- Ronald Reagan
History is heaped with failed attempts to create a Utopian society. Included in those attempts are societies that began with no such intention, but, in pursuit of the concept of a socially enlightened, advanced and forward thinking people, shunned their initial values and fell victim to their ideology.
The collapse of a civilization is not a simple thing and in its analysis, history typically points out several contributing factors. Is it a stretch to suggest that changing values and government mismanagement occurring within the Senate played a part in Rome's fall?
That our societies demise might rise up from within is not a new idea in America either. In 1838, speaking to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, IL Abraham Lincoln declared, "At what point... is the approach of danger to be expected. I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
Utopianism has long promoted the idea of a paradisaical existence and advanced concepts of an ideal society in which a heroic despot, a benevolent sovereign, or an enlightened oligarchy claims the ability and authority to provide for all the needs and fulfill all the wants of the individual - in exchange for his abject servitude.
In Plato's Republic where the chronically ill are not beneficial to the city and will not be treated, and Thomas More's Utopia where bedtime for everyone is 8pm, we learn that the inhabitants of these ideal societies are necessarily constrained in their daily activities and behaviors in everything from their line of work to sexual reproduction. Indeed their is no freedom of choice in exchange for all of their 'needs' being prearranged. In Marx's Communist Manifesto, the first sentence reads, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." If memory serves me well, neither Stalin or Castro did anything to improve class struggles. For that matter, what has Obama done for class struggles but make them worse?
The proponents of socialism claim that all past failures (and remember - every attempt has failed) are a result of the wrong people in charge. With that in mind, in 2008, candidate Obama stated "We are the one's we've been waiting for."
So - at this weeks Countering Violent Extremism summit we learned that (cannot say Muslim) violent extremists are killing Christians and Jews and Muslim's of dissenting beliefs because of "class struggles". They can't find a job. And we are to believe that one - despite Obama's inability to create jobs in America, he is going to help create them abroad - and two - the manager at the new Starbucks in Yemen will hire a barista whose previous employment includes rape, murder by beheading, and trafficking human slaves. Watch out if you don't leave a tip for that guy...
I find it interesting that after 6 years of implementing his socialism ideology, Obama's America is more divided racially, economically and politically than at any point in my lifetime and the very people who voted for his hope and change are madder now then they were before he took office. What happened?
Obama's attempt to march us to socialism is exposing the failures of previous experiments and while it is happening in ultra-slow motion, Americans are waking up to the consequences.
We want our government to be accountable to us - not for us.
We want the opportunity to advance our social and or economic position to be based upon our individual effort, not our groups list of grievances.
We do not want the government controlling our health care choices.
We expect our government to uphold and protect human rights around the world.
This last point, one which directly challenges the isolation tenets of the Utopian societies identified above, is extremely important. All Americans, regardless of political affiliation, are becoming weary of the cognitive dissonance displayed by the Obama administration towards the years long killings of hundreds of thousands in Syria and the recent brutal and savage killings by ISIS throughout the world. Obama seems willing to wait this one out and let the next president deal with it while he focuses on more important issues like how Fox News is responsible for making Islamic extremism a bigger deal than it really is.
Jeez - I thought the radical Muslim's were doing that. What do I know...
No comments:
Post a Comment