Opus 2014-233: Discernment Watch: Elements of the Good Life, part 2 of 2

It isn’t enough to be smart or have a good imagination.

Did the Chinese invent the compass, gunpowder, paper, printing, etc.?  Yes.  But consider.  They did not use the compass for navigation.  They used it to orient their buildings in a way that was right for their religious beliefs.  Did they invent gunpowder?  Yes, but consider.  They did not make the transition to firearms.  They used them mainly for fireworks.  It wasn’t printing that rocked the world it was movable type.  I even read once that the an archeologist found a sample of aluminum in a Chinese grave but the discovery died with the discoverer. 

There are many reasons why Western culture ended up conquering the world.  We have come up with a lot of inventions.  We have been creative.  So have others.  What has made us dominant is a social system that has encouraged application of new ideas, a recognition of personal property and the rule of law.  We have had an economic system that has allowed profit to stimulate the distribution of the good things of life.  It was the version of capitalism based on a free market and free enterprise.  What we have morphing today is a form a socialism called fascism that depends on the partnership of big business and government.  We call it crony capitalism and it is beginning to choke the economic machine that made American the land of fulfilled dreams.

Part of that dream still exists.  It is stronger than anywhere else in the world.  That is why people are still trying to sneak into our country.  They want a piece of the pie.  Or they come from cultures and religions that hate us because we are moving forward.  They want to fix our clock, by breaking it.

Don’t let the Progressives (Socialists, communists, liberals, elitests, Rhinos) break our system.  Don’t let the Muslims destroy our system.  Don’t let sloth make it rust.

You may live long enough to feel the pain.

homo unius libri