AMERICA IS IN RAPID DECLINE - CAN WE STOP IT?

Doing things exactly the wrong way

Growing rancor of political campaigning is one example of the power of inciting hatred to sway voters. The preponderance of personal attacks over substantive proposals shows how much easier it is to tear down a political opponent than to build one's own stature and make serious proposals. Negative campaigning is easy and especially effective in the age of the “sound bite.” Like war, it is easy. All you have to do in war is break things and kill people. Any idiot can do that with little training. In political campaigns it is pure emotion that drives voters. Serious proposals, even solutions for all-important problems, rarely get the media play and public attention that hate-filled rhetoric prompts.

For similar reasons, it takes far less skill or organization to demolish a home or even the World Trade Center than it does to conceive, design, and build the same thing. Conflict is easy. Cooperation and creative building are far more demanding, require careful consideration, dedication, creative effort and hard work. They are infinitely more rewarding. This is what we sorely need right now.

Often attributed to Lincoln in error are these words penned by William J. H. Boetcker, in 1916.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

Yet are those not precisely the short lived, instant gratifications politicians and media personalities regularly wield against those they oppose for any reason?

A prediction of where we seem to be headed may have come from far back in history, when the 13 colonies were still part of England. This quote is often attributed to a Scottish Historian, Alexander Tytler or Tyler. The true origin of the quote is obscure and might have originated in the early 20th century from an unknown politician or writer. Nevertheless, this does not detract from its accuracy.

One version of the quote on why democracies always fail is:

A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only last until the citizens discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that the Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, to be followed by a dictatorship, and then a monarchy.

A version of the second part of the misquote, often attributed to Arnold Toynbee is:

The release of initiative and enterprise made possible by self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again, after freedom brings opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent; the incompetent and unfortunate grow envious and covetous; and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the golden calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.

But the person who appears to be the actual author of the second part is Henning Webb Prentis, Jr., President of the Armstrong Cork Company. In a speech entitled "Industrial Management in a Republic," delivered in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria at New York during the 250th meeting of the National Conference Board on March 18, 1943, and recorded on p. 22 of Industrial Management in a Republic, Prentis had this to say:

Paradoxically enough, the release of initiative and enterprise made possible by popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again after freedom has brought opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent, the incompetent and the unfortunate grow envious and covetous, and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the Golden Calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.

At the stage between apathy and dependency, men always turn in fear to economic and political panaceas. New conditions, it is claimed, require new remedies. Under such circumstances, the competent citizen is certainly not a fool if he insists upon using the compass of history when forced to sail uncharted seas. Usually so-called new remedies are not new at all. Compulsory planned economy, for example, was tried by the Chinese some three millenniums ago, and by the Romans in the early centuries of the Christian era. It was applied in Germany, Italy and Russia long before the present war broke out. Yet it is being seriously advocated today as a solution of our economic problems in the United States. Its proponents confidently assert that government can successfully plan and control all major business activity in the nation, and still not interfere with our political freedom and our hard-won civil and religious liberties. The lessons of history all point in exactly the reverse direction.

These are the real malignancies we must overcome if we are to solve the rapidly growing problems facing not just the US, but the entire world.

It's about time members of groups that constantly denigrate and condemn others out of class or economic envy began to honor and respect the achievements and rewards of those others. I see it as important that we recognize the realities of our situation and the real reasons we are where we are. There has been enough of this huge and debilitating blame game and all of its political distortions and emotional hate-filled activities. We have been engaged in terrible inner political warfare while our enemies stand on the sidelines urging on the various sides and gleefully watching our self destruction.

Socialism has a terrible record of providing a decent living for its subjects. An examination of all socialist nations shows that in order to be successful they must have a huge source of income outside the government to survive. Those that do not, universally house a population in poverty like Haiti and many African nations. Most are actually dictatorships where one or a very few individuals wield all the power and control all the wealth. That source of income is usually a valuable natural resource which capitalists throughout the world require to feed their economy. Petroleum is probably the biggest source of income for socialist nations. Those that have it usually have wealthy despots running the country and wasting that income. Other natural raw materials include iron, wood, diamonds, agricultural produce and others. Even tourism is a source of supportive income for some socialist nations.

Venezuela is a good example of how quickly the income from raw materials can destroy the economy. With their fat little dictator squandering this valuable resource in many ways in a controlled economy, Venezuela is suddenly on the verge of economic collapse. The people of Venezuela, used to low prices on all kinds of goods subsidized by the government including 25 cents per gallon gasoline, have suddenly been awakened by run away inflation as government excesses quickly outran income when oil prices dropped. Many things now cost five or ten times what they did a year or two ago. This includes food and—you guessed it—gasoline. Shades of the old Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea—every socialist utopia whose outside income suddenly dropped or disappeared.

Socialists are quick to point out socialist nations that are doing quite well—whose citizens enjoy a high standard of living—free education, health care, and all manner of benefits. Take a look at those nations, where their income is coming from. Each has either a major source of income from natural resources (oil, minerals, etc.) or a capitalist manufacturing base of privately owned organizations. There are no exceptions! The growth of foreign trade income from all manner of private enterprises has fueled the explosive economic growth in China, Korea, Taiwan, and every other awakening Asian economy. Even India is getting into the act. Look at what happened to them when our economy took a nose dive. Now they are striving to grow their own domestic economies by—can you guess? Advertising and consumerism at home!

While these nations move toward the wealth distribution of a capitalist economy, we are sinking into dull gray socialist poverty. Our manufacturing base has long fled to other shores, our technology industries are now doing the same and what do we have left? Agriculture! We are about to become a nation of poor farmers and wealthy politicians running things for their own benefit. Don’t think our investors and entrepreneurs who haven’t already done so won’t soon head for more attractive shores with lower taxes and less government interference. We are being strangled by an out-of-control tax and spend monster whose only incentive is class hatred and money envy.

I have but a single question for you capitalist hating liberal idiots. Once capitalism is dead and its profits no longer can be taxed, where are you going to get the money to pay for all your social programs? Or do you plan to hand the entire nation over to the Chinese capitalists who will soon own everything in America anyway.