The End of "Gradually"

The Sun Also Sets

Today, I saw a comment from Glenn Reynolds that he posted on his blog:  Nothing that’s happened with this pandemic has made me want the government to play a bigger role in health care.

Amen.  But I thought to myself:  Nothing that government does makes me want the government to play a bigger role in anything.

At one point, I would have questioned this:  But what about roads and bridges and airports and the military, etc?  But those days are gone now.  What with high-speed rail to nowhere, and a swampy and completely politicized military?  Today, government has lost the ability to even address basic and practical needs.

Ronald Reagan said that:  Government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem.  Good sound bite.  But then he made a deal with Tip O'Neill to drastically lower tax rates.  Great, but what did O'Neill get in return?  Well, the two of them proceeded to grow government by some seventy percent while Reagan was in office.  Seventy percent.

Personally, I think O'Neill got the better end of the deal.  Any fool can look at the Laffer Curve and see what happens to government revenue when you lower the tax rate.  Politically he could never admit it, but O'Neill was no fool.  And so he made the deal with Reagan knowing that government revenue was about to explode.

Even if you want to make the argument that O'Neill was too lefty to appreciate or even acknowledge the Laffer Curve, he and his constituencies were definitely the beneficiaries of it.

And so, even during the "most conservative" administration of our lifetime, we got vastly more government.  But what did we taxpayers, er...citizens get?

So again, let's ask:  Is there anything that government does that we want more of?

And evidently, for more than half of us, the answer is yes.

Let's start with the biggest part of this constituency:  Government employees.  If you work for government, you want more government.  It is job security and a bigger fiefdom for you.  The same it true for health care workers and teachers and academics.  What's that you say?  Your university (or hospital or school) is private?  Well, where is the money coming from?

Another large yes constituency is big business.  At one time a fairly conservative lot, today big business is in bed with big government.  Hey, a large government with lots of regulations keeps the upstarts at bay and the profits flowing.  The reason big business is in bed with big government is because big government is good for big business.  So today, we have both the union hall and the boardroom voting for more government.

We can slice the American voting public in any number of different ways:  The black vote, the Jewish vote, feminists, Hollywood, lawyers, etc.  But most of these segments also want more government.

In fact, aside from the ever-shrinking Christian fundamentalist vote, I can only think of one group of people who do not want more government.  And no, it is not white males, many of whom are in the above groups anyway.  No, the one group that I can see that wants less government is small business and entrepreneurs.  Please note how this group crosses all racial and orientation lines – All of them.

And here I don't mean well-funded Silicon Valley types who left research fellowships at Stanford to start yet another California Goggle-wannabe.  All those people want more government.

No, I mean bootstrap entrepreneurs, in Atlanta and Cleveland.  And I mean small and family businesses across the country.

I could write a whole post on them.  But here's the point of this post:  There are just not enough of them.  We've lost.  And because we've lost, the yes to more government crowd has won.

And so that is what we will get.  More government.  Note this applies to whichever party is in power.  If Reagan did not stop it, did you really think that the Bushes would?  Or Trump?  The next Republican administration?  Don't count on it.

And more government means more incompetence and more incoherence and the end results of these vacuous attributes.  Incompetence reigns supreme.  Reynolds is absolutely correct.  Just look at the complete incompetence our wannabe tyrants have brought to the pandemic response.  Expect more of this.

In The Sun Also Rises, there is a famous line, Hemingway's response to the question:  How did you go bankrupt?  Hemingway's answer:  Gradually, then suddenly.

Perfect answer.  But surely this applies to countries as well – Just think about how the Soviet empire declined slowly for decades and then fell quickly.  So here is my question for you:  Where are we in this long, sad process?  Personally, I think we are at the very end of gradually.

Suddenly starts any day now.

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A Certain Type of Power

Let's talk about power for a few minutes.  Now of course there are all kinds of power.  But here, I want to focus on a specific kind.  Let's use an example.

I tell a lie.  I know it is a lie.  But perhaps it furthers my agenda.  Or maybe my agenda is power itself.  Either way, it is a lie and I know it.

You hear my lie, and you too know it is a lie.  Perhaps it is a subtle lie, but you see through it.  Or maybe the lie is quite ridiculous and obvious.

But in any case, we both know it is a lie.  Yet there is nothing you can do about it.  If you try to refute it, you will be gagged.

Note, this gagging need not be physical – I no longer have to disappear you in the middle of the night.  In fact, with a compliant media and big tech, I may not have to do anything at all.  Pinochet would have loved the police state quality of social media.

Now there is, I suppose, some power here.  I have lied and gotten away with it, and there is nothing you can do about it.  That's power, right?

But it is not enough.

No, what I really want is for you to not only hear the lie, but be compelled to repeat it yourself.  Not because you have come to believe it.  But rather as a demonstration of my complete and sovereign power over you.

So like it or not, you parrot my lie.

The Soviets were good at these power games.  But the true masters have proven to be the North Koreans.  Just look at how ordinary people publicly wept (often seemingly uncontrollably) at the death of their dear leader.  He did so much for us; I am just devastated by our loss.  It is a lie and everyone, in and out of the country, knows it is a lie.  But it is a lie everyone dutifully repeats.

Well maybe not everyone knows it's a lie.  Because after a while, some people, a good number of people, lose the ability to discern what's true from what is not true.  That is to say, they lose the ability to think for themselves.  Thinking requires effort and practice, a churning of the little gray cells, and many people would rather not put forth the effort.  Thinking is hard.  I find that even otherwise very hardworking people are susceptible to intellectual laziness.  This is why listening to loud music and watching sports are so popular; there's no thinking involved.  It also explains today's prominence of a partisan news media – Don't tax yourself, CNN will tell you what to think.

So in America, the lie might originate with the government.  Or just as likely, and just as troubling, it might originate with some other supposedly elite source.  The media or academia.  But it makes no difference because they all serve the same god.  And these three groups, government, media, and the academy, along with their courtiers in big tech, often serve their god by independently confirming what the others say.  Or censoring or disparaging any differing view.

It matters not how it is done.  The real problem is so many people are quite receptive to being told what to think.  And fully prepared to repeat it as a signal of their virtue, but also as a signal of their allegiance.  They may have never thought about it, but what difference does that make?  Besides, they confuse indoctrination with independent thought.  Actually, they lose the ability to distinguish between the two.  Indoctrination is their thought process.  So you see, they have thought about it.  And through their thought process, they have discovered the truth.  And obviously, you are intellectually inferior because you have not recognized the truth.  Clearly, you are not a thinker.  This is why, so often, they ooze condescension.  The irony here is completely lost on them.

How should we describe the power wielded over these people?  Power over the unthinking.  It is truly god-like.  The adherents accept indoctrination as articles of faith.  Their thinking is a form of religious fervor and submission.  They prostrate themselves to their gods.  The gods of power.

Let's look at some uniquely American examples:

We call that one individual they or even something completely unrecognizable to the English language.

We pretend that men can be women and women can be men.

Even professors of medicine are parroting:  Men can get pregnant.

We allow men in women's dressing rooms; we allow men to compete in women's sports; where we also allow men to beat up women.  Believe you me, Celine Provost knows all about this type of power.

Here's a question:  Why don't we see women, so-called trans-men, insisting on competing in men's sports?  It's just part of the lie we all tell.

We talk about inequality of outcomes rather than equality of opportunity and content of character.

We parrot:  Insistence on punctuality and proper grammar and test scores are evidence of oppression. 

We tell ourselves that there is nothing particularly special about Western Civilization.  And other cultures are equal or even superior to it. 

We replace the Western canon and classical music with inferior alternatives.  We dispense with blind auditions in favor of so-called diversity.  We tell ourselves that excellence will not suffer.

The whole discussion around voter ID is a lie, and everyone knows it.  Well everyone except for those who do not or cannot or can no longer think for themselves.

We wear masks even though we know the absurdity of it.

And the worst of us force very young children to wear masks.  I cannot decide if these people are power-hungry or obsequious to power.  Either way, their intentions are NOT good.

We get our vaccine and dutifully present our vaccination card to the restaurant hostess.  We publicly condemn those who do not.  We are not ashamed of this; it is a religious truth, an article of faith.

Oh, and Hunter Biden's laptop and the included emails?  Clearly a Russian disinformation campaign.

The North Koreans and the Chinese must look on in amazement.

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Invitation to Anger

A friend sends me a Horace Walpole quote:  No country was ever saved by good men because good men will not go to the length that may be necessary.

I like that, but my first thought was of Winston Churchill, who I regard as the savior of the Twentieth Century and for all his faults, a good man.  So, I proposed instead:  The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.  And I added:  We have to say Enough!

His response:  I’m not sure there are enough of us left to say enough.  I can vote, assuming it counts.  I can speak up, but will be cancelled.  I’m not sure how to stand up effectively.  I know there are a lot who would like to, but how do we do that within the system.  How do we do that and remain ‘good men’?

I was considering our exchange when I came across this piece from Abigail Shrier:

Last week, I spoke with [a] mother who discovered her 12-year-old daughter’s middle school had changed the girl’s name and gender identity at school.  The Gender Support Plan the district followed is an increasingly standard document which informs teachers of a child’s new chosen name and gender identity (trans, agender, non-binary, etc.) for all internal communications with the child.  The school also provided the girl a year’s worth of counseling in support of her new identity, which in her case was no gender.  Even the P.E. teachers were in on it.  Left in the dark were her parents.

This duplicity is part of the plan:  All documents sent home to mom and dad scrupulously maintained the daughter’s birth name and sex.  But Mom noticed her daughter seemed to be suffering.  Although far from alone in declaring a new identity – many girls in the school had adopted new names and gender pronouns – this girl’s grades fell apart.  She became taciturn and moody.

When the mother failed to uncover the source of the girl’s distress, she met with teachers, hoping for insight.  Instead, she slammed into a Wall of Silence:  No teacher was evidently willing to let a worried mom know what the hell was going on.  (Finally, one did.)

Now I don't know about you, but this made me angry.  The fact that they could and do keep this secret from the parents represents a callous disregard for parents and a level of unaccountability rarely found in our society.  Teachers – They don't work for you and they couldn't care less what you think.  And it's not as if they are truly putting the child's welfare first.  No, their priority is their own misguided sense of woke virtue signaling.  Above ALL else, they want to feel good about themselves.

This need alone makes them unfit for the classroom.  Gender Support Plan?  These kids are often not even reading at grade level.  Forget about math.  As a class, teachers are the absolute worst people in our society.

Must we become Walpole's implied "necessary bad men" to fix this?  Obviously, it is not enough to shout Enough!  Today this is an unfortunate reality.  No, we must get angry.

This morning, I read about a school board having citizens removed from their meeting if a citizen had the audacity to criticize them.  I thought, well if five hundred angry citizens showed up, they could not remove all of us.

Shouting Enough! is not enough.  We have to get angry:

I don't care what you call yourself, you narcissistic nitwit, but I'll address you as either he or she, and it is my choice which.  I do not care what you think.

And if you have a penis, you'll not disrobe with our daughters.  We'll arrest you for indecent exposure and place you on the sex offender registry. 

Show me a pregnant man, and I'll show you a person with an XX twenty-third chromosome.

In women's MMA, if you have an XY twenty-third chromosome, you are not a champion, you are a shameful woman-beater.  Go brag about it to your grandmother.  I dare you.

Sure, we can explore inequality of outcomes, but we will not start with the premise that all white people are racists.  We will not stand for that.  If we must discuss it, let's start with cultural factors.

If you bring your woke nonsense into my company workspace, I will fire you.

We don't want the unknown and unknowable flooding across our southern border and bused all around the country.  A nation without borders is simply not a nation.

If you need an ID to buy cigarettes and alcohol, there is nothing wrong (or limiting) about needing an ID to vote.  And honestly, if you are too stupid to secure an ID, you probably should not be drinking anyway.  Or voting.

If you are a convicted felon or a non-citizen, you do not vote.  There is no constitutional right to vote anyway.  And if it were up to me, we'd raise the voting age to 25.

We don't want our cities torched and we do want our police to maintain order.  If necessary, revoke city charters and compel state takeovers.  Send in the national guard, arrest the rioters; audit city hall, jail the grifters.

If the mayor of Chicago can move though the city with half a dozen firearms, I can move around with just one.  Disarming a law-abiding citizen should be a federal crime.

We will not tolerate antisemitism.  We'll deal with you as we once dealt with the fascist national socialists that you so obviously admire.

If your vaccine works, you need not worry about others.  If it does not work, there's no point in forcing it upon others.  You odious virtue signaling petty tyrant. 

Finally, it's time to put cameras and microphones in all K-12 classrooms.  It would be easy enough to limit access to current parents.  Montessori schools have been allowing parent classroom viewing (without informing the teachers) for years now.  Let's remember, public school teachers are public servants, not the minor deities they believe themselves to be.

Now you disgusting dishonest power-hungry maniacs, just leave me alone before I really get angry.

The problem of course is that half the country supports this nonsense, directly or indirectly.  We can get angry and confront them.  With dialogue, which they completely ignore and refuse and censor, or with violence, which if we are not careful is where this is headed.

Or, as I have argued before, we can separate ourselves from them.  If they want to live this way, I suggest we let them.  But let's not be a part of it.  If you are in California or New York or Chicago or Minneapolis, get out.  Leave them to the dystopia that they so strongly desire.  Withdraw your support and your tax money and even your mere presence.

Just yesterday, the people of California overwhelmingly suggested that they like the way things are there.  You think that will change anytime soon?  No, California voters want it this way.  Evidently, they prefer to step over used syringes to get to the ballot box.  Let's leave them to it.  There's no other practical option anyway.

So get angry.  And use your anger – To flee.

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On Being An American Expat in 2021

Should I still consider myself an American?

I have given up on our government.  In fact, I have no faith in any level of American government – Populated as it is with lefty politicians and a complete left-wing bureaucracy.

I have given up on our elites – Corporate, academic, journalists and other media players, military brass, the legal system, etc.  This is the outcome of fifty years of subpar and subversive education.

I have given up on half our fellow citizens (voters).  Ultimately, these are the people responsible for our mess.  I can no longer believe in respectful disagreement.  In the past, I believed that we all wanted the same things, but disagreed on how to get there.  Now, I no longer believe we want the same things.

And all three of the above groups allow no room for debate anyway.  Why attempt to engage with anyone who does not wish to engage with you.  And in fact, wishes you dead.  Overstatement?  Okay fine...silenced.

Are there aspects of being American that I still value?  Sure, the place.  That is the geography and landscape.  The founding ideas and our founding documents.  The idea of the melting pot.  The lost ideals of individualism and self-reliance.  But these are all passé according to the tenets of the current bien-pensants.

I just cannot be part of it anymore.  For me, the stench of the Left's value system has become intolerable.  Yet, their values have become pervasive.  The stench permeates every nook and cranny of our society.  For me, their heavy-handed response to Covid was the last straw.

So I had to leave.  My wife and I have moved to her country, the Philippines.  I would never say that the Philippines is a better place to live than the US.  It has its own set of problems.  But unlike the US, they are not my problems.  I do not feel compelled to address them.

I do not know how long I will be away from the United States.  Perhaps indefinitely.  But I have given some thought to what it would take for me to return.  One or more red state governors will have to say no.  No, my state is not going to do that.  And if you cut off funds, we will cut off federal tax revenue.  And if you want to enforce it, we will arrest your agents for violation of state law.  And we will not allow our national guard to be nationalized.

What everyone seems to forget these days is that as large as the US federal government is, it largely depends on states to enforce its nonsense.  Stop!  If actually pressed, I think you'd be surprised at how impotent the federal government is, at least domestically.

And red state governors would also have to root out the lefty enablers within their own governments – Because even those governments are full of them.  Start with the universities.  If necessary, cut their funding entirely.  Ask yourselves:  What purpose do they serve?  Move on to K-12 education; fund students not teachers.

I feel sure that it is going to take this level of resistance, perhaps even more, for the US to begin to again feel like the US.  To feel more like the US than Europe or even China.  It may take war.  So be it.  Texas cattle ranchers versus New York and California educrats unsure of proper pronoun usage?  Versus the whole Chicago and Albany grifter establishment.

And if I am wrong?  Either about what is required or the will to get it done?  Well, the American experiment is over.  And the Philippines is a pleasant enough place to live.

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