It is the back to school season around here and parents here in the “land of the free” are being treated to some new intrusion from government, yet another European import, and that is a BMI report to be sent home with every child. Yes, now the government will tell you if your child is too fat. Odd, when I was in school the students seemed able to figure out on their own which of their peers were too fat or too thin to warrant ridicule. This comes on the heels of a story from Britain in which a girl with an athletic build was deemed overweight by her school and is now starving herself. I must ask again what business it is of any politician or appointed bureaucrat how much children other than their own weigh? Unless the child is so grossly fat that there is suspected danger of a deranged parent force feeding them to the point that their life is in danger then I say the government should butt out!This points to a larger and, I think, more serious problem -certainly more serious than chubby children. That is the totalitarian nature of modern “democratic” and “liberal” governments. The state today has broader and more far-reaching powers than the most absolute monarchs in western history ever dreamed of having. In many cases even more totalitarian power than the likes of Hitler or Stalin ever had. Even in the United States we now have the government telling you what you can eat, what you can drink, how much you can feed your children, in California the government wants to tell you what color car you can drive or what temperature you can keep your house! In Europe the government tells you what kind of TV you can own, what shape your vegetables must be and how you make chocolate. Stop and consider just how much of our lives are regulated by the government! Is this the society of freedom we were promised? Personally, I doubt King Louis XIV in all his glory ever gave one thought to how much water people used on their lawn or what kind of feed they gave their horses.
When the government can fine you for grilling meat too close to your porch, for using too much water in your toilette, shooting an animal on your own property or, as in Germany, make it illegal for you to teach your own children -government has gotten out of control! They try to cover it all up by saying it was all done democratically and all done for our own good but none of their liberal slogans can cover up the fact that we are losing more and more control over our own lives and that more and more of society, government and all that that entails is being controlled by an ever-shrinking elite of politicians who care nothing for their people, their countries or anyone or anything save their own cronies and their own agenda. Revolutions all over the world claimed to be fighting for “freedom” -well freedom is not something they can deliver. Real freedom comes from independence and that is what these revolutionaries have robbed us of. It makes me a very, very … Mad Monarchist.
Truth seldom matters to people, they think in catchphrases, slogans, and Rhetoric, repeat polemic as unquestionable Truth, and rely heavily upon the presumptions society has fed them.
ReplyDeleteIn this way, we see how Political debates work. Sarah Palin says whatever is needful in order to make herself appear to be everything he TEA Party desires her to be, to create an Image of herself that is marketable to them. Thus, she wins support from many on the Right, because she tells them what they want to hear and lets them live in their Fantasy land. Certainly not all on the Right have embraced her even in the TEA party set but, this is how she is presented. The Image is what maintains her popularity, ensures her continued pay check from Television appearances and book sales, and enables her political ambition for future office, perhaps even he Presidency.
Such is not limited o the Right, the Left has the carefully crafted, carefully run Campaign of 2008 to fondly remember when Obama made them all Believe again. Obama lives in the same sort of state except that he now has real power, and will be criticised for his actions and inactions. When running, though, he stood behind podiums and greeted masses with impressive, high sounding speeches, words that stirred their passions and ignited their imaginations, and caused hem to feel strong, brave, and united. Never mind that it was all an empty vanity.
This is how Republics work, and I’m afraid how any society would given Human Nature. Republics simply capitalise on the fact that the masses are so easily swayed by Rhetoric and believing what they want to believe, and pandering to it, that it gives this aspect of Human Nature full reign to play out noticeably.
On another Blog I argued the Loyalist Cause, to a group that had demonised them. They were conservatives, so they imagined he Patriots shared their conservative Vision and the Loyalists were Liberals. They projected on the Loyalists of 1776 all manner of EVIL, they were in the end only Loyal to themselves for example, and loved Big Government, and dint love heir country.
To them, and even to the left, Democracy is about Freedom, and is the definition of Freedom. A society’s freedom can be measured by how Democratic a nation is, how open and fair the elections are, and how secure the checks and balances go.
Somehow, the think that the mere fact that they have a right to vote, and that the elections they participate in are open and fair, means that the Lws that will be passed by the Government will be Fair in return and they, having a voice in Government, will be Free. Meanwhile, propose a Monarchy, one in which the King Rules as opposed to merely reigns, and they think immediately of slavery. All Monarchs are just at best freeloaders who contribute nothing to society, or at worse hereditary Tyrants who don’t care about the masses, and allow them to Starve. Marie Antoinette really did say “Let them eat Cake” and let her people starve, and the Kings of the Earth care only for themselves.
Under a Monarch, we are all Slaves. We’d have no Freedom of speech, Freedom of the Press, freedom of Religion, Freedom of assembly, ect… meanwhile, if we elect someone, we automatically have those rights.
They never look at the Stark reality that they simply do not, absolutely DO NOT have Freedom.
This is because what matters is the Dream, the Narrative Told that they use to understand heir world. It is this Narrative that makes them see only the ideal, and not the reality. Or even where the reality intrudes, the Narrative says its because the system is being misused or is broken and needs be repaired, usually by their political party.
They don’t stop and think the system itself causes the disparity they see.
And in this way, Totalitarianism can easily encroach, after all, its legitimate, for the people voted, didn’t they? If not its only because our party didn’t win, and once they do, it will all be better.