Somewhere along the line a significant portion of our proud American populace got the wrong impression of what makes America great and what led us to becoming the world’s most powerful nation, and desirable destination. The wrong-headed philosophy is summarized in the abbreviated title to
Hillary Clinton‘s 1996 book, “It Take’s a Village: And other Lessons Our Children Teach Us.” “It take’s a village” thinking has grown into what we see today from President Obama and Democrats everywhere. It’s the belief that if we are going to go forward we must all do so together. And I’m here standing shoulder to shoulder with John Adams, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and many other great leaders from our past saying such thinking is crap. At best, such thinking is misguided. And at worst such thinking is highly destructive.
According to our current Secretary of State, her book’s title derives from an old African saying. It’s full statement being: “It takes a village to raise a child.” Being a life long Democrat it’s not the least bit surprising that Mrs. Clinton would believe such a philosophy. The actual fact is it takes a family and whenever possible two parents.
But the mentality which now infects everything pursued by Barrack Obama
started back in the 1960s with the advent and temporary popularity of communal living. The idea, championed by the hippies and drug culture, was that you could live together in a small community and collectively share food, water, living space, and philosophy. To determine the wisdom of such thinking I would simply tell you to ask yourself, how many of those 60s and 70s commune’s flourish today?. How many exist?
I’ll admit it’s an attractive philosophy that’s very tempting to embrace. It promises security, and friendship, and a sense of one-ness with others. All of which is good. Right? The problem is, like the philosophy espoused by
Karl Marx
Karl Marx it doesn’t work. It’s a lie to think that we can all live equally.
President Obama said repeatedly in his 2008 election campaign that he wanted to fundamentally change America. I have no doubt he wants to do exactly that. But here is what must be understood. You must understand what America is and what the former Illinois Senator wants to change it from. You must understand from whence we came.
On the subject of security and comfort as promised by the “It Takes a Village” philosophy Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety.”
The great statesman Patrick Henry correctly noted “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.”
Restrain the people? The men who believed in Liberty and founded this country would never stand for such a thing. Over the course of more than 200 plus years our Government has continued to plague its people with increasingly more laws, rules, regulations and restrictions all in the name of need or necessity forgetting the words uttered by
William Pitt
William Pitt on the floor of the House of Commons in 1783 “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.”
Sadly I know that too many look back on the words and writings of 18th Century heroes as quaint, but impractical for today’s living. In their minds the collective is far superior than the individual. Twenty years ago Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya observed in an issue of The New Republic:
Taken individually, in short, everyone is not good. Perhaps this is true, but then how did all these scoundrels manage to constitute a good people? The answer is that “the people” is not “constituted of.” According to [collectivists] “the people” is a living organism, not a “mere mechanical conglomeration of disparate individuals.” This, of course, is the old, inevitable trick of totalitarian thinking: “the people” is posited as unified and whole in its multiplicity. It is a sphere, a swarm, an anthill, a beehive, a body. And a body should strive for perfection; everything in it should be smooth, sleek, and harmonious. Every organ should have its place and its function: the heart and brain are more important than the nails and the hair, and so on. If your eye tempts you, then tear it out and throw it away; cut off sickly members, curb those limbs that will not obey, and fortify your spirit with abstinence and prayer.
Hungarian immigrant Professor Tibor R. Machan summarized the “It Take’s a Village” philosophy in a 1993 essay called “The Fear of Individualism”. He referred to such thinkers as “collectivists”:
“Members of society do have different roles; the economists speak convincingly of the benefits of the division of labor. The errors of the collectivists are (1) their presumption that they know better than the individuals involved which members of society are less important, and (2) they have the right to eliminate those members. But individuals are ends in themselves, not animals to be sacrificed on the altar of the collectivist state.”
Respecting individual capabilities, including the ability to fail, is the only way the United State‘s came to its great position of power and leadership in the world today. Do we really want to disrespect each and every individual by claiming “we know better”? George Orwell‘s “Animal Farm” captures THAT belief when the lead pig states, “Some are more equal than others.” With Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, and Obama…they’re the pigs.
Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.
M Schuett blah blah blah 