Editor's Note: This post captures a chunk of the essential spirit of Maggie's Farm. Thanks, Barrister. Ya done good, ol' buddy, with Scotch or without. Glad to know that horse did not kill ya yet. We need ye as the Pilgrims needed Miles Standish.
I believe that the Dems want the USA to be Denmark.
A Dane explains why it's a bad idea. TCS.
My guess is that it's a very good deal for the lazy, the unmotivated, the dysfunctional, the dependent, the feckless, the spiritless, the addicted, and the sociopathic exploiters of the system. I feel badly for all of such folks, except the latter.
But how is it for strong or energetic adventurous men and women who want to do things and make things and grow and develop their skills and make money and create their own life free from government constraint and intrusiveness - and taxation? And who are willing to take the blows when they fail, as fail they must, sometimes? And for those who want to have the spare cash to support charities and causes you want - and not just those the government wants?
The reason Denmark is not my ideal is that men can never be Men, and women never Women - because the State remains their parent throughout life, while sucking out their lifeblood - just never enough to kill them. Permanent adolescence - or serfdom, as Hayek would term it. Might just as well be laboratory mice with great sex and free food. All needs met, except for the ones that matter most, and which differentiate us from animals.
I do like the Danes, but they can keep their risk-free, opportunity-free Mommy state. It's like life in a government mall: safe, sterile, spiritless, and never quite grown-up. Regressive, as the shrinks would say.
Europe has a feudal history. They have an ancient template for a kind of relationship between the individual and the State. Authority does best, and knows best. When they screw you - hey, that's life. Each year, you thank them for your bowl of porridge. If you're unhappy, you go on strike, like a passive-aggressive teen-ager. But don't expect anything of yourself, like to try something different.
It is bullsh-t. Those "authorities" are just sucking off your own teats, like piglets in a pig sty. What do they produce? What wealth do they create? What products? What services, other than those moved from one person to another? Excepting military defence. Because of love of power and self-love, government always becomes an unfaithful servant. Darn that ol' sinful human nature.
Uppity souls - they forget to stay in the servant's quarters where they belong. They forget their place. Think they are important - and worse, think they are smart. But what can they really do? (Think about it it, If you took away Ted Kennedy's or Joe Biden's or John Dean's trust fund, or Nacy Pelosi's or Jon Cary's husband, or Tony Blair's pension, how would they support themselves? They would starve.)
The average citizen knows far more about life in any country than their insulated leaders. I am certain of that, and even more so in Europe and in the EU, where government is even more of a "profession" - as is prostitution - than it is in the US.
America does not have that. We were founded on the principle of keeping the State off our backs. We took a lot of risks, and died willingly for that novel notion that placed the individual human spirit at the top of the pyramid. Correction - the individual human spirit as fed, inspired, and led by the spirit of God.
Theirs jes' ain't the red-blooded, well-armed, God fearin', spirited American Way that built this country that the whole world wants to come to. Sure, they want the money - but the legal immigrants mainly want freedom and risk: opportunity, not freebies. And, besides, whatever Robert Reich wants - I don't want it. Give me liberty, etc. I am near fed-up with the EuroWeenies being held up as role models. I prefer John Wayne and Gregory Peck to Mr. Reich. Well, duh.
We native Yankees refuse to be happy mice: that is not the bold spirit our ancestors wanted for us. Free men, free women, on our mentally-disordered psychotic horses, with guns, in a free land, on a grey January afternoon in New England. That is real America, or at least a big piece of it.
But this battle wearies me. No snow on the ground - I have been to church and have had a fine glass of Scotch whiskey with some cheese for lunch, and am ready to go out for an afternoon (horseback) ride now with the lovely Mrs., to enjoy our glorious free land. With my 20 ga. in the scabbard, in case we happen on a nice grouse cover.
One of these days, this wacky horse will kill me. He is fast, but he never watches where he is going. Great fun. Duck your head for low branches when he feels like a gallop, because the SOB only listens when he feels like it. Gotta love his ornery nature. He would not be a good Danish citizen. He lacks mouse genes. And I do not mean to equate the bold Viking Danes with mice.
