[alloysteel]

The “danger of America” is a very real thing to many non-Americans out there in the world, if for no other reason than simple jealousy. How come Americans seem to do everything so well and easily? Pretty largely because it has been demonstrated that ingenuity, the method of solving problems, is not thwarted or heavily censured in America, unlike most of the rest of the world, which lives through an established oligarchy. This oligarchy was largely dismantled and dissipated during the early years of this nation, and the legacy has largely endured, where some clever kid puttering around out in the garage could turn a germ of an idea into a multibillion-dollar empire, and countless others could extract a large fortune from their friends and neighbors by providing a service that needed doing, and would jump in and do it enthusiastically.

An existing oligarchy would not allow this, because somebody “might” threaten their established place. Well, guess what, the oligarchy is starting to form in this country as well, by the extension of various “social experiments” in schools and workplaces, that tend to deny credit for innovation, and sap initiative on a hundred different levels, from forbidding certain thoughts, to confiscating the fruits of labor and ingenuity.

It is our job to dismantle and sabotage this drive toward conformity, but sometimes it gets a little mixed up with a new demand for conformity to the old way of breaking up conformity. That is why the 1970’s are revisiting us today, as the erstwhile revolutionists of that time try to enforce their concept of correctness on the world of today.

But now THEY are the conformists, suppressing the least dissent. Take, as a prime example, the global warming dialogue. We actually do not know if global warming, or global cooling, is going on, because of some instances of cooked data being supplied. And we do not know if mankind is in any way responsible for global warming. And even if mankind IS responsible, there is no clear way to determine just what would be some sort of strategy to reverse it. There is no clear argument as to whether global warming (or global cooling for that matter), is beneficial or harmful to mankind and all other living things. The new oligarchy has a large and highly vocal faction that does not even WANT to discuss any deviation from their pronounced judgment in the matter.

And that is just one factor among so many that suppresses any dissent from the emerging oligarchy. This perhaps stems from the quirks of human nature, as mankind seems at times to have a herd mentality, even to the point of charging over a cliff, sometimes with a high degree of euphoria as they go into free fall. It isn’t the fall that kills you, it is the sudden stop at the bottom.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The “danger of America” is a very real thing to many non-Americans out there in the world, if for no other reason than simple jealousy. How come Americans seem to do everything so well and easily? Pretty largely because it has been demonstrated that ingenuity, the method of solving problems, is not thwarted or heavily censured in America, unlike most of the rest of the world, which lives through an established oligarchy.

The preamble to the Constitution of the United States states:

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

"The blessings of liberty" include the freedom of entrepreneurs to develop, at their own financial risk, the businesses which have given the US its economic progress. But liberty also has a "curse" - the inequality of result which flows from equality of opportunity combined with inequality of effort and of vision. And even, sometimes, of luck. The worst curse of liberty is the fact that you have to accept responsibility for the fact that others may have been more successful than you have.

And the reality is that the reason for America's power lies precisely in those "blessings of liberty," and the reason for resentment of America lies in the "curse" of liberty - responsibility. Responsibility resented by Americans, but also resented by foreigners who know in their heart of hearts that the US Constitution has delivered on its promise, but who wish to evade the responsibility that knowledge entails.

I think you would enjoy The Americans - The National Experience by Daniel Boorstin. Fascinating discussion of the development of the US after the revolution and the Louisiana Purchase.