What makes a nation great?
I've always been fascinated by the dynamics of nations. What makes a nation great, noble, a beacon of innovation and human rights? By contrast, why do some nations seem to stay trapped in backwardness, misery and barbaric, inhumane acts?
If a nation in the first group suffers some catastrophe that destroys its civilization, do its citizens have some inner qualities that will enable them to recover, if not to power, at least to nobility and civilized behavior? If so, would it take decades? A century? Longer?
The classic model is the Roman empire: After ruling the known world for at least three centuries they fell to invasion. Never recovered. Shortly thereafter all the marble facings on the buildings and temples had been stripped off and sold, and shortly after that scavengers started chiseling out the bronze clips that had attached the marble facing, to sell the metal.
Does that ring any bells? In California thieves have been wrecking irrigation pumps to steal the electric motors--to sell the copper in the windings.
A thousand bucks in damage to steal 40 bucks worth of copper. Is there anything you can call that except insanity? Yet that's now happening routinely.
Many people have tried to decipher the keys to what makes a people, a nation, great. Leftists claim it's all just accidental--countries with lots of natural resources and good barriers to invasion will always do well. They claim the system of government doesn't matter--except a communist or socialist one would always do better, of course. (Oh, of course.)
At the opposite end are those who think greatness is a matter of inner character: Hard-working, freedom-loving, God-following citizens teach their kids the same ethics, and over time the entire nation prospers.
The Left--a group that claims to have embraced the core beliefs of liberalism--now appears to totally and enthusiastically support authoritarian rule, in which a single ruler either mandates rules or discards them, as he alone sees fit.
And people who should know better--a few honest, non-socialist liberals as well as conservatives--let them get away with praising this as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Meanwhile the spineless Republican "leadership"--handed control of both houses of congress in the last election--meekly goes along with the emperor, worrying that if they don't they might lose control of the senate in 2016.
Here's a flash for you spineless assholes: The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Mitch McCon is a RINO leading you to doom, but you won't revolt. And you think the voters will reward you for letting the emperor destroy the nation. And maybe you're right.
It's starting to look like Gruber was actually right.
If a nation in the first group suffers some catastrophe that destroys its civilization, do its citizens have some inner qualities that will enable them to recover, if not to power, at least to nobility and civilized behavior? If so, would it take decades? A century? Longer?
The classic model is the Roman empire: After ruling the known world for at least three centuries they fell to invasion. Never recovered. Shortly thereafter all the marble facings on the buildings and temples had been stripped off and sold, and shortly after that scavengers started chiseling out the bronze clips that had attached the marble facing, to sell the metal.
Does that ring any bells? In California thieves have been wrecking irrigation pumps to steal the electric motors--to sell the copper in the windings.
A thousand bucks in damage to steal 40 bucks worth of copper. Is there anything you can call that except insanity? Yet that's now happening routinely.
Many people have tried to decipher the keys to what makes a people, a nation, great. Leftists claim it's all just accidental--countries with lots of natural resources and good barriers to invasion will always do well. They claim the system of government doesn't matter--except a communist or socialist one would always do better, of course. (Oh, of course.)
At the opposite end are those who think greatness is a matter of inner character: Hard-working, freedom-loving, God-following citizens teach their kids the same ethics, and over time the entire nation prospers.
The Left--a group that claims to have embraced the core beliefs of liberalism--now appears to totally and enthusiastically support authoritarian rule, in which a single ruler either mandates rules or discards them, as he alone sees fit.
And people who should know better--a few honest, non-socialist liberals as well as conservatives--let them get away with praising this as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Meanwhile the spineless Republican "leadership"--handed control of both houses of congress in the last election--meekly goes along with the emperor, worrying that if they don't they might lose control of the senate in 2016.
Here's a flash for you spineless assholes: The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Mitch McCon is a RINO leading you to doom, but you won't revolt. And you think the voters will reward you for letting the emperor destroy the nation. And maybe you're right.
It's starting to look like Gruber was actually right.
posted by SF at
11:03 AM
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