I just got back from my survivalist convention out in the ol' Big Sky country, and I have to say the round tables were hugely informative this year. I'll let you guys in on a little summary:
* Democracy inherently fails. There's no two ways about it; democracy is unstable, especially when complimented with any form of capitalism (and capitalism can not be done away with). Remember that quote I posted a couple months ago? To paraphrase it, it said something like this "a democracy can exist until the citizenry discovers it can vote itself money from the coffers". Well, guess what? People found out; welcome to the political realm of pull.
* As you should all know, in the US, we have something of a limited democracy. And from what I can tell, all democratic aspects of the government are not so slowly being subverted, and for various reasons and various players -- some intentional and some not.
* Legislative inertia and the absolution of personal responsibilty, are two of the largest players in the aforementioned degradation of our country. Some people might even say they're the two most significant players in this never-ending, tag team prison rape we call a political process, and I don't think I'd disagree with them.
* Legislative inertia: the tendency for legislation to never be repealed. In a system where votes are valued independent of economic standing, for example, you don't win elections by taking away welfare dollars; but you do win elections by giving welfare dollars. In a system where votes are adjusted according to economic standing, you don't win elections by taking away corporate welfare dollars. See a problem? Maybe even a trend?
* And it isn't just social-welfarists who play this game: take Bush's "temporary" tax cuts. Who the hell is going to campaign on removing those? No one, that is, unless you promise to take that reclaimed tax revenue, and convert it into social-welfare dollars (like most of the democractic candidates are promising to do).
*This is a very small glimpse at the class warfare currently being waged in this country. As a general rule of thumb, social-welfarists (democrats) grow the government through welfare, and corporate-welfarists (republicans) tend to try and offset that with subsidies and esoteric tax breaks. The funny thing is, that the middle class tends to get the shaft here. There is some trickle-down from corporate-welfare (and maybe some trickle-up from social welfare), and it's not insignificant, but by you're not going to see many lobbyists directly petitioning for the middle-class in Washington -- and there's a reason for it.
* Absolution of personal responsibiltiy: Is the tendency for people to displace blame for their failings. For example: I can't get into a political conversation without some idiot saying "Bush ruined the economy" or "because of Bush, I can't get a job" -- and this just enrages me to no end. When I hear this, i just want to start beating the shit out of people (and I'm not a violent person or a fighter, by any stretch of the imagination). And it's not that I really care at all about Bush (I disliked similar statements made about how Clinton should be overstepping his responsibilities); it goes beyond the lines of political party: I mean honestly, whose hands do these people want behind their wheel? The government? Honestly, consider that next time you catch yourself saying something like that. How do you propose the government should guarentee your prosperity?
* This absolution of personal responsibility also has many other facets. These people who think the government is directly responsible for ensuring their success, but they act without considering the consequences. Example: They vote. They vote the government more power to manage my affairs. MY affairs -- I don't give a rat's ass if they want to piss away their own freedoms, but leave me be. And worse yet, if you plot this process of government expansion into our private affairs on a long enough timeline, it's always increasing.
* And how many people have you heard complaining about how healthcare "should be free". I mean, what the shit? Where do they think money comes from? Well, actually, for about half of those people, it would be free because they're part of the 20-some percent of america that doesn't make any positive tax contribution. But they can scatter their brains all over the hood of my car with a handgun for all I care. I don't love them.
* Seriously, I hate people: I'm writing myself in for president in 2004. That is, if I even bother to vote.
* Bottom line: people need to realize that the government does not, and should not, have a huge degree of say in your personal prosperity; in fact, as far as I'm concerned, they already do too much.
* The scary aspect: big-government is potentially stable. Our democracies might just have the machinary to sustain long after they should have collapsed. They are not like the democracies of old, don't forget that. And, on a side note, I really agree with Thomas Jefferson sometimes, "every generation should have its own revolution."
* You can call me crazy (and I probably am), and I won't mind, but lets talk in 30 years if we're still around. Also, consider watching Europe, they're ahead of us in many respects.
[edit: got some of the uglier grammar errors]
