WARNING - THIS POST HAS ADULT LANGUAGE
I have changed my mind.
I used to be of the opinion that those who voted for Obama consisted of such brainwashed American Idol watchers that no amount of economic chaos and collapse would convince them. That, like their 1930's socialism-loving ilk, they would follow Obama deeper and deeper into a depression, just like they did their ordained saint, FDR, as he waxes wooingly telling the idiotic masses nothing concrete or actionable, but rather bland pleasantries, overabusing soft sounding adjectives to explain (or actually avoid explaining) how we were going to get out of this economic mess.
But now with unemployment hitting a record high, I actually believe the day of reconing where the economy gets so bad it starts to really cause pain and harm to the masses to the point they actually shed their intellectual laziness and start to question whether Obama's pecks and Michelle's arms are really going to get us out of the recession.
Ergo, I am changing my stance and now believe Obama will be a one termer and the Republicans will make gains in 2010.
However, there is something more important to do than just change my belief Obama will lose, because if we dont' take a lesson from this, we will not improve as a nation, and that is mock and ridicule you idiots who voted this bonafide socialist in because frankly, you are so uneducated about history and economics that you obviously do not appreciate democracy and therefore have shed your all important responsibility of being a steward of it and therefore really do not deserve the right to vote.
I don't know if you have seen Band of Brothers, but there's a scene in the movie where Webster (one of the soldiers) kind of loses it and just starts yelling at the top of his lungs at a bunch of captured German soldiers:
And truthfully I feel the exact same way.
We had, HAD the greatest nation on the planet.
We had a culture where work and self-reliance and the individual and freedom were not only sacrosanct, but the foundation of this country.
Our forefathers were arguably the greatest people in the history of the world and gave us this great country that achieved unimaginable wealth and prosperity on one simple damn principle;
Freedom.
And what did we do?
We got so lazy, so spoiled and so fat off the proceeds that we started taking for granted not only this great country, but the great freedoms granted to us. Worse still more and more of us started making money or a living off of villianizing and criminalizing this great country or piting one group of people against the other. Some becoming pscyhotic enough to instill the inane economy-destroying religion of global warming, while having no qualms about profiting from it. Through nothing short of brainwashing and masses, re-writing history, and stooping so low as to brainwash the children, now we all march towards socialism just like the Germans not only completely forgetting how we achieved such wealth in the first place, but completely IGNORING the BLATANT realities of where socialism leads; North Korea, the former Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela and California.
Now I used to try to argue, even since I was a late teenager, about the drawbacks of socialism and the merits of capitalism. But it was an uphill battle, and as it turns out, an impossible one. The reason why was my peers were too damn ignorant, too damn uneducated, too damn un-or-misinformed. But above all else they were brainwashed. And no matter how right I could have been, no matter how many charts, data, statistics, correlations or just plain damn facts, no, they wanted socialism because of inane arguments such as;
"Well I just FEEL that the democrats are for the little people."
"I just FEEL the rich don't pay their fair share."
"I just FEEL we should all have health insurance."
Without knowing a damn thing.
Alas, I feel lot like Webster. After literally 15 years of trying to convince people about the costs of socialism and the potentials of capitalism to no avail, I have no option but to stand on top of a truck as we all suffer a new Great Depression asking the ignorant masses one simple question:
"For what!? You ignorant servile scum! What the fuck are we doing here!!!!!???"
What else can I do? We SHOULDN'T be here. We KNOW economics well enough and HISTORY well enough to KNOW how to get out of it. Yet, I still feel like Michael Savage yelling into the wind as the sheople blindlessly follow a leader who has better American Idol skills than anything approaching leadership, experience and intelligence. Only crippling poverty will bring them around, I'm just angry I have to suffer along with the masses.
Time to go Hayek.
ReplyDeleteWhen he was writing "The Road to Serfdom", communism, fascism, and their western counterparts were all the rage. War socialism defined the governments of the allies. The Soviets, Italians, and Germans didn't bother to modify their socialism with a temporary word like 'war'. Hell, the Brits even dumped Winston Churchill for even more socialism after the war!
That my fried, was a truly bleak existence where Keynes ruled the day and dominated magazine covers many years after his death.
The hour may be dark and getting darker, but Hayek faced much worse and overcame. You should take heed and carry on.
They are indeed waking up, but I think it may just be a little too late.
ReplyDeleteIt's like a huge portion of the populace decided to hire a new housesitter, without any credentials- just a recommendation- and left town for a month feeling safe and secure with their decision.
Every week they'd call and check up on the sitter, he'd reply that there wasn't a problem, in fact, the neighbors just dropped off a fresh apple pie! And the grass is greener than it's ever been!
When they finally get back and realize that their house has been emptied from top to bottom, the dog is dead and their bank accounts have been raided it's going to be very ugly.
The second I get a hint of the Obama homeland police forming I'm out of here. Mexico is calling my name anyways.
Obama seems exceedingly popular in the short term, but once public opinion turns against him, he will never be able to regain that goodwill. We just have to keep the pressure up and hope that happens sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and I agree with every word Bill Gilles said.
Just when I was beginning to feel that it was just me.
ReplyDeleteI have always had a saying that goes something like this: "If everyone you meet is an asshole, you should look in a mirror."
And, pretty much everyone I meet is an Obama fan. Maybe not a full blown follower, but they believe that he is "at least doing something." and other beliefs along those lines.
I was just beginning to think that maybe it was me that was wrong. Maybe the rest of the US was correct. It makes no economic sense, no logical sense, no common sense, but still, I was beginning to believe I was the one who was wrong.
Now the tables are beginning to turn. For the first time Obama has gone -1, where a 1% more of those polled think he is doing a lousy job versus those that think he farts fresh baked bread. More and more people are questioning the Waxman-whatever bill, and the costs of this "cap and trade" system. More and more believers are asking "where are those stimulus jobs?" And, I will bet that come 2010, the Republicans get a significant boost in Congress (Please, at least get rid of Pelosi, if you accomplish nothing else.)
If Obama desires a second term, he better start listening to the voters, and not the Democratic elite.
GOD. ONE OF YOUR POSTS IS GOING TO MAKE ME GO INSANE ONE OF THESE DAYS.
ReplyDeleteYou mean one hasn't already?
ReplyDelete;)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24458.html
ReplyDeleteThought you should know?
And by "INSANE," I mean go totally ballistic and punch my mailman or something...
ReplyDeleteI know exactly how you feel. Although I am considerably younger than you, I have the same desperate feelings about where society and the economy is heading to. It's a worldwide trend back to fascism and socialism. I for myself have decided never to vote again in my life, for I am utterly disgusted with politics. And I don't see how people like us can be cheered up by comments like those from Bill Gilles. Of course, he's correct. But what a terrible prospect is it that one has to endure all this shi* lifelong.
ReplyDeleteBesides, Hayek could at least go to the US, which was still the pinnacle of the world regarding freedom and capitalism, even with FDR. Tell me, which country in the world is in such a position today?
How about those sticky downward wages, eh?
ReplyDeleteActually, I think falling wages is a necessary, but not sufficient, event for economic recovery. It'll put negative pressure on unemployment rates, anyway.
Greg Mankiw posted this little gem on his blog recently:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_djgssszshgM/Sk1eP7Y-6TI/AAAAAAAAA-I/BnSWY08iVqM/s1600-h/unemployment+graph.bmp
The difference between our difficult but inevitable victory and the Band of Brothers clip is that we won't have the lifeless bodies of millions of liberals littering the countryside. Their spouses and children won't be widows and orphans relying on our charity for their minimal subsistence. Their cities won't be bombed to rubble. We won't be marching the survivors to POW camps and shaming them with military occupation.
ReplyDeleteWe won't have the satisfaction of trying their leaders for their crimes. We won't enjoy finding the charred corpse of Obama in a bunker with a self-inflicted bullet wound in his head.
We won't come home to a strong and united America throwing parades for our victory against tyranny.
Other than that, I feel the video clip is right on target.
Joseph Schumpeter predicted the demise of capitalism as it is currently occuring. He said it would become so successful, and make people so prosperous, that they would take their prosperity for granted and forget the market mechanisms by which they had food, shelter, clothing, concrete, plastic, fuel, cameras, furniture, etc., and when a crisis came along this forgetful generation would vote capitalism out.
ReplyDeleteHayek and Mises describe the economic stupidities and symptoms. They don't tell us precisely why these idiots are such idiots. For that you need Augustine. It is called "idolatry" and "neo-platonism".
ReplyDeletefor me it's this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx_ZU-qRD1Q
ReplyDelete"I feel like I'm taking crazy pills."
And this is why, the only remote possibility of reversing this, or at least ensuring that there will be a proportionally larger contingent of sane, independent, productive people in the future, is to go into the business of child indoctrination.
ReplyDeleteNicely stated. Wonder if you are implying this is a "feeler" versus "thinker" issue, though ("I just FEEL the rich don't pay their fair share"). Not disagreeing necessarily, just wondering.
ReplyDeleteAnd you really need to change the eye-searing white text on black background. Love your blog, other than that.