View Full Version : The Idol of Equality
Some thoughts on the current cultural war on individual liberty.
Of the bureaucracy, by the bureaucracy, for the bureaucracy...
Complete article at link below.
The Idol of Equality
January 14, 2014 10:31 am / victorhanson
To put equality ahead of liberty is to war against human nature.
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online
“There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville
In his famous admonition about the tyranny of the majority, Tocqueville went on to warn that “Liberty is not the chief and constant object of their desires; equality is their idol: they make rapid and sudden efforts to obtain liberty, and if they miss their aim resign themselves to their disappointment; but nothing can satisfy them except equality, and rather than lose it they resolve to perish.”
If we keep Tocqueville’s advice in mind, we can appreciate why and how the present war against personal liberty in service to mandated equality may become the greatest danger of the 21st century. The theaters of battle already extend to every segment of American life; and every weapon is employed, from government coercion to the progressive media to the Orwellian effort to change the meaning of language itself.
Millions of Americans have lost the liberty to select their own type of health insurance, purchased on their own volition to best match their own assessments of their particular needs. Obamacare — the federal government’s redistributive effort to equalize health care for all — sought to destroy the liberty of many millions in order to ensure a state-directed sameness in care for all.
Most initiatives that Obama has embraced are characterized by going after a suspect group or tradition — targeting particular businesses deemed not sufficiently socially sensitive to workers, focusing on legal gun owners, eroding the military tradition in infantry service of restricting women to non-combat roles, coercing schools that would discipline trouble-makers in class, promoting the suppression of interest rates by the Federal Reserve to reward the many who owe money and punish the fewer who saved some — all on the notion of helping the proverbial “people.” Such a thoroughgoing effort at enforcing ideas of fairness covers both the important and the trivial: The government renames terrorism “man-caused disasters”; the fight against it is merely “overseas contingency operations.” The Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.” If need be, we can jail an obscure video maker on trumped-up charges of parole violation to serve the larger need not to show bias against anyone.
The universities are probably society’s worst offenders. Under the guise of seeking race, class, and gender equity, they have denied free expression through “speech codes.” They have undermined traditional liberal-arts curricula on the grounds that they were not sufficiently sensitive to these same gender, race, and class issues. And they have placed their institutions — from the selection of graduation speakers, to the hiring and promotion of administrators and faculty, to the criteria for admitting students and the scale on which they are graded — in service not to academic excellence or even civil liberties, but to a perceived equality of result.
The effort to take away freedom, both violent and insidious, in order to ensure equality of result has a sad history, from the degeneration of Athenian democracy in the late fourth century b.c. to the French Revolution to, in the postwar era, the Sovietization of Eastern Europe, the destruction of civil societies in Africa and Latin America, the implosion of the European Union, the current mess in François Hollande’s France, and chaos in American cities like Detroit.
As the ancient poet Hesiod noted, there are two sorts of human jealousies: the positive one of a free society in which citizens are impressed by the singular works of some and thus redouble their efforts to match or exceed them (“She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbor, a rich man who hastens to plow and plant and put his house in good order; and neighbor vies with his neighbor as he hurries after wealth”), and a destructive envy (“foul-mouthed, delighting in evil, with scowling face”) in which the many resent that the few have something they do not, and thus redouble their efforts to either destroy them or take away what they have acquired.
The problem with destroying liberty in service to mandated sameness is obvious, driven by Hesiod’s second, destructive envy: It has never worked, because it is contrary to human nature — both man’s acquisitive habits and the fact that we are not all born into the world equal in every respect. Instead, forced equality erodes personal initiative, undermines the rule of law, ruins the honesty of language, and requires a degree of coercion antithetical to a free society.
Gun-control laws and the use of the bully pulpit and government protocols to prevent law-abiding citizens from obtaining traditional firearms did not curb the murder rate in Chicago or Detroit. It only drove up the price of bullets, created panic buying, and ultimately will result in more, not fewer, guns in the hands of citizens who are now angry that their government slanders them as quasi-criminals.
Inflating the money supply, ending passbook interest as we knew it, and taking on enormous government debt did not lead to a robust recovery after the 2008–2009 recession; rather, it led to a permanent recessionary cycle in which over 90 million Americans are simply not looking for work. Most of them are now dependent on their legislators’ populist efforts to force government to take on more debt for their support.
To ensure that the masses could be protected from perceived climate change, the president went after energy companies — to the degree that he could by restricting new leases of gas and oil on federal lands, and subsidizing companies deemed friends of the people because of their bumper-sticker allegiance to green wind and solar power. Chaos resulted, both through the bankruptcies of subsidized crony capitalist green firms and through less energy produced on federal lands.
Worse still, the elites who lead the war against liberty in favor of progressive notions of mandated equality are themselves usually exempt from the implications of their own ideology — a long American tradition, from FDR to the Kennedys to Al Gore.
Barack Obama brags about the increase in oil and gas production on his watch, as if he thought it a good thing and as if the public won’t notice that such increases came on private lands, and only because they were beyond his reach. Sidwell Friends, for all its liberal patina, would never allow disruptive students in its Advanced Placement classes, or predicate discipline decisions on notions of race — as the Obama administration is currently attempting to force the public schools to do. When California’s transgender law goes into full effect in the public schools, I doubt that the wealthy will wish to follow suit in their private academies and thus put their eight-year-old daughters in facilities shared with 14-year-old boys who deem themselves gender-ambiguous.
When Barack Obama swears that inequality is the greatest threat to American life, we do not expect him to yank his girls out Sidwell Friends to share the D.C. public-educational experience. We do not expect him in gestures of solidarity to cease playing at exclusive golf courses with crony capitalists, any more than we expect him to refuse huge campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs, or to pass on hiring revolving-door capitalists like Jack Lew or Peter Orszag. We do not assume he will decry the wildly disparate salaries in the NBA and NFL, much less sermonize to his Malibu supporters that their gardeners and nannies need union protection.
Obamacare is as likely to exempt favorite companies and unions as it is determined to cancel plans of those without influence. The pattern of the French Revolution’s grandees, the Soviet nomenklatura, and the EU elite has always been to force equality down the throats of free people while enjoying quite unequal lifestyles.
Finally, the war to subordinate liberty is contrary to the idea of human freedom and thus always demands ever more coercion. The longer Obama remains well below a 50 percent approval rating, the more we will witness mandates by executive fiat, the selective enforcement of settled law, and controversial appointees selected on the basis of progressive ideology rather than proven competence and administrative expertise.
Historically the reaction to state-mandated equality is usually either flight — from the Soviet Union and the captive nations of Eastern Europe, from present-day France, from Detroit, from California — or a sort of psychological cocooning, in which citizens fearful that they are in the crosshairs of progressive government drop out, keep quiet, and hope their success can survive the taxman, the regulator, the popular press, and the fury of the mob.
The irony is that free people usually create far more wealth than the coerced, which makes the lower echelons better off, a fact that reminds “equality” is usually about empowering progressive elites rather than materially helping the poor.
<snip>
http://victorhanson.com/wordpress/?p=6913
Trapper John
01-18-2014, 07:51
:lifter And those are the seeds of revolutions, past, present, and future. Thanks for posting that.
"The irony is that free people usually create far more wealth than the coerced, which makes the lower echelons better off, a fact that reminds “equality” is usually about empowering progressive elites rather than materially helping the poor."
Anybody too stupid to know this should be deported to Greece.
"The irony is that free people usually create far more wealth than the coerced, which makes the lower echelons better off, a fact that reminds “equality” is usually about empowering progressive elites rather than materially helping the poor."
Anybody too stupid to know this should be deported to Greece.
I'd settle for back to Kenya. ;)
ddoering
01-18-2014, 16:11
I'd settle for back to Kenya. ;)
I'll second that.
Trapper John
01-18-2014, 17:11
LINK (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKxCWheH5Vk)
The Left continually focus on things like "income inequality," not taking into account that such statistics have nothing to do with the actual flesh-and-blood human beings in society. They talk about the 1% making a majority of "the income," as if income is something produced centrally that is divided up amongst society, and the 1% (treated like a fixed aristocracy) is somehow hogging it all to themselves. The "distribution" of income is like the "distribution" of height or weight in society. It isn't centrally controlled.
In terms of the real wealth of society, i.e. the actual goods and services produced, inequality is at one of the lowest levels it has ever been in human history. Never before has the standard of medical care, quality and variety of food, living conditions, etc...of the average person been so high. There will always be rich and poor within societies, but within Western societies, unless one is homeless, generally everyone is rich by historical and global standards.
The average person one-hundred years from now will have access to medical care that the richest people in the world right now do not have access to, just like the average person today has access to such care that the richest people from 1914 did not have access to. The Left confuse relative wealth inequality with absolute wealth inequality.
It isn't centrally controlled.
Not yet! Just give it a few more years. :mad:
GratefulCitizen
01-18-2014, 17:25
The politics of envy are just a subset of the standard model for tyranny.
Tyrants want their subjects to be equal...in every sense of the word.
They will push for equality in our possessions (like cars and housing), equality in recognition (everyone gets a trophy), equality in beliefs (all religions are right...or all are wrong), equality in education (common core, financial aid, head start, etc.), equality in healthcare (ACA), and will even defy natural distinctions (gender is a malleable choice).
Some variation is allowable, if it serves the needs of the state.
If an individual is unique, they may have something unique to offer the world.
The state would rather have its subjects fungible.
When you are fungible, you have little influence.
If you do not obey, you can easily be discarded (they have another one just like you).
Rabbi Daniel Lapin has an interesting sermon on this subject.
He interprets the Tower of Babel story to be a warning for how all tyrants will act.
He shared his views with Glenn Beck awhile back.
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/48240/
http://youtu.be/cRKZ7dIGEo4
PedOncoDoc
01-19-2014, 08:01
I received a gem of an email earlier this week from the provost of the university. The take home message I received was, "Merit no longer matters in our admissions process when applicants are minorities, so long as our admissions revenue is unaffected." Snip below (bolding is mine):
To members of the University Community:
As we begin the new academic term I would like to address some of the challenges we face with issues of race, identity and inclusion of students on campus, and to affirm both the university's and my own strong commitment to diversity and to creating a welcoming and inclusive community.
This commitment is longstanding and fundamental to who we are as an institution. And yet, there are times we have not lived up to our highest aspirations. Last term, we saw this in public displays of racial and religious insensitivity and in the daily aggression our students so eloquently described in the #BBUM (Being Black at UM) Twitter dialogue. We also recognize that, despite our increased efforts, the percentage of underrepresented minority students on campus has fallen noticeably in the last few years.
While the university has seen individual instances of ignorance and apathy, we also recognize that good work is being done across campus every day by faculty, staff and students committed to advancing diversity and improving the climate of inclusion. Michigan has a proud history of fighting for social justice, including taking the fight to promote diversity all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. We must honor that legacy and push ourselves to take the lead on issues of equity and diversity along all dimensions, setting the example for public institutions across the country.
To become the model public university to which we aspire, we will directly address the challenges we face. In the past several months, Royster Harper, Vice President for Student Life, and I have had productive conversations with the Board of Regents, fellow executive officers, students, faculty and staff about issues of diversity, climate and inclusion.
Based on these conversations and instructive student-driven activism, we have identified three areas that need our most immediate attention: improving campus climate, increasing enrollment of underrepresented minorities to the fullest extent permitted by law, and addressing issues surrounding the Trotter Multicultural Center. We will address these areas with immediate short-term plans as well as with longer-term engagement and thinking. (remainder not included in this snippet)
Trapper John
01-19-2014, 08:17
I received a gem of an email earlier this week from the provost of the university. The take home message I received was, "Merit no longer matters in our admissions process when applicants are minorities, so long as our admissions revenue is unaffected."
"And another one bites the dust, and another one bites the dust...." :mad:
"And another one bites the dust, and another one bites the dust...." :mad:
It is certainly not about the best and the brightest anymore, when were universities ever not inclusive of all peoples? If diverse students choose not to go the UM or anywhere else for that matter is that the universities fault? Let's just throw more money at the issue.
The Reaper
01-19-2014, 18:26
So the President's daughters are more deserving of admission than better scoring poor white kids of Appalachia?
Right....
TR
So the President's daughters are more deserving of admission than better scoring poor white kids of Appalachia?
Right....
TR
Woops. Your animus is showing:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-19/obama-says-racial-animus-may-soften-support-new-yorker-reports.html
President Barack Obama said that racial tensions may have softened his popularity among white voters within the last two years, according to a story posted on the New Yorker magazine’s website today.
“There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black president,” Obama said in the article by David Remnick, appearing in the magazine’s Jan. 27 edition.
“Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black president,” Obama said in his most direct comments on how race has affected his political standing since he’s been in office.
Obama’s second term has been marked by controversies including a partial government shutdown in October, revelations that the National Security Agency has gathered personal mobile phone data and the troubled rollout of health-insurance expansion.
Obama’s approval rating among all voters is 39 percent and his disapproval rating is 53 percent, according to a Gallup Poll conducted Jan. 14-16. In the 2012 presidential election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney won 59 percent of the white vote, compared with Obama’s 39 percent, according to exit polling by a consortium of major news outlets. Obama won 43 percent of the white vote in 2008 against 55 percent for opponent John McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona.
Obamacare Blamed
“Poll after poll makes it very clear that Obamacare and other job-killing policies are the reason” for the president’s decline in popularity, Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer said in a phone interview today. (No way-it's because he's black! :rolleyes:)
Obama offered reflections on a variety of subjects in the New Yorker story, including his view about the dangers of playing professional football, which has been the subject of media scrutiny over players’ head injuries.
“I would not let my son play pro football,” the article quotes Obama, the father of two daughters, as saying. When asked by Remnick how those dangers squared with his enjoyment of the game as a spectator, Obama said professional players are aware of the inherent risk in playing a full-contact sport.
Like Smokers
“They know what they’re buying into,” Obama ( a smoker himself, right?:rolleyes:) said. “It is no longer a secret. It’s sort of the feeling I have about smokers, you know?”
Obama acknowledged that reports of U.S. surveillance programs, including allegations that the government tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, had created a “breach of trust,” Remnick reported.
Obama said he also assumes others are trying to spy on him, and for this reason he doesn’t have a phone, according to The New Yorker.
He said, “there are European governments that we know spy on us, and there is a little bit of Claude Rains in ‘Casablanca’ -- shocked that gambling is going on,” the magazine quoted him as saying, referring to the actor who played the police captain in the 1942 movie.
Snip
Perhaps, it might be useful to share the lib ideology touched on in the VDH piece in the OP - and the lies contained in the piece below - with the young'uns before the 2014 midterm elections.
'Course...if your experience's are anything like mine the smartest person in the entire world is a kid just finished their first semester of college...
7 Lies Liberals Tell Young Americans
John Hawkins | Jan 18, 2014
TownHall
Saying that life is hard is kind of like saying the sun is hot, water is wet, or noting that politicians lie a lot. It's so obvious that anyone who's paying attention already knows that it's true. That being said, life's even harder when you're working under false assumptions that have been drilled into you by your teachers, college professors, Hollywood, and politicians in D.C. Much of what liberalism drums into the young skulls full of mush simply isn't true and millions of lives have been ruined by people finding it out the hard way. The good news is that the truth is out there if you're willing to look for it and not accept the easy answers that make you feel good.
1) You are a special little flower: We live in an "everybody's a winner," don't use red ink, don't offend anyone, participation trophies for everyone era where we build up self-esteem as much as possible. Then the college student who just went $100,000 a year in the hole to get a women's studies degree from a prestigious university finds that she's not even a stand-out at the $10 an hour job she only got because her father knew someone. This leaves her angry and baffled as to why she doesn't even merit a raise, much less a promotion. When you have that experience, it's easy to retreat into bitterness or video games where "greatness awaits" in a simulation where you get to restart over and over until you win. Contrary to what young Americans are taught in school, "experience trumps brilliance," hard work beats talent, and most people value you for what you bring to the table right now, not how wonderful your teacher said you were for "trying hard."
2) Social Security and Medicare will be there for you: Young Americans are expected to pay into Medicare and Social Security, but the programs aren't going to be there in their present forms when they get old enough to use them. In other words, we're defrauding young Americans. We're telling them to pay today so they'll be taken care of when they get old, but we have no intention of ever allowing them to collect. Unless there are massive changes made to our entitlement programs, most young Americans should expect to work until they die. Let me repeat that: if you're 25 years old, you will not get to retire at 65 like your parents because you will have to work until you drop dead. When there's a100 trillion dollar difference between what we already owe and the money we're collecting to pay it, that's not even a legitimately arguable proposition. If young Americans would like to receive more than sack cloth and an occasional bowl of gruel from the government once they get long in the tooth, they should be demanding entitlement reform.
3) Faith isn't relevant anymore: Hollywood almost universally makes Christians look bad in TV shows and movies, liberalism has become reflexively hostile to Christianity, and militant atheists work overtime to attack people of faith. Yet and still, this nation has been a success in large part because of Christianity. If not for this nation's Protestant work ethic, fundamental Christian decency and biblically inspired dedication to human rights, we would have never been so successful. That doesn't mean all Christians are good and all atheists are bad because that's certainly not true, but Christianity offers up a moral order to the universe that atheism is incapable of doing, by its very nature. Although I have known some wonderful people in my life who didn't believe in God, on the whole I've found that Christians (and observant Jews for that matter) are happier, more stable and are generally just better human beings than the people who don't believe. Contrary to what Hollywood would tell you, Christianity doesn't keep people from "doing all the fun stuff" in life, it just steers them away from sins that are "fun for a season," but that will do a lot of damage over the long-term. Few things will turn out to be more integral to your happiness and success as a human being over the long haul than your faith.
4) The government is your friend: As a general rule the more contact you have with a government, the more miserable you will be long term. Some politicians, government workers and well-connected corporations that land big contracts are exceptions to that rule, but you're probably not in any of those groups. For you, the more the government gets involved in your life, the worse off you'll be. Those college loans? The government expects them to be paid. That welfare and food stamps? It's not much money, it comes with a lot of strings attached and you'll have to degrade yourself by leeching off of your fellow citizens to get it. Ronald Reagan once said, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’" He wasn't wrong about that.
5) Morality doesn't matter: It's ironic that Christianity is regularly attacked, it's considered bad form to talk about morals, and we worry more about offending people than doing the right thing; yet we're shocked at how degenerate our society has become. You want a society with no moral code, where no one is ever made to feel bad about doing disgusting things? Well, then you should expect school shootings, welfare fraud, a deterioration of marriage, women having five children out of wedlock with four different men, perverted politicians, etc., etc., etc. When you say morality isn't welcome, you don't get to pick and choose which dearly held precepts are trampled into the dirt in the public square. If you want your kids growing up in a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, buy into the idea that morals don't matter and you'll be doing your part to make it a reality.
6) Politicians are investing in your future: There really was a time in American history when the people and the government were living with one foot in the present and one foot in the future. As a practical matter, that just doesn't happen anymore. Our political differences are so stark, our government is so big, our debt is so out of control and the quality of men the American people have sent to D.C. is so low that everything is about "the now." It's about what gets them through the next news cycle, the next scandal or the next election. There's not a single Democrat in D.C. who cares about what happens to you if you're not his relative or campaign contributor and sadly, most of the Republicans aren't any better. The only people in politics that are genuinely fighting tooth and nail to protect future generations of Americans are the decidedly unhip Tea Party and its allies in Congress. They've been relentlessly smeared for that because people who are frittering away the future loathe nothing more than people who expose how small and selfish they've become.
7) The world owes you a living: There was a time in America when, "The world doesn't owe you a living," was probably the mother's favorite phrase to repeat to her child after, "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?" However, we've moved past that and now everyone seems to believe that if he gets a college degree, he’s owed a cushy, fulfilling job and all the cool stuff his parents had after a lifetime of work. Unfortunately, that's the wrong answer, kiddo. For most people, all a college degree entitles you to is THE CHANCE to find a job where you’ll be allowed to start proving yourself for low pay. If you're expecting more than that and daddy isn't going to give you a VP slot at his company, then don't be surprised if the world adjusts your expectations the hard way.
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2014/01/18/7-lies-liberals-tell-young-americans-n1781015/page/full
Entire post.
lol Every kid should be required to memorize and recite that article before being handed a HS diploma.
Agreed. That is a great read.
Sounds a lot like a family member that I know, they convince everyone that no matter how hard you work, the 1% will always be at the top and you will always be at the bottom with the scraps until the government evens things out and gives you, "your fair share".
And when the subject comes up of a 28 year old unemployed son living at home with no drive to do anything other than "what he wants to do", which is being a photographer, the excuse is.........................."He is just artistic".
Seems like that argument is constantly made these days, not everyone gets to do exactly what they want to do in life whilst making a living. Those who choose to do nothing in lieu of that are hands down the most selfish people within our society...........and their numbers are rapidly growing.
As that article points to, nothing will change until people accept some form of personal responsibility and take control of their lives.
This should be recited daily, from kindergarten on up, and placed on television during football commercials.
lol Every kid should be required to memorize and recite that article before being handed a HS diploma.
They won't have to be able to read it though, right? That would be entirely too much work for such an advanced society like the one we live in.
And when the subject comes up of a 28 year old unemployed son living at home with no drive to do anything other than "what he wants to do", which is being a photographer, the excuse is.........................."He is just artistic".As a young boy I was always told (groomed) that, after you graduate HS you have two choices:
1. Go to college.
2. Get a job.
"Because your man-ass is not laying up under my roof at all!":eek::lifter
Entire post
Thank you for that. There are several individuals that come in to work that need to read this ASAP. Copies are running off as we speak :D
Now I'm not the most educated guy in the world, but I have done a healthy dose of studying history due to my interest in the subject. Time and time again history has shown that this process of coercion and inundation of unscrupulous behavior by our modern day society leads to bondage. We're all bound to some degree due to life on life's terms, but willingly and blindly following the mantra's of entities such as school, .gov, media, etc., without question does nothing more than make our Nation's future more dependent upon these entities.
It has been brought up here before, but I feel that a lot more parental intervention during the formative years of one’s life is an order. I suppose it doesn't help that most parents nowadays grew up believing everything they heard by the aforementioned entities with little or no guidance from their parents. It's a vicious cycle that I'm afraid may be never ending without a serious adjustment to our society. By any means necessary .
As a young boy I was always told (groomed) that, after you graduate HS you have two choices:
1. Go to college.
2. Get a job.
"Because your man-ass is not laying up under my roof at all!":eek::lifter
lol Back when kids were raised right. :lifter
As a young boy I was always told (groomed) that, after you graduate HS you have two choices:
1. Go to college.
2. Get a job.
"Because your man-ass is not laying up under my roof at all!":eek::lifter
Groomed similarly here, too.
Was told that my ass was out of the house at 18 (left at 17) as his responsibility to provide for me was over.
Choice was job, college, military.
Lol, drinking age was 18 then...couldn't get out on my own fast enough.
IMO, extending medical coverage for kids up to 26 may help some families but it does retard many young people from just jumping in the pool and start swimming. There are exceptions, no doubt. But, the general rule ought to be get out there and make your own way ASAP!
Best thing in the world for a productive, healthy, relatively happy society is a JOB.
There is good and honor in most every lawful job.
Best healthcare plan is a good job, best retirement plan is a good job, best mental health, family happiness, etc., etc., etc., is a good job (or your own business).
Government policies which hurt job creation and job creators (and increase govt dependence) undermine the very fabric of a stable and productive society...and undermine individual liberty.
Government policies which hurt job creation and job creators (and increase govt dependence) undermine the very fabric of a stable and productive society...and undermine individual liberty.
Nailed it right smack on the head.
Clock's tickin', too.
Trapper John
01-21-2014, 08:49
I suppose there was some advantages to coming from a highly dysfunctional family in WV. Couldn't wait to book passage on the first thing smokin'. :D
Trapper John
01-21-2014, 08:52
Groomed similarly here, too.
Government policies which hurt job creation and job creators (and increase govt dependence) undermine the very fabric of a stable and productive society...and undermine individual liberty.
Unless of course the objective is create a society of government dependent "pajama boys". :eek:
Unless of course the objective is create a society of government dependent "pajama boys". :eek:
It ain't too late to reverse the trend, TJ.
"We got 'em just where we want 'em; surrounded from the inside."
Trapper John
01-21-2014, 09:10
It ain't too late to reverse the trend, TJ.
"We got 'em just where we want 'em; surrounded from the inside."
:D:D Mad Dog Jerry [RIP Brother]. Good point Dusty :lifter Some days I find this shit just too depressing. And then I am reminded of situations like Mad Dog's and his attitude ..... time to ruck up and press on Brother, we got a war to fight. :lifter
Thanks Bro.
theis223
01-21-2014, 11:31
BryanK By any means necessary
I think more often than not, good old fashioned hard work and someone promising a swift kick in the ass to keep you in line is a good place to start.
I know there are other threads devoted to this topic but in regards to this thread, what are some of the means that have worked for you or are willing to attempt?
Referring back to post #14 (tonyz) IMO the first thing that comes to mind are points 3 and 5. Faith and morality are relevant, hell realizing that there is something bigger than yourself and gaining a respect and appreciation for individual dignity (or at least respect a higher authority than your own) would solve a good portion of the problem, me thinks.
This is another cool thread by the way, thanks for starting it tonyz.
...I know there are other threads devoted to this topic but in regards to this thread, what are some of the means that have worked for you or are willing to attempt?
What has worked for me is:
When I was in school no child received a trophy for participation. During "field day" events in elementary and middle school, if little Jimmy Smith didn't run as fast or do as many push-ups, he didn't get a ribbon. No big deal as that is all we knew. Try your best, and if you’re not better than the next guy, no ribbon for you. Well, I wanted some f'in ribbons, and I still do.
My first born is a "tween" now, and the BS that he is being fed by all but one of his teachers such as: obama worship, equality for all, the wealthy need to share, no kickball, no dodge ball, no team captains, everyone gets a trophy or no one does, etcetera; is disgusting. I explain to him to think for himself and do his own research before believing what teachers are saying in subject matter and sidebar discussions occurring in class. Then, when he feels he has enough "ammo", to challenge the educator in a respectful manner. When I have him (custody arrangement), we research what he has been fed in the last two weeks in both subject matter and sidebar matter. He is, and has been, within the top 5 students grade-wise in his class. If it wasn't for my ex (she does get some credit :D) and I, there is no doubt he would probably be another mindless troll when he grew up.
That is what EVERY parent needs to do regardless of their situation. Instill values, teach the kids that libraries are free, and so is an education if you have the discipline to learn...diploma or not. I will add to also instill the notion in your child that there is a higher power, but that is another lengthy post.
By those means, this Nation will start to rebuild itself to the free-thinking, success driven land it once was IMO. Not the "gimme, gimme, gimme & F you if you don't" society we have become. I hope that answered your question, and I apologize for the delay in my response.
What has worked for me is:
When I was in school no child received a trophy for participation. During "field day" events in elementary and middle school, if little Jimmy Smith didn't run as fast or do as many push-ups, he didn't get a ribbon. No big deal as that is all we knew. Try your best, and if you’re not better than the next guy, no ribbon for you. Well, I wanted some f'in ribbons, and I still do.
My first born is a "tween" now, and the BS that he is being fed by all but one of his teachers such as: obama worship, equality for all, the wealthy need to share, no kickball, no dodge ball, no team captains, everyone gets a trophy or no one does, etcetera; is disgusting. I explain to him to think for himself and do his own research before believing what teachers are saying in subject matter and sidebar discussions occurring in class. Then, when he feels he has enough "ammo", to challenge the educator in a respectful manner. When I have him (custody arrangement), we research what he has been fed in the last two weeks in both subject matter and sidebar matter. He is, and has been, within the top 5 students grade-wise in his class. If it wasn't for my ex (she does get some credit :D) and I, there is no doubt he would probably be another mindless troll when he grew up.
That is what EVERY parent needs to do regardless of their situation. Instill values, teach the kids that libraries are free, and so is an education if you have the discipline to learn...diploma or not. I will add to also instill the notion in your child that there is a higher power, but that is another lengthy post.
By those means, this Nation will start to rebuild itself to the free-thinking, success driven land it once was IMO. Not the "gimme, gimme, gimme & F you if you don't" society we have become. I hope that answered your question, and I apologize for the delay in my response.
Very well put.
One could also say that anit-bully policies do the same thing, along with zero tolerance altercation policies where children are equally punished regardless if someone was standing up for himself.
theis223
01-23-2014, 11:21
What has worked for me is:
When I was in school no child received a trophy for participation. During "field day" events in elementary and middle school, if little Jimmy Smith didn't run as fast or do as many push-ups, he didn't get a ribbon. No big deal as that is all we knew. Try your best, and if you’re not better than the next guy, no ribbon for you. Well, I wanted some f'in ribbons, and I still do.
My first born is a "tween" now, and the BS that he is being fed by all but one of his teachers such as: obama worship, equality for all, the wealthy need to share, no kickball, no dodge ball, no team captains, everyone gets a trophy or no one does, etcetera; is disgusting. I explain to him to think for himself and do his own research before believing what teachers are saying in subject matter and sidebar discussions occurring in class. Then, when he feels he has enough "ammo", to challenge the educator in a respectful manner. When I have him (custody arrangement), we research what he has been fed in the last two weeks in both subject matter and sidebar matter. He is, and has been, within the top 5 students grade-wise in his class. If it wasn't for my ex (she does get some credit :D) and I, there is no doubt he would probably be another mindless troll when he grew up.
That is what EVERY parent needs to do regardless of their situation. Instill values, teach the kids that libraries are free, and so is an education if you have the discipline to learn...diploma or not. I will add to also instill the notion in your child that there is a higher power, but that is another lengthy post.
By those means, this Nation will start to rebuild itself to the free-thinking, success driven land it once was IMO. Not the "gimme, gimme, gimme & F you if you don't" society we have become. I hope that answered your question, and I apologize for the delay in my response.
Thank you sir, I concur completely. I was raised under a similar attitude that you use with your kin. I use a similar approach when coaching my youngins in wrestling and gymnastics (im sure these sports are frowned upon now a days as well, you actually have to work to succeed in them--go figure!)
You validate a dumb young buck, danke schoen.:lifter
What was it that Zero said? "I would not let my son play football"
nuff said:rolleyes: