Saturday, June 07, 2008

Heroic ? Or..Criminal ?

I am not convinced that the majority of even those franchised to elect governments in the West are well informed enough to save the civilization they now enjoy.

Thus, it is true that we get the governance we “deserve”, huh?

Now, WAIT a minute...in case you think I am dealing in an elitism I abhor, I have a particular dilemma in mind.

There are three outworn polemical artifices that come to mind:

(1). Free speech does NOT extend to the person crying “FIRE!” in a crowded theater.

(2). Chicken Little was an unwitting idiot for warning the barnyard the “Sky is Falling” when a flax seed struck her comb.

(3). The venal shopkeeper who amplified and puffed up the dangerous invasion of snakes, rats, wolves, panthers...whatever...to increase his sales of traps, weapons, ammunition and boots.

The latter is venal...corrupt...criminal, actually.

But are we equipped to tell the difference in our empirical (dare I use the word “environmental”)
situation, as regards which of the three listed mechanisms are at work on our “will-to-action” these days?

I sincerely doubt it.

We are pummeled and pelted with exhortations to:

“Tax every fart and exhalation of CO2 gas !

“Drill offshore and in Anwar Now!”

“Punish people who eat beef as we do smokers”

“Cripple the Big Carbon Footprint Makers”

“Boycott Gasoline manufacturers”

And on and on...

But where is the thoughtful, objective, humane compass? All the hot button shrieking transfers money or power from the productive, wealth generators to an arid bureaucratic Gobi-Sahara.

( Right here, I can hear the echo of a 21st century “skool poison” asking “WTH is a Gobi-Sahara???” and I die a little.)

And, THAT is the point.

The people who will make the ballot choices that will limit and expand governance just are not equipped with historical information or empirical wisdom to make those choices in their own best self interest—or the best interests of civilization.

The soft fascism of the gangsta media and the Marxist political educators has delivered an erstwhile free people into the dungeons of the Thieving Shopkeeper, Chicken Little, and the Manic Fire-Screamer in the Theater.

Vigilance is always Heroic. But venal fearmongering is criminal.

Is it too late?

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