|
Create, Build, Lift Up
If you are one of those who think eternal bliss is assured by driving a planeload of fathers, mothers and children into a building at near sonic speed, let's face it; you are outside the gates of humanity. The world left you behind in A.D. 960, or thereabouts. Now, it's the height of political incorrectness to say that some tribes of people are advanced and others, not. But can we abandon the PC muzzle for now-just for now? I don't mind saying these things because they're true, and they have nothing go to do with race or IQ. The problem is societal.
One can imagine the management pickle for those who lead a tribe of backward souls who have lost a thousand years of progress. What do you do? What business bestseller on leadership do you read? Your options are very narrow. You can't mobilize such poor folk to make looms, let alone cars, let alone computers.
We know what some leaders do. They tell their people that rational thought and inquiry and human advancement are the work of Satan. In the late Dark Ages the same line of thinking existed. Windmills were very controversial. Their appearance in Northern Europe coincided with the new millennium--A.D. 1000--and foreshadowed the debated to come about thought, science and progress. "Still, it moves," said Galileo, referring to the earth's rotation around the sun, as he was imprisoned in 1633 by authorities who'd amassed power by, essentially, blocking people from reason.
There are short run and long run answers to these attacks on civilization. The short-run answer is to summon civilization's will to obliterate the perps and sear enough pain into their supporting nations' memories so those nations won't aid or abet the perps again. Ever. But the, long-run answer is to reach out to these poor folk, who pledge their allegiance to the perps. Never has there been a more pressing time to cast wide the seeds of democratic [just] capitalism and lead the poor and backward into the light.
We can do it. Let's pledge to practice democracy [justice] and capitalism with a new level of inspiration, courage, confidence and hard work. Let's do it with joy, and let the world see our smiles. Ours is the system that creates, builds and lifts up. On this point, be absolutely confident: Democratic [just] capitalism is the most moral system the world has seen or will see. But it is not perfect--and can never be--and that is the crack that villains from Stalin to Bin Laden have exploited. We must be quick to repair our own cracks first, with kindness and inclusion when we fall short, as we will.
How will this attack change America? Let's pray we don't accommodate it too much. I'll tell you how it will change me. I'm going to become more militant than ever about man's absolute right to practice freedom and capitalism and human advancement. The flipside is that I will use this page--for as long as Steve [Forbes] lets me have it--to tarnish anyone who stands in the way of these good things or who blackens freedom's name in a way that causes a Sudanese peasant to think his leaders are, after all, correct about freedom's evils.
I may be talking about you. Mistreat your employees or ransack their pensions with Ponzi schemes and I'll rip you a new one. Push porn or knowingly sell defective products and I'll punch you in the nose. Give freedom and capitalism a black eye and I'll blacken both of yours. I will never wink at you again. You, too, are an enemy of the civilized world.
Forbes Digital Tool
Additional comments by Wes Alexander
The most important thing you and I can do to protect civilization is to restore justice, freedom, and liberty to America. U.S. politicians are leading us away from these ideals.
It is not just, to take property from one and give it to another. Government does this every time it subsidizes an industry, farmer, private citizen, or foreign country.
Freedom is retarded every time government restricts peaceful trade with arbitrary labor laws, regulations, price supports, quotas, and tariffs.
Liberty is destroyed every time government bends the Constitution to justify offensive actions instead of defending equal protection and justice for all.
Unjust law breeds disrespect. It tends to perpetuate more injustice and demand for protection and favoritism. This expands government and has unintended consequences. It attracts people inclined to take advantage of injustice. Once law becomes perverted and powerful enough to do what the individual cannot do, unethical people naturally gravitate toward its unlawful usefulness.
Why should a thief risk life and limb using lethal force to obtain stolen property, when the law can be used instead? This type of theft is certainly safer and more likely to go unnoticed since it is legally sanctioned. Such an individual is unlikely to relinquish this acquired power willingly. Do not be surprised that the highest priority of our political leaders is to retain political power.
I repeat it again. The most important thing you and I can do to protect civilization is to restore justice, freedom, and liberty to America. Economic prosperity, security, and freedom will decline if we continue to accept political incompetence. These days will be remembered as the "golden age of prosperity, the time before America fell."
Liberty's light has flickered. Freedom and justice for all is the only way to keep it lit. We can and should extend our hand and ideals to ignorance and poverty. We do not have the right to make people accept us. We should use our example, and not our power, to lead the world toward ideals that enhance long, safe, peaceful lives. Freedom and free market principles do this.
Our power must only be used in defense of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. God please bless America and save us from ignorance at home and abroad.
|
