Monday, August 13, 2012

A Little More on the Lemming-like March into the Abyss

Commenter itor posted an epic comment to Saturday's post  I reproduce it here:
In your lifetime, can you definitively point to any national election which resulted in a restoration and practice of supposed constitutional values and principles?

Can you give any example anywhere in the world, from any time period when people voted themselves free? When any government voluntarily restrained & limited itself?

With the upcoming national election we are presented the “choice” between the former governor of the most liberal state in the union, and a marxist homosexual. Both candidates support abortion, both support a state seizure of health care, both support cradle to grave meddling in the lives of free individuals.

Perhaps the former governor embraces 98% of the marxists’ views. Maybe it is only 92%, or 85%. The point is that by voting for the candidate who is not (openly) the marxist homosexual, one is supporting 85%,92% or 98% of the marxist agenda.

You have then unwittingly anchored yourself to marxist policies, creating a new beachhead, a new starting point for the next round. Just as with the previous election. By voting, not only have you endorsed and sanctioned policies abhorrent to your values, but have endorsed and sanctioned the entire process as well.

Please consider – what substantive policies of the Bush administration has Obama overturned? Any? And what policies of Obama has his supposed former rival McCain railed against? Any? Why not? The answer is that we have been continually presented with false opposites. The entire system is designed to perpetuate itself, while pretending that a choice exists. Any supposed differences put forth are merely of degree, of style, not of kind. The growth is always in one direction, and that direction is worship of an all powerful state.

How did this happen? It happened because our entire process of thinking, of acting, of viewing persons and events has been corrupted – by design. When we are opposed to X, we are conditioned to support those who are X-1, not realizing there simply is no real difference. A (mandatory) choice between A or B eliminates the possibility that we might otherwise choose none of the above.

Time to quit playing the rigged game. Recognize the process, the system for what it is – a fraud. Voting for a new master every few years does not make us free. It does not promote our beliefs or values.

It is false hope in a device that always disappoints

End the fraud.

Strike the root.


itor
To begin with, of course, I can't tell you of a single time voting to reform a nation has ever worked.  I don't believe it has ever been done.  On the other hand, I don't believe any country that has collapsed even had the mechanism to have such a vote.  There is a difference, however, between saying something has never been done and saying something can not be done.  At first glance, that may sound like the commies who say Marxism has failed every time only because the right people didn't try it.  The first difference is that communism goes against human nature and (going all Christian on you) against the will of God. Second, simply no other nation was founded like this one. 

Note that I did not say voting ends this and gets us out of this mess.  I said,
Many of us have said many times that we are not voting our way out of this, and that is absolutely true.  However, voting is part of the process of getting out of this.  
To drag in the term mathematicians use, voting in a smaller government is a necessary condition, but it's not sufficient.  Voting, by itself, will not change things for the better.    

See, you say - with ample evidence - that the system is rigged; that the problem is the system.  I believe the problem is the people.  The people have abdicated their responsibility to run things to slick talking politicians who promised to do all that dirty work for us.  The people let the system be formed.  And that's not to be too hard on the people; everyone was living their lives, building their careers or families.  Their problem was that they trusted the used car salesmen (politicians).  Besides, it's simply easier to sit around and just vote D or R than to challenge yourself to think about every issue. 

The founding fathers, however, left us a system with the chance to change everything.  The key is the very first words of the Declaration: We The People.  We have the power to change everything.  Politicians, parasites that they are, are addicted to their power and perks, and like any drug-addled rat in a lab experiment, they will respond if we deny them their drug.  If the people dumped them regularly, they would respond to people's demands.  If the people - or a determined minority - demanded more liberty, I believe it would happen.  As you well know, the percentage of people actively involved in the American Revolution was not the vast majority.  It wasn't even a simple majority.  Social sciences researchers have shown in the last year that if as few as 10% of the population adopt a given opinion, it eventually takes over the population.  A good example is gun ownership.  Twenty years ago, 80% of the population wanted more gun control; today it has flipped to 80% saying to leave guns alone.  Better yet, consider the patriot movement (tea party, 9/12, etc.).   These basically started up in 2009 as people began waking up to how bad it has become.  After a few protests, they went to work quietly on getting like-minded candidates elected, and has been hitting a very good percentage. 

I can't fix the system, but I can fix myself and my family.

The problem, of course, is the Free Sh*t Army, and the culture of "let someone else do it".  We have at least two generations of people brought up without seeing an adult go off to work.  Families broken - lives broken - as the inescapable result of evil government policy.  We have to fix the people. I'm not dumb enough to think this will go quickly or easily.  The mathematics is on our side, though.  If the country continues on our present course and we don't change spending, nobody is going to pay the FSA their benefits because the money won't be there.  The economy and country collapse.

It all may collapse, anyway.  Regardless of how much we try to change course.

I ask what's the alternative?  What do you mean by "Strike the root"? 

I really see three main alternatives:  (a) try to fix the system  (b) start shooting (that is, destroy the system) or (c) withdraw - figuratively lay down and die.  It may be too late for any of them, but in my view, it's worth trying to fix things. 

While I understand the sentiment to go off and try to be left alone, as we leave all others alone, that doesn't work.   The fed hydra won't leave us alone.  We could ask Randy Weaver how well that worked for him when the government was a small fraction of its current size.  Or the Branch Davidians.  Or Elian Gonzales' family.   Or Krister Evertson

The hydra is a good model for the Fed.gov.  Chop off one head and another grows back.


7 comments:

  1. "The people have abdicated their responsibility to run things"

    Absolutely. In the absolute.

    So, will you vote for Obamney?

    Unwarranted, unsubstantiated self assurance that just one more round at Vegas will set things right is, well, delusional. Please, no offense intended.

    There is no difference - Demopublicans/Republicrats are the amorphous components of the party of stick/slip - it is a system working in tandem.

    By design.

    From the beginning.

    We have seen the fraud perpetrated as the Reagan "revolution". It was a revolution of sorts - trading the overt socialism of Carter for fraudulent "conservatism".

    Would a conservative:
    Drastically increase .gov over that of his liberal predecessor?
    Sign off on more firearm restrictions?
    Grant amnesty to millions of illegals, while promising to later fix the problem?
    Begin Prohibition 2.0?
    and so on

    We saw what happened in '94 with the contract on america. Feathered their own nests.

    Bastards.

    We saw the elected Tea Party candidates - 2/3 of them - become immediately corrupted.

    And the above are supposed to be the white hats?

    What was Einsteins description of insanity?

    And the solution is voting?

    Precisely, how will that work?

    What was it, June 25 2012 - the preceeding 90 days saw >6000 MORE federal regulations passed - how will voting affect that?

    Why is it that voting HAS NEVER WORKED? For us?

    It wasn't meant to.

    It is a pacifier - go to sleep for four more years. A lullaby.

    The founding fathers. What does that mean?

    It is a story as old as mankind - one group always desiring to rule another. The first party is always populated with what would otherwise be considered psychopaths, in any other setting than as "leader".

    The pilgrims left to be left alone - gov followed.

    AmRev1 occurred so the inhabitants here would be left alone.

    The CONstitution followed. And here we are. Jefferson, Spooner et al warned.

    It has taken a long time for .gov to become sufficiently emboldened to where we are now - and the alternative is to vote for a new master?

    Strike the root means whatever one wishes.

    To me it means first, recognize the root of the problem, not a 2nd or 3rd order peripheral issue.

    Second, again from Einstein - a well stated problem suggests the solution.

    Withdraw consent.

    Withdraw participation.

    Strike the root.

    itor

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    1. As you probably have read, I've said many of those same things myself here. I've posted twice about that regulation.gov site, and written many times that we need to throw out 75% of the CFR. I've written that the difference between Obama and Romney is the difference between double-tapped through the heart and run through the gut with a blade - just the speed of your demise. Obviously, I can't fault your points.

      But I keep coming back to one thing. Is the country salvageable or is it gone? I think this is where we differ; you believe it's already dead, it just doesn't know it yet. I believe it can be fixed because all of things needed to fix it are present and can be used.

      Fixing it will be a long, generational, uphill battle that must be accompanied by fixing the people. But, in my mind, there's a chance it can be returned to a free republic. In my opinion the chance of getting anything like that out of a second revolution is much smaller. The communists have been putting this trap in place for a century. The Islamists are now working with them to "raise the Islamic flag over the white house" (look it up if you care - it has been said many times). Assuming they win, the next war will be between them because Theocracies and Godless Communists can't agree beyond "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".

      I know that if we don't change things, it will just get worse. The predatory government will keep increasing its reach until the country collapses. I remember reading a comment you posted some time ago (WRSA? Poretto?) basically saying we're going to have a war sooner or later, may as well have it now. You will likely have your chance before 2016.

      I don't think of voting as choosing a savior, it's more like hiring a plumber. I'm simply hiring someone to work for me. I want someone to muck out the sewer on the Potomac. Just like hiring a plumber, all I can do is hire the best guy who shows up for the job interview. I don't expect them to be perfect and I don't expect them to share my beliefs. I'm not sure my wife shares all of my beliefs, and I'm closer to her than anyone in the world. Whoever I hire, I just expect them to do the job to the best of their ability and take corrective feedback.

      We put too much emphasis on the presidency, anyway. Our local sheriffs are more important.

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    2. " know that if we don't change things, it will just get worse. The predatory government will keep increasing its reach until the country collapses."

      Agreed.

      For more than 35 years I voted in every election, fervently believing the pap that voting mattered, yet the outcome – regardless of who was elected – was always unidirectional. The outcome always favored state growth. Why?

      The CONstitution, of which I was once an ardent believer in and defender of, favored – nay – requires growth of the state. Collectivism requires state growth. Politicians virtually all offered a little sumpthin’ for the hard working folks back home – again, favoring state growth. Corruption at all levels – favors state growth. This growth is sometimes explosive, sometimes less so – but it always grows. Gradualism serves state worship, as it serves all collectivism. It is not enough to say that conditions favor state growth – anymore than to say that fuel/oxygen/ignition favor an explosion. It is inevitable. So what then would one restore this country to? What halcyon future awaits those who will only practice a few more generations of voting?

      When a practice can be shown to never produce a desired outcome, anywhere in the world, throughout history – all of history – a safe bet is that it will never produce the desired outcome. To believe otherwise is to align oneself with alchemists convinced they will turn lead into gold – its just a few more tries.

      Similarly, the belief in the good guy county sheriff is on a par with the Easter bunny. Where are these heroes? One guy – Mack – and that’s it? And his claim is exceedingly weak. Yet the net is rife with daily news of yet another jack booted thug aka county sheriff – trampling the GOD given rights of another dozen innocents. This is a set-up, playing on the cowboyz ‘n injunz Saturday morning cartoon reminisces. It is trading one tyrant 3000 miles away for 3000 tyrants one mile away. Or supplementing same. Our local sheriff (repub) has stated the office is a “paramilitary organization”. How is that for promoting freedom & liberty?


      Nope, voting will not change a thing – for the better. It is a guarantee for more of the same – in spades.
      We always have the republican-democrat tag team, each one always pretending the other one is guilty, yet always working in tandem as false opposites. You cannot get around that. And if you did – well, the nine robed nazgul will set things back, or the state bureaucracy will.

      If we fail to recognize the problem, to comprehend the severity, our efforts are far worse than useless.

      The state is the problem. Masquerading as the solution.

      itor

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    3. BTW, itor, I haven't specifically thanked you for your input and interesting discussion.

      Glad to see it, here.

      We are all involved in an experiment against our wills. The experiment is whether a once-in-history change can be repeated. Those guys who called the founding of the US a "Five Thousand Year Leap" had it right. America truly is unique and exceptional in world history.

      What are the chances a possible AmRev2 can not end in tyranny? What are the chances our drift toward tyranny can be reversed? Time will tell. Oh, and as bad as we see it here in the US, I have friends who grew up in former Soviet Republics, Cuba and Venezuela. They say we don't have tyranny yet, but they are, to the man, scared of where we are going.

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  2. The federal government has become utterly and hoplessly corrupted. Voteing is a meaningless exersize in self delution. Being asked to chose between being eaten by dogs or eaten by pigs is not an election. No peacefull means of change is left to us.

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  3. Must be all those years of tech traing that have us thinking alike
    Q

    PS: Book on your list:
    "Radar Design Principles"
    Any good? I'm trying to put together a 1 part per 5000 (with doppler) range resolution unit and keep butting my head up against physics.
    Q

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    Replies
    1. The book is at work, so I can't look at it right now, but it's a solid fundamentals book. Have you tried Skolnik's Radar Handbook? It's kind of the standard.

      My interest in radar is in what 99% of the books consider chaff, and do their best to eliminate during procession. It's hard to find what I'm looking for.

      If you want to go direct email, sigraybeard at gmail dot com. I'll have that on my phone at work.


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