Kenders' Musings

This country, the United States of America, was founded on the rule of Law. Man's Law, ordained by Our Creator that all men are created free and equal and are imbued with the God Given Rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Somewhere along the way this ideal got all cocked up. The gears got gummed up with over-thinking, you see, when someone decided that "created equal" actually meant "equal, regardless".
Regardless of circumstances.
Regardless of ability.
Regardless of character.
Regardless of ambition.
Regardless.

Once, when this country was young, and greatness blew upon the winds, a man could rise from poverty and obscurity, relying on his intelligence and drive, ambition and luck, creating the opportunities and capitalizing on the events around him to rise above his fellow man and achieve greatness.

Sometimes these men had this greatness thrust upon them, and they rose to the challenge to make a mark on history and changed the world. George Washington and Abe Lincoln spring to mind.

Others took the opportunity of living in a great and free country to pursue their dreams, taking the ideal of "The American Way" completely to heart and set out to change the world while seeking their fortune, and in the process changed the face of humanity and secured for themselves and their descendents a prosperity that would almost assuredly secure their well being for untold generations to come. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford fall into this catagory.

But as I said, something happened along the way that messed things up.

We succeeded.

We showed the world that Free Men could create a country of amazing prosperity and security, rising to heights of personal success that is almost mythical in proportion. A man born in a log cabin, teaching himself to read by firelight becomes the President of a great country, freeing an enslaved people and holding together a country that was, at the time, a fragile collection of states with vastly different ideas on the treatment of it's inhabitants, only to be cut down in his prime by an assassin.

Another man rises from the dawn of the industrial age with an idea that we can each own a automobile that will allow us more freedom to travel, making it common for people to cover the vast distances of this huge country, equalizing the executive of the company with the mansion on Nob Hill with the factory worker living in the clapboard house, who both now have the ability to go with a freedom and speed unseen before we had cars made on assembly lines.

But it is this prosperity that has fooled so many people. We have made it look so easy. Millions do it. We have more than 1 car for every person in the country, and home ownership is a standard of our society. You live where, and how, you choose to and can afford to do so. Some people choose a smaller house and a better car. Some people choose a cheaper car and a bigger house. Some can afford both, some neither, but all have the same opportunity to get exactly what it is they want, within boundries.

And it is the boundries that have caused the problems we see today. It is these naturally occuring boundries, attributable to intelligence, ambition and, yes, even a quality as nebulous as luck that have led to the disparity of society, not only here in the U.S. but around the world.

Human nature is a funny thing. Take, for instance, over population. In societies that population is a problem, most notably "Third World" countries, under-developed resources, coupled with an astounding birthrate, create an ever increasing strain on survival resources, such as food and water. This leads to a higher mortality rate, which causes the human animal to procreate at a faster and more furious rate as it fears for its extinction and attempts to keep this from happenening. (never mind the fact that in poor societies with a lack of work and food there isn't much else to do except try to find food and procreate)

Even here in the U.S. we see this phenomenon, albeit on a smaller scale, as most people in the U.S., especially American citizens, typically keep the number of their offspring to a number they can afford to feed and clothe. People that immigrate from the aformentioned "Third World" countries still seem to breed like, well, rabbits.

As I said, this is where our problem lies.

We have worked hard for this standard of living, and we have sacrificed much, but the rewards of that sacrifice far outweigh the costs. We treat the world as equals, seeing the possibility of greatness in all people, explaining to them that they too can have this freedom, this quality of life, but that with it comes a price, as nothing is free.

That price is hard work and personal responsibility.

Along with the freedom to succeed in mythical proportions comes the possibility to fail in legendary fashion.

And that possibility of failure is where people have forgotten that all important phrase "created equal".

To have the freedom to succeed, there must be the possibility of failure, and the higher one can fly the lower one can fall.

This is the greatness of The American Way. It is also the one thing that scares people the most. Many people, most notably europeans and the american left, see this disparity and say "that's not fair", and "why should he have more and he have less when there is enough for everyone?"

The short answer is this; "It's the natural order of things."

To a group that is famous for worshipping the "natural order" and defending nature from the onslaught of man, the people that espouse a socialist viewpoint go against the very nature of man the animal. In the wild it is the fastest cat that eats first and eats best, and the biggest dog that gets the choicest part of the kill.

It's the natural order of things.

So it should be in the human order of things too.

Of course, we have something many animals lack, and that is compassion. We try not to let our fellow humans starve to death or die in the streets of cold, but compassion only goes so far. Laziness should be it's own reward. So should hard work. If I catch dinnner while you sit in the shade and watch me get winded running across the veldt and expect to sit beside me and eat you had better expect that you will get second pick, at best, and not without getting growled at and maybe snapped at a few times. Especially if you are sitting there because you are lazy.

In nature an animal gets what they earn, and earns the right to keep what they get only by fighting for it. Can we expect any less from the human animal?