Ben Stein Askes: "What would it take?"

Forbes Magazine ^ | Dec. 23, 2002 issue | Ben Stein

[yankeedame]

How to Ruin American Enterprise Benjamin J. Stein, 12.23.02

We're well on our way to squelching what gives this country an edge. What would it take to kill innovation altogether? --Ben Stein

As a casual observer of what makes this country work and what stops it cold, I hereby offer a few suggestions on how we can ruin American competitiveness and innovation in the course of this century. I think the reader will agree with me that we are already far down the road on many of them:

1) Allow schools to fall into useless decay. Do not teach civics or history except to describe America as a hopelessly fascistic, reactionary pit....

2) Encourage the making of laws and rules by trial lawyers and sympathetic judges, especially through class actions. Bypass the legislative mechanisms that involve elected representatives and a president. This will stop--or at least greatly slow down--innovation, as corporations and individuals hesitate to explore new ideas for fear of getting punished...

3) Create a culture that blames the other guy for everything and discourages any form of individual self-restraint or self-control...Make it a general rule that anyone with more money than a plaintiff is responsible for anything harmful that a plaintiff does. Promulgate the pitiful joke that Americans are hereby exempt from any responsibility for their own actions--so long as there are deep pockets around to be rifled.

4) Sneer at hard work and thrift. Encourage the belief that all true wealth comes from skillful manipulation and cunning, or from sudden, brilliant and lucky strokes that leave the plodding, ordinary worker and saver in the dust. Make sure that society's idols are men and women who got rich from being sexy in public or through gambling or playing tricks, not from hard work or patience....

5) Hold the managers of corporations to extremely lax standards of conduct and allow them to get off with a slap on the wrist when they betray the trust of shareholders. This will discourage thrift and investment ....while simultaneously developing that contempt for law and social standards that is the hallmark of failing nations. Hold the management of labor unions to no ethical standards.

6) While you're at it, discourage respect for law in every possible way....

7) Encourage a mass culture that spits on intelligence and study and instead elevates drug use, coolness through sex and violence, and contempt for school...

8) Mock and belittle the family...

9) Develop a suicidal immigration polcy that keeps out educated, hard working men and women from friendly nations and, instead, takes in vast numbers of angry, uneducated immigrants from nations that hate us...

10) Enact a tax system that encourages class antigonism and punishes savings...

11) Have a socialized medical system...that discourages drug companies from developing new drugs by not paying them enough to cover their costs...

12) Elevate mysticism, tribalism, shamanism and fundamentalism-- and be sure to exlude educated, hard working men and women-- to an equal status with technology in the public mind...act as if science were on an equal footing voodoo and history with ethnic fable.

My list need not end here. But I stopped at a dozen because I realized that this is already, in large measure, the program of so many of our elected represenatives. The debauchery of our tort system is already in place, and the rest of the agenda is under way.

[Lizard_King]

.333 isn't half bad. I usually get at least 50% on Jeopardy, but with Stein it's really hit or miss...

[BeAllYouCanBe]

[snip]"who were raised without a heavily constrained definition of their gender role"

There have always been single parents or missing parents.  I lived in a neighborhood 45 years ago where most of the men were merchant marines and whole generations were raised without men in the home but the kids well. (Other examples are military families and over the road truckers.)

I've found through life that girls need a strong willed male as teenagers and do better but the male could be a relative.  Most teenager girls I've seen get really testy between 16-18 and trash their mothers constantly.   I have seen lots of problems when moms try to disipline 6' teenage boys too.

"not liberal bs "friend" parenting"

 This I see as the greatest challenge to our country as I've hinted in the post above.

[BeAllYouCanBe]

"-----word-nerd-alert

---

I assume you mean gutter humor...I couldn't resist..."

HA HA dude, I mean d-u-d-e whoa! The Microsoft Word Dictionary Rules dude!

You just used the Word dictionary I'm not impressed. You might look at the Websters that says; 2nd definition - an utterance that is strange, unplesant or disagreeable.

I'll get to your post latter I couldn't resist dude, ya know man, cool.

[BeAllYouCanBe]

 

[snip]"in a heirarchical role, rather than being all buddy-buddy with the daughter-in-law (perfectly understandable, of course)."

There are friends and then there are relatives and the liberals want to blurr the difference.  You cannot tear down a society when the roles are intact.  So my daughter-in-law wants to be close to her new family but reserves the right to trash us because we're old fashioned and not listen our advice because we're not her cool "Friends". (She doesn/t have to take our advice just listen.)

These are the relationships she has learned at home from parents but it is reinforced each time she watches TV and I guess the Ben Stein Show is just like the rest of TV programs in that respect that there is very little respect.
 
 

[Ukiapah Heep]

Are we there yet?

[GOP_Raider]

Sort of smacks of the Goals of the Communist Agenda outlined in "The Naked Communist".

[Ukiapah Heep]

I'd be glad if I never heard another chord of James Taylor, or any of the other folkie-liberal-peacenik drivel in my life.

[billhilly]

"I don't think old Ben Stein gets it."

If anyone in this country gets it, it is Ben. He is not just another empty headed actor. Long before he was an actor, he was a presidential speech writer, member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, author of several books, lawyer, college professor, and not least, son of Herb Stein, former chairman of the presidents (Nixon) council of Economic Advisors.

[sinclair]

"BTW, I do not wish to leave my homeland, and I can say that with certainty, because I have so much to achieve still."

Ok, sorry for my improper word usage. Are you waiting for your instructions from Ossama or Saddam to achieve your goals? ;^)

[Falcon4.0]

Sorry, I forgot to add the "sarcasm off" tag. I really like Ben Stein. I wish more Front Line Conservatives had his balls.

[185JHP]

Ben tells it like it is. He's a human being - a mensch.

[republicman]

--Diversity is a FACT!! Not a value.--

Its also a fact that if everyone tries their hardest diversity will take care of itself.

And whatever diversity used to mean the libs have redefined it as group based marxism, which in their "minds" trumps merit.

[BeAllYouCanBe]

"If anyone in this country gets it, it is Ben."

As Mom would say, "Why don't you parctice what you preach?"

Is Hollywood so shallow that even an outted conservative like Ben has to play like a liberal dope on TV. So if his credentials are so great why can't he act with dignity and I say again be funny.

Are liberals using him to make fun of conservatives -- so he is really being played for a fool?

In 25 years we've gone form the GE College Bowl to "The Man Show".

[billhilly]

It is clear to me that you do not know Ben Stein. He has been my friend for thirty years, and I do know him. Please argue with people your own size.

[VOA]

If women in power here in the free world bothers you, you could immigrate to one
of those Muslim countries. Problem solved for you.

I suspect the "rest of story" is not a problem with women "in power".
The fuller situation is that there are problem when any group is TOTALLY "in control".

Goes along with the truism of "power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely".

As a non-Catholic, I'm of a mixed mind over what has caused the mess in the RCC.
Was it a historical human-in-the-institution problem for centuries; i.e., some very
small percentage of priests were always corrupted?
And then the problem intensified with the onset of the "The Sixties"?
And/or did liberalization (including more power in the hands of non-clerics) contribute?

I have no answer to these questions...
It will be interesting to "stay tuned" to see if somebody (or group) ever
really dissects the situation and find out WHY this mess has happened.
(Beyond the underlying cause of human sin...)

[sinclair]

I was attempting to be humorous in my reply. Sorry you don't possess that attribute. Maybe your God will see fit to add it to your personality wherever it is you might end up.