Posted on 04/01/2014 3:10:51 AM PDT by Kaslin
"In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle: There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, ‘I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.’ To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: ‘If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.’" — G.K. Chesterton
We hear a great deal about how America needs to be "changed" by people who don't seem to know America's history, understand our country's uniqueness, or appreciate how good we've had it as a people. Until you understand what made America a great nation to begin with, you have no business suggesting any changes to the policies, tradition, and culture that made us so uniquely successful. It's not an accident that America became a great power. It's because of these seven reasons.
1) Judeo-Christian Ethics: When people call America a "Christian nation," they're referring to the Judeo-Christian morals that shaped our country. Our strong sense of right and wrong kept corruption to a minimum, our Protestant work ethic caused Americans to be productive, and our belief in rights given by God, not government shaped our national philosophy. Respect for Christian values is a part of the fabric of our country that goes right back to our founding. Even if many people wouldn't realize it until it is too late, an America where Christianity isn't an important part of everyday life would no longer be America in any meaningful sense.
2) A Powerful Military: There's a lot to be said for "soft power," but it pales in comparison to raw military might. The United States was not always a great military power, but once the Civil War was over, we started to assert ourselves. Since WWII, we've had the finest military on Planet Earth. That one factor does more to insure our freedom and the safety of our allies than every other factor combined. As Reagan said, "History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap." At least for now, no nation could be so foolish as to believe that a potential fight with the United States would be cheap.
3) Western Culture: If the entire population of Venezuela, Iran, or South Africa were here in the United States and all of us were gone, this country would quickly turn into a pesthole, just like all of those nations because they're culturally inferior to us. On the other hand, Western culture has produced ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Britain, the United States and a host of lesser nations that are still more successful than 90% of the planet. The emphasis in Western culture on individualism, innovation, Christianity, capitalism, science, technology, freedom and individual rights has given us an enormous advantage that we are sadly eroding with our foolish embrace of multi-culturalism.
4) Geography: We can't underestimate the importance of being a large, resource-rich nation that's isolated from powerful foes. Had Britain been considerably closer, it's possible that we may have been unable to break away and take control of our own destiny. If we had powerful adversaries to our North and South, we may have had great difficulties when our nation was young and we were just finding our strength. If we had been closer to Europe, our homeland might have been decimated during WWI and WWII. If God had given us first choice of places to found a nation, this is where we would have ended up.
5) Industrial Capacity: Economically, America managed to take full advantage of the Industrial Revolution and most people still don't realize how important our ability to churn out material was to winning WWII. Just to give you one of many examples,
"By 1944 America built 96,300 planes, more planes than were possessed by the Axis combined and this does not include British and Soviet production. The Germans built 40,000 war planes in 1944, but the arrival of P51 Mustangs in the skies over Germany resulted in the destruction of the Luftwaffe. And American production was 75 percent combat aircraft.....This was the peak of production, an incredible 11 planes an hour were rolling out of American aircraft plants."
We lack this capacity today and make up for our inability to mass produce weaponry by creating high quality war machines. This is a potentially dangerous strategy because if a large chunk of our superior weaponry were ever destroyed somehow, it would take us an inordinately long time to rebuild it.
6) A Merit-Based Society: America's lack of an aristocracy, tribes, and castes helped allow the cream to rise to the top in our society. Although we certainly weren't perfect in this regard as any slave or woman throughout most of our history could tell you, we were well ahead of much of the rest of the world. The fact that we're still regarded by the rest of the world as a "land of opportunity" is one of our greatest strengths, although our antiquated immigration system does little to take advantage of this fact. The more we penalize success as a society, the more stratified, stagnant and sterile we'll become as a country.
7) A Constitution That Limited Centralized Government: Nothing could be more fundamentally American than a deep and abiding distrust of government. That's why the Constitution was specifically designed to keep our own government from oppressing the people. This contributed mightily to our success because the bigger and more powerful the government becomes, the smaller, weaker and poorer the people become. Our Founding Fathers understood this and were fanatical about small, decentralized government. The further we move from that principle, the more economic stagnation, frightening levels of debt, and potentially dangerous tyranny we'll see from our own government.
North America was settled more recently than any other region of the industrial world, which means it was effectively built from a "clean slate." It's one of the few places where you can trace ownership and property titles back continuously to the first property owners in the age of written language. This makes all the difference in the world when it comes to something as simple as banking, lending, and investing.
sorry, theres only 1 reason why America became the powerhouse that is now. Capitalism.
And NO one could say boo to us ... and they didn't.
Until we had our minds changed by other, more caring and loving for others, social re-engineers so that now ... we ain't shit to anyone ... including ourselves.
How do you fight against an idea?
With another idea
(Ben Hur)
Ferguson has sent out warnings about Obama's failure to come to terms with what Ferguson sees as the potential rise of the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt and the possible "restoration of the caliphate and the strict application of Sharia"........themes at the heart of this new book "Civilization: The West and the Rest"...............
Ferguson's standpoint is that Western dominance has been a progressive civilizing force.....his new book reinforces these arguments postulating that there were six killer "apps" which propelled the West to a position of predominance.
These were competition, science, property, modern science, consumption and work ethic, each with a dedicated chapter in the book.
Ferguson contrasts how China was the world's most advanced civilization in the 15th century but stagnated and was overtaken by Dutch mercantilism and the rise of capitalism employing the six "skills".
In his books, and on his compelling PBS series "Civilization," Ferguson lists "morality" as a strategic strength of Western Civilization. He points out the successful Chinese business city Wenzou also has 1,400 churches.
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Note: "SMART POWER"---is a post-Bush term coined by Hillary.
Behold what "Smart Power" hath wrought: Debacle after debacle---Obama's careening and incomprehensible handling of the Syrian crisis.....doing a Costa Concordia with US ntl security and foreign policy. Obama outed himself as naive, isolated....and outlandishly stupid. Not to forget then-Secy of State Hillary's part in the "Smart Power" debacle.
Democrats' 'Smart Power' Lies in Ruins; Suddenly
Realizing What They Miscalculated About the World:
National Review | Sept 3, 2013 | Jim Geraghty / FR Posted by kristinn
....... Democrats are suddenly realizing that their foreign policy brain-trust completely misjudged the world.
Being nicer to countries like Russia will not make them nicer to you. The United Nations is not an effective tool for resolving crises. Some foreign leaders are beyond persuasion and diplomacy. There is no “international community” ready to work together to solve problems, and there probably never will be.
You can pin this on Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, but most of all, the buck stops with the president. Those of us who scoffed a bit at a state senator ascending to the presidency within four years on a wave of media hype and adoration are not quite so shocked by this current mess.
We never bought into this notion that getting greater cooperation from our allies, and less hostility from our enemies, was just a matter of giving this crew the wheel and letting them practice, as Hillary Clinton arrogantly declared it, “smart power” (and fronted Time magazine cover).
(These people can’t even label a foreign policy approach without reminding us of how highly they think of themselves.)
They looked out at the world at the end of the Bush years, and didn’t see tough decisions, unsolvable problems, unstable institutions, restless populations, technology enabling the impulse to destabilize existing institutions, evil men hungry for more power, and difficult trade-offs.
No, our problems and challengers were just a matter of the previous hands running U.S. foreign policy not being smart enough. (Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
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OH, BTW, AT THE SAME TIME Smartpowertics, O and HILL, staged military raids in Libya, they gained access to the National Bank of Libya. (No, no paper money there---just solid gold bars. Solid Gold. Not the Chinese tungsten filled bars that flooded the gold market).
Also, as a nation of immigrants, we never developed the jealousy-infused balkanism of Europe. At least till now.
Is this another way of saying white?
8) The right to ownership and laws and courts that uphold that right.
9) The individual is supreme over the collective.
bkmk
High quality was the German strategy. As a result, they produced smaller numbers of great machines, but in the field, German tanks required the presence of specialists, whereas American tanks could be serviced and repaired by their crews with or without a hand from other U.S. soldiers nearby; everyone was a shade-tree mechanic in the 30's and 40's.
German tanks required about 11 hours for a significant repair job, American tanks, about half an hour for e.g. recasting the engine main bearings.
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