Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome....
Watched Glenn Beck today and as usual, it really scared me. Actually, it reminded me of a few things.
Ever see the movie "Cabaret"? It came out in 1972 and won a bundle of Oscars. I saw it the night it opened in Chicago. I've never seen the stage show, so all comments here relate to the movie.
I was pretty young at the time, and "Cabaret" got me thinking about the relationship between moral corruption and poltical totalitarianism. There is a definite link there. Like, when individuals refuse to assume the responsibility for themselves, refuse any accountability for their own actions.... What results is crime, social disorder, rip-offs on both sides of the trade transaction -- fraudulent sellers and people buying without any clue about how to pay for things....
In general, the collapse of human civilization as we know it. Or at least as I've known it, in a relatively free country for most of my life.
Lost, corrupted, injured, dazed, confused people start looking to a "higher power" to solve their problems -- usually either God or the government.
God I have no objection to. If God can inspire people to take care of themselves -- and that is what Protestantism teaches -- then that's a valuable and viable answer.
Government -- no. Government is only "other people" who have no better answers than you do. And more often than not, if these people are in government to begin with, they have some kind of agenda and are looking for lost, corrupted, injured, dazed and confused recruits. (See Eric Hoffer, "The True Believer".) They need an army -- you -- to carry out their plans to run the world. And if someone's goal is to run the world, that person is probably profoundly insane and very likely vicious and dangerous to human life.
Hey! What if we can actually create the kind of moral, social, and economic confusion and disorder that would drive people to look for a "higher power?"
Yeah. Whaddaya think? Who would do something like that? Destroy a peaceful and prosperous society to install himself in a position of authority?
Gee, I wonder.
Not entirely unrelated, crude oil is still spewing out into the Gulf of Mexico. BP has managed to cap the well, but it's still leaking.
Meanwhile, while Carol Browner-and-browner has claimed "We're in control!" and the Comrade himself has accomplished two (two! count 'em! two!) photo ops on white sand Gulf beaches, it seems everyone but Bobby Jindal is running around like headless chickens regarding not the leak itself, but the clean-up.
Jindal has had a couple little boats out in the Gulf with something like vacuum cleaners sucking up the oil. He wants some help with this.
Well, maybe the Comrade can come down and have his picture taken next to the workers in the little boats. Will that help?
Got to give credit to Bobby Jindal. He's a real person trying to really do something real about this real mess.
Can't say the same for ANYONE in the federal government so far. At least not those at the top, who, behind closed doors, are probably hoping the crude will creep around Florida and come up the East Coast so they'll have an enormous disaster to exploit.
All of the above fits into the Cabaret thing in this way: You can sit on your ass and wait for Uncle Sam or the Comrade to promulgate some kind of holy bull to fix your problems (any problems) or you can accept the responsibility and do what you can.
Want to see a fine, terrifying, cinematic example of those who wait for authority to respond? Look up "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" on YouTube.com. It's a scene from the movie "Cabaret." I'd give you a link, but that seems to be illegal, or YouTube will drop the video or something. So just look it up.
Anyway, that's it for now.
Save the republic! WE CAN DO IT. WE'RE THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN.
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