The content argues that Western nations, particularly the US and UK, face both external threats from aggressive authoritarian regimes and internal challenges stemming from a "crisis of self-doubt" that undermines their foundational principles and civic faith. Renewal requires a recommitment to these core values and a robust defense of them.
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golden age for our country.
As we say, we're marshaling
every resource we have to make
America safer and stronger and
more prosperous than ever
before.
And I'm very bullish on the
prospects of doing that.
We must do this because we know
those hostile to the west and to
our shared values are engaging
an increasingly sophisticated
forms of subversion and
espionage.
We see China, Russia and Iran
grow more aggressive and
emboldened as they intensify
their efforts to exert economic,
political and military influence
around the world.
We see a callous disregard for
basic human rights, new
provocations and even the theft
of intellectual property on a
scale like we have never seen
before.
Clearly, president trump is
taking seriously the modern and
dynamic threats that China and
Russia pose to our global
security, especially and in
focus the last few days as it
relates to the arctic.
And while we can have thoughtful
debate about among our friends
about how best to counter these
threats, we all certainly agree
they must be countered.
We ignore these threats at our
peril.
And I want to hasten to express
our gratitude to the U.K. And to
all of you for joining us and
some of our most recent actions
to deter these hostile regimes,
including the recent seizure of
a black market vessel seeking to
circumvent oil sanctions.
That was a big help to us, that
kind of open dialog and
partnership is a great example
of how we can work together to
ensure our collective defense
around the world.
It isn't objective an obvious
truth that a strong America is
good for the entire world and a
strong uk is as well.
At the same time, it's also
obvious that we have to take
care of our own houses.
So to speak, before we take care
of the neighborhood.
And let's be honest, among
friends here and both of our
nations, there is a need today
to fortify our houses against
internal challenges as well.
In the west, if we make an
honest assessment, we must
acknowledge that our long term
prosperity and security are
currently being undermined by,
let's call it a crisis of
self-doubt.
It's been developing now for
years.
Elite institutions today tell
the young and impressionable
that our story is one of
oppression and hypocrisy.
See and failure.
Our brightest minds are too
often taught to view our history
only through the lens of its
sins.
And we see the work of
international organizations and
transnational bodies hinder the
very spirit of creativity and
industriousness and daring that
our nations were built upon.
We have faced this in America,
just as you have here, a truly
menacing skepticism towards
history and our national
institutions.
And it's even come to the point
where even great heroes like sir
Winston Churchill are questioned
for their legacy.
What has taken hold is a mindset
that defines itself not by what
it loves and seeks to preserve,
but instead by what it condemns
and seeks to tear down.
And this growing disaffection we
see particularly among our
younger citizens, is a serious
threat to the health of both our
nations.
If the next generation is never
exposed to the deeper wisdom of
the western world or the
enduring tradition of the
British parliament or the genius
of America's model of Republican
self-government, then why would
they feel any obligation to
defend it or preserve them?
Fortunately, history teaches us
an important lesson.
Just over half a century after
American Independence, our
country faced a moment of
reckoning.
It was 1838, and for the first
time in our short history,
America's founding fathers, the
men who had led us through the
turbulent years of our young
nation, were no longer there to
guide us.
A growing disregard for the rule
of law had taken hold at that
time, and the cries of mob rule
threatened to every part of our
country.
A young legislator at that time
concerned by what he saw as
America's deteriorated regard
for its past, charged his
countrymen with an important
choice.
Would they uphold their duty and
preserve the blessings for which
their fathers pledged their
lives, their fortunes, and their
sacred honor?
Or would they continue on the
path of decline and
self-destruction?
The answer was simple, he said.
This experiment in liberty could
not survive unless the
principles enshrined in the
declaration and
institutionalized in our
constitution became their shared
civic faith.
That rising statement.
He was just 28 years old at the
time, would one day become
president and he would be called
to confront the greatest stress
test of the American experiment.
Yet his likeness stands just a
few feet away from here, where
we're gathered today, watching
over parliament square.
Abraham Lincoln, of course,
wisely understood that the
philosophy of the schoolroom and
one generation is the philosophy
of government in the next.
He knew that our national
renewal would not come from
repudiate in our past, but
rather from renewing and
recommitting to our best
principles, to appealing to the
better angels of our nature.
The struggle of Lincoln's time
shows us that the America may be
250 years old.
The question of how best to
steward this grand experiment
has always been with us and age
old questions require age old
wisdom in the west.
Today, we see faith in our
foundations, in our shared
inheritance weakening and what
we have to do is channel the
wisdom of our predecessors to
chart our own renewal.
So what does renewal require?
Just a few things.
Well, first, it requires
remembrance.
This is a biblical admonition.
In fact, were to remember our
blessings and from where we
came.
And the great British
philosopher G.K. Chesterton
warned every high civilization
decays by forgetting the obvious
things, things like the dignity
of the individual, the
stabilizing role of the family,
the human yearning for meaning
and purpose, and the
indispensable relationship
between freedom and virtue.
In short, we have to remember
our foundations and we have to
describe what they are because
the generation behind us seems
not to understand this.
As chesterton observed, America
was founded on a creed that was
set forth, he said, with
dogmatic and theological
lucidity.
In the second paragraph, the
declaration of Independence, we
hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are
created equal, endowed by their
creator with certain inalienable
rights, that among these are the
rights of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.
That profound acknowledgment of
obvious and undeniable truth
shook the foundation of western
democracy.
And with it the course of human
history.
Our founders recognized that all
of us are made in the image of
god, and because of that, every
single person has inestimable
dignity and value, and our
values are not related in any
way to the color of our skin or
what town or village we hail
from, what our talents are, etc.
Our value is inherent because it
is given to us by creator.
We built an entire nation upon
that premise.
And just as our citizens are
endowed with god, given an
unalienable rights, all nations
and all people should adhere to
the obvious laws of nature and
of nature's god, as our
documents say.
In his farewell address, the
father of our country, George
Washington, gave all of his
advice that echoes down to his
countrymen even today.
And echoes down through the
generations and reminding us how
we would keep this republic, how
we would keep this grand
experiment in self-government.
And he said famously, of all the
dispositions and habits which
lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are
indispensable.
Supports.
And John Adams is our second
president.
And he said famously, our
constitution is made only for a
moral and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate.
The government of any other.
The late prime minister Margaret
thatcher put it even more
simply.
Freedom, she said, will destroy
itself if it has no purpose.
Lady thatcher just like our
founders, understood that free
societies that lacked a shared
moral and civic foundation
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