GREG BYRNES: Independence Day Thoughts: What is America’s Vocation in The World? “The Revolution’s goal was not to change the old world or conquer it. The American system was to work out our destiny on our patch of earth. Rather than a warrior nation, we were to be an example of work and family responsibility capable of governing and supporting itself. It was to be an example that other countries could emulate as best they could. Leave the slaying of foreign dragons and the pipe dreams of ideological abstractions like those of the French Revolution elsewhere.”