How the Hell has it Come to This?

AMY MCMANUS' SITE
Watching the news anymore is unadulterated chastisement. Why do I allow myself to be punished with bombardments such as our tax dollars promoting pornography, a shadow government of forty-plus members (and counting) hiding behind the equally dubious term “czar,” concerned citizens being called “extremists,” and advisors to our President claiming that our economic woes are over because Google searches for “economic depression” have gone down?
Add into the mix the blasted commercials that, despite my most valiant efforts, have been cemented to memory. Better. New. Improved. Convenient. Look younger, stronger, sexier. Buy now, pay later. A pill, cream, lotion, spray for every miniscule discomfort.
Are these the things that now define the United States?
I think therefore I consume. I consume, therefore I am in need. I am in need, therefore someone else should take care of me.
Our country is, indeed, going to Hell in a hand-basket.
I look at my children and wonder what kind of future they will have, more importantly, what kind of choices they will have in determining their future, and I wonder how on earth things have gotten so utterly out of control.
We hear about FDR—yeah, that’s when it all started. That damned New Deal.
Really?
How about further back? Wilson? Teddy Roosevelt?
Not so much.
Since the inception of this nation, man has been pulled into the direction of a more progressive republic. Hamilton feared anarchy and promoted a strong federal government, Jefferson feared tyranny and promoted decentralization. Both concepts were essentially embraced by the Constitution with the hopes of providing necessary equilibrium, and both concepts have continually been battling against each other these last two centuries.
Mankind has always argued with itself. It has also continually fought its baser desires—lust, rage, dishonesty. What is different now is that our politicians have become both the anarchists (creating laws but not following them, ignoring their judges/constituents) and the tyrants (think Salary Czar and Federal Reserve Chairman). With capitalism and technological advances beyond our imagination, the worst of these desires, sloth, has married another devil, arrogance. Seeming to work separately and pretending to abhor each other, they conspire together to devise distinct and detailed mechanisms to “transform America.”
Laziness is, unfortunately, inherent. We overcome this instinct by the fact that we are hungry and thirsty and cold. Therefore, moved by our distress, we follow the urgings of our God-given intellect and do something amazing.
We work.
We dig ditches. We design buildings. We write and paint and run cash registers and take care of our children.
Then, moved by God-given compassion, we find ourselves assisting others. Assisting those who perhaps are not as driven, not as emotionally well adjusted, not as energetic. All the while surpassing our own dreams of what we thought we were capable of because we find that the sense of achievement, that sigh at the end of the day, rejuvenates us in such a way that work becomes a part of who we are, not just something we do.
There are those producers who allow an ugliness to creep in, a prickling sentiment that they are better than their neighbors. Well-educated. More refined. Ambitious. These producers, these people who once regarded work as a means to benefit the self (and the self’s family), become convinced that it is unjust that they have succeeded. Guilt—not the sort of true shame that comes from doing something wrong but a false humility brought about by fellow elitists and entertainers—becomes the impetus that leads them to believe that the power they have attained (honestly or deceptively), must be used to help their fellow man.
They then enjoin themselves to the political class and embark on a seemingly altruistic plan: to force fellow workers to dig ditches, design buildings, write, paint and run cash registers for the sole purpose of helping said fellow humans.
But soon the satisfied pleasure attained through the non-work of these former producers becomes a euphoric drunkenness that must be sated on deeper, more sinister levels.
Fueled by consumerism, those who are subjected to the political class begin to confuse need with want. When those wants are not fulfilled this group of subjects feel helpless. Those who have finally been helped end up becoming dependent.
And the Patricians, their ability to generate an item of worth long forgotten, toss aside all veneers of law, faith, and common sense to embark on turning the Plebeians into slaves.
For it is in slavery that the politician’s own, newfound laziness and ubiquitous arrogance find the fruition of power.
These individuals of power, these limbs on a rotting tree of oligarchy, are entrenched not only in our government (how many millionaires does it take to not read a bill?), but in our churches (social justice=ministerial laziness), our schools (2+2=5), and our media (Obama is “above the world—sort of God”).
And we, the “still-producing,” are frozen where we stand in our homes and workplaces because we’re afraid to speak our mind.
Racists! Nutjobs!
Abraham Lincoln, who saw the best and the worst in the American citizen, put it this way:

"Beavers build houses; but they build them in nowise differently, or better now, than they did, five thousand years ago. Ants, and honey-bees, provide food for winter; but just in the same way they did, when Solomon referred the sluggard to them as patterns of prudence. Man is not the only animal who labors; but he is the only one who improves his workmanship."

Nothing the government does “improves workmanship.” Our leaders are most certainly not interested in improving our lives. Their vision is simple: retain their own power through the enslavement of the pseudo-citizen.
And so here we are.
Rome may not be burning, but the sparks are flying, the coals are smoldering, and soon we may well fall.
Unless the producers show some testicular moxy and say enough is enough.


Amy McManus
amycmcmanus@google.net
Hornell, NY