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collectivism Archive

Thursday

17

May 2012

2

COMMENTS

Obama Makes History

Written by , Posted in Culture & Society

There’s been lots of talk regarding the discovery that the White House website has appended pro-Obama propaganda to the official biography of numerous past Presidents. Included among the chatter has been well deserved and extremely funny mockery.

The consensus has been that this is another example of Obama’s narcissism. And while I largely consider him the most narcissistic president in our nation’s history (though I don’t profess to be a presidential historian, and have only personally lived under a few administrations), it isn’t my biggest takeaway from the story. In fact, it’s unlikely the President even had knowledge of the additions before they happened. At least, I can’t imagine a President being involved in such minutia, but I’ve also never occupied nor worked in the White House.

What concerns me is the continued parallels, this being yet another in a long line of examples, between the whole apparatus surrounding Obama – his campaign and followers – and the behavior of tyrants. A common feature of dictatorships, for instance, is the erosion of the line between the individual leader and the state, and even the nation. He is the state. He is the nation. The two cannot be separated. This is why you see the faces of people like Saddam Hussein or Hugo Chavez plastered all over the place.

The leader’s presence is everywhere, not just within the nation, but also its history. The leader is tied into the very fabric of the nation’s history, often times through out-and-out revisionism, but also in more subtle ways, such as through carefully crafted narratives, either embellished or outright falsified, whereby the leader’s story becomes an archetype for the social and cultural values of his people.

Obama, in his attitudes toward governance, his policy preferences and the disposition of his followers, resembles more the typical South American strongman than an American Chief Executive. I do not worry that Obama is going to become a dictator in any real sense of the word, but the willingness of a certain sect of the population, namely his most ardent followers, to not only so readily accept these attitudes but to gleefully propagate them through their own initiative is concerning. It is not entirely surprising, as they are the folks who already ideologically lean toward collectivism, but it nonetheless highlights a disturbing strain of political thought in this country, and ought to remind us that freedom is only ever a generation away from extinction.

Saturday

4

September 2010

0

COMMENTS

Smoke for the Motherland

Written by , Posted in Health Care, Welfare & Entitlements, Taxes

Excise taxes, where government taxes the sale of particular goods, are usually levied with the excuse that consumption of a good or engagement in a certain activity is harmful for individuals. If this were actually true, you’d expect government bureaucrats to be happy when activities hit by excise taxes decreased – not that government has any business trying to discourage such activities. But as this story from Russia shows, they just want the money.

Russia’s finance minister Alexei Kudrin urged citizens Wednesday to smoke and drink more to help lift tax revenues for spending on social services.

“If you smoke a pack of cigarettes, that means you are giving more to help solve social problems such as boosting demographics, developing other social services and upholding birth rates,” Kudrin said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

“People should understand: Those who drink, those who smoke are doing more to help the state,” he said.

As I recall, it didn’t turn out too well the last time Russia asked its citizens to prioritize the collective good above their own choices and freedoms.

Thursday

27

August 2009

1

COMMENTS

Culture Of Cowardice

Written by , Posted in Culture & Society

Clark Howard at CNN describes two ex-Best Buy employees who were fired for pursuing and capturing a shoplifter in one of their stores.

These two Best Buy employees tackled a shoplifter they saw busting out of their Denver, Colorado-area store with stolen electronics. They wrestled the suspect to the ground at great personal risk. The perpetrator pulled out a knife and cut a manager before ultimately escaping, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Bergstreser had been a three-year employee, while Trapp was on the job for less than a year. What did Best Buy do for these employees who showed such extreme loyalty? They fired them.

Clark is right to be incredulous, but I think he misses the mark when he primarily blames Best Buy for this outcome, and more generally faults “corporate America” for what he calls “the ‘not in my silo’ mentality.” He describes this mentality as the “times we wait for help to arrive when we’re the help we seek.”

Is this really something that originated in corporate America, or is it a natural consequence of the elevation of collective over individual responsibility? Clark scoffs when an acquaintance mentions liability as a possible reason for Best Buy’s stance. Yet in today’s sue-first-think-later culture – where any negative event is a fault of others for which they must pay – businesses can hardly be blamed for being hyper-cautious of any risk taking by those under their employ. If an employee had been stabbed to death by the thief, you can bet the deep pockets of Best Buy would have been the first place the family of the deceased would have reached for compensation. Even worse, if the criminal had suffered serious injury, a lawsuit would have been quickly forthcoming. After all, it’s the job of the police to apprehend criminals, right?

That’s certainly the kind of attitude perpetuated by the American political left. When average Americans go about defending their property and the nation’s borders because the federal government refuses to do so, they are not only labeled vigilantes, but slandered as racist, xenophobic nutjobs.

Crime and defense of property are not the only areas where individual responsibility has fallen by the wayside. The existence of private charity is seen by many as de facto proof of government failure. Taking care of people, after all, is a government responsibility first and a social one second, if at all; or so the collectivists insist.

Clark blames corporate America for being cowardly. But they have a responsibility to their shareholders to make a return on their investment, not to be brave. In other words, he misses the point. Corporations respond to social and economic cues; they don’t drive them. In a world where individual responsibility is shunned and even punished via civil lawsuits by the dominant collectivist culture, corporations will be forced to discourage actions like those of the two heroic Best Buy workers. Corporations are cowardly, but no more so than, and it is as a direct consequence of, our cowardly society which demands that only central authorities be allowed to solve life’s problems.