Mencken is pointing out the dark, shadow side of democracy. But it also has a bright side - it seems to be the only system which, in its better incarnations, is capable of offering an individual a modicum of protection against those same jackals. In other political systems, that's hardly ever an option. One must appreciate good things, even if they don't last forever.
well..... 200 years for demo-crazy ? plus or minus....
i think it has to do with size of population, and worse, the mentality and attitude of those
governed. the minute they begin to vote the thieves who promise to award them all kinds
of free $hit it is over, as in time, those inside the cart being pulled, will out-number those
pulling the cart......
ayn rand attempted to show such easy to understand concept in atlas shrugged (1957) in the
case of the Twentieth Century Motor Co. (yes, you might as well call it Detroit City, Inc.)
youtube.com (part one)
youtube.com (part two)
youtube.com (part three)
again, for me, it is quite amazing to have had such a great narrative in her novel, practically
predicting the future..... yet, flat out IGNORING it.... like lemmings marching off to their own
destruction..... *just as she wrote..... *
and the result ?
complete IDIOCRACY..... (already in place, waiting to take its course and become WORSE)
youtube.com
We live in a land of abounding quackeries, and if we do not learn how to laugh we succumb to the melancholy disease, which afflicts the race of viewers-with-alarm... In no other country known to me is life as safe and agreeable, taking one day with another, as it is in These States. Even in a great Depression few if any starve, and even in a great war the number who suffer by it is vastly surpassed by the number who fatten on it and enjoy it. Thus my view of my country is predominantly tolerant and amiable. I do not believe in democracy, but I am perfectly willing to admit that it provides the only really amusing form of government ever endured by mankind.
~ H. L. Mencken
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Capitalism undoubtedly has certain boils and blotches upon it, but has it as many as government? Has it as many as marriage? Has it as many as religion? I doubt it. It is the only basic institution of modern man that shows any genuine health and vigor. ...the only serious criticism of capitalism comes from ladies and gentlemen who are palpably somewhat balmy. The trouble with all of them is that they are constructive critics: not content to tear down, they try to build up. It is a fatal error...
"Editorial" in The American Mercury, Aug 28, p.507, The Curse of Government Sub-title to a review in "The Library" in The American Mercury, Sep 28, p.123 (HL Mencken)
in my opinion.... we have gone beyond repair.... this frankesntein is not only far too large.... but the carrying costs are beyond reason.... the only way to fix this is to destroy it and start new..... the concept of solving debt by "kicking down the can" is at best WILLFUL MENTAL RETARDATION, CREATED BY THE VOODOO PRIESTS OF THE MODERN ERA... no better than the witch doctors of the tribal times.... they even changed their names and gave themselves "nobel prizes".... yes, these morons are the so called ECONOMISTS, who have sold us all their snake oil theories, finally proven as DAMNED LIES.... protected by an even worse and more ancient evil.... the damned politician..... (etymology: Poly = many Ticks = nasty disease carrying insects)
these "economists" who clearly "advice" the politicians.... are so reckless in their [damned stupid] "wisdom"
that they simply could not figure out the carrying cost of this runway debt in it of itself was a doubling damaging effect, as we keep wasting funds in free $hit that is UNPRODUCTIVE.....
they cannot figure out that the ONLY rational reason to go into debt is if the "thing" you go into debt for is PRODUCTIVE, meaning it creates income, and only so if said income is larger than the interest (cost) of the borrowing...... not merely for the "imaginary creation of a nonsensical value".... hard costs are hard costs.... these leaches are either too stupid to figure this out and understand it, or worse, as if they do, then they are not only reckless bastards, but also hypocritical snakes, who basically, for their ego-maniac desire to be on the side of power for its own sake, without the least regard for the consequences that we are now only beginning to see.... and it ain't pretty lucrecia.....
testosteronepit.com
so, the so called demo-crazy...... is coming to its end, as we have been able to witness....
and still... all the clowns in TV land, keep on trumpeting the "recovery"... lmao.....oh yes, this time is different.... but not in the way they say.....
There is only one kind of men who have never been on strike in human history. Every other kind and class have stopped, when they so wished, and have presented demands to the world, claiming to be indispensable ---except the men that have carried the world on their shoulders, have kept it alive, have endured torture as their whole payment, but have never walked out on the human race.
Well their turn has come. Let the world discover who they are, what they do and what happens when they refuse to function. This is the strike of the men of the mind."
~ John Galt.
Leader and initiator of the strike of the men of the mind.
From Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
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"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost invariably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And if he is not romantic personally, he is apt to spread discontent among those who are."
~ H.L. Mencken
_______
"America's founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Nothing more and nothing less. The rest --everything that America achieved, everything she became, everything "noble" and "just", and heroic, and great, and unprecedented in human history-- was the logical consequence of fidelity to that one principle. The first consequence was the principle of political freedom, i.e. an individual's freedom from physical compulsion, coercion, or interference by the government. The next was the implementation of political freedom: The system of Capitalism."
~ Ayn Rand
___________
ah yes, but................
Fond of America, proud of her, curious and hopeful about her future, I nevertheless renounce America. My loyalties will not be bound by national borders, or confined in time by one nation's history, or limited in the spiritual dimension by one language and culture. I pledge my allegiance to the damned human race, and my everlasting love to the green hills of Earth, and my imitations of glory to the singing stars, to the very end of space and time.
~ Edward Abbey
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no, i am NOT a GREEN-O-WAKO
but there has to be a limit to ..... "blind patriotism"
as in......
[false] Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
anyway.... end of rant..... |
