Opus 2015-432: Election 2016: Where Is the Rage?

I see it on the road.  I see it at checkout lines.  I have heard about going postal.  People seem to have so many things that light their fuse.  So why do the masses of Americans let the government continue to reach into their pockets and hand their hard earned wealth over to a bunch of consultants and government cronies?  Why are they calm when healthy, able people who do nothing productive are handed EBT cards and rent subsidies that reduce the living standard of the working American  Why do they keep voting for the people who are methodically stripping them of their freedom?

Everyone has a different explanation.  Most people who have drunk the kool aide, educators at all levels, government employees, welfare recipients, progressives, etc., say there is no problem.  For them the Nanny State is simply taking care of the children.  Some have too much so you take it away.  Some have too little so you give them a little extra.  In the end we are all safe and happy.

Psychologists and sociologists who will admit there is a problem blame it on society.  There are too many guns.  We don’t have a college degree.  We are too crowded.  We are out of touch with nature.  We feel alienated from our culture.  Our underwear is too tight. 

That still doesn’t explain why they put up with creeping socialism.  I think it comes down to an aspect of Original Sin that is often called selfishness.  We all think we are special.  We think we are more deserving.  We think we are more clever than the other guy.  As a result, we really believe that when the government sets up a plan to rob from Peter to pay Paul, we will be Paul.  We don’t understand that we are really Peter.  We think we are too clever for that.  It is like getting old and losing your mind.  You are always the last one to know.

There is a saying that has made the rounds.  “You can’t cheat an honest man.”  It points out that most people are cheated when they think they are smarter than the other guy, so they get suckered.  In those situations an honest man would refuse to deal.  The government depends on this basic self-centeredness that is so common. 

I think most people are complacent because they think that when the government gets through moving the wealth around, they will be ahead of the game.  They are wrong.  When the government moves money around the main ones who benefit are the people with big salaries who work for the government and their crony capitalist buddies.  Keep in mind that every level of government it moves through means that a sizable portion of the graft is sucked out to pay the minions shuffling the papers in that office.

And, in your own self interest, get angry.  Get very angry.  And vote the suckers out.

Elections matter.

homo unius libri