Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The History Lessons to Come

The American people are about to be taught some hard lessons.

About 46% of them don't need to learn them; they'll be foisted on them by the 52% who do.

Those lessons will consist of what happens when you elect as President a man whose overriding goal in life is to help the poor by taking from everyone else, who believes the Constitution says anything five Justices say it means, who accepts every tenet of the viros, and who believes that you can reason with Iranian mullahs.

They'll include seeing first hand in reality how wealth gets created or prevented. They'll consist of how not to improve the environment and how not to create the energy needed to run every home and business, to power every service and create every modern product.

Most of all, it will consist of a demonstration of how freedom is hindered, perhaps hobbled. Events will show Americans how freedom of speech is curtailed when government acts to prevent words it doesn't want heard in public. There will be ample instances of how an already at-risk country can be put in still greater danger by inaction and false ideas.

How many will draw the right conclusions from the events they'll witness, it's impossible to predict. Many people lack the imagination or background to think of what might be or how things might work otherwise if they choose differently.

There'll be many voices available to tell them. Even if the government succeeds in restricting or stifling freedom lovers by one venue, others will arise. Even in the Soviet Union the refusniks could not be completely silenced and we are nowhere near that rung of hell yet.

There'll be many voices that will show them a better way, a way based not just on imagination or hope but historical evidence and sound reasoning. They'll show how there was a time when America was free and how that led to more material prosperity, a better culture, and increased joy for those willing to work for them.

It's impossible to predict how many will heed those voices and think about what they see and hear. But in the end, numbers matter only so much. History is determined by the few. Be one of them. Make your voice heard in defense of freedom. Speak today, and every other day until the scourge of suppression is lifted and freedom once again becomes the norm in the land that once made it commonplace.

Never surrender. In the end, if you fail, you'll still have the joy of knowing your cause was just, your effort noble. For, there's nothing more just than freedom and nothing more noble than fighting for your life and your right to live it unshackled.

That's a lesson no one who has ever felt alive for a day needs to learn.

5 comments:

VH said...

Here, here on that! Our country is at a the cusp of history; will we start a decline or will we make the necessary corrections and continue to grow? With Obama and liberal Democrats controlling the federal government, I feel less than optimistic.

Timeshare Jake said...

As much as I would like to agree with you and hope with you, there is a part of me that knows this current generation of young Americans known as the Millennials have grown up with a sense of entitlement. Parents have protected their feelings, given them way too much without earning it, and let them get away with way too much. Their work ethic is lacking. One hell of a lesson will have to be delivered to them before they get it, and that's part of the problem. It might take another depression in order to teach them the real lessons of life. The fake tans, highlighted hair, and standing around the Hollister store is a way of life I don't understand, but it's what we are dealing with in terms of the latest generation of adults. It's about the entitlement, and they sold us out to get it.

VH said...

Clay--Your point is well taken and I have also thought about the same thing. Most voters under 30 have no or little experience with hard economic times and what its like to have a smaller economy with less job opportunities (most of the 1970's and early eighties).

Jeffrey Perren said...

Clay,

Welcome to Shaving Leviathan, and thank you for your thoughtful comments.

I just don't have enough data on the subject to say one way or the other. Sounds like I'd better get some. I've made it a point to date to avoid contact with 'youth culture' for about the past 20 years as much as possible. (Not that my generation's younger years was anything to brag about.)

From what little I know, there seem to be several different demographic groups - from a certain type of starched-shirt, blank-eyed Christian to the completely brain-scrambled lip-piercing crowd with pink hair.

It would be hard to say which was more hopeless, but there is reason to believe there are more out there than those two. At least, I hope so or god help us.

Jeffrey Perren said...

Vh,

And, oh by the way, I have a sick feeling that those in the under 30 crowd are going to get much more experience with hard economic times than their parents real soon.

Not wishing it, but it's hard to see right now how it can be otherwise for the next few years. With the Feds pissing away our money a few dozen billion or more at a time, and still priming the pump, it's hard to say where it will end. I don't know if it will be as bad as 1932 (I doubt it), but I expect it to be much worse than 1978.