Hello All,

As Independence Day nears each year, I think about America and its place in the world and I usually end up coming away with some kind of vaguely meaningful (to me) conclusion. This year’s mental ramblings have led me down the path that begins “no thought is an island…” We all, as the expression goes, stand on the shoulders of giants. Be it political systems, technology, social values, exploration, or any other field of human endeavor, we all build on the work of those who went before. There would be no Radiohead without the Beatles, and no Beatles without Buddy Holly and Elvis.

Our founding fathers were well-educated men who built the Constitution from what they saw as the best of what history had to offer—a serious consideration of what had and had not worked in systems of self-government. The Declaration of Independence among other things was a product of a philosophical era called the Enlightenment that placed humanity and reason above superstition and the absolute power of government and church.

Sometimes when I compliment a colleague on a Tech Tails article, I get the response, “I am just rehashing a bunch of stuff that I knew/read somewhere.” My response is that all any of us really do is experience the world around us and synthesize this data. It still takes consideration and effort to glean insight from the data and communicate it clearly to someone else. Enjoy your 4th, and see you next time.

Liam
liam@smalldog.com