When reason and common sense are subservient to special interests along with over intellectualizing problems and issues, chaos takes root. The deeper a culture goes into denial, lacking the courage needed to address serious problems and allowing these problems to become more deeply rooted all the while fogging the way toward a sensible approach obviously inhibits growth toward evolved development. Reason, logic and accountability give way to the devolution of a society which is eventually lost in chaos. Morality and virtue are hard to restore when lost.
Our country was established through a logical thought process, guided by the insights of John Locke, de Montesquoiu and early Greek wisdom. Our founders were all students of this wisdom and their attempt was to apply it. Somehow they came across the concept of Natural Law. This became the basis and foundation for our Declaration of Independence and Constitution that promoted the ideals of the pursuit of liberty and happiness. Its thoughtful and classicly liberal beginnings also left open opportunities for critique and reflection. The founders held deep regard for liberty and individuality and a contempt for tyranny. America has been a process. Tyranny can show up with many disguises and before it is recognized for the evil it is, it can find an acceptable foothold in a culture. One of the many disguises is socialism. Those proposing to "share the wealth" will keep the power and booty for themselves while deceiving generations of the people until finally, the weak structure collapses into revolution, war, or just keeps the misery going for more generations. Cuba and Russia are recent examples. The tyranny of communism found a place in China and totalitarianism is alive and well in North Korea.
So we luckily came upon the best and most natural form of an evolved and progressive society, a republic which honors the natural state of human striving; liberty and prosperity. We may still be heading in the direction of the promise of liberty and prosperity for all with a serious backward trend now expressing itself. Democracy is a process, and must be participated in thoughtfully and respectfully by a majority of the population for the purpose of preserving the democratic principles beyond individual self interest in order for the democratic republic to properly function.
In a family, friendship, or any relationship a part of the self is given up in order to uphold the higher "relationship" therefore benefiting firstly the relationship and then the interests of the self as the relationship evolves to understand the value of the higher ideal.
Our higher ideal though has increasingly become the slave to our the twisting and churning of words and battles of words. Leaders and followers have taken sides on idealism losing sight of the ideal. Common sense, not particularly common or ubiquitous has all but drowned in intellectual jargon and false or distorted ideals. We are divided and many have shut down holding on to "their side" wanting to win for the sake of winning, for the sake of ego. Listening to another view has given way to battle of the wills and in the process all the weeds and demons are strangling the wisdom that is the only saving grace toward a remedy.
Relationships collapse through ego and self interest. Some relationships are not meant to last, but the people's relationship to a governing body that is serving the people that create it, must be preserved, must sustain itself only because this is the end of the line. There is no better form of government than that which preserves and honors the limits and separation of its own power, liberty, prosperity and individual rights for all its citizens. So we have no choice but to find a way to honor the "relationship" putting aside the more self serving interests that are plaguing society today.
As Socialist/Marxist values take hold with the usual disguise, "helping those less fortunate", a free and truly prosperous nation will diminish with a return only possible from a populace that truly "dreams" again for the blessings of liberty. As government becomes the central planner with many dug in for years in self service and often no longer holding a pretense of serving the people, citizens have become worshipers and are fearful of the behemoth that has grown despite the foundation of a beauty document, the Constitution of the United States of America conceived to prevent such tyranny.
Government has promised that their policies will create a robust economy, yet how can they do this when government creates nothing and is made up more increasingly of crafty campaigners supported by huge donations for special interests. Many government "leaders" have been drenched in politics their whole lives and have never produced or worked very long in the private sector and are increasingly out of touch with real working people who pay taxes to support them, their marvelously cushy benefits and those loyal supporters they bring on board with them. Government workers aren't likely to leave as the benefits have become quite abundant and addicting and as of late attitudes paired with a heavy dose of arrogance and secrecy to secure their positions and benefits are prevalent. Stonewalling and cover-ups are increasingly the norm.
Our founders knew the importance of a free press and that too is sinking into oblivion with so many so called journalists who are steeped in ideology and propagandized support for the government they are supposed to be challenging. Instead of light and true information ignorance and darkness are the result. Many in the press seem to be equipped only with journalism degrees and don't seem to be able to analyze or dig for information or remain on their toes when being stonewalled by those programmed to "handle" inquiry. This is a profession of the curious, but curiosity seems to be a desert in our current media. The all too complicit relationship between press and politician has advanced to a frightening degree with the way President Obama is coddled and left to his own devices without scrutiny. He tell the media what to think and they report it without question. Many, if not a too large percentage of citizens are contented with what a lazy press delivers never questioning or making the connection between promises broken and lack of personal and national progression. It was not too long ago when the American press and US citizens were eager to call out the tyranny of Soviet Union and their state sponsored media and their expected propaganda. Oh we were so superior then and what a difference a few generations make!
Some of our politicians are attempting to create a society of ease and entitlement based on a vague notion of "equality". The concept is named but not properly defined, this new "equality". When the founders spoke of equality, they defined it as equaity ofl opportunity but no guarantee of equal outcome as we are not born of equal talent, but must be free to express and advance our particular talents to our own choosing. This is true Liberty, and the goal of the founders. The new politicians are less interested in honoring success than making excuses for those who fumble into problems and pain making them believe that it is not their fault and they are being taken advantage of by the successful. For the lazy mind, this is a perfect out and more and more are taking it. Politicians again take advantage by creating programs paid for by the workers to "help" those disadvantaged persons to advance. Lyndon Johnson created the "war on poverty" over fifty years ago and poverty obviously won. In his book "Intellectuals and Society" Thomas Sowell makes the point that these central planners continue to create more and more costly programs without reviewing the results, then repeat the process with the same sorry result.
One of the great mistakes is to judge programs by their intentions and not by their results.
~Milton Friedman
Natural Law teaches that human beings are successful by their own initiative. Giving a helping hand is quite different than the destructive coddling and excuse pandering that is destroying so many lives. But there is a purpose to the madness that may have begun as a sincere experiment. It provided support and votes to perpetrate the myth and keep the central planners in power and riches. Those paying attention and paying the bill are waking up to the edidentual destruction of a free and prosperous society.
As government grows and becomes a limitless, it needs constant cash support. It spends without limits. Its not their money earned and the debt will be passed on to subsequent generations who cannot punish those with protections or have gone to the grave. As government grows the un-elected bureaucracy grows with it and they need something to do; the result more laws and regulations strangling the innovators and new business creators. So as these forces overtake the way business is done in the formerly free enterprise experiment, we have factions arguing for more Marxist solutions and others arguing for the former laissez-faire policies that were the foundation of growth as well as those who support large corporations to the detriment of fairness creating too cozy relationships with policy makers and special interests. Marxist solutions were a European response to the problems created over centuries of evolution of governing. Kings, emperors, tyrants, wars, peasant culture were never a big part of the American experiment. We were a new opportunity, making our own mistakes and determined to correct them. Though with some errors in growth such as slavery, some will never be satisfied with any progression.
So over the relatively few generations of the birth of this new nation, we have reverted, lost much of what some knew and understood to be a well thought out blueprint for a civil, prosperous and free society. A society conceived by minds more brilliant and thoughtfully guided by enlightenment philosophy is dismissed by those who have not been educated enough or as Benjamin Franklin with John Adams and the founders described it, a constitutional republic conceived for a moral and virtuous people. Could it be that by not honoring the qualities of virtue and morality we have given up our natural freedom and are slowly but surely becoming the new slaves. Those who are wage slaves support those increasing numbers who are contented with less than mediocrity and innovators burdened by regulation are slaves to that monster. Corporate fat cats will stay that way as long as they support and don't disrupt their cozy government relationships. All the while the central planners are secure in their power as they have illegally diminished ours. A task many supported and still support out of ignorance of the fact that our government was conceived by the people and for the people.
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