Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Blame, Gaming, Rage

A reader dropped me a note with a link to the website Global Guerrillas, authored by one John Robb, former USAF special ops pilot and entrepreneur.  Robb’s short description of his site reads as follows.

Networked tribes, systems disruption, and the emerging bazaar of violence. Resilient Communities, decentralized platforms, and self-organizing futures.

More specifically, the reader directed my attention to a post at Global Guerrillas titled RAGE AND HEALTH CARE, which Robb prefaced this way.

Here’s some fun thinking about drivers of political fragmentation and the slow failure of America.

Since thinking is fun, I read through the post.  Robb’s hypothesis regarding the current “rage” against ObamaCare (DeathCare) is as follows.

...The trigger, or the change in the game (the economic system) that prompted the confusion and anger we see today was the 2008 financial crisis.  The inchoate anger this crisis caused is now being directed against the US government and the party in power. Here’s a fuller explanation for this.

We have collectively developed the belief that the capitalist system that we work in and our system of governance, although very messy at times and often harsh, is fundamentally fair.  The financial collapse proved that these beliefs were completely unfounded and we (collectively) were fools for believing in such nonsense…

Robb provides additional reasonings to support his claim that “inchoate anger,” resulting from the 2008 financial industry collapse, is the reason for the current “rage” vigorously percolating today in response to the passage of ObamaCare (DeathCare).  Robb also boldly states that the actors working within the financial industry up to its collapse, were “traitors.”

Personally, I think Robbs hypothesis may be a bit too simple and neat.  During the time of willy nilly easy mortgage money, everybody wanted some, and it was easy to get.  Vast numbers of individuals did get a piece of the easy money pie.  It wasn’t just the players in the financial industry.

I think there is a cumulative burden of State interference in individuals’ lives which is finally being noticed by Americans, and one burden too many has now been strapped to Americans’ backs in the form of ObamaCare (DeathCare).  Americans may finally be coming to the realization that these burdens laid on them by the State must be shaken off, but it may be too late for that to be achieved in a manner without rage.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 06:06 PM
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Jesus’ Recognition of Self Interest

The first time I read Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, as a young man of fifteen years of age, I can vividly recall thinking that the ideas Rand was presenting through the characters in this work, though decidedly secular in nature, ran parallel to everything I had been taught about Christian living to that point in my life.  Well, everything that is except for Rand’s stringent denouncement of altruism and that particular bedroom scene between Hank and Dagny.

Rand’s ideas regarding self interest resonated with me.  Self made, self reliant American individuals shone in Rand’s work, reinforcing what I had been taught by my Christian parents regarding work ethic and making my own way, and these ideas have motivated and inspired me to this day.  I think, whether you are an individual of faith or not, the self interest and self reliance of individuals should also resonate and inspire.  Unfortunately, this idea of self interest has been bastardized and slandered by all manner of individuals.  Those with faith, those without faith, politicians, philosophers, etc., many have attempted to recast the idea of self interest into a bludgeon with which to force others to their will, liberally doling out shame and charges of selfishness to bolster their erroneous claim that self interest is evil.  But is self interest evil, something selfish, and to be ashamed of?  I think not, which brings me round to the reason for this post.

The Acton Institute has a piece up, written by Jordan Ballor, titled What Griffiths Said: Self-Interest, Rightly Understood.  The piece comments on a St Paul Institute panel discussion which took place in October 2009.  The panel discussion subject was Regulation, Freedom and Human Welfare (pdf of 26 pgs).  Ballor’s piece focuses on the following comment by panelist Lord Brian Griffiths, a Goldman Sachs advisor and vice chairman, though the entire 26 pgs of the discussion are worth reading.

I think that the injunction of Jesus to love our neighbours as ourselves is a recognition of self-interest.

I think Griffiths’ statement is dead on, and the idea of self interest, though expressed by Griffiths in this context religiously, is simply the ubiquitous Golden Rule, and thus requires no faith in a Deity for it to be valid for any individual.  Self interest is the only moral way for individuals to achieve the ability to have compassion and generosity for others and thus create a good greater than themselves without the application of force.

If you can’t take care of yourself, self interest, how in the heck can you take care of others?  And as my father wrote to his eight children,

You can’t legislate morality.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 07:37 AM
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Either Al Sharpton is a Racist or Obama IS a Socialist

If American individuals label Obama and his ideologies as Socialist, they are quite likely to be labeled as racist individuals.  That racist counterstrike is, of course, totally false, unless Al Sharpton is also a racist.

The American public overwhelmingly voted for Socialism when they elected President Obama.

Al Sharpton: ‘The American Public Overwhelmingly Voted for Socialism When They Elected President Obama’

Linked via RicketyClick where you can view a 1:11 viddie of Sharpton making the claim that Americans’ votes for Obama were in actuality votes for Socialism.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/23 at 07:21 AM
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