“If it is ever proper for man to kneel”

It is in this context, from the perspective of the bloody millennia of mankind's history, that I want you to look at the birth of a miracle: the United States of America. If it is ever proper for man to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence.

Ayn Rand, “A Nation’s Unity”

A bonus post for Independence Day 250:

In a 1972 speech, Ayn Rand put the founding of America into the grand historical context of the problem of human violence. I love this because it is a story of progress. Just as with the history of agriculture, or energy, or health, there is a fundamental human need—the need for peace and stability—and a succession of iterative improvements, culminating in this case with the best system we have found so far: democratically representative government in a constitutionally-limited republic. America was the solution to a problem, and a brilliantly-engineered one.

You can listen to the full speech online, but I couldn’t find a transcript anywhere. Below, for paid subscribers, is a transcript I made of the key passage (about five and a half minutes, or some 700 words).