We, the People...When did you last say or think to yourself, "I am an American"? Probably not for a while, if ever. As a mental exercise, you might try saying it right now. Maybe even out loud. If you find yourself disinterested consider the Eerie canal, and the Panama Canal. Think of the trans-continental railroad, the interstate highway system, and men's footprints on the moon. Still not in the spirit of '76? Remember the Alamo, and remember Pearl Harbor. Bunker Hill, Iwo Jima, and Hamburger Hill. Still feeling jaded? Then light up a good five-cent cigar and order a nickel cup of coffee. Let the world take care of itself for a few minutes while you admire the cigar smoke swirling itself into fantastical shapes, and consider: Your chair, your cigar, and that steaming cup of Joe were all bought with your father's blood, your grandfather's, and the blood all those who came before you. They poured their lives into white hot furnaces that spewed molten steel. They fought through fetid swamps, desert wastes, and remote mountain passes nobody had heard of before, or has since. They worked with hard, greasy hands, they screamed their battle cry and fell, and they did none of it for themselves. Why do we humans work and fight and die? So our children will have a fair chance at something better. A Very, Very, Brief History of the WorldIn the known history of the world no democracy--more correctly: republic--has lasted for much more than 250 years. Terms. "Republic" has nothing to do the Republican party. Democracy: Everybody votes on everything, the classic "one man, one vote." For a group much larger than a village, pure democracy is cumbersome. Republicanism: Representative democracy. The group elects a representative, and the representative votes the will of the group.
The Greek city-states of around 500 B.C., and the Romans of about the same time, formed republics--neither was ever a pure democracy. Both republics arose out of resistance to rule by a landed aristocracy. But both fell when that same aristocracy allied itself with some conquering king or Caesar. Other republics have appeared briefly. Often city-states, sometimes as small as a town. Some sputtered out quickly, some held on for a while, but none lasted much beyond that quarter-century mark. Always authority returned to the caste system that has defined nearly all of man's history. Except for such small blips in history, mankind has always existed under a caste system. Sometimes called elitism, sometimes feudalism, the caste system has many names for the same thing. The ruling class, too, has many names. Sometimes addressed as your majesty, sometimes as comrade. Sometimes called, as our Founders named them, royalists, which is probably the most descriptive term. The Royalists"Royalist" is a good term because it says much with little. First, of course, it says there should be a king. ------------------------------------------ draft Are We Not Men!In every human being there are two forces, two dynamics, at work. Or there may be many, but two in particular. dynamic: The nature or method of an interaction, or of interacting. Especially implying power and ability. One dynamic wants to stride forth, cry out, "I am that I am," and take on all comers, bare hands, no holds barred. The other dynamic wants to report, and be recognized as having done the right thing. Recognized, and preferably admired. ------------------------------------------ draft But something happened. 1776 happened. ------------------------------------------ draft Economists love the word "complex," and its sister word, "complicated." But the truth is, individual events are never complicated. Something either happens or it doesn't, and that's the end of it. Yes or no, happens or doesn't, there isn't any maybe. Still, it's true that lots of things happen, and one event might affect another. Then you can make a case for complicated, if you want to look at things in a complicated way. So now the question becomes, "How complicated do you want to make it?" One answer is, "Whatever will keep the customers coming back for more." You, my neighbor, own a grocery store. That's lucky for me because times are tough and I'm suddenly out of a job. So you give me a bag of groceries. A simple act of humanity, the kind of thing that happens all the time. Thanks! A simple act, but really a little too simple for our purpose here. So instead of giving me a bag of groceries you give me $100. Now, with $100 in my pocket, I can choose my own groceries, and maybe even include a small toy for the kids. Things are still pretty simple, but now something has happened at your grocery store. Sales are good, but profits are down. Of course this is because your cash register rings up a sale to me, but the money I pay you with was yours in the first place. Your own money is going around in a circle, but when it went through the cash register your books started to look funny. Let's take things a bit further. You don't give me $100, you give me $1,000. I'm still buying groceries from you, so your cash register sales are still good. But your profits are still down because I'm paying you--to call it that--with your own money. Sadly, I also find my car in need of repair. I can't keep looking for work without a car so I have the repair made. I pay the mechanic with the money you gave me, of course, since I'm still out of work. The mechanic buys groceries at your store too. So now the mechanic, like me, is paying you with your own money. Your sales at the cash register are still good, but profits are in a nose dive. Your accountant is worried. Let's take your generosity a step further. You don't give me $1,000, you give me $5,000. Good thing, because I'm OK taking showers without hot water, but I can't ask that of my wife and kids. The plumber soon sets things right. As I'm sure you've already guessed, the plumber buys groceries at your store too. So now he too is paying you with your own money. You can see where this is going. At some point half the people in town will be paying you with your own money. Your sales are as good as they ever were, but your profits are below zero. By now your accountant is calling you frantically every 30 minutes. He's also trying to think of something to tell the wholesalers you haven't paid because you're giving your groceries away. At the same time, the unpaid wholesalers are trying to think of something to tell the unpaid packing plants, and the unpaid packing plants are trying to come up with a story for the farmers, also unpaid. While all of them are trying to explain to the truck driver how he's supposed to buy fuel for his truck when nobody is paying him. This is taking things to the extreme, of course, almost to the point of fiction. It doesn't really happen that way...right? Maybe right, maybe not so right. Let's keep looking. Maybe this is the tip of an iceberg. Part 2 – USofStupid.us – | 
