The Dangers of Collectivist Thought

Recently during one of my many random online searches, I ran found an old article titled Why Communism Kills written by an Australian teacher and lecturer named Fred Schwartz.  While not one of the better written pieces I have come across, he does make some very valid arguments against the idea of collectivist thinking and the inherent dangers therein.

This idea is one that I have been pondering for a few days now and will definitely have to dig a little deeper on.  However, it stands to perfect reason why a philosophy such as Communism, which focuses on the group as a whole, has no choice but to turn violent and suppress the people it is designed to help.  Humans, by nature, are inherently individualists and must be taught or coerced into abiding by group think. Individual thought must be suppressed. Since force is the only means a government has of suppression, eventually, this will turn to violence.


I will have more on this when I have done a little further research, however, the article makes a good, albeit scary, read for the time being.

Precedent is NOT a Mandate

Recently in our current political environment, there has been a move toward trying to establish precedent for everything that could be done wrong.  Democrats claim that their massive spending is just continuing the spending policies of the last thirty years, that Bush set up Medicare Part D, and on and on.  However, precedent for bad policy does not good policy make.  A great example of this is E.J. Dionne's contention (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/02/01/thank_you_justice_alito_100111.html) that Obama was right for calling out The Supreme Court the way he did during his State of The Union address because both Reagan and Nixon have done the same thing before.  Aside from the fact that just because it has been done before does not mean that it is a good idea, the way in which our President did so was uncalled for.  But lets break down her examples for a minute.

"Make no mistake, abortion-on-demand is not a right granted by the Constitution," Reagan wrote. "No serious scholar, including one disposed to agree with the court's result, has argued that the framers of the Constitution intended to create such a right. ... Nowhere do the plain words of the Constitution even hint at a 'right' so sweeping as to permit abortion up to the time the child is ready to be born."

Reagan is absolutely correct in this statement.  It absolutely does not create such a right. The important thing to remember here (which many of our political class have long since forgotten or outright ignored) is that it absolutely does not take that "right" away either.  This would fall under the 10th Amendment which very explicitly state that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

What the Supreme Court did with the "Citizens" decision was roll back a decade of over reach by the Federal Government and repeal the portions of a law that prohibited free speech by corporations which are in fact, private entities and, though this is an unpopular opinion, are protected by the 1st Amendment. 

There was however, an even more disturbing aspect of the show put on by the POTUS in that, he called them out in front of both houses of Congress, many of whom then stood in applause as he called for them to craft legislation to over ride the decision.  I hate to break it to you Obama, but the Supreme Court was put in place by our constitution as a check on the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch and NOT as a barrier (much the way these branches try to treat the constitution) to be skirted. 

There has long been an argument from both the left and the right that the Courts have been "legislating from the bench" but there is one huge problem with this line of thought; the Supreme Court doesn't craft legislation!  All they can do is rule on legislation brought before them.  There is no doubt, they have made errors.  Kelo vs New London is the first to spring to mind.  The only way that the Supreme Court has any chance of "legislating from the bench" is if they uphold unconstitutional laws. Sadly, many on both sides of the isle don't seem to understand the federal governments lawful place as granted it by the Constitution.

Unbelievable

It is now 24 hours after America's first Black President gave his first State of the Union address and, as expected, the general consensus is...eh. While Obama didn't really say anything surprising, we should still be absolutely STUNNED that what he did say is actually the opinion of the majority of our elected officials (something that will hopefully be remedied in November). How can such a large group of people be so shockingly full of themselves that they still believe, even after the elections in MA, NY, and VA, that the American people are still behind them? Even when a majority of voters in MA listed health care and other liberal agenda items as their reason for voting for Scott Brown. Lets review some of last nights really dumb ass moments

Fee on the biggest banks- Good job Presbo! Increase taxes on the very people that you need to loan the money to get the economy rolling again

Cut Taxes for 95% of Americans- OH? Did you now? Since when do a first time homebuyer credit, tuition reimbursement, and unemployment increases qualify as tax cuts?! Then he goes into "we have not raise income taxes by a single dime on a single person" (then for emphasis) "Not a single dime!" Seems to me like he is considering NOT raising taxes a tax cut. Consider it a gift.

2 million jobs saved!- WHAT? when we lost 4 million jobs this year, this is just simply nonsense. Then he goes on to describe the jobs and just makes the number worse. This is the makeup of those 2 million:

Two-hundred-thousand work in construction and clean energy. Three-hundred-thousand are teachers and other education workers. Tens of thousands are cops, firefighters, correctional officers, and first responders. And we are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year.

One thing to notice is that every one of the jobs that he refers to here are either government jobs (also known as private sector taxes) or private sector jobs supported by government contracts. Obama's perfect world has everyone working for the government (he said as much when he referred to his time at a private law firm as "behind enemy lines"). Apparently he is taking his economic advice from Bernie Madoff.

Last but not least, he gave us this little gem:

Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests - including foreign corporations - to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that's why I'm urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.

It's nice to see a bit of honesty for a change. This was an open admission that Congress and the President are absolutely corrupt and beholden to special interests. We all saw it in the crafting of health care reform (thank you SEIU), and in the bank bailouts (thank you AIG, sorry Lehman) but it was nice to hear what we suspected all along; that our politicians are not in Washington to serve us, but to serve themselves.

Jenkem and Democratic Health Insurance Reform

A few years ago, a number of the major news networks were reporting on a growing concern about the youth of various 3rd world countries. Children were using a bizarre new hallucinogenic drug called Jenkem. New drugs come on the market all of the time. It is human nature. Since time immemorial, man has been trying to find a new and better way to escape from the horrors (or joys as those damned perpetually upbeat people call them) that constitute being human. There was a difference this time though. This new drug was even more disturbing than usual because of the way that it was produced. Jenkem, see, is made by filling a bag half full of feces and urine, sealing it, and allowing the cocktail to ferment for up to a week. It is then opened and the escaping fumes are inhaled, hopefully, causing euphoria and, at times, hallucinations.

This is very much like the Democratic Health Care plan. A few months ago, 1900 pages of bad policy, government takeovers, and increased taxes were set before both houses of Congress and left to ferment. We now have a bill which is expected to be close to 2300 pages long that is full of bad policy, government takeovers, increased taxes, kickbacks, and outright bribes.

Passing this bill will be akin to huffing Jenkem. We will have our brief high. However, like all highs, we will eventually come down. And after we do, instead of living with the taste of shit in our mouths for a few days, we will be savoring it for years to come.