Or, why I’m not a pessimist.
There is a lot of doom and gloom on the Interwebs these days but I’m not feeling it. I think it’s based on faulty premises and wrong conclusions.
Yes, the economy sucks.
Yes, our elected morons in charge seem to be stupid and clueless.
And yes, the Mexicans are invading. (oh noes!)
But you know what? The country has been through worse.
The economy has been worse. Not just once but many times.
People claim that the nation has never been so divided, politically. Oh really?
People claim that politicians have never been so corrupt. HAH! Politicians have always been corrupt and always will be. There will always be self serving, corrupt politicians. It’s just the nature of people who want to be in charge.
People claim that the US is turning into a police state. While it’s true that the busy bodies have been mighty busy lately it has been worse.
I think people tend to live in the now and forget, if they ever learned, that throughout the history of man, things really sucked. They sucked bad. Really bad.
People are worried about creeping socialism, but sooner or later socialism always fails. To make it work even temporarily you have to murder millions of people to scare the rest into going along with it and unlike the Russian serfs and Chinese peasants, people in the US just won’t stand for that.
People are worried that nationalized health care can’t be repealed. (If it’s ever implemented in the first place, not a sure bet at all) But we’ve repealed laws before, even some dumb Constitutional Amendments.
When I was a kid people were sure we’d all die in a nuclear war. It wasn’t a question of if, just when. It seemed like the end of the world was just around the corner. Guess what? It didn’t happen.
“Smart” people are always predicting the end of the world. Environmental disaster is just around the corner and can only be averted by putting them in charge and living in mud huts. But the disasters never seem to materialize.
But let’s get specific. There are some things going on that make me think that times aren’t going to get as bad as everyone seems to think.
1. The Liberals have shot their wad. They did too much, too soon and now they’re going to pay the political price. Republicans are out polling Democrats all over the country. I am a big believer in divided government. Government is best when it does the least and they do a lot less when they’re fighting amongst themselves.
2. People that voted for Obama are having regrets. In a few years you may not find anyone willing to admit they voted for him. This is a “fool me once” situation. The hard core left won’t care but “middle America” will think twice before electing another America hating empty suit.
2. As I mentioned before, socialism always fails. We can see the writing on the wall here in the US. The days of big government really are over because there isn’t enough money in the whole world to keep it going. You can’t run a government on wishes, someone has to pay the bills.
3. The Communist long march through the institutions has been wildly successful. Just in time for those institutions to become completely irrelevant. Traditional big media is dying. Public schools have failed. Colleges are overpriced wastes of time and money. You can make the argument, in fact, that the communist/socialist/progressive/liberal take over of these institutions has caused their downfall. Or maybe it’s just that the Internet has allowed people to bypass the thought leaders and gatekeepers.
4. Two Supreme Court cases, Heller and McDonald, have put civil rights back on track in the US. The US is unique in the world in recognizing gun ownership and self defense as a civil right. People learned two very hard lessons over the last 50 years: The police can not protect you and criminals don’t obey the law. (I know, shock!) After the Assault Weapons Ban expired millions of people bought “Evil Black Rifles“. The AR pattern rifle is immensely popular and now that so many are out there not causing rivers of blood in the streets, the fear mongering of the gun banners is exposed. The same will happen as more people carry guns for self defense and don’t go crazy with wild west shootouts after every traffic accident. The mainstreaming of guns in the US is well underway.
There will always be natural and man made disasters. There will always be stupid people doing stupid things and smart people doing extraordinarily stupid things. There will be times of prosperity and times of hardship. That’s just how life is.
Don’t let it get you down.
Amen, brother.
America, Fuck Yeah, indeed!
I agree. I’m reminded that, at the time, the mee-djia told America that the Generation Gap would doom the Republic.
Your note about the communists’ gramscian long march through the institutions reminds me of a possible apposite (maybe even appositive) metaphor: clipper ships. The pinnacle of commercial sailing vessels came along just in time to be supplanted by steam. Yet, the clippers’ developers no doubt thought they’d rule the seas forevermore.
M
Great points, and I concur wholeheartedly. Love this post which brings to mind a couple Robert Louis Stevenson quotes:
The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.
There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.
Plus, it pisses off those who would oppress us if we are happy in spite of them.
I mostly agree.
I think the only stumbling block is the historically unprecedented amount of debt the feds owe. I worry about what the banking collapse will look like, and what the reaction to the collapse will be.
PDB, we’re enlightened thanks mostly to a bunch of uppity Austrian intellectuals, who pointed out that the price of anything is what someone is willing to pay. Also, a possession only remains so as long as the owner can effectively defend his property, (or afford the help of defenders.)
So, that historically unprecedented amount of debt is only worth what the central planners say it’s worth so long as people can be compelled to labor under that assumption. It may seem like a recipe for decades of involuntary labor for the benefit of a ruling class–which I’m sure is the goal–however forcing people to do things they don’t want to do is extremely expensive, and that cost grows exponentially when total compliance (which requires monitoring) is the goal. So the central planners have a quandary where their institutions of grift will collapse if they don’t do *something*, but will collapse sooner if they try harder. Checkmate?
While it might seem difficult to establish banking outside the influence of Uncle Benito, that influence will be diminished when it becomes too expensive to follow up on threats of violence against non-cooperators. The goal here should be to keep our hands off the central government or elect officials that will stonewall (and therefore insulate us), to confine the collapse to the DC metro area and various state capitols. This means looking at the callouses on one’s hands instead of asking for central government mal-assistance.
We’ll also have to accept is that we won’t be able to choose which government institutions will be crushed in a collapse; there are too many differing opinions in this country, and there will be a lot of back-stabbing. And don’t expect a useless agency to dissolve on its own–in fact, it’s a bad idea to point this out this apparently uselessness to its members. An agency that is aware of its uselessness is dangerous, which is why we have Raw Milk SWAT, Mexican-style kidnapping and imprisonment for wet clothing offenses and Lemonade stand crack-downs.
Yeah, it’s gonna suck, but it will suck the most for people who are unable to distinguish between a “lifestyle” of waste and actual necessity.
(I now press the ‘Submit Comment’ button, which will now introduce spelling and grammar errors.)
Thanks. I needed that.
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Thank you. You just made me feel a whole lot better and got added to my bookmarks.
WOW!!! Great points…thanks a lot!!!
I really needed that…you need to tweet this bad boy column all over the place…
LOVE IT!!!
I’ve been really bummed for the past year, but you are right.
Thanks
I echo what Borepatch, ErnestThing, Charlotte and dismal dave had to say, and I too have added you to my Favorites.
Thanks for the pick-me-up, but even more for the sharp cry of “Smarten up and remember your own history!” That’s a welcome message that’s often worth repeating.
I’d like to sign up for your news letter.
Came via DPUD, glad I did. Great place and a great reminder.
Oh, and I have another positive note for this Fri. 13 on American ingenuity–turning eco-nonsense into fun and profit.