Alan Silverman asks why Mr Obama getting a second term is tantamount to national suicide.
By good fortune, I happen to have written a short essay answering that exact question earlier this fortnight:
http://www.scifiwright.com/2012/09/what-is-this-election-about/
Now, keep in mind, that I could not in good conscience cast a ballot for Mr Obama even if I were convinced that his opponent would be the death of the Republic rather than he, for reasons I list here http://www.scifiwright.com/2012/09/for-the-undecided-catholic-voter/
But in this case, we need not reach the question of what the loyal partisan of conservatism thinks might be the wiser choice of political policy, nor reach the question of what the faithful Christian is and is not allowed to do according to the authentic moral teachings of the Magisterium. We need only deal with the question of survival.
American shall not go the way of Greece when she spends herself into oblivion. The economy of Greece I assume is less significant than the economy of Vermont. We shall not go the way of Spain. Spain I assume is economically equal to Washington State.
America shall fall as Rome fell, if there were no Byzantium to preserve our civilization, taking all the currencies of the world with us, and all the debts we owe the Chinese become worthless as a Continental.
We take the whole world with us when we go.
For the economy of the world is not built on material goods. The trains and trucks and tanks of gas, the buildings which once housed banks, the streets and wires and electrical poles shall all still stand, at least, for a season. But the economic activity known as banking, that is, the storing and lending of money at interest, comes to a halt if the currency is worthless. The labor of driving truck and pumping gas and generating current and moving down those streets, if found to have no reward, shall not be done, and all those trucks and trains and streets will be desolate, motionless, silent.
All the buildings and telegraph poles and motionless trains in the Weimar Republic were standing while men pushed wheelbarrows full of paper money to the store to buy bread, but those German men were the Danaids carrying sieves of water in hell, for the value of the paper money trickled away invisibly and swiftly even while they toiled.
Likewise, all our brave men and wise generals and gigantic Aircraft Carrier battlegroups, the largest and most deadly military machine history has even seen, will be as idle and worthless as those rusting trains and trucks, and as empty of use as the sieves of the Danaids or the Deutschmarks of the Weimar men. The modern army cannot live on loot, and if the money is gone, the soldiers cannot be paid, and the position of America as a hyperpower, or even a regional power, vanishes as swiftly as the British Empire after the World Wars.
The normal marketplace mechanisms to recover from such a disaster do not operate in a nation whose voting class and whose dependency class outnumber and outvote their productive class. This would be the result of a second Obama term.
Compare the economies of, say, Texas and California. (here: http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_4_california.html and here: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/295422/texas-vs-california-revisited-chuck-devore) and contemplate the future of a second Obama term, with socialized medicine entrenched and protected by a political class of dependents, and “too-big-to-fail” as the official policy of the Federal Government, and every major industry in danger of ceasing to pour wealth into union coffers will become the next GM — and I mean every industry. If Obama gets a second term, we are all California.
It is an addiction like cocaine, and there is no recovery. Once a nation is government by a philosophy and by a majority faction that seeks free money, a crowd of slaves kissing their own chains and voting themselves pie today and devil take tomorrow, when tomorrow comes, alas, the devil arrives. That is the lesson we saw in Spain, in Greece, and in France. The voters voted themselves more pie. Each little faction has no reason in its self interest to do otherwise, and the mass of all factions together lack the will and discipline and philosophy and religion to endure the hardship caused by a previous generation voting itself pie on credit.
Now the credit is used up. The money is gone. All the money in the world is gone. In the next several decades, someone will have to do several TRILLION dollars worth of manhours of labor to produce goods and services in return for no reward, for the reward, the pie, has already been consumed.
Contemplate as well an ambitious China, and revived Russia, and an aggressive nuclear-armed Iran at large in a world were American and European power has been obliterated, and no cultural confidence exists in any persons outside the Sinosphere and the Dar-al-Islam. If the prospect of financial bankruptcy and military bankruptcy do not alarm the turgid soul, what of spiritual bankruptcy? Or do you think the various barbarians and tyrants of morbid and desolate nations who have never known freedom and enlightenment will look to a shattered West with the admiration and awe of, say, the Japanese after Admiral Perry?
Do you think they will try to Westernize when we are rapidly de-Westernizing? And by de-Westernizing, I mean pouring scorn on our own constitution, values, virtues and symbols while treating enemy symbols and values with quivering respect. I mean (to use one example out of countless) dunking the crucifix in urine and calling it “art” while at the same time jailing amateur filmmakers who insult “the Prophet of Islam”?
If we had financial strength without military power, we might recover, or if we had military power with financial strength, or if we had a firm belief and courage to follow our Christian faith or Western legacy of freedom, democracy, and the free market.
We have traded this all for a mess of pottage.
If only we had an even slightly honest press, we might yet recover, as and when the truth rang out across the nation like the call of Paul Revere.
A second Obama term proves we have none of these things and deserve none. It proves the American character has indeed collapsed beyond resuscitation.
A second Obama term means we have nothing but big government, bigger and bigger, and no room for anything else, neither local government, nor associations, nor churches, nor communities, nor families.
The parasite eats the host and dies.
Is this reason for voting clear enough? Do these fears seem excessive, unrealistic, or the figments of political hypochondria?
While it is sadly clear that the fall of the USA would bring about the effects you describe, at least in the next century or two (perhaps eventually a savior nation would arise from the ashes – Brazil perhaps?), I am still optimistic enough to hope that there is enough life in the American semi-corpse to survive even another 4 years of President Obama, at least if he does not also control both houses of Congress.
If we were staring down the barrels of 8-12 more years of radical left policy, I would be far less sanguine.
Perhaps, but if so, you underestimate (or I overestimate) the deleterious influence and end result of socialized medicine. It intrudes the government into the most intimate life-or-death decisions of every family, makes everyone utterly dependent for life and limb on the faceless bureaucrats, and creates an instant majority faction whose demands for hire taxes and more spending can never, ever, ever, be refused or refuted or argued against.
It also has a moral and spiritual effect on the psychology of the nation. Everyone instantly becomes like a member of the teacher’s union, for they either work against their own self interest, or they become partisans of their own particular faction seeking to maximize its share of the socialized medicine goods. The moral effect is to discourage honesty and encourage the most grotesque form of intellectual hypocrisy known to man — pure selfishness masquerading as altruism, and pure viciousness masquerading as public concern.
Everyone starts thinking like a slave.
Or do you honestly think if an unelected bureaucrat decreed that Catholic institutions would be deprived of their medical care until and unless we carried out same-sex marriages, that the whole body of the outrageous and fiercely individualistic government dependents would take up arms to defend us?
An essay that gives me much to think about, though I have no real thoughts at this time. Again, thank you for your indulgence.
Well, I suppose I’ll keep enough gas on hand to get my family to Utah and hope the state of Deseret is a place of refuge. I don’t have the same confidence in the Mormon culture that I did when I was younger (I think we’re getting a little soft), but a national collapse might get the beehive humming once more.
Note also that the LDS policy of preparation is helpful to all sorts. Mormons are advised by our leaders to keep food on hand and be prepared when things go bad. Here are some notes on the topic that might help (no real preaching on this page, so I hope the link is kosher).
https://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage?lang=eng
I like to be optimistic about things, but it’s better to be prepared than to just be hopeful. I’ve got little children who will need to eat if the worst happens.
And yet, and yet. Does the Republican answer to Obama’s totalitarian bent not strike you as any less suicidal? A step rather than a leap, at best, toward your dismal vision?
I am not sure what you mean. I blame Bush for his attempt to save the economy by destroying it, yes. I think the fact that no national figure is discussing a return to the gold standard and a dismantling of the welfare state is a sign of and a condemnation of the theory and practice of democracy, yes. Democracy can only be practiced by a virtuous people. If we have lost that virtue, particularly the virtue of independence, then we are rightly serfs ruled by mandarins. (In this case, the professional bureaucracy is akin to our mandarin class, selected by examination, entrenched, unelected, condescending.)
But I do not see the Republican policies as suicidal, no. They are not as strong as I would like, but for that I blame the public, not the politicians. The consensus of all Americans, the high point, as it were, of the Bell Curve, is firmly aligned with FDR style ‘New Deal’ or interventionist policies.
Support citizen journalism!
Online sites are our only hope for honesty in journalism. There have even been occasions where they forced it from the MSM.
Adam Smith told us that “there is a deal of ruin in a nation”.
Jerry Pournelle is wont to say that despair is a sin.
And a quick look at economic statistics reminds us that the US debt is still less than its GDP; which is to say that in a year the citizens of the US produce enough goods and services to pay off their government’s debts. Of course this immense amount of work cannot all be turned to debt service, but still, the figure of 10 trillion should be taken in its context.
I’m not a voter, and if I were I wouldn’t vote for Obama, who had an excellent chance to repeal the “Patriot Act”, disband the Theatre Security Administration, and generally roll back the bad security/liberty tradeoffs of the Bush era; and instead chose to violate the rights of Americans in even more egregious ways. Still, there’s such a thing as hyperbole. I think “national suicide” qualifies.
Every dose of a cumulative poison is suicide.
So it is the question of National survival. But even now, you hope to argue with
and persuade the Enemy that is bent upon crushing your culture because having accepted your Enemy’s rules of engagement, you can not imagine putting any restrictions on the Enemy’s troop of academics, media, pornographers, abortionists, professional liars et al.
While calling upon Crusades on very minor foreign enemies thousands of miles away that are falling into riun by themselves.
And at that time, your Church is facing ever-increasing hurdles having to operate right here.
Your actions belie your words. Lincoln was faced with National Survival. And he did not bandy words.
And yet again, you are being incoherent here, making remarks about some topic unrelated to what we were discussing. I never said anything about rules of engagement, nor have I accepting anything in particular. I am not advocating shooting academics in cold blood for heresy, albeit I would favor removing tenure from them, and removing federal funding.
Now you seem to have equated in your mind the idea of not shooting academics in cold blood for heresy with something you call ‘accepting the Enemy’s Rules of Engagement.’ The two are not equal, and, as far as I can tell, are not even related thoughts.
And why not?.
Should the academics be exempt from paying any penalty?
It is either a National Emergency or it is not.
If it is, then the State is allowed a very free hand.
When I say that the thought “we should argue against falsehood” and the thought “we should kill people trying to kill us” does not logically lead to the thought “we should kill people who are using falsehoods” your response is to say “why not?”
The reason why the thoughts are not logically connected to each other is because justice demands proportionate retaliation for breaches of the public peace.
And because, while the paynim enemy saws off the head of those who insult Mahound, civilized and Christian men turn the other cheek to those who insult Christ, and count it for a blessing, precisely as Our Lord instructed us to do.
Get thee behind me, Gian. You speak the devil’s counsel.
Or better yet, why don’t you argue with our friendly neighborhood pacifist, who apparently thinks that education and admonishment will stop the unruly schoolchildren of the Jihad from loaded flying passenger planes into crowded skyscrapers?
You two lunatics can have a pleasing shouting match, and leave alone those of us who believe only words can answer words, and only swords can answer swords.
“justice demands proportionate retaliation ”
True but who decides the proportion?
If they are advocating murder of infants and corrupting your sons and daughters, and a father merely condescends to argue with them, is he a sensible and responsible father?
You are overly influenced yet by Non-aggression principle.
In the time of war, it is perfectly just to execute deserters.
In a time of famine, it is perfectly just to execute profiteers.
“Christian men turn the other cheek to those who insult Christ, and count it for a blessing, precisely as Our Lord instructed us to do. ”
Why are you calling for a Crusades then?. Why not turn the other cheek?
because (1) These are consels of perfection
(2) Collective (i.e. political) action is different from individual action.
(Contra Austrians).
Where is any evidence of a looming hyperinflation, or even any inflation?
Could you provide any number whatsoever?.
The Federals have been desparately trying to ward off deflation, if anything, and barely suceeding.
And is hyperinflation the end of the world?. Didn’t Germany recover from it as quickly as it fell into it?.
“Contemplate as well an ambitious China, and revived Russia, and an aggressive nuclear-armed Iran at large”
How have the mighty fallen!. IRAN a threat!
Indeed , that USA needed to assemble an Army and carry out a full-fledged invasion to dislodge Saddam was the proof that the glory had fled from these shores. Once USA could carry out coups in these third-rate Third World powers just by a telephone call and a few CIA agents.
You are kidding, right? For one, it lasted four years. Two, they had to abandon their currency altogether and establish a replacement, the Rentenmark – a temporary tender. This new currency was backed by (exchangeable for) land and industrial assets, and – wait for it… the U.S. of A! Look up the Dawes Plan.
Who comes to our rescue – eh?
They also enacted several strategies such as ending credit extension to industry, limiting the printing of money to actual economic worth (grand idea that) etc. Once stabilized, the Reichsmark was introduced and replaced the Rentenmark, the Reichsmark was backed and held to the German gold reserve.
Given that the German economy was built on fiat (government manipulated credit expansion and the resulting unsound speculation – sound familiar?) over 6000 companies went bankrupt in 1924 alone. It, needless to say, took many years of recovery and harsh austerity. And then the happy event of 1929 took place.
By 1927 the Germans were beginning to have some solid foundations for real economic growth.
But merely to look at the number of years and flippantly state that Germans recovered quickly because history puts the dates as 1921 – 1924 is to miss the mountains of poverty, devastation, pain, suffering and starvation that occurred during those years, and the hardships and turmoil that resounded for years thereafter.
Also it may pay for you to read some von Mises instead of merely ripping on him.
I am a little puzzled what, when I am talking about a loss of faith in a fiat currency, you are asking for a number value of an event I predict will happen but which has not happened yet. I am not even sure what sort of number value pertains to this discussion. Do you want the figures for the last three rounds of Quantitative Easing? It was in all the newspapers.
Let me recite a simple description of the current currency situation:
I am not sure what you know and don’t know about economics. Instead of running through an Econ 101 primer, let me instead link you to one of several articles which I found convincing on the matter. You may read and decide for yourself:
http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2010/10/signs-hyperinflation-is-arriving.html
and
http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2011/02/ballsy-or-crazy-where-are-we-on.html
We shall be disappointed if we hope that the Venture Capitalist would stop Fed from printing money. In fact, the Venture Capitalism vitally depends on Fed money printing.
It was the privilaged access to the freshly printed money that made the Venture Capitalist what he is now– a standard Austrian view, I believe, that those with first access to freshly printed money get the most advantage. He is not an Austrian or Randian model Capitalist but a Crony Capitalist a la Chesterton and whose strongest argument is Trust me for I am Rich.
So, money printing is supposed to doom the Capitalist system but both the Venture Capitalist and the Community Organizer depend upon money printing.
Actually, venture capitalism, otherwise known as investment, requires a stable currency. You are here using the term capitalist as a pejorative, which I find particularly offensive, if not ironic.
Isn’t it a Austrian tenet that an early access to the freshly printed money
givers an unfair advantage to certain people.
And who are these people–bankers and financiers and Govt contractors.
First, there is no American Nation. There is no unity. We are a motley collection of ethnicities with incompatible needs and goals.
Second, the existing regime is incompatible with any kind of Christian life. It is openly hostile to Christian life and actively and aggressively seeks to suppress it.
So, collapse is heartedly to be desired, and, if possible, facilitated. The best of all worlds would be a return to the Articles of Confederation, but any reduction in Leviathan is better than what we have.
No American nation, eh? Collapse is to be desired and facilitated?
Collapse will mean another world war and, at the very least, millions of deaths. A high price to pay for the Articles of Confederation, which were so unworkable from the beginning that they had to be scrapped after just a few years.
There has been an American nation in embryo since the Revolution and in actuality since the Civil War. Attempts by nit-pickers to point out that the USA has many sub-groups are as idiotic as saying that since people from the south of France have a different dialect and vote differently they are not the same nation as a Parisienne.
Of course we have subgroups. We are a gigantic nation in both numbers & land mass. When I go abroad, I can EASILY see differences between Americans and Europeans, even if the American comes from a different state, votes for a different party, and is of a different ethnicity. The Americans have a national personality and attitude just as much as any other nation. Perhaps less hallowed in terms of age, because of our youth, but it is there, and I submit that anyone who has attended (for instance) a game or SF convention in another country in which he sees multiple Americans interacting with the locals can tell, if he has an honest mind, that “America” is more than just a concept.