The Long Train
Current events are exposing the perfidy, maliciousness and malfeasance of the neoliberals. That sound you hear is Thomas Jefferson's long train pulling into the station.
Are Americans just too patient?
It seems a valid question because we do put up with a lot.
Thomas Jefferson nailed our nature in the Declaration:
"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
I’ve said more than once that if the Founders, like Samuel Adams, were around today, we would already be shooting, but a sober look at our country reveals the fact that one thing that has made the American system of constitutional government possible (and stable) is the patience of the American people.
But there is a legitimate question if there is a difference between being lazy and being patient and which of those two are descriptive of the American ethos.
Personally, I think there is a difference between lazy and patient. In my own personal lexicon, lazy implies doing nothing because you know nothing or unaware, being patient means knowing and making a conscious decision to do nothing at that point. Lazy is not caring what happens, patient is “Hey, lets wait a bit and see how things go.”
Since we are seemingly surprised by the aberration du jour, it would seem Americans have been the former rather than the latter. Not knowing what your kids are being taught sort of fits being lazy. That’s not a personal indictment, its just a general description. When our public entities, like school boards and public-school teachers and administrators work to keep things hidden, it makes it easier to be lazy, but ultimately, our children are our children and it is a parental responsibility to know what they are being taught, and if it is counter to the values the parents want their kids to have, to object.
Perhaps it is that Americans are just too patient, but when you compare America to other countries, it becomes evident that constant civil chaos is just not a feature of American life. We got close to anarchy during the late 60's but pulled back. ANTIFA and BLM stirred the chaos pot for a year or so, but when they were no longer needed to win an election for the Democrats, that cooled off. America tends to find a general equilibrium over time.
The downside to being patient is that we put up with far more serious deviations than most societies would – but that’s nothing new. When you look at the events leading up to the Revolutionary War, the British Monarchy and Parliament were doing some pretty awful things to the colonists. Crushing taxation, little to no say in their own futures and military occupation are some heavy burdens to bear for a populace that came to this land for freedom in the first place.
We have put up with a lot.
From warmongering neocons to the incompetent socialism of the neoliberals, since the Nixon presidency ended, we have been on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
Americans have accepted a “little bit” of socialism across the board. It has penetrated deep into our government and now is evident in our public and private sector. Universities have become Marxist maternity wards. Public schools are indoctrination centers. We have seen powerful, rich corporations acting as extensions of socialist governments, even as they accumulate even more money and power.
But having a “little bit” of socialism is like being a “little bit” pregnant.
There’s no such thing. As they say in the rural areas of my birth state of Mississippi, “You either is or you ain’t”.
All forms of collectivism are pyramid schemes, to be sustained, everybody must be in the game – all the way from top to bottom. The folks at the top must have the productivity of the folks at the bottom to keep their positions, status, and fortunes. Where collectivism differs from a multi-level marketing scheme is that the MLM scheme is voluntary – in collectivism, no matter what it is called, membership is coercive and mandatory.
But I do think it is possible that the left openly going after American kids will be the beginning of the end.
Adult Americans will put up with a lot when it rains down on them, but they always draw the line at their kids. It is the natural instinct of mammals, particularly human mammals, to protect their young.
Jefferson did note the enduring patience of the American people, but he also contemplated there would come a breaking point, stating:
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Jefferson’s long train of abuses has made a number of stops to take on coal and water along the way but that journey is almost at an end.
That wailing sound you hear isn’t just the mournful lament of the wounded neoliberal, it is the whistle of the proverbial "long train" pulling into the station.