Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Well, now I'm depressed.

Time to go buy more ammo.

In today’s America, a network of executive, judicial, bureaucratic, and social kinship channels bypasses the sovereignty of citizens. Our imperial regime, already in force, works on a simple principle: the president and the cronies who populate these channels may do whatever they like so long as the bureaucracy obeys and one third plus one of the Senate protects him from impeachment. If you are on the right side of that network, you can make up the rules as you go along, ignore or violate any number of laws, obfuscate or commit perjury about what you are doing (in the unlikely case they put you under oath), and be certain of your peers’ support. These cronies’ shared social and intellectual identity stems from the uniform education they have received in the universities. Because disdain for ordinary Americans is this ruling class's chief feature, its members can be equally certain that all will join in celebrating each, and in demonizing their respective opponents. 
And, because the ruling class blurs the distinction between public and private business, connection to that class has become the principal way of getting rich in America. Not so long ago, the way to make it here was to start a business that satisfied customers’ needs better than before. Nowadays, more businesses die each year than are started. In this century, all net additions in employment have come from the country’s 1,500 largest corporations. Rent-seeking through influence on regulations is the path to wealth. In the professions, competitive exams were the key to entry and advancement not so long ago. Now, you have to make yourself acceptable to your superiors. More important, judicial decisions and administrative practice have divided Americans into “protected classes”—possessed of special privileges and immunities—and everybody else. Equality before the law and equality of opportunity are memories. Co-option is the path to power. Ever wonder why the quality of our leaders has been declining with each successive generation?

Do go read the whole thing.  There's not much hope left for the country we call the USA, but what is really just the takers and the makers duking it out.  And the takers are winning.  That's the death of any civilization.

Buy more ammo.  I think we're going to need it.

2 comments:

rusty muskets said...

Hey this is really scary, because I agree with the author's position now I really feel that I need more ammo. I would encourage readers to read the entire essay scary yes but truthful and precise

Drumwaster said...

I have been saying it for decades now...

The Second American Revolution will happen before 2025.

I have seen nothing to make me think I'm wrong, and lots to make me think I was a touch optimistic.