Are Lapses Of Best And Brightest Prelude To Our Decline And Fall?

IBD Editorials ^ | February 12, 2009 | Victor Davis Hanson

[ArmyTeach]

The Founders said much the same.

[mo]

“Well then, isn’t it high-time we hang traitors, like say Congress for confirming the Elector’s Votes w/o knowing if he was eligible? What about the USSC, for shutting down all the court-action trying to make sure the Constitution was followed?”

“A day late and a dollar short”....this train ran off the rails back about the Lyndon Johnson administration-when most of these people were children. Ronnie Reagan gave us a reprieve...granted to us by our Lord through his instrument, the 40th President.

Hanging’s too good for most of these traitors. But they are a product of a betrayed America of a generation ago.

[MichiganConservative]

The founders believed in self-government. That is, men govern themselves and they knew that this experiment would only work as long as the people were virtuous - believing Christians for the most part; definitely not opportunistic, self-worshipping atheists.

When you don’t believe in the authority of God, there really is no moral authority that you must follow. The only thing you understand is force and the only people you are inclined to follow are those with greater force than what you have.

[Sawdring]

I have yet to read the tome written by Gibbon, but I find it hard do believe any single event was the major cause of Rome’s fall.

[Travis McGee]

We are in the latter stages of a long road to ruin, that many of us have been predicting for years. It's the last hurrah of the Keynesian Corunucopians, as they floor the gas pedal like Thelma and Louise going off the cliff. Do they really believe their convertible will sprout wings like ChittyChitty-BangBang?

Or do they understand full well that the game is up, and they are merely trying to gain time and gull the rubes, while they prepare their lifeboats?

The writing is on the wall, for those who can read.

"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

-~~Ludwig Von Mises

[Travis McGee]

An important consideration, when pondering the fall of Rome: No livng Roman who saw the fall, lived to see the Renaissance. Some “grand super cycle” events lead to “kondratiev winters,” or even to Dark Ages.

Let’s pray we’re not just watching the tide roll out, prior to the tsunami.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

” Do I recall bin Laden threatened to attack western financial markets in his video released before Sept. 2008? “

It was attacked, and if any investigation has been held, they are certainly shielding the culprits. This reaffirms my belief that the attack was orchestrated not by “Bin Hidin”, but by Soros and the DemonRATs. Chuck Schumer, for one, has his hands in the mess for purposely tanking bank stocks. Most of Obamas cabinet raped millions from Fannie and Freddie. Who do you think benefited most from tanking the economy in the run up to the election? Everything the DemonRATs have done since the collapse has been directed to growing government control and preventing the free market from rebounding.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

The result is the same. Our best-educated, wealthiest and most connected in matters of finance proved our dumbest — and our political leaders were less than ethical in meeting their moral responsibilities as citizens.

[org.whodat]

The result of such speculation by thousands of Wall Street gamblers was that millions of Americans who played by the rules,

It is spelled GREED!!!

[The Californian]

http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment

This is a great video which takes about 10 minutes. It explains clearly the different forms of government (including an oligarchy!) and how we get from one to the other.

It is really, really good and helps to understand what is going on underneath!

[Fu-fu2]

I agree. And in evolutionary terms, we have brought on our own demise over the past 50 years. As anecdotal evidence, the college educated baby boomers I grew up with limited the size of their families to two children at the most. We were told by professors and the media that if we didn’t, it would lead to overpopulation and the destruction of the world. Besides, both parents had to work, so two kids were enough for most. Meanwhile, those on welfare were being paid to have large families, and illegal aliens came here with their large families. So it appears we now have a society where those who were supposed to be the producers are few while those on the bottom are many.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[LittleBillyInfidel]

It might more so be the ‘’absence’’ of the best and brightest, rather than the ‘’lapses’’ - specifically, in the few key power positions of both finance and government.

[hinckley buzzard]

.the social contract between the elite and the more ordinary citizens finally began breaking apart

One of the signs of this, as VDH knows, was the the depreciation of the currency (little nicks and slivers carved from the silver coins of the realm.) One objective of the current Obamanoid assault on America is the destruction of the dollar. The obscene totalitarian "Bill" being prepared for us by the criminal 'rat element in Congress is designed specifically to crash the dollar through stagflation followed by hyperinflation.

Short the market this Fall. Buy silver in bullion coins and bars with the profits.

[hinckley buzzard]

And now, in addition to the corruption and incompetence on Wall Street

Why do you say they are incompetent? They made millions for themselves. And as for corruption, aside from the obvious scofflaws who lied about their taxes, if they broke any laws they'd be on their way to jail by now. The fact is, most all of what has happened has been not only legal but encouraged by the true perps, the goobermint bureaucrats and congresscritters.

[org.whodat]

The FBI said yesterday they have 550 cases under review, no one has gotten away with anything yet, and yes, many laws have been broken.

[org.whodat]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE3D7153DF935A15751C0A967958260

[TigerLikesRooster]

The elites are totally irresponsible. They only care about their money and their ‘liberal hobby,’ dressed up as ‘enlightened’ globalists. Soros is the typical sample.

[bboop]

Hmm, thanks.

[AndyJackson]

Having gone to school with lots of “our best and brightest” I can assure you that they are not our best and brightest. They just did what they had to do to keep liberal sociology professors [write lots of meaningless slop] and bingo they find themselves hedge fund managers. None of the guys I know had a clue what useful work looked like.