Re: Is Obama destroying America on purpose?
by
quillsinister
03/05/2009, 5:47 AM #
I'm pretty much with OldGaffer with regard to being past taking anything you say seriously, but I just have to call you on one thing:
"Socialism requires Revolution."
You're confusing Socialism (a rather moderate system) with Marxism (which is where the workers own the means of production in common). Most of Europe practices some degree of Socialism, and they seem not to have suffered any tragic loss of freedom, to include entrepreneurship and the ability to make large profits from personal initiative. The euro is worth well over a dollar and we have negative trade balances almost across the board with every European nation, so clearly they can still be competitive. They may pay slightly higher taxes, but they get as good as they give and their people seem, on the whole, far happier and healthier than our own. Please note that I say this as I’m on the tail end of a two and a half year tour of duty in Europe, so my observations may be a bit biased, but they are firsthand. Nor did Europe reach this state through any kind of violent overthrow or leftist coup. All it seems to require is the knowledge that a nation is more than a collection of disconnected individuals each out for his own gain at the expense of his fellow citizen’s, but rather an interconnected whole in which each man depends on the contributions of every other man. Kind of like a… nation, or something. You know, as opposed to a gaggle or a mob.
That’s not to say that I think European-style Socialism would translate perfectly in America, but I’m well past fearing it like a bogeyman, as you seem to. If a quasi-Socialist measure (see: New Deal) can act as a band-aid to our wounded economy until it heals, then I’m all for it. It isn’t as if we have to stay with it if it doesn’t work or outlives its usefulness, and the Stimulus will only cost about a quarter of what OIF is projected to run us. You seem to be afflicted with Tolkienesque Fantasy Syndrome (which I made up just now), wherein if you’re the good guys and you fight off the bad guys, you’ve only won for a few years until Morgoth reconstitutes himself, but if the bad guys win just once, they’ve won forever. End of story. I’ve mentioned this to you before, but your sense of perspective is a little bit lacking. President Obama is not Morgoth, the Democrats in Congress aren’t Nazgul, and you certainly aren’t Aragorn.
:-)