I am certain that I am not alone. But sometimes I have to wonder if I am “nuts”. Here is the problem. I am torn between two worlds. One is “Ernie’s World” where I live, work and which constitutes the essence of who I am and what I do. The “other world”, consists of “society”, or maybe better stated, the “nation” called the United States of America. These ’worlds’ appear to be diametrically opposed to each other. But here is the catch. The only real opposition I can see comes from the national media and how they report to me about what is happening in the USA. When I talk to people, which I am compelled to do on a regular basis J , I find that the people I live and work around are not any different than I am. We all have the same basic human values. Most of us want to live our lives civilly among our various communities and are willing to help each other and anyone else we see in need of our assistance, without discrimination as to color, religion or nationality.
What this all leads me to believe is that our national media outlets, TV, radio, internet and the common news sources, are not reporting “news” as much as they are trying to redirect the “common values” we have come to live with in the USA.
Examples of this are easy to come by. Just glance at any news headline page. They are cluttered with ‘conflict’ stories. No matter if it be violence, politics, business, international relations or a local story. The media’s emphasis is on every detail that would tend to “separate” people from a civil relationship to each other.
So the “conflict” in my own mind is this. I really believe that most of us would be better off to ignore the media. But, in that case, we would be effectively ‘sticking our heads in the sand’ and disconnecting from what is going on in the nation and world at large.
I do know people who apparently never listen to the “news” or read “news” stories. They seem to be content, but at the same time they have no ideal what is taking place outside their front door, things that can greatly affect them personally. This is the catch 22. In any ‘battle of values’, which is what our country is in right now, how are we to “defend” ourselves if we don’t even know the “war is ongoing”?
It only takes a casual glance at any polling data to see that we are in a great struggle in our society about basic “values”. By ‘values’ I mean, moral, economic and political values. As in the fact that the U.S. way of life that we have come to believe in is “on the ropes”. Put there by our elected officials and the media that props them up.
For instance, when did it become ‘fashionable’ to “hate capitalism”? Have we Americans become so brain-washed that we don’t realize that ‘capitalism’ is the very foundation of a free society. Here is why; ‘capitalism’ is a free market system, based on the ideal of private ownership for the production and distribution of goods. The only alternatives are either dictatorships, where a “king” is in control of everything and everyone, plus, everything else is considered “property” of the king. The other alternative is “communism”, where the philosophy is that “no one” owns anything, but “everyone” shares equal ownership in all things.
Our nation fought the Revolutionary War to free us from the dictates of a king. The experiment of communism has failed miserable in the last hundred years, due to the simple fact that people will not produce if they don’t receive due compensation for their own production. The Soviet Union was a historic example of such a system, it did not work out very well. The peasants soon learned that the “talking heads” were using a bigger dipper in the common pot than what they allowed the commoners to use. Thus, over the course of only 50 years or so, everyone either became corrupted or the capable people just “quit producing”, then the pot dried up. The “Empire” collapsed around their heads. Since then, many of the countries of the old Soviet Union have been at war with each other and nearly all, are struggling just to survive.
The core issue in our current struggles comes right back to the beginning. Are we going to continue being a “free country”, respecting the rights over everyone to “own what they earn”, or are we going to slip into a communist/socialist system, where “Big Brother Government” will take everything by “taxation” and split it up as they see fit? This seems to be the language coming out of Washington and the media. How can some “tongue wagging politician” even use such expressions as I have heard over and over, in recent times? It goes like this; “how do we (Congress/Washington) PAY for a tax cut”? Just think about that. The only money Washington is “supposed” to have comes from tax revenue in one form or another. To use the term, “pay for a tax cut” is either ignorance or arrogance. They really act as if they “OWN EVERYTHING” and a tax cut is something they have to come up with “more money” to pay. No, a “tax cut” would simply mean they were not confiscating as much money as they are, there is nothing for them to “pay for” there. The language they use betrays their views!
Now to be fair with Washington, “we the people” must bear a fair share for the reason we are living in a “bankrupt” state. That being the overwhelming number of “citizens” who are “feeding at the federal, state or local feed trough”.
I don’t know the percentage of “paychecks” that are coming from “tax revenue”. But all the signs indicate that it is “too high” to sustain. Nor are my criticisms directed at any particular “jobs” that obtain their money from taxation sources, it is the overall picture that is choking us to death. It is simply impossible that “everyone” can be employed by the “taxpayer”. The reality is, if you have a balanced economy, the number employed by government must remain in the minority, otherwise the tax burden becomes so heavy on the producers that there is no motivation left for them to produce.
A few days ago I wrote down a quote, shamefully I did not write down the source, but the words struck me as being very true; “Modern life is a thin veneer covering historic survival. Basic living skills of agricultural peoples cannot die, without the death of a civilization.” The thin layer of veneer that is currently propping up our society, is capitalism and free enterprise. It seems obvious that there are “forces” in our own government and especially in our media and universities, that are out to destroy “capitalism”.
Let me make a plea that Americans get over “abuses of the capitalist system”, for corruption in society is not in “the system” but in “people”. Anyone who claims that “freedom” is to blame for our troubles, are ignorant or dishonest about the real problems we face. It is a moral failure in ‘individual people’ who abuse the free market by dishonest means. It is a moral failure by ‘individual politicians’ who will spend more money than the nation has, just so they can be re-elected to their office. It is a moral failure by ‘individuals’, not a failure of capitalism or a free market, that has gotten us in this mess that our children and grandchildren are going to reap the actual consequences of.
How can it be a “help” for the USA to give up the free market capitalist system? That very system, is what made this nation the richest on earth. That very system, capitalism, is what has brought us the technology to have a “standard of living” far beyond any civilization in history. Even what the government calls “poverty level” (I qualify big-time, by their standard), live a ‘rich life’ compared to generations even of recent history. That very system, is why I can sit in the woods and communicate anywhere around the world in a matter of seconds. Etc, etc, etc!
I do resent so called “Americans” who whine for the “government” to take care of them, whether it be bankers on Wall St. or bums on the back streets of St. Paul. Our nation did not become what it is by having the printing presses of the Federal Reserve “creating wealth”, but by everyday American citizens picking themselves up and going to work. Producing, inventing, creating businesses founded on the principle that they would be able to enjoy the fruit of their labor in a free country.
I saw a headline this past week that Congress or the Senate, or maybe both, had passed a trillion dollar budget for next year. We are 15 trillion in the hole now, much of that trillion they are spending will go only for interest on our debt. Somewhere, sometime there will be a day of reckoning. This is where “Ernie’s World” finds a great conflict with “that world”. I don’t want to be sunk by the downdraft of the sinking Titanic. I am not sure that this is possible to avoid, but “Ernie’s World” will keep a close eye out for floating ’ice burgs’ and try to avoid them.
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