Happy Birthday America!
I felt the need to get that out there before the politically correct-police ban such speech as “divisive” or “extreme” or some other such beltway blather.
Refreshingly, after reading this brilliant piece by Steven Greenhut today, I at least feel slightly less alone in my overall lack of confidence and enthusiasm – check that, my absolute disgust and horror – about the direction our country is, and has been heading in, for quite some time.
Greenhut writes of our slow progression into a police state, and of the growing power and blood-lust for power among those employed by the government:
Increasingly, the people who work for government have become arrogant and unrestrained in the pursuit of their authority. That’s because our government is continually shifting authority from the private sphere of individual choices to the government,or the force-based community, as I like to put it…Our freedom these days comes mainly from the fact that government lacks the resources to enforce all the laws on the books, although it endlessly seeks out these resources, and the public is often eager to comply with the requests. (Emphasis mine.)
If you sit and really think about his point for a minute, I would argue that you cannot come to any conclusion other than agreement. And good for Mr. Greenhut for blaming all who are culpable:
The Left and Right have both created this mess. The Left wants to uplift and improve human nature. It recognizes no natural rights. These positivists believe that virtually every area of our life (personal sexual relations mostly exempted) are their business.
Here, here. But let’s call a spade a spade:
But the Right is so in love with law and order that it continually increases the power of government agents, who end up enforcing all the Nanny State laws conservatives rail against. The Right claims to believe in freedom, but it generally only believes in your right to do the things conservatives approve of. Witness the Right’s views on, say, gay marriage and drug legalization.
Amen, again, sir. It’s very easy to rationalize the means when they lead to desirable ends. But sacrificing the principles of individual freedom inevitably leads to its deterioration – something the right typically claims to want to protect. Greenhut then reminds us that essentially half of our earnings are taken away by our “important” and very thoughtful elected officials – most of whom are career politicians that would horrify the founding fathers’ vision of serving for a short-term and then returning to the private sector to live under the laws you helped to pass while in office.
And scariest of all is Greenhut’s closing point:
Most of our fellow citizens don’t seem to care about the freedoms that are frittering away…So perhaps Americans are getting the government they want and deserve.
Scary thought – because I sure don’t want authoritarian socialism shoved down my throat from Washington D.C., Sacramento, the County/City and about 4,000-too many boards/commissions/places to shove useless ex-bureaucrats and politicians as political favors because they are incapable of making a living on their own in the private sector.
So in my attempt to pick up where Mr. Greenhut left off, I pose several questions for thought:
-If literally 75% of the federal government ceased to exist because we stopped funding it, would our lives be better or worse? (Department of Liberal Indoctrination – er, “Education,” I’m looking at you!)
I would suggest that we’d be fine and dandy the next morning. We could wake up, make ourselves breakfast, get dressed and go to work just fine without working the first half of the day to pay for suit-and-tie welfare programs for D.C. beltway and Sacramento “elites” from “Haarvahd” and countless other directly and indirectly taxpayer-funded government indoctrination centers.
Same thoughts to state governments and all the government agencies in-between. How many of the “essential services” they provide do we REALLY need? If you want to replace the windows in YOUR OWN HOUSE – why does a city government department need to approve? Aside from creating a nuisance job, I do not know. We may as well pay to have government employees dig ditches and then fill them up again. At least then, the absurdity would be a bit more in people’s faces.
But really, what have we allowed to come to be? Nothing but agencies and bureaus involved in every aspect of our lives filled with the desire for ever-increasing power, and the erosion of our freedoms, because “they know best.”
One of my favorite monologues of all time (produced by Hollywood, ironically) states:
…And where you once had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have sensors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others…but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.
Here’s to the celebration of individual liberty today. And here’s to ending its steady erosion. It’s our own fault if we don’t.