Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Musings
It seems to me that one of the reasons people are getting angry at Pres. Obama for not doing more, earlier about the Gulf oil disaster is that he has spent his presidency from day one trying to convince people that government is the source of all that is good. In fact, he seemed to be trying to make government a god--omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. Now, faced with the oil spill, government, in particular his government, is clueless, largely absent and impotent.
That's bad for Obama, but probably good in the long run for the country because it might shock people out of their foolish belief that the government will protect and save them.
The United States, which is exceptional in the world for more reasons than I could list here, became what it is largely because its people didn't stand around waiting for the king, or czar, or prince-bishop or emperor to tell them what to do. They faced their problems and hardships, dealt with them as best they could and eventually conquered them by ingenuity and hard work, all without intervention by the government. That all started to change around the 1800s but the foundation was sound and the nation continued to benefit from this history.
Sure, mistakes were made, but show me a centralized government anywhere else in the world that has made fewer mistakes over the same period of time. If you can do it, maybe we'll all learn something, but I suspect that if such a government exists, if you dig into the history you'll find that its success came from empowering the individual, or at least the local community to do what was best for itself.
That's bad for Obama, but probably good in the long run for the country because it might shock people out of their foolish belief that the government will protect and save them.
The United States, which is exceptional in the world for more reasons than I could list here, became what it is largely because its people didn't stand around waiting for the king, or czar, or prince-bishop or emperor to tell them what to do. They faced their problems and hardships, dealt with them as best they could and eventually conquered them by ingenuity and hard work, all without intervention by the government. That all started to change around the 1800s but the foundation was sound and the nation continued to benefit from this history.
Sure, mistakes were made, but show me a centralized government anywhere else in the world that has made fewer mistakes over the same period of time. If you can do it, maybe we'll all learn something, but I suspect that if such a government exists, if you dig into the history you'll find that its success came from empowering the individual, or at least the local community to do what was best for itself.
Labels: government, Gulf oil spill, Obama, politics
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