOHN B]

A "Shining City on a Hill" basically means a beacon that others can look up to for guidance and "moral behavior", or someone to emulate. Of course, that was way back before we became the country that forces our beliefs down other countries throats with "you are either for us or against us". Before we had CEO's of major companies taking millions of dollars away from it's employees for their own pockets before claiming bankruptcy. Before we made laws in certain states making it illegal to feed the homeless.......

Hopefully we can someday gain back the trust and respect of other countries before they decide that we are not worth putting up with anymore....

 

[Michael Luc]

It's a phrase in the Bible. I believe the city is allegorical -- supposed to be the personification of someone worthy of emulation.

 

[JayHawk]

Yeah Beekman Both Alfie and that other guy only live to trash wahtever other folks say not really to make any points of their own, for they own nothing.

The shining city is certainly not what we have expressed to the world yet they still arrive in droves to have our tainted version of correct and just. Something that has not been pushed forward or upheld at every juncture of our countries history due to minimal momentary goals of politicians living for the minute not our future. I refer not to a party either for both are guilty of applying bandaids instead of the real cure. As if by example many have jumped up to deride everything they can see, why, because it serves their purpose. That purpose is not a solution it is blame. It makes them feel ok to identify the blame without doing more.

In any event the blame game disgust me, figure out a solution and go forward, stop whining incessantly about what you can do nothing about.

The shining city is the ideal place that we would be as the leader of all that is civilized. People may wish to argue that but it is attitude or vanity that brings out such comments. We choose the course and we have made some wrong headed choices based upon ideology that leads a few and has no basis in the ideal world we set out to achieve. It is merely designed to achieve political superiorority, if only by a bare margin, in a world where people can hardly be conscience of the consequences of their actions.

 

[smelter]

It's a phrase in the Bible. I believe the city is allegorical -- supposed to be the personification of someone worthy of emulation.

The "Shining City on a Hill" is illuminated by George Herbert Walker Bush's "Thousand Points of Light". I believe Reagan and Bush Sr. were writing a sequel to the Wizard of Oz. It was their way of explaining to the masses how trickle down economics worked.

 

[smelter]

It means that if you build your city on high ground, you'll be in a better position to rain down terror on the other cities around you. But if your city nevertheless gets fire-bombed, you will be a shining city on a hill.

Of all the explanations given so far, yours seems to be the most logical.

 

[slobone]

It's from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:14: Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Jesus was telling his followers not to keep their faith to themselves, but to go out and be an example to the world, as he also says in verse 16: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

It's a phrase that was used by the Pilgrims when they first came to Massachusetts in 1620, because they believed their settlement would be a righteous community.

And sure enough, a mere 385 years later, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage. How about that?

 

[JayHawk]

Yawn. Me 'Tho Sleepy after reading this.

Look, Hon, one doesn't get to a "Shining 'Thity" by running up deficits like Poopy Reagan did -- that's how one lands up on the International Monetary Funds' list of third world nations.

On the "Get some smarts you 'thilly" book club this month was Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations.

Of course for those slow to absorb info that is laid out in such a brilliantly tedious fashion, take a look at P.J. O’Rourke "ON The Wealth of Nations" or Robert Heilbroner's "The Worldy Philosopher's"

After the slightest comprehension of economics you will understand why at times governments need to infuse money into a society to make it prosper.

 

[JayHawk]

And you probably think Clinton was responsible for the growth during his time in office. Maybe then you can tell me why he left a recession for his successor.