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2/1/11

Economic, Social and Geopolitical

re: those of little faith in the ideals of America...

It's understandable to me the different attitudes and frame of mind that contrasting people have taken towards the current economic crisis across our society. There are those few that have been barely dented and just don't get it and insensitive to it all (if you're in Arizona think pretentious North Scottsdale or Oro Valley) but they will be hit, sooner or later. The majority of people have taken various viewpoints that I do understand, ranging from denial to "eat, drink and be merry," to recognizing there's nothing they can do about the macro but focus on the micro, to those who are devastated, to optimists and positive-thinkers to purposeful obliviousness and everything else in between.

One positional longitude that I don't understand strikes me as plain anti-American. It emanates from people who preach we are heading for a long term difficult economic era due to excessive capitalism, firmly believe it and spread a message that the "power elite" will control the markets, while the rest of us will suffer under these people's thumbs forever. Basically to them, truly free America is over. Ironically, I notice that these skeptics, who think we are stuck in the grip of a ruling elite of our own, have something in common. They tend to spring out from liberalism or the left, a gross generalization I realize but too noticeable to ignore. They are the legacy and descendants of the progressives from the period after the WWI. I'm supposing their answer is more government intervention and control.

I don't buy that frame of mind. 

What makes this country different is we are not a European, Middle Eastern, Eurasian (Russia) or Asian country, where it is quite possible to be entrenched in a truly stratified society. Even so, I'm not sure it is possible in some of those countries, of those regions. As a recent example look to Tunisia, which ran its leader out and now Egypt which is on the verge of overthrowing their government, Jordan is likely next. They certainly have more obstacles to overcome to bring down their ruling class than we do in the United States. We may not care for or fear their culture but it is an example of the middle and lower classes bringing down a ruling class that has made life too difficult for the majority to live with.

I do believe we have a class of people who have gotten the notion that they know best and act as power brokers in government and business. Corporations are a large component of our economic distress due to their excessive access to government policymakers. The entire premise of America however, is based on our ability to overthrow our own government quite easily, without real bloodshed. That ideal is based on the Founding Fathers vision, the principles of the US Constitution and our kind of rule of law. Some argue that so much control has been taken by the so-called "power elite" of our country, defined as the corporate and business class and I would add, in collusion with trade unions (who fancy themselves as downtrodden members of the lower class) alongside the political and bureaucratic classes, that "they've" made it impossible to overthrow their control and power.

I don't believe that we've lost that much control.

It may be there are a lot of lazy, entitlement-minded, sheep-like people in this country but I don't think in the big picture, they're the majority. In the long view, when it comes down to brass tacks, I believe most Americans will do whatever it takes to rise above the power structure we have now when pushed too far. The current leadership and ruling structure is out of touch with the average person in this country but we still own that. We lulled ourselves asleep while they snuck in like thieves in the night and stole our stuff but they still didn't get our basic rights. It is a matter of us asserting those rights and overthrowing the current government in our own unique American way. What that way will be, I can't predict, I do think that we are heading towards a turning and a tipping point.

I have faith it will happen.

My thought is that the time is coming when we will have to make some bold moves, as a people, to rid ourselves of the current leading classes that do not have the rest of America's best interest in mind. The civil war of ideas that will occur within the country, when the time arrives for our own overthrowing of the status quo dominating classes, will be between those of us who believe in the ideals of the founders of this country and those schooled in liberalism and socialism. The conclusion I've reached is that those who think more government is the answer will lose that civil war and the overturning of a century's worth of their meddling will be undone.

We will then be rid of two things. The current ruling classes as well as the ideas of the left and liberalism. Both of them are twin evils that are equally responsible for the economic, social and geopolitical crunch we are in, due to the national power they've held. Momentum is building and a shift is coming, ready or not.

Arizona Landscape

Branching Out...