“Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist party?” That was a question asked during one of the darker spots of our governmental history. A time, not unlike today, where the appearance or accusation of impropriety could ruin a person – usually to the financial and political betterment of some one else. Unlike today, however, a person being a Communist is not nearly as a big of a deal. There’s still a Mob, though, and at the head of the Mob are people who have motives that are not in sync with the virtue they claim to defend.
Thanks to a quote offered to me by a friend of mine, I got to thinking about the war we face as a nation in a bit different light. So many things intertwine and play off of one another, how do you go about separating them? Personal freedom meets highways and education. Taxation takes on the right to die while smoking a joint. A Congressman does a line of coke off a legal prostitute’s stomach while working out his latest bill to ban abortion. Things are’t always so simple.
Maybe we’ve been selling things the wrong way. Ayn Rand didn’t believe in the greater good. Perhaps we should call it the greater self interest, instead. We tax things in order to allow you to exercise your freedom to live the way you choose. United in our interest, we have an Interstate so that we can drive to bars faster. That the same Interstate also allows me to move my cartel purchased drugs across the United States while exporting my cattle and grain is really just a bonus. Universal Healthcare is no longer a tax, is a guaranteed customer base. 330 million customers who have no need to go anywhere else. Sure I don’t make as much money from them in one sitting as I used to, but now I schedule Bi-weekly visits. Democratic Socialism for higher profits and limited competition!
In return for those minimum taxes you can do what you want and to Hell with the rest, let them figure it out. Perhaps that’s the new Capitalism.
Me, I believe in the common good. It’s uncomfortable, a little messy and we’re not always sure where we’re going – Kind of like a first kiss in a Volkswagen Bug. But it’s better than nothing at all. Somewhere along the line, though, the common good became something else. Maybe now it’s the common good as long as somebody else is doing it. Before long, people decided that they wanted Uncle Sam to do more and more for themselves, and now they only stick their heads up when they don’t like things. And rather than move, or change things themselves, they let Uncle Sam tell everyone else that they can’t do that anymore. The stuff we hate must in turn be hated by everyone else. We don’t change ourselves or our circumstances, that’s too much work. But we do like the idea of Force, and nobody knows Force like Uncle Sam, so we have Him tell everyone else to hate things like we hate things. 300 million people, all telling Uncle Sam to tell others what to hate and what to like so long as they don’t tread on me. No wonder we’re so confused.