Sense and Stupidity

There has to come a time when one needs to stop being rational, intellectual, or even polite. For me, this is such a moment. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. With all their current tirades against "socialism," we are witnessing what has all the sense of a play put on by the residents of the lunatic asylum.Maybe it's the shock treatment. Something has selectively destroyed their memory if not their sanity. Remember their last play - Free Us Now! Wasn't it hilarious how they all dressed like Ronald Reagan and killed every regulator in sight. What a triumph. Of course, we, the audience, are now buried deep in that triumph.

A pause for sense. Unrestrained freedom has led us into the mess we are in. That is what unrestrained freedom inevitably will do. Unrestrained government would create an equal and opposite mess. That is the sad story of its history. These are two poles. Systems survive by negotiating their way between the two.  Neither pole  is or ought to be a final destination. Ideologues, in spite of all evidence, insist on making them destinations thereby cause great havoc to our systems and to us. Continuing to insist on these as final destinations makes them either stupid or venal or nuts.

There is no sign that the current administration is in favor of unrestrained government. Just take a look at who Obama's  economic advisors are; these are free marketeers of the first stripe. They have no taste for "socialism." Their job is to clean up the mess resulting from unrestrained freedom. 

Joshua Bolin of Augusta, Georgia has founded a new web site, Reagan, org. Prominently displayed is an oft-quoted  line from one of Reagan's speeches. Sure to draw great applause from the enemies of "socialism."

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

It may have been cute once, but there are millions of people across the globe who would be more than pleased to hear "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Comments

[zechariah aloysius hillyard]

I was watching the news one morning at my father's in North Andover, MA. You may have seen the same broadcast. The news managed to complain that:

-a weapons plant may be shutting down.
-thousands of jobs would be lost
-the government was decommissioning other weapons as well
-we need to keep the plant open so people have jobs (making devices whose sole purpose at this point was destroying the lives of others, while worrying solely about personal economic health.

The news is not helpful these days. There was no report or talk of alternative uses of the special technology that might benefit mankind; no solutions offered for those that might be looking for work; no comments from the government to see if they had alternate plans and; no mention of the lives that would be saved by the reduction of weapons, if any.

What saddens me is that I meet people all over the globe (via the net and in virtual worlds) that would be friends if only their governments could get over "who started this first" and the word (and its many iterations) of "no." No one thinks that wars would not start if people would not pick up weapons and peacefully refused to harm one another, Better yet, take the weapons, meet the "enemy" and have a party dismantling the weapons together while making plans to toil the earth and build lives instead of grief.

Are you sure what we've experienced is unrestrained freedom? I can say personally my freedoms have been deliberately curtailed since I was born. I am still denied the right to have my marriage acknowledged in my home state and a woman with a domestic partnership and a power of attorney was forbidden to see the love of her life as she died from a heart attack.

Social welfare programs are overly regulated despite their innate cruelty in fulfilling their production function while encouraging a culture of blame via their ceremonial function: if the program doesn't work, it must be the participants fault--never mind that the programs are unproven to be statistically effective. In addition, many of these helping agencies are so overloaded with paperwork and "accountability" they are rendered unable of even performing their production functions.

However, we talk about "free trade" and "bail outs" in amounts that could easily rectify these social problems; instead, we see more and more companies lining up for "their" bailout. paid for by you and me.

Our government, if designed with good intentions, understandably lacked the foresight to see the challenges it would bring to future generations. It also relied on the idea that the majority would be well educated on government, and thus be able to make sensible decisions that would benefit us all; instead, we see poor people voting against the "death tax" because the don't understand how it works or why it was designed the way it was.

I have an easy answer to this, naturally, it's so simple no one would listen to me if I advocated for it, despite the words existing in some form in nearly every religious text.

Help one another. If you have something, share it. If you need something, as for it. Share freely and don't take advantage of generosity. The repeat the deed to someone you know and someone you don't. Wash, rinse, and repeat. Talk to someone you don't know. Listen to someone. Console someone without talking.

Lastly, as Bianca Cody Murphy and Carolynn Dillon would suggest, see the world from another person's shoes--not as you would see it, but as they would.

In order to form a government that works, we need to start by understanding the world around us, and how it functions. Simply imposing a structure without observation will lead to results; however, the results will not always be those we intend.

Dr. Oshry, thank you for once again posting a very thought provoking and passionate piece of work.