Have a very Happy Independence Day! while you still can
Beware a mindset that knows no boundaries of that sort
The Fourth of July is also called Independence Day.
“Independence”—as in “The Declaration of Independence”—meant that we had severed our ties with England and were autonomous, although it took many long years of struggle before we established our own government and its Constitution.
But “independence” also has a more general meaning that is, well, somewhat independent of that, with synonyms such as “self–sufficiency, self-dependence, self-reliance, self-subsistence, self-support” and antonyms such as “dependence.”
Of course, in some sense we are all dependent on each other; no man (or woman) is an island.
But there is a growing feeling in this country that we have a right to ask, or even to demand, of other people that they take care of us, not of their own free will as voluntary charity, but as a matter of law and compulsion. And not only when we are in dire straights—struck by serious hardships outside of our control—but also if we don’t happen to have as much money as they do, or as much as we would want, or if we just don’t feel like working.
Sometimes it seems as though some are celebrating Independence Day while others are celebrating Dependence Day.
And I’m by no means talking about one ethnic group or another. I’m talking about a mindset that knows no boundaries of that sort, and which has grown in recent decades to encompass vast portions of the populace. It’s a mindset that could very well destroy us if we run out of other people’s money.
[Neo-neocon is a writer with degrees in law and family therapy, who blogs at neo-neocon.]
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Saw this on Twitter. I think Instapundit tweeted it or re-tweeted it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVh75ylAUXY
It’s an animated clip produced in 1948 titled, “Make Mine Freedom.” Note the guy selling Utopia says it will solve everybody’s problems, including the weather (global warming?)! And toward the end the guy who is resisting Utopia says “when anybody preaches disunity, tries to pit one of us against the other through class warfare, race hatred, and religious intolerance, you know that person seeks to rob us of our freedom….”
Here we are 66 years later and they’re using the same rhetoric that if only we give government more power we’ll get closer to Utopia. The difference is that now a lot of people are buying it. Probably because the schools including colleges that used to promote freedom and free enterprise now down play it. Now they’ve created courses like Ethnic Studies, Queer Studies, Womyn’s Studies, etc. solely to promote “social justice” and other far left dogma with the intent to divide us, sow resentment, and demand economic redistribution.
Never forget that part and parcel of Government fostered and nurtured dependency started with rules and regulations that stifled competition, innovation, entry level positions, investment, taxes, work rules, union rules, local taxes, local zoning codes, more and more intrusive and insensitive rules that allow faceless and immune to the adverse effects bureaucracies to seize or render valueless more and more personal property of the citizenry.
Never forget that to reverse the economic pit we’re in will take conscious and zealous removal of barricades and roadblocks that have been erected for numerous and specious reasons.
Some of the backers and perpetrators of the worst sort are large businesses and associations seeking to reduce their competitors while increasing their prices.
We allowed the vampires to set the agenda, make the rules and redesign and undermine the system and then wonder why the economy is anemic.
There are a lot of greedy people who have benefited by those rules and in the last 20 years or more have managed to keep the lesser classes enslaved to their jobs and the costs with less and less chances of breaking out.
There are plenty of gimme types in the country who want something for nothing and there are also plenty who have no desire to share any part of what they have.
Both sides are being short sighted.
The wife and I watched the perfect July 4th movie last night: Harry’s War (with Edward Hermann, Karen Grassle, Geraldine Page, David Ogden Stiers)