I had someone leave the following in comments recently.
When leftist ideology reigns, there is no point in striving or failing. If you succeed, the fruits of your labor will be taken from you and given to those who don't care to strive for anything beyond playing the lottery and watching American Idol and believing that anybody who has wealth must have gotten it by nefarious means. This is what produces countries like North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe. Equality is celebrated and encouraged until everyone but those at the top of government have become equally miserable.
When conservatism reigns, people are left alone to either succeed or fail on their own in freedom. If you don't like the fail part, then you don't understand the value of failure. Ray Kroc was nothing more than a mediocre paper cup salesman until he discovered and bought the restaurant from the McDonald brothers. Walt Disney failed over and over to find the right people to financially back his ideas for most of his life. Edison tried a thousand different ways to create a light bulb before he found the right design. The common denominator to success in this country has always been freedom and a rule of law that protects individual freedom.
Both of these would be great examples of what I mean when I speak of fantasy management. Ray Kroc, for example, did far more than sell paper cups. He was a jazz pianist, worked at a radio station, handled room and board in the restaurant business, and sold milk shake mixers. Nothing more than a mediocre paper cup salesman? I think not. He had vision and it was through his milk shake mixer sales that he got in contact with the McDonald brothers and saw how much bigger they could be. He purchased McDonald's in 1961. What did our country look like in 1961?
In 1961, the tax rate for high income earners was 91 percent. Congress passed Medicare a few years later. Social Security, at that point, was nearly 30 years old. So, with two gigantic socialist programs in place and very high taxes, Kroc still managed to wildly succeed and build an empire across the world. No one curtailed his freedom and, like Walt Disney, he prospered in the our system of welfare capitalism. That makes the assertion above is one giant pile of lying shit.
Further, there is not a single idea with which I agree in the first paragraph and I am a Democrat. I'm more moderate than some folks I know on the left but I have no problem with being called a liberal either. Every liberal I know works 2-3 jobs and has no time to play the lottery nor watch American Idol. They are more interested in figuring out how to pay for health care and educate their children. Interestingly, these same liberals don't complain about the "fruits of their labor" being taken away as they realize that their tax money supports the infrastructure of our society.
Oh, and they also don't "value equality above all else." That's code for at least two of Ferguson's four areas of denial and avoidance regarding racial issues. Suddenly, equality is bad as a word as "liberal" or "progressive." Super...
As I have stated previously on this blog, every liberal I know is employed and all the unemployed people I know are conservative. These conservatives actually do play the lottery, watch American Idol, spend hours a day watching and listening to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, post on right wing blogs or have their own right wing blog, and complain that their lot in life is due to liberals and progressives.
It's ALWAYS the fault of liberals. The first paragraph above is a fine example of this hypocrisy. You can't complain that an entire swath of our culture plays the victim card too much and then....play the victim car by blaming that same group. Honestly, the supply of irony is abundant. The descriptions, in addition to being devoid of all fact, above are accurate but in the reverse. Like the wild eyed idealists on the left in the 60s, the wild eyed idealists on the right today continually blame someone else for their problems in the most overgeneralized ways imaginable.
I make it a point to teach my kids to learn from their failures and revel in them. Out of failure, comes immeasurable reflection and self actualization which invariably leads to success. "When one door is closed, another one is open" is what my grandmother used to say.
My DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST grandmother, b to the w!
14 comments:
That was Kevin Baker's QOTD yesterday. Sounds like someone misses markadelphia's posting over there and is trying to goad him back.
Discussions of failure in this comment about liberalism and conservatism fail to address the outcome of that failure. If this individual is willing to let people live on the street, beg for food through mutilating themselves and their children, bleed to death in public, then I suggest they might find living in a third world country a thoroughly invigorating conservative's dream because without the programs that have been devised to keep this from happening in our country, that is where we are heading.
The bottom line question is "What kind of society do we want to create and live in?" Is it the one that we see in places like the Middle East and southeast Asia (not the places we see in movies, but the real places) or is it in places where the people are well-educated and healthy because they have enough food and medical care? The difference between the two is money and people living up to their responsibilities as members of that society to contribute money for the benefit of all.
A lot of people in this country are electing to abstain from their responsibilities in favor of greed in the guise of conservatism. I seriously wonder if these people sympathize with George Bailey or with Old Man Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life". If they really feel good about George Bailey and see some aspect of that character in their own personalities, then they need to re-evaluate their values and support of the Old Man Potter's of this world which include the wealthy and the puppets (like Scott Walker) that the wealthy install through their money.
I don't know what country you are talking about, but the person said "when leftist ideology reigns"; are you contending that 1961 US of A was a place dominated by leftist ideology? Are you equating even "welfare capitalism" with leftist ideology? Funny, but I'd think you have to be a right-wing loon to make that assertion.
It's ALWAYS the fault of liberals.
Funny, but don't you ALWAYS blame conservatives? This wouldn't be another of those odd coincidences where what you complain about most bitterly you engage in yourself so freely?
By the way, since you highlight the 91% marginal tax rate (and I know that sends a tingle up all of your left legs), let me remind you that the percent of national wealth controlled by the top 10% then was almost exactly what is it today. Further, the Federal govt has collected on average 18% of GDP in taxes throughout the post WWII era. That's right - even when rates were astronomical (and face it, at 91% you really can't get much higher) you didn't get more money to spend.
There is only one way we are going to succeed in building a sustainable future - the govt must shrink to what we can afford - as shown by history. Or are you going to admit that history doesn't matter, that ANY aspect of reality doesn't matter - that your fucking moralist fantasies must be met?
If your conscience dictates that every sign of human misery must be ameliorated - then by all means, deprive yourself of every last luxury, even necessities until your fucking piety is satiated. Absolutely nothing is stopping you from doing this right fucking now; so by all means - put up or shut up (or at least be honest and admit - you want OTHER PEOPLEs money spent to salve YOUR consciences).
"One thing I do know is that President Obama's approval ratings are going to go up now that he is unleashing the Tomahawks."
You could write a book on what you don't know, Nostradumbass.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history
Rasmussen polls have officially been proven to be heavily biased and completely wrong.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html
http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/gallup-daily-obama-job-approval.aspx
http://dailynewspulse.com/obamas-approval-rating-is-shaky-judging-his-every-move/2213835/
Rasmussen polls are unreliable as the way that they do their polling has several inherent flaws in it.
http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2010/Senate/Maps/Sep20-s.html#2
As to President Obama ratings, my comment was clearly meant as one of derision not of prognostication.
Arguments against "libruls" would carry more if factual information was used. Ray Kroc was not a "paper cup salesman." Kroc sold malted milk mixers. And that was how he met the McDonald brothers. They ordered so many for their one location, Kroc had to find out for himself what all the fuss was about.
As for the myth of anyone being "self-made," if they've ever sat in a classroom at any time of their life they are not "self-made" no matter what they might accomplish later in life.
It's true Kroc would make millions and millions of dollars owning the McDonalds brand, but two brothers made their hamburgers, fries and shakes so popular they needed a dozen malted milk mixers at a time and they bought them from a fellow who traveled a sales route.
As for the myth of anyone being "self-made," if they've ever sat in a classroom at any time of their life they are not "self-made" no matter what they might accomplish later in life.
Nothing like swapping one myth for another, eh?
Does everyone have to self-parody their own beliefs in order to point out the flaws in someone elses?
So true Mark. That's why you never hear about dropouts like:
Einstein
Edison
The Wright Brothers
Henry Ford
George Harrison
Imagine what they could have become if they'd stayed in school!
Last time I checked, juris, public education is not a myth. Neither are parents. Noodleman is correct. No one is self made and the myth of the rugged individualist is really silly when you think about it. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, the people that fall for it clearly have massive amounts of control issues as well as insecurity.
Anon, nice list but you forget that they were all educated at a time when schools were "better" according to the right, correct? So why did they drop out? Could it be that they couldn't handle the rigidity and the lack of attention to what we now call multiple intelligences?
Last time I checked, juris, public education is not a myth.
I wasn't suggesting it was - nor was the person I was replying to specific about public (vice private) education - he just said "classroom". Funny how you took it that way. Though doing do so does pretty much prove my second point.
Better education? Must've been much better compared to what you teach, since the list includes elementary school dropouts.
Of course, if you are saying that your classroom modus operendi is "rigidity and lack of attention", perhaps you are correct.
And perhaps you should pick a different career
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