Listening to my local talk radio morning program last Monday as they discussed the health care bill, a man of middle age and quite fluent in ebonics called in to explain why the folks in East Austin supported the president’s legislation. He capped off his lengthy polemic with the following loud statement: “We ain’t got what you got!”
To which all three hosts responded simultaneously, “But we pay for ours!”
One of the men tidied it up the call with this ripe nugget, “And we manage to pay for yours, too.”
East Austin is where our poor live, the majority of East side residents benefit from a variety of federal and state subsidies. They get more per dollar city services, including policing and per pupil spending, than they rest of the city combined. These are people who require a lifetime of babysitting because they don’t have a fucking clue about consequences.
As you and I very well know, this ignorant caller, along with the rest of his ain’t got neighbors are going to continue getting exactly what they already receive under the new bill, more taxpayer-funded Medicaid.
I do believe Mr. East Side caller summed up quite nicely the entitlement, redistributive mindset that is alive and well in America. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that this man’s neighborhood just got expanded by thirty million souls, doesn’t it?
Owning the cold-hearted inner bitch that I truly am, a place stoked with the carcasses of soft mewling kittens, I feel absolutely no remorse or guilt in saying that responsible taxpayers have no financial obligation whatsoever to these needy, incapable morons or their unfortunate offspring.
I don’t owe a single dollar to subsidize childless people who choose to go out for dinner, pay for broadband, text on their iphone, tat up their sleeves, go on vacation or lease expensive cars rather than pony up a few hundred bucks to participate in their company’s least expensive catastrophic health care plan.
I’m more than willing to federally fund vaccinations and Norplant for the children born to irresponsible breeders, but that’s the extent on any health care front. You should be prepared to pay for your own kid’s routine doctor visit, along with the cheap script for amoxicillin, once you decide to breed. Your choices should never be my responsibility.
A capable adult should be willing to sacrifice some pleasure to ensure that their sperm and eggs have comprehensive coverage, otherwise shut that baby maker down because I don’t owe you jack shit and I’m highly indignant that you expect me, a complete stranger, to financially support your offspring’s basic needs or the random catastrophes that rip through the average person’s life.
Do people like Mr. East Side or Nancy Pelosi even care about what I give up, or what my children might lack, because I’m forced to support their perpetual financial irresponsibility alongside my own obligations? I’m betting a big, selfish no would echo back from the empty canyons of their rapacious souls.
30 million more voters. That’s what this was all about.
I blame the first Republican who caved to the Alinsky tactic of “heartless, evil capitalist.”
We have no one to blame but George HW Bush, Newt, and every so-called GOP leader since that time, who lacked the vision and foresight to fund the next generation of Conservatives. Instead they sunk further into their inbred cronyism and lawyer-infested political tool shed.
Good God in Heaven. The GOP has fussy problems with a shining light like Palin, and the Dems have NO problem with a …a . . . creature like Pelosi.
There’s our problem.
Too true, Gator.
Hello brilliant Joan, I didn’t spank the GOP this trip but I’m glad you did.
You thoughts are like a breath of fresh air
I never forget where this dysfunction originates. It is almost always through people of my race, their intelligence outrunning their character, always owning an out-sized hollow conscience bloated by vanity; sterile and soulless. People like that cannot resist directing the lives of others, however badly it keeps turning out. There is nothing very compelling to keep them at home.
Black people cash their checks, but despise them. They have always sensed that there is a sublime hatred in the giving. I first saw it when I was fourteen, and didn’t know what to make of it then, but knew it was some ugly unspoken thing. Blacks have always hated Jews for this reason.
The leftist is certain of his superiority, but cannot stand general inequality, and fears discovering to a certainty that blacks, among others, are stupid. He will do anything to avoid being certain, and he has. This is the result. We’re next.
“I don’t owe a single dollar to subsidize childless people who choose to go out for dinner, pay for broadband, text on their iphone, tat up their sleeves…”
You left out “refused to get an education”. I went to school with these sorts of resentful parasites, and close contact quickly made it clear that they were poor not because they were “oppressed” and “exploited” but because they were ignorant and lazy and belligerent. They refused to get an education or learn a trade, and they were seemingly unable to behave in such a way as to make good employees. After all, why should they work hard if they were entitled to everything?
James has addressed the fundamental problem regarding local, state and federal government in the United States. This attitude is now politically orthodox, and is enshrined in law and regulation. It is now the central organizing principle of government in this country. The political/social establishment will protect this orthodoxy even at the threat of its own existance.
I see no way that this state of affairs can be changed at the ballot box, particularly since so many benefit from the system. It could have been possible as late as the early 60s, when the population was around 90% European, but not now.
Usually people who make this argument are called ‘racists’ and other things at this point in the discussion, but name calling will not change the facts.
Okay – after two days of wallowing in depression, I’ve reached the following conclusions:
[1] I agree with whomever floated the suggestion the the Republican party change its name to the Conservative party, and
[2] We should trashcan – post haste – the term “compassionate conservatism” and replace it with the phrase “hate me all you want, I’m still not paying your allowance anymore conservatism.”
Sorry – I keep thinking about what the chances are of a sea change towards more conservative principles actually happening are and I get all depressed again.
The antidote is shame.
Men who are not dads should be heaped with shame.
Men whose families are on welfare should be shamed.
Families with members on the take should be shamed.
Women with kids out of wedlock should be shamed.
Austin:
Yes, but. Even ordinary lifetime welfare recipients are capable of shame; it is only that they have been handed the get out of shame card. There is another type of individual who is, I am certain, incapable of shame, and they populate leftist academic and political landscapes. Even though I was married to one, it takes time to realize that the great leveling emotion of shame does not exist in them. That is why they never learn. And they are always very intelligent. It is a lethal combination–for others. We have not controlled them, quite the contrary. How are blacks going to do that?
I am not defending anybody; have no warm feelings for sociopathic cultures. But this other, peculiar thing, is our true battle, as Quent indicates. The rest is a result of losing it.
Yup. Every point, right on the money.
One thing I just can’t get around is the shame that thoughtful black folks must be feeling. Watching the plantation owners glorify every toxic aspect of their culture for the last 40 years must be heartrending.
I’ve been knowing black folks since I was a kid. I was pretty much abandoned; my Dad died in WWII and my mother shut her heart away, so I pretty much had to figure out how to be a man on my own. Older black men taught me how to work, and older black women taught me how to care and be responsible. I virtually never heard anybody who didn’t sound like Bill Cosby on the subject of acting like a man.
Now family men are abandoned in favor of acting like a pimp. White kids have been taught to idolize the worst kind of ghetto trash ever since the invention of rocknroll. The sublime brilliance of Duke Ellington has been drowned out by punks holding their crotches and mackin they bitches. The sadness and loss I feel is inexpressible, and I’m white. Imagine how it must be to be a black man or woman who remembers their grandparents’ pride at raising kids who lifted themselves up.
Every Goddamned iota of this tragedy has been engineered by the More Tolerant Than You ever since Lyndon Johnson, and all the conservatives have responded with has been “I’m a good person too!” This shit has got to come to a screeching halt. It won’t happen in my lifetime, and probably not in our grandchildrens’ lifetimes, but normal people simply have to recognize that any and all leftism has been morally bankrupt and corrupt since 1789.
Root and branch. Never quit. Find a “liberal” and pick a fight, I don’t give a good Goddamn what they call themselves.
The situation is grim beyond anything in my experience. It is worse than death. Most of us are soft, middle class types. We, those few who give a damn, are still debating first principles in the 23rd hour and 59th minute. We don’t even agree on who ‘we’ are.
Despite all, the time is coming for us to hat up and roll the dice one more time. We are going to have to dig deep to pull this off. Lawn chairs, cute signs and platitudes won’t cut it.
Very grim.
Jade: You be down wit d Zombie:
“Now, I really don’t care if you overeat, smoke like a chimney, hump like a bunny or forget to lock the safety mechanism on your pistol as you jam it in your waistband. Fine by me. And as a laissez-faire social-libertarian live-and-let-live kind of person, I would never under normal circumstances condemn anyone for any of the behaviors listed above. That is: Until the bill for your stupidity shows up in my mailbox. Then suddenly, I’m forced to care about what you do, because I’m being forced to pay for the consequences.”
http://pajamasmedia.com/zombie/2010/03/20/why-america-hates-universal-health-care-the-real-reason/
Not quite so much an underworld, as a Bizzaro world. Everything is topsy turvy.
Let’s sum it up here: Mister East Austin, or a member of his social strata, ends up in front of a judge for delinquent child support, drunk-n-disorderly conduct, lewd behavior in front of a child, breaking into a pool hall after hours to steal beer, and loitering. Now, here’s the discouraging part: The moment when his social order breaks down…is the moment he stands before the judge. Up until that very instant, he has a “society” of sorts that functions beautifully. It’s just different from what we’re used to.
In our world, work is just something everybody does so they aren’t useless. In his world, it’s for suckers. In our world, you do the things you tell people you’re going to do. In his world, you don’t. In our world, when you want something you don’t have, you work hard and try to improve yourself. In his world, you take it.
Guess which one of these snow globes was knocked off the windowsill this week and sent crashing to the floor.
Glad I could cheer you up.
I’m definitely down with the Zombie, Walter. He left out one important observation, though;
The liberals pushing for universal care would love to see everyone turned into busybody, intolerant snitches. That’s how they like to roll.
The democrats are intent on eradicating the middle class in this country. This bill was a large step in that direction.
The ‘progressives’, liberals, dems, whatever…Have been messing with forces they have no clue about despite centuries of intensive academic study, reinvention, and experimentation at creating their scientific utopia of statism. Despite all of their long history of moral failure they continue making it up anew as they go along.
Over and over…All in the service of creating a heaven on earth where smart people -just like them- rule over the unenlightened proles, who shouldn’t cling to their own God, but should instead be content and happy as their betters dispense life and death at every rationalized whim. All the death, and all the “leveled” poverty and “egalitarian” misery caused by their science of socialism means nothing to them beyond its utility in gaining them more power. They live and we suffer and die to expand their power to indulge in their self gratification.
All their “groking” in the sixties about “revolution”; all their little field trips to bumf__kistan to show their solidarity with murdering tyrants; all their race-baiting cockfights; all the refinements of cultural tinkering, rot, and reeducation propaganda used to shackle the productive to their unproductive enslaved classes; All of it is going to come back and bite their Satan-serving asses.
At this point I’d laugh in glee to see them lined up against their own wall but for the fact that we all will reap their whirlwind…Yet again.
No. If we’re truly Conservative, we don’t give an inch of ground, or worry about our labels. If we’re wise, we’ll change the Dems’ name for them and never use the “D” word again.
They are, as Sharpton informs, the Socialist Party. Make them own it.
Whew! Y’all are a hatin’ bunch today. Deal me in.
Amen, Joan.
Funny how liberals hate “labels” except when they’re smacking them on everyone else’s foreheads.
On a more serious note. I’m finding the entrenched acceptance of mini-socialism as comfortably center-mainstream ingrained thought among even right center, intelligent people quite disturbing.
Where the hell have you been, boyfriend?
The Haven loves spreading the hate. ;-)
The next civil war will make the last one look like patty cake.
Austin, you are partly, and commendably, right. The problem with your suggestion is that you cannot shame those without consciences, or those professional victims who feel a strong sense of entitlement. Permit me to suggest embarrassing them. Labels come to mind, porcine and, uh, pelvic.
Its their kids that should be embarrassed.
[...] Heaven - Cut My Throat If It Feeds Your Need Submitted by American [...]
What none of the Givers have figured out is what they will do when those Takers decide it isn’t enough. All that Mercy will come at a terrible price as it won’t be long before they cannot collect enough to pay off that rabble.
Then will come the rampaging hoards, not just demanding their due but taking it from their benefactors. Along with their wives and daughters, thanks. Their sons will not be ignored as they will have a value, too, in some squalid market.
Most people – decent, educated people – live in a kind of rarified air. Take some time to look at the parts of the city you hope your car won’t break down in. Read the police reports. Understand that your life and kindness doesn’t mean shit to any of them – black or white.
And yes – then comes the battle. Another battle of the republic. Or whatever we can hold of it.
Eric S. Raymond has some worthwhile thoughts about this mindset at “Armed and Dangerous”-
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1848#more-1848
Like this blog, the comments are usually more than worth the price of admission.
Ever read Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome? Three young London chaps and a dog go for a boating holiday on the upper Thames in 1889. It’s extremely funny (e.g. their epic struggle with a can of pineapple without a can-opener). But there is a grim moment when they encounter the corpse of a woman who drowned herself. “The old, old vulgar tragedy…”, Jerome calls it: she was seduced, left pregnant, abandoned by family and friends, struggled for a few years to support herself and the child, and finally gave up.
Do you want to go back there? I think very few do.
OTOH, there’s our present 40% illegitimacy rate (50% among hispanics, 70% among blacks, close to 100% among the welfare-dependent underclass). See this Times Online article about “the growing number of extended man-free families” in Britain: three and four generations of welfare-dependent “matriarchies”. Or the household noted in the Chicago papers a few years back: four women, sixteen children (by twelve different fathers, all absent), living in utter squalor.
The real culprit isn’t misguided compassion, it’s the wealth and security of modern industrial societies which enables it. I don’t think any Christian-derived culture could be that ruthless when the cost is small. (And nature no longer provides automatic enforcement: that Chicago household had no infant mortality).
But of course one of the rules of evolution is that any successful life form multiplies until it consumes all the resources of its ecological niche.
Another factor is the libertine left’s insistence on unlimited sexual license and rejection of all traditional morality. Which leads to my friend’s 14-year-old daughter deciding to have a baby, and another at 17. He now has five grandchildren, four of them illegitimate. (His daughter is now married with a third child; his son has two bastards.)
Rob De Witt: The worst thing “white America” ever did to “black America” (not excluding slavery) was “the Sixties”. All the pathologies afflicting black America today are traceable to the cultural fashions of the Sixties.
“I don’t think any Christian-derived culture could be that ruthless when the cost is small.”
Who says the cost is small? Is this the small cost?
“OTOH, there’s our present 40% illegitimacy rate (50% among hispanics, 70% among blacks, close to 100% among the welfare-dependent underclass).”
I do not think the cost is small, either from an economic perspective, or from a moral perspective.
In the past, out of wedlock birth was frowned upon due to the sheer economic burden of it upon the mother and her parents and the community. At least then child support came directly from the dad and went to the mother. They also knew that the kids had a much greater risk of being a blight.
Nowadays, the state has usurped the role of any father, making him superflous in any way except as a sperm donor while hiding the direct relationship between poverty and crime due to the fracture of the family.
Those of us who raise our kids right are just raising the next generation of virtual cuckolds. We are fools and are delivering our flesh and blood into a purgatory.
The ONLY weapon we have and can use on a daily basis is shame.
Nowadays, the state has usurped the role of any father, making him superflous in any way except as a sperm donor while hiding the direct relationship between poverty and crime due to the fracture of the family.
The state has done far worse than that. Three or four generations ago, a child was unquestionably an asset; a family with eight was wealthier than a family with four, even if they had trouble getting them all fed. If everyone wants a big family, but not necessarily everyone is lucky enough to have one, the natural result of it is going to be that most births take place in the households of the best & brightest.
Now, children are liabilities. You aren’t permitted to raise them as you see fit. You can claim them as dependents, but for the most part it’s just a hassle. Eighteen years, give or take, of arguing about child support with someone you can’t stand. Result: “Idiocracy”. Do see that movie. Here in the real world, as well, people have children in inverse proportion to their mental competencies overall. The smartest among us avoid it entirely. The next tier down have as few as possible. Those who have as many as they want, by-and-large, avoid thinking ahead about things, avoid accepting personal responsibility, or both of those.
Those of us who raise our kids right are just raising the next generation of virtual cuckolds.
Yep. Hope-and-change; honest work is for suckers.
Round up a hundred kids between 15 and 18. How many of them have been taught by a loving, concerned parent how to ride a bike properly? How about how to change the tube in the bike when it’s flat? How about changing a tire on a car? Read an analog clock? Inspect a home for termite damage?
There is yet another casualty of this, although what’s above is plenty bad enough. As children are treated like whelps and left ignorant on how to do minute, useful things — they fail to develop the intellectual gifts that would be required to do these things. I’m not talking about I.Q. I’m talking about taking ownership of things. Again, see Idiocracy. People don’t end up in trouble because they failed to take the time to inspect something; they get in trouble because things didn’t “go their way” and now someone has to come along on a white horse and rescue them.
Rob De Witt: The worst thing “white America” ever did to “black America” (not excluding slavery) was “the Sixties”. All the pathologies afflicting black America today are traceable to the cultural fashions of the Sixties.
You really should read Thomas Sowell’s “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”.
He takes it back a bit further than that.
[Once again, Sowell is right. He's ALWAYS right.]
On the subject of Sowell:
A Conflict of Visions.
More stuff that would provide a benefit to the interested persons assembled here, while benefiting from their attention:
NeoNeocon: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Social Justice.
My own spot: Architects and Medicators.
When you get right down to it, we’re all saying the same thing. And that thing is: The obsessive-compulsive, safety-zealots among us have set out to build a world that works for “everyone,” but by “everyone” what they really mean is just them. The rest of us can sit & spin for all they care.
@MK: I’ve worked for the better part of a decade to collect as much of Sowell’s writing as I can.
I honestly think he’s even smarter than you.
“Knowledge and Decisions” blew me away.
“A Conflict of Visions” happens to be sitting on my nightstand at the current time.
“Vision of the Anointed” is loaned out and I’ll probably have to buy copy number 5 because they never seem to come back.
“Affirmative Action Around the World” is fascinating, and justified his world tour [research] while he was still well enough to travel extensively.
And lastly MK, you’re one helluva blogger, let me tell you.
Ah yes, another community of like minded individualists on the Internet…. I liked this post so much this blog goes pretty damn close to the top of my daily visits.
The health care “reform” bill that was just “signed” was disgusting enough without the outright bribes, closed door threats and shenanigans going on out of public view. But allow me to express what REALLY jumped out at me and got my blood boiling.
Simply, parents can keep their ‘children’ on their health insurance plans until the age of 26.
WHAT?!? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!??!
Personally, as a 16 year old back in the day growing up in the Motown area, I couldn’t and didn’t wait until I was a legal adult to move out of my parents house. My folks always encouraged us to prepare for ‘adulthood’ but I was the impatient sort and so there I was, 16 years old with a crappy little job, living with my buddy in his parents house and thinking I was King Shit.
Long story short, we found our way down to Lakeland, FL and within weeks ended up in jail. My folks let me sit there and stew for a few weeks, but eventually bailed me out and had me shipped back home, and that was the beginning of my own personal ‘seeing the light’ revelation.
The lesson I tried to instill in my 4 kids was to be ready to assume the responsibility of adulthood at the age of 18, but if it was going to take a little longer, that was fine. Point is, I was making that decision, not the gubment.
So now, in their benevolence, the gubment is going to tell my kids that it’s OK to not grow up… it’s OK to wait to take responsibility for their lives…. It’s OK because they’re ‘allowing’ their parents to continue to care for them, at least as far as their health goes.
Who in the hell gave the gubment the right to try to make me into a bad guy if I were to tell my kids no?
I mean, REALLY?? It’s bad enough we have millions of mindless Obamabots running around singing that asshole’s praises (because they just don’t friggin’ have a clue), but they’re going to attempt to try to turn my kids against me for showing what used to be known as tough love?!??
Over.My.Dead.Body.
Jeebus, when the impact of this REALLY starts to affect his loyal followers and they realize they’ve been sold a bill of goods that they were not expecting, and the tax man is breathing down their necks with his hand out…. I’d just like to be there each time it happens…. maybe wearing one of those smug looks the man-child in chief likes to sport.
But then, maybe I won’t get the chance to do that because I’ll already be in prison for not complying with this unlawful piece of shit.
Semper Fidelis
Hmm…nobody sees the irony. You guys /paid/ to teach the caller to think like that! If you buy a rotten piece of beef at the grocery, do you get mad at the cow?
You’ve got the right ideas, but you’re 75 years too late. http://mises.org/daily/2726
Just found your whatever this is, love it and promise to read it every day,
Jim, most us here subscribe to classic liberalism or libertarianism, so we do understand that the boat left the dock 75 years ago.
Unfortunately we weren’t around back then to voice our opinions.
Welcome to my eclectic world, Kevin.
*WE* (or, rather, our parents, THEN us) are to blame for the state of our nation.
Did you know there’s a Federal law which makes it a FELONY to feed a wild dolphin?
Why?
Because – becoming used to the handouts, he’ll lose all urge to hunt for himself, and will starve if the handouts ever stop. Further, he’ll actually become AGGRESSIVE in his demands for more free meals.
Our would-be masters in Sodom on the Potomac understand this fact about DOLPHINS – Why can they not see it applies DOUBLE to humans?!
IMHO, they KNOW. So why?
Simple: It further entrenches their hold on power. They’ve deliberately created a tribal underclass, instilled it with such hatred that the violence is always simmering just below the surface and lifts the lid once regularly with an intra-culture murder to remind us just how savage these people are.
Thus we don’t DARE do away with the welfare-state because we all know what would happen the first time the checks didn’t come.
Fred Reed wrote a GREAT essay on the subject called “letter from a dead racist.”
Search. Read. Think.
God help us…
DD
Not much can be done. The world is full of weak and stupid people, and the world always will be full of weak and stupid people.
Now forgetting about them and letting them devour eachother is all well and good except for one thing: They outnumber us.
In order to maintain an organized society you have to provide for your weak and stupid. the proletariat is the most dangerous class of citizen because they’re the largest class of citizen, and any observer of history can see that nothing unravels a government or society faster then a large group of poor and under educated political dissidents.
And so to this healthcare bill i say, all right, whatever, big deal. It’s been a long time coming and this change was inevitable, along with the many more changes I’m sure are to come. Do I think its fair the strong and successful are forced to subsidize the weak and irresponsible? No way.
Is there a better alternative then lining them all up and having them shot? Don’t answer this question for me, send it to Obama or something.
When it comes to things like this, as a young college student hoping for a successful career in the future, I’m just going to keep my head down and grab what I can when I can. Might as well be pragmatic.
What we are all taliking about, and would like to see happen, is Objectivism.
Ayn Rand. Go. Find. Read. LOTS. Especially “John Galt’s Mainfesto” near the end of Atlas Shrugged.
Austin: I wrote “I don’t think any Christian-derived culture could be that ruthless when the cost is small.” You wrote: “Who says the cost is small? Is this the small cost?”
In the 19th century and before, charity was constrained by the fact that most people had to worry about having enough to eat, and a place to live, and clothes on their backs. There wasn’t enough economic surplus to support a welfare system.
Today, the average American is wealthy beyond the dreams of pre-20th-century avarice. The actual direct cost of supporting the welfare underclass is a few percent of GDP, and this hit isn’t enough to bite hard.
Yes, the appetite of the state is becoming unsustainable, but the bulk of the direct cost is pay-offs to favored interest groups (farm subsidies, ‘green’ energy subsidies, bridges to nowhere) and the salaries and pensions of state employees (teachers, for instance). The indirect costs (crime, prisons, urban decay) are larger, but not close to unsustainable.
WWWebb: you posted
“Rob De Witt: The worst thing “white America” ever did…”
I wrote that as a response to Rob. Web courtesy should include proper attribution of quoted text. My statement is liable to offend some people; their wrath should be directed at me, not Rob. Please, edit as needed.
Hi, Daphne. I understand that, else I wouldn’t bother writing anything at all! Forgive my bluntness, but here’s the problem…your subscriptions won’t help you any more. It’s always been about individualism versus statism and the point of the link was that statism took over–not as a theoretical matter, but literally–75 years ago. At least. There’s an argument that it was really 1913 or even 1865. For that matter, there’s a very strong argument that it was actually 1789 when the founding document of the United States of America was usurped (snookered away, really). Most people think the Constitution was the founding document of this country, and it wasn’t. As a matter of historical fact, the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence were formulated, as the founding of the United States of America, in the Articles of Confederation. There’s a reason that Patrick Henry, for one, stood against the Eastern Establishment in “amending” those Articles. There’s a reason that we’re all taught about the Federalist Papers, but not the Anti-Federalist papers. As the radio caller made very clear, we learn what we’re taught. You did, I did, and so did he.
The point of Objectivism is an epistemic one. In Rand’s words, “Reality is the final arbiter.” It serves no purpose at all in pretending that we’re in theoretical territory…the map may be theoretical, but the territory is hard as rock. As Rand also noted, it’s up to us–and that means EACH of us–to use our MINDS to get out of this mess. These times are the “cashing in” of all the mistakes made earlier. On one side of the battlefield are hordes of collectivist-looters and on the other are hordes of intellectuals who understand that thuggery isn’t the way to go. The very, very serious problem is that those intellectuals themselves–whether constitutionalists, libertarians or even most anarchists–have nothing to offer except more thuggery itself. They recognize the simple truth that “words don’t stop bullets” and that the collectivists-statists can’t get their goals except through the use of bullets. Okay, that’s wrong and that’s evil, but it’s already happened and now we’ve got to figure out a way to start over.
This isn’t the time for more of the same. This isn’t the time for “fighting for the country.” This isn’t the time for fighting for “Rule of Law.” This is the time, perhaps the last time ever, when either Egoism, and its social manifestation as Capitalism, becomes born, and I mean born for real, or the species goes extinct for failing to identify its own nature. And THAT doesn’t rest on any political theory at all. THAT rests on whether individuals, AS individuals, decide for themselves how they will live their own lives and how they will interact with others. The genuine Egoist doesn’t engage thuggery because it’s the wrong social action, even though it is. He doesn’t engage it because of what it does to himself. In a nutshell, it’s treating things as they are not, and there is no greater evil an identifying organism can do. And no, of course the genuine Egoist doesn’t therefore sacrifice whatever loot some moocher du jour is demanding to take from him, but neither does he sacrifice his life to a scheme–any scheme–that has as its basis, “Well, we’ve finally got a large enough mob to stop the encroaching hordes, so now we can impose behavior that is proper (or good or rational or…)”
No, the Egoist lives his life as is proper in order to obtain the highest value to a person, which in a single compound word is, “ego-adoration.” We are each the one person we always live with and if we can’t respect ourselves in our most discerning judgement, then there isn’t a chance in the world that we’ll ever respect anyone else. This doesn’t mean not to sanction or not to judge others…if anything, it means exactly the opposite. “Judge and prepare to be judged” is another great Randism. I guess my only point here is that “sanction of others” is not the proper starting point of an Egoist life; garnering splendor for oneself, is.
Getting back to the wbole original point, the problem isn’t that caller or his philosophy. The problem is that otherwise clear thinkers have given him the means to instantiate it! Take that away and believe it…his philosophy will change. First and foremost he’s a man, and that comes inclusive with a mind. But it’s sort of silly for anyone to expect him to use his, if they’re not willing to use theirs. And the way things are going currently, it’s a mad race to see who can use theirs the least!
I’m not familliar with your blog, so I’m sorry if this doesn’t really belong here. I just wanted to clarify and I’m sure we agree on at least one thing—”Golly, are we in a mess!” Pretty tough to quibble with that one, eh?
Jim, that brilliant, highly cogent, well written comment most definitely belongs here and I give you a gracious nod of thanks for taking the time to write it down. And I like bluntness from intelligent people.
You’ve touched on many things that could fodder at least a half dozen great discussions, but I’m most interested in how we systemically institute a change in the thinking of men like the caller.
How do we, and I believe we’re in the minority, begin to unwind the untruths our people have been weaned on for nearly hundred years and replace it with clear eyed rationalism of human nature and our government? How do we un-teach the false history that most hold as sacrosanct?
We’re talking about a major shift in mindset for the majority of the population, who aren’t autodidacts, and one hell of a fight with lower and higher education bureaucrats.
Having found my way here by way of Newbius, all I can say is that this is an utter breath of fresh air. People paid to be stupid and lazy… will.
Jim
Those were very kind words, Daphne; thanks.
“I’m most interested in how we systemically institute a change in the thinking of men like the caller.”
Then you begin at the beginning and come to grips with the simple ontological fact that a change in a person’s thinking can arise from one source only.
It’s sort of a sad fact when you consider the other guy’s thinking. You know, he gives up his life just as badly as he takes from the lives of others, and both are terrible evils. OTOH, it can be a glorious fact when you consider what it means for yourself and those you love.
BTW this was another fundamental point of Rand’s Objectivism, but someone must’ve slipped it into the grave with her. This is why individual freedom is so critical. Because we are not able to literally change a person’s mind, it is absolutely essential that we not be forced to interact with him. Only by having that sort of freedom, will the rational ever edge out the irrational. Believe me…when he gets hungry and sees a restaurant next to an office with a “Help Wanted” sign, he’ll change his mind!
This ain’t rocket science; it’s either-or: thuggery or capitalism. If he chooses thuggery, then he’s a gnat. If he chooses capitalism, then I’ll sell him the food. One way he gets squished, the other way he gets to raise a family and go to the movies. He was smart enough to dial a phone; he’ll be smart enough to figure that one out. One thing decent folks have to understand, is that there are only a small minority of actual evil-doers between here and there. That guy wasn’t irrational for taking the money given to him, and really technically the evil-doers weren’t wholly irrational for extorting the money in the first place. Their goals may be irrational, but they did manage to achieve what they wanted, didn’t they? Indeed…better than us!
Nope, I’m afraid it was the decent people who were irrational, for all the reasons Rand laid out in Galt’s speech. And BTW, here’s a little esoterica for you. There’s a lot of arguing about what exactly is the philosophy of Objectivism, but that argument can be laid to rest. When Rand (re)published Galt’s Speech in “For the New Intellectual,” she introduced it with the following line—”This is the philosophy of Objectivism.” So that discussion is over and all that’s left for the rest of us, is to figure out what she had right and what she had wrong. She had an awful lot right, but the rational person is obligated to discover what she had wrong as well.
I still don’t see a rational construct or applicable system anywhere in your argument of how we fundamentally address the disconnect that dominates the general accepted knowledge or current educational dogma.
Rand had many fine points, but she missed a few loops along the way.
“Then you begin at the beginning and come to grips with the simple ontological fact that a change in a person’s thinking can arise from one source only.”
Beyond that, I’m not sure what you’re looking for. You operate a blog and I trust you do what you can to impart your views of matters. I’ve said for a long time now that probably the single biggest thing this society could do in this regard, would be to completely stop all public funding of all education immediately. But that’s not about to happen, so all you can do is develop your own mind as best you can and appeal to whatever rationality is in others.
You’re falling into the trap nearly everyone falls into—you want to see something happen in others, and you understand the justice of what you see. Unfortunately, the justice of what you see doesn’t make anything happen in someone else’s mind. There’s only one way to /make/ anything happen in someone else, and that’s what got us here in the first place!
I’m good, but not so good that I can change the nature of reality. Sorry about that. If you like to dream, there’s this:
http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=11437
I am looking for a few good ideas that would alter the source and stem the tide, Jim. Ending government education isn’t anywhere on the horizon, as we both very well know.
I don’t think I’m falling into any trap of delusional thinking.
I’d like to hear some concrete propositions on turning the tide because persuading the populace is instrumental to changing policy.
Quoting Rand ain’t gonna cut it.
And here we get to the point of Atlas Shrugged, I think. We have to realize that Canute was right; we can’t turn back the tide. Rand realized that once you feed the population the narcotic, they aren’t going to voluntarily give it up.
In her world, the few that were able to keep the system running despite the ever-increasing hunger of the takers simply decided to stop and walk away. The system collapsed. Only then could the builders come back and start over.
You’re already seeing it in the departure of the builders from places like California and New Jersey to places like Texas. But as long as the feds can impose the decay from above, no place in the republic is really safe.
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Education is everything.
As the Jesuits said, “”Give me a child for for his first seven years and I’ll give you the man”
Shaming people who suck up to the state is one. This is for adults.
Changing education is the ultimate game changer.
“I’d like to hear some concrete propositions on turning the tide because persuading the populace is instrumental to changing policy.”
I’ve been thinking of little else. You would think there is a collection of intellectual firepower and experience on the Web to make this happen. The devil will be in the editing. You volunteering?
You have said that–and I infer that you meant even if it were the solution–there is no possibility that ending government schooling is a realistic possibility, so we should not look there. I completely disagree. It is a crucial part of the solution, and we will fail in all other issues without addressing it.
I asked de Tocqueville about this. He said to encourage you that the evil which we suffer patiently as inevitable seems insupportable as soon as we conceive the idea of escape from it.
Here in Minnesota, of all places, there is an alternative to the public school system. We have charter schools, which have been growing in number over the years. There’s over 150 now, mostly in the metro area.
Despite handicaps in the form of restricted funding, certain rules designed to make finance difficult, and constant attacks from the left and teacher unions, they’re thriving. They come in dozens of flavors, from math and science focused, culturally focused, and just plain “ain’t putting my kid in that public hellhole.”
We also have school choice, which means that any kid can attend any public school in the state.
One local commenter said, “I’m all for public education. It’s the public school system we have now that I want to get rid of.”
The recepients pry upon your sense of fairness as well as your conscience. I was sixteen and riding in the back of a pickup truck with a group of guys. One guy,Eddie pulled out a 22 pistol. Another guy Skippy said”,That not even a real gun.” Eddie shot him and said,’Thats not even real blood coming out of you.” I realized at that moment that some people don’t have a conscience, remorse or a real sense of right and wrong. We are dealing with these kinds of people in our lives daily. The gene pool needs cholorine and the federal “gubmint” needs a big flush!
@Rich: Sorry about that.
The caller seems not to accept the fact that he must be responsible for himself in the first place. A 180-degree twist of one’s ideational framework of one’s individuality is difficult to achieve. The problems lie on how he was brought up by his parents, the educational dogma he adopted. Anyhow, if the caller is open enough to accept new and accepted ideas then, change of one’s perpective is possible. He must learn from the grown ups.
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