Our Civilization Deserves to Fail

Townhall.com ^ | July 15, 2017 | John Hawkins

[Bryanw92]

>>My civilization doesn’t deserve to fail. Is his the same as mine? Maybe he needs a spine an an attitude adjustment.

The only cure for Snowflakery is what our grandparents would have called “hard times”. More technology and prosperity will only make the Snowflakery worse. Hard times focuses the mind on what is important and it isn’t transgender rights.

[I want the USA back]

The author of this deserves the same scorn that I give to wacko leftists. Sorry, bud, but “America” doesn’t deserve to fail. And stop using the word “WE” implying that I am included in that - I didn’t give you permission to include me in your “WE.”

The fallacy is that there is one entity called “America” that acts as one person. Wrong. There are over 300 million persons in this country, and each one has his/her personal responsibility for his/her actions. Many of them deserve to fail.

Enough stupidity! do something constructive with your time!

[ROCKLOBSTER]

We got Al Qaeda and ISIS that way.

We got alkida thanks to Bill Clinton, by bringing in and supporting the mooja-hadeen in Bosnia (they've been around since the seventh century).

Obama and Old Crusty created ISIS by deposing or killing leadership in moslum counties during his "Arab Spring" (a continuation of Carter supporting the Iranian Iatolas, and GWB taking out Soddom.)

So who do you blame for the emergence of the Barbary Pirates?

I don't see any problem with holding a government accountable for allowing a cult of terrorists to develop.

[JayGalt]

Agreed. I reject “deserve to fail.”

Not only is it an irrelevant axis since no one with the power is sitting by the deserv-o-meter with a scythe desiding that the time to fail is now. The author ignores the good in our society to guilt trip and wallow. Easy enough to paint the picture of what is wrong but accomplishes little besides making the painter feel satisfied.

There is much that could & should be better about current times in America but much good remains, has been accomplished and will be accomplished. None will be accomplished by the act of excoriating. How many are inspired by a mind-numbing list of failures while ignoring success?

The article is particularly tone deaf at the end:
“We foolishly assume it will be this good forever even though we laugh at and impugn many of the ideas, attitudes and principles that were responsible for our success in the first place. America is not on track for a happy ending and as much as I hate to say it, we’re going to richly deserve the pain, misery and disaster our own actions are going to bring down on our heads one day.”

Does this resonate with how you, your family, you friends feel about America? Not with me or mine. This is the essay of someone who is discouraged and turning away, throwing a stone on the way out rather than lifting up and enabling by cherishing the truly brave and selfless, the resolute spirits around us.

Congress alone does not define us and though it will take time and is not a straight path we can restore the rule of law and Constitutionality in America. That is the path worth pursuing and chronicling not our “guilt”.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Alas, Brave New Babylon . . .

[DoodleBob]

HELL NO! And it ain't over now.

Really, why do so many have this grotesque, defeatist, narcissistic fantasy that it'll be THEIR generation that sees the Collapse, and there is nothing we can do to stop Thelma and Louise from going over the cliff?

While Reagan said freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction, he argued that it must be fought for, protected, and handed on to our children for them to do the same. He didn't throw in the towel. Neither did the people who fought back against CNN whey they tried to blackmail the gif poster.

By most accounts, at the time of the Revolution, 20% were Loyalists, 33-45% were Patriots, and the rest were ballast. If you replace Loyalist with statist, and Patriots with Deplorables, we are right where we started. AND YET...I see a future. As did everyone along the journey in the US. You gotta have faith, and a serious assessment of the situation. And a backbone.

As noted elsewhere, Liberals have made politics their religion...What they really want is liberal Sharia law, a secular theocracy....for them, politics is the means to secular salvation. The minimum wage, gender equality, nationalized health care, and global warming—whatever their practical virtues—are not just expedient policy prescriptions. They are essential aspects of the liberal fatwa...Question them and you are not just wrong—you are a heretic. THIS...is what'll bring down civilization?

It's also worth noting that safety in numbers is also at play. Moldylocks wrote of fear before heading out to Berkeley (where she got clocked) but she was comforted by the (alleged) numbers of equally-deranged secularists (who also got clocked).

I believe, in part, this is why Trump and his retinue keep using Twitter and rallies to remind we Deplorables that, indeed, there's more of us than them, and to not despair. Our steadfast and visible defense of all that is good and right is a partial antidote to this social virus. Everyone wants to win, and one can only hope that further winning will help turn these misguided souls to our side.

Today I stand tall. I am fearful that we may let this watershed moment in US history be wasted. But I am confident we won't.

Let us celebrate, fellow Deplorables. Let not our faces be long with #NeverTrumpism or CNN. We are on the ascent. Our President - a billionaire from Queens - is more like us than any other guy we've had in a LONG time. The future of our Nation - nay, civilization - where we'll always have 20% of the citizenry being chronic whiners, is bright again.

Bluto was right then, and today.

[NutsOnYew]

There are still a lot of good people in this country, but as a nation, we’ve become complacent, decadent and jaded.

Just because the decadent and jaded get the press coverage doesn't mean that describes the country. This writer might want to take note of whom the complacent elected President.

[Ransomed]

“In America the “poor” probably average fifty pounds overweight.”

In the US, the poor are the most likely to obese, something that hasn’t ever happened before in all of recorded history. Hard to imagine any sort of sustained civil unrest, at least while that is the case. Which was probably the point of it.

Supposedly the dumbest 10% of voters, the ones that vote one way and then another and can’t usually give a reason that follows any sort of logical explanation, are the ones that decide elections. Supposedly all campaign money is meant to sway the swing voters, at least after the primary process.

That’s something else I find amazing. That the dumbest 10% of eligible voters who manage to vote decide elections, whether or not a pub or dem wins. It could be a good result, or a bad one, but in any case the idiots decided based on who was able to sway them that cycle and not any guiding political philosophy, whether of the left or right.

Freegards

[JayGalt]

While the MSM pushes that meme the International database does not support it.

“The Voter Turnout Database is the best resource for a wide array of statistics on voter turnout from around the world. It contains the most comprehensive global collection of voter turnout statistics from presidential and parliamentary elections since 1945.
Always growing, the database also includes European Parliament elections, as presented by country using both the number of registered voters and voting age population as indicators, and in some cases the data includes statistics on spoilt ballot rate. The easy-to-use database allows you to search for data by country or field, and even download all the data from the database in one file.”

http://www.idea.int/data-tools/question-countries-view/521/295/ctr

2016 68.29 %
2014 42.50 %
2012 64.44 %
2010 48.59 %
2008 64.36 %
2006 47.52 %
2004 68.75 %
2002 45.31 %
2000 63.76 %
1998 51.55 %
1996 65.97 %

[DoodleBob]

[cymbeline]

“Pretty hard to argue against this essay.”

No, parts will fail. Parts are always failing. Complainers are always complaining. Here in America complaining is not illegal.

[Alberta's Child]

That is a post for the ages. Bump for later.

[Ransomed]

I am skeptical of the presidential elections there if that is what they are because some of those numbers seem very inflated by any other data I have seen on US presidential elections, and very very inflated for congressional elections in off years. For instance they have 2004 being 12% higher than any other place I have ever seen. Also they have 1968 having 89% turnout? That’s 30% or so higher than any other place I have seen.

FReegards

[P.O.E.]

Depends on the definition of “America”.

The “America” that libs tout (diversity, redistribution, etc.) is all based on phony promises.

The “America” I grew up learning about is based on liberty, and the great sacrifices, thoughts and principles of the founders.

The former is destined to either shrivel, collapse, whatever. The latter shall only endure if we fight to defend it.

[Sirius Lee]

No, our civilization does not deserve to fall. Rather we need to be civilized again.
Western Civ is great. A lot more people should try it.

[Bryanw92]

>>where we’ll always have 20% of the citizenry being chronic whiners

They aren’t just chronic whiners. They are “activists”. They are willing to take their whining to the streets and to get concessions from the people in power. The police won’t clear a street blocked by these whiner-activists, but some brave citizen will push through with his truck. But if he hurts one in the process (as he should!), the full force of the law will come down on him and the rest of us will do nothing. Would we block the courthouse so the judge can’t enter to try this brave citizen? No. We’re too busy working so we can have a nice vacation or a new boat or an early retirement.

You see, we are not activists. But, the Founders were.

We are in a war of ideologies today, not a war for independence. They see themselves as the Founders of a “Great New Utopian Progressive Paradise”. They ARE in a war for independence, at least they believe they are and beliefs are the source of motivations.

We are the Tories trying to defend a way of life that does not work as well in the Information Age as it did in the Industrial Age.

The overused comparison to the American Revolution does not apply today. You use a Bluto meme to illustrate your point, but where is YOUR Deathmobile and bag of marbles to wreck one of their protest marches? Are you taking the torch to your vehicle this weekend to armor it up?

[JayGalt]

Skepticism is always good.

Looking over their site I see little to fault. The methodology is defined at the bottom of this page.
http://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/voter-turnout

They partner with ACE, the UN, Bridges on providing information about the state of elections and Democracy, ie transparency.

Constitutionnet.org considers them positively http://www.constitutionnet.org/event/international-idea-intensive-fellowship-constitution-makers

Perhaps for their own reasons the MSM has again been snowing us for their masters’ purposes to demoralize and fragment our resolve?

They have a Political Finance database as well.
The IDEA can be directly accessed at:
http://www.idea.int/political-finance/index.cfm

[JayGalt]

By most accounts, at the time of the Revolution, 20% were Loyalists, 33-45% were Patriots, and the rest were ballast. If you replace Loyalist with statist, and Patriots with Deplorables, we are right where we started. AND YET...I see a future. As did everyone along the journey in the US. You gotta have faith, and a serious assessment of the situation. And a backbone.

Great points, really the meat of the matter!

[Ransomed]

I don’t know man, it seem like a pretty huge data outlier. Just search around to different places and compare.

But you are right about skepticism in general and I’m not dismissing any possibility. So lets ask ourselves what reasons would there be for a mass conspiracy effort to hide voter apathy by falsifying voter turnout numbers or what reasons would there be to hide voter participation by falsifying voter turnout numbers?

In my gut I am thinking the simplest solution is that the folks who care about politics and participate have a tendency to simply over estimate the number of people who care as much as they do. I suspect there is a large number of folks who simply have no political philosophy they can rationally articulate.

FReegards

[Bonemaker]

I agree 100%. FAR too many evil/stupid people. FAR too many rules, regulations and laws that annually ensnare and tarnish thousands of hapless innocent people. Crushing taxes and fees. Government at all levels corrupt, over controlling incompetent and disrespectful. Rot and corrosion of all traditions and distinctly American history and cultural norms...queer marriage, historical shrine/statue/history destruction and removal, destruction of education at all levels, destruction of health care and so much more. Continuous and relentless pressure for all of the above. Layer on that sprawling dependent crime ridden underclasses.In the pipeline are millions of mis-educated youth and an endless stream of ill fit and hostile immigrants. Pretty bleak. Slow motion train wreck.Don’t know whether Trump or anyone can fix or whether it is even fixable.