Edge of the Financial Cliff
- First and foremost, we do not belong to the government. We belong to ourselves. No man has any ownership interest in me. The implication here that is most alarming is that we are beholden to our masters – that we work for the government and not the other way around. In a way, this reality is partially true today, but it is appalling to hear it touted as an ideal or blessing. To be completely honest, the government does believe that it owns us, and that it may kill, imprison, steal from, or otherwise punish us for the “opinions with a gun” (read: laws) that it possesses.
- We do not all work for the government, in which case this statement might have been true. There is a sense in which we have no choice but to offer 25-30% of our labor to the government (does this make us quarter or third slaves?), but in no way do we work for the government.
- In the most charitable of interpretations, perhaps this confused gentleman is conflating society and government. Fortunately, society and government are not equal. Government is an entity with a monopoly of violence, while society at large is generally made up of peaceful individuals exchanging and interacting on a daily basis for mutual benefit.
I saw snippets of the RNC, and found them to be disturbing in many respects. Of those, I was bothered most by the thinly-veiled rhetoric that could pass for communitarian ideology if it were analyzed (talk of government/president helping create jobs, for example), as well as the outright lies that the Republicans were deploying left and right to garnish votes. I know several people who ate up the promises, hook, line, and sinker. The danger on this side lies in people who claim to be “small government” and aware of the mistakes and lies of Bush still buying into the idea that these men and women of government will save us somehow. There is a contradiction in there. But the best thing about Republicans is you know they are lying, and you can tell with the way they vote. These men will always chose to support money and power, whether that is pro- or anti-government (it is rarely the latter).
From what I have seen of the DNC, on the other hand, there is an entirely different problem. These people actually believe the proposition that a monopoly of violence can save us on all issues, and that is absolutely terrifying. Irony is present here, too, since the Democrats believe that the government can save us from wars that it has created, scarcity that it has furthered, social ills that it has exacerbated, and liars that it harbors on both sides of the aisle. There is a complete confusion here between cause and effect, simultaneous with a disregard for any principle but “by any means necessary.” I heard indirect praise for the provisions of Obamacare that require fully taxpayer-covered abortions, as well as a deeply-rooted disgust for success. Democrats have gone from caring for the poor to hating the rich, protecting the innocent to being the main proponents of killing babies – and there is no longer a difference to many of the ideologues.
Does a single person in attendance at these rallies understand economics? Morality? Philosophy? History? Of course someone must. But the wisdom of crowds is extremely limited, the propaganda enticing, and the allure to believe the words of snake oil salesman often too much to resist. The next four years will be very ugly indeed, no matter who is elected. To be honest, I have nearly given up on this blog and the Sisyphean task of denouncing Obama (or Romney – but his side is not nearly as unthinkingly rabid, as most know that he is bad, but he is a mere lesser evil) whenever I see praise for his policies or Sauron-like Avatar State, because it is clear that those who do not know how to think for themselves and will not see past the words to the meaning and implications thereof will not likely do so no matter what truth you point out about their side of the dualist American ideology.
Our hopes, then at last, can only be with Providence. There is a Plan, even though evil stamps out the good day after day in this world. I don’t know if that Hope is earthly or Eternal, but hope in the Creator is the last bastion of a sane man in a world of legal positivism and disregard for the individual. Even so, if the Hope is only Eternal, this world is becoming a place where an honest Catholic might have serious moral questions as to whether this is a world s/he wants to bring kids into. And I don’t think the answer is obvious, but it is one I try to deduce often. Today, the answer remains yes, I have a moral calling to bring children into the world. But will that be true in 2016? 2020? How long can we move down these materialist & modern paths before Meaning is destroyed even for the remaining moral minority?
May God have mercy on us.
