When?
When did we, as a society, as a people, as a group decide that collective walking, in the same general direction, carrying signs and attitude equated to progress, creativity, resolution or evidence of rationale thought?
I'm old enough to have been around when JFK exhorted young men to do 50 mile marches, when I was a lad we ponied up for 20 miles for the March of Dimes, soliciting our friends and family members for politely sanctioned begging; for a good cause, but ultimately, it is begging, asking someone to 'sponsor' a walker to walk around and around and around. Do the contributor actually 'get' anything? An ego boost perhaps or a salved consciousness for a real or imagined transgression or sin by omission or commission by one's self or one's ancestry. During my brief sojourn on earth the 50 mile walk, then 20 got Europeanized down to a 20k distance, then 10, then 5 then the ubiquitous 1k walk. A 1k walk? Honey, if you're not already walking 1k daily then put down the doughnuts and get your big butt off the couch.
But seriously, the whole Middle East is blowing up, and in our own country community organizers are whipping up previously unrealized wrath from amongst the easily influenced gang to March For Justice, or Equality, or Fairness or any of twenty other buzzwords. Here's an idea, rather than pout, rant, march and be vitriolic, how about being rationale and considering a few facts?
1.) Even the richest country on earth, in history, cannot indefinitely pile on more and more IOU's until the sun is blotted out without consequence.
2.) Budget forecasts that anticipate circumstances wildly outside of generally accepted common sense should not be treated as gospel.
3.) The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of people to take money away from.
4.) Keep spreading the wealth around at the point of a gun and you will kill then ambition of the producers and prevent any new ambitions from the recipients.
5.) The farther you get from the person that sweats to earn money to the person(s) that spend that money the less accountability you will have.
6.) Which requires more effort, to work to avoid hunger or to insist that someone else drops food into your mouth like a baby bird?
7.) There is nothing wrong with hard work.
8.) Try this sometime, try to have a reasoned, back and forth, intelligent conversation with a passionate liberal for more than five minutes and notice whether volumes increase or labels are Marched Out.
9.) American youth, learn how to think! Read a book now and then, study history, find the plethora of examples where Socialism was a wild success! Good luck, while you're at it, find the vast numbers of examples where Jeffersonian Democracy spontaneously erupted in a society and everything was copacetic afterwords. i.e. Don't hold your breath that Egypt and the rest of the Middle East is suddenly going to love Our Way of Life.
10.) Travel, seriously, get out and travel around, start with your neighborhood, talk to other people, in the next city and if at all possible, while we still can, people in other countries.
But still, it is conventional wisdom that if you pour enough people into the streets that you can defy all logic, all arithmetic, human nature or the finite nature of resources. Makes for great videos at 11:00pm but does it really advance the human condition?
When did we, as a society, as a people, as a group decide that collective walking, in the same general direction, carrying signs and attitude equated to progress, creativity, resolution or evidence of rationale thought?
I'm old enough to have been around when JFK exhorted young men to do 50 mile marches, when I was a lad we ponied up for 20 miles for the March of Dimes, soliciting our friends and family members for politely sanctioned begging; for a good cause, but ultimately, it is begging, asking someone to 'sponsor' a walker to walk around and around and around. Do the contributor actually 'get' anything? An ego boost perhaps or a salved consciousness for a real or imagined transgression or sin by omission or commission by one's self or one's ancestry. During my brief sojourn on earth the 50 mile walk, then 20 got Europeanized down to a 20k distance, then 10, then 5 then the ubiquitous 1k walk. A 1k walk? Honey, if you're not already walking 1k daily then put down the doughnuts and get your big butt off the couch.
But seriously, the whole Middle East is blowing up, and in our own country community organizers are whipping up previously unrealized wrath from amongst the easily influenced gang to March For Justice, or Equality, or Fairness or any of twenty other buzzwords. Here's an idea, rather than pout, rant, march and be vitriolic, how about being rationale and considering a few facts?
1.) Even the richest country on earth, in history, cannot indefinitely pile on more and more IOU's until the sun is blotted out without consequence.
2.) Budget forecasts that anticipate circumstances wildly outside of generally accepted common sense should not be treated as gospel.
3.) The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of people to take money away from.
4.) Keep spreading the wealth around at the point of a gun and you will kill then ambition of the producers and prevent any new ambitions from the recipients.
5.) The farther you get from the person that sweats to earn money to the person(s) that spend that money the less accountability you will have.
6.) Which requires more effort, to work to avoid hunger or to insist that someone else drops food into your mouth like a baby bird?
7.) There is nothing wrong with hard work.
8.) Try this sometime, try to have a reasoned, back and forth, intelligent conversation with a passionate liberal for more than five minutes and notice whether volumes increase or labels are Marched Out.
9.) American youth, learn how to think! Read a book now and then, study history, find the plethora of examples where Socialism was a wild success! Good luck, while you're at it, find the vast numbers of examples where Jeffersonian Democracy spontaneously erupted in a society and everything was copacetic afterwords. i.e. Don't hold your breath that Egypt and the rest of the Middle East is suddenly going to love Our Way of Life.
10.) Travel, seriously, get out and travel around, start with your neighborhood, talk to other people, in the next city and if at all possible, while we still can, people in other countries.
But still, it is conventional wisdom that if you pour enough people into the streets that you can defy all logic, all arithmetic, human nature or the finite nature of resources. Makes for great videos at 11:00pm but does it really advance the human condition?
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