The lessons of our own experience...

The post 'An Originalist Argument Against Rigid Originalism' over at Balkinization is a really interesting perspective that begins with the following quote from James Madison who wrote in Federalist 14:

Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience?

It's worth a read.