The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

You Can View The Uncertainty With Trepidation, Or As An Opportunity

Posted on | December 31, 2011 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Insty links Sandbrook at the Daily Mail going all doom and gloom. The situation for 2012 recalls the angst of 1932, with thuggish leaders aplenty today to pick up where fascism of old left off. But Proof Positive has a quote that cuts to the chase:

“Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves – regret for the past and fear of the future.”
-Fulton Oursler

The Daily Mail article is quite Euro-centric in its gloom. But it seems that is dying today are socialist notions. The Austrian School is winning the argument of history, as power in the hands of the few is turning up little but debt.

The big question for 2012 is whether technology can prevent a repeat of a collapse into fascism, as in 1932, and a vast war. I’ll boldly predict that technology drives the problem the other way. People communicate enough to realize that the social welfare state is the biggest clay-footed idol since Nebuchadnezzar. The tricky question is how you maneuver out from under the idol before it topples and crushes you, i.e. what is the transition plan toward liberty.

Sure, there will continue to be wars. And those wars will seem intense, if you’re the one wearing the gore that used to be someone. But it is not clear how, in the Information Age, anyone can afford or sustain a WWII-style conflict.

This is a very U.S.-centric response to a Europe-centric post. The message is not “Don’t worry, be happy”. Rather, “Don’t worry, be busy”.

Update: linked at Daily Pundit and Obi’s Sister.

Update II: linked at WyBlog.

Category: Instapundit

Comments

12 Responses to “You Can View The Uncertainty With Trepidation, Or As An Opportunity”

  1. Dcmick
    December 31st, 2011 @ 9:19 am

    The rank and the file of the GOP can’t even overturn the establishment w/in their own party, and you think the elites are going to be defeated in Europe, in Washington.

    We are on a path towards massive civil strife.  “We” here is we in the West, or what has been characterized as the first world.  And since many areas, particularly urban areas are now places of racial and religious differences, that civil strife will be characterized by a marked savagery.

    So many forces have already been set in motion, fiscal policy, especially monetary policy, policies that do nothing but prolong unemployment, immigration policy, ——— think of it this way, if elites were actually trying to set citizen against citizen, they could hardly do more than what they’re already doing, now could they?

    Your typical American is beginning to ominously sense that Washington has gone off the rails somewhere.

  2. Fred Beloit
    December 31st, 2011 @ 10:13 am

    Smitty, you’re getting to be quite the writer.

  3. Adrienne
    December 31st, 2011 @ 10:49 am

    I didn’t take the article too seriously because of several blatant historical inaccuracies. 

  4. herddog505
    December 31st, 2011 @ 12:16 pm

    Vital lesson from the “Arab Spring”:

    In times of upset and chaos, the side wins that is prepared in advance.  This includes knowing what it wants and being organized, ready and able to force it to happen.

    What do we want?  Liberty.

    Who wants it?  All of us.

    How do we want it?  As our forefathers gave it to us through the
    Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

    When do we want it?  Now and forever.

    What will we do to get and keep it?  Whatever it takes, including sacrificing our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

  5. The Cycle of War | Daily Pundit
    December 31st, 2011 @ 12:31 pm

    […] Cycle of War Posted on December 31, 2011 9:30 am by Bill Quick You Can View The Uncertainty With Trepidation, Or As An Opportunity : The Other McCain The big question for 2012 is whether technology can prevent a repeat of a collapse into fascism, as […]

  6. 2011: Don’t Let the Screen Door Hit You on the Way Out « Obi's Sister
    December 31st, 2011 @ 12:49 pm

    […] I wish more than two people read this blog. Just think if I could use my Jedi prowess up in DC! Smitty thinks that technology enables us humans to see potential outcomes, and that some of us, at least, […]

  7. David R. Graham
    December 31st, 2011 @ 1:12 pm

    Busy at what? The Mail writer says busy at prayer. And you?

    I see this as a religious struggle, between Christianity and one of its heretical movements: communism, soft or hard. Old way to state the matter, sounds trite, is trite. Is it wrong or inaccurate?

    Christianity encourages fact facing and dealing. Communism encourages ideology imposition and exploitation.

    That difference, gorgeously illustrated modernly as well as historically, is the information that should drive every Republican campaign and conservative blog? Information is a difference that makes a difference. The difference between facts and ideology is the only argument that can undo the Democratic party and its head. Every other approach is impotent and will result in Republican defeat for the White House.

    The question is not firstly who is to stand for POTUS, it is, firstly, what is the winning line of attack. Answer that question (see above) and choosing the attacking force will be obvious and easy.

    Label Democrats as ideologues deliberately oblivious of facts in their headlong rush to self-aggrandizement at the nation’s expense. That message they cannot defend against. It will undo them and cause them to go crazy, or better, self-expose as dangerous lunatics.

  8. WyBlog - Saturday Sendoff, good riddance to a bad year
    December 31st, 2011 @ 1:17 pm

    Saturday Sendoff, good riddance to a bad year…

    Read it, and weep. The outlook is indeed grim. Smitty, who knows a thing or two about battling fascism, offers a counterweight, and perhaps a smidgeon of hope….

  9. Bob Belvedere
    December 31st, 2011 @ 2:31 pm

    I agree, but we’re up against a sickness in the soul of every member of The Camp Of The Saints And The Beloved City: Leftist Thinking.  Each and every one of us is infected with it, the only difference being in the degrees to which it has spread in the individual.

    I agree with Smitty that Leftism is dying, but it will go out kicking and screaming and we’re all going to get hurt.  We’ve, perhaps, entered the most dangerous stage of the War Against Collectivism – we’re surrounded by wounded beasts.

  10. richard mcenroe
    December 31st, 2011 @ 3:34 pm

    ”
     People communicate enough to realize that the social welfare state is the biggest clay-footed idol since Nebuchadnezzar. ”  That isn’t how it’s working out in Egypt; the educated and enlightened busy tweeting each other aren’t driving the country into the arms of Muslim Brotherhood, it’s the impoverished, illiterate masses.

  11. Adjoran
    December 31st, 2011 @ 3:57 pm

    A good point.

    There is another wolf at the door in the form of ravenous radical islam, already entrenched in Europe and living off the welfare state.

  12. Adjoran
    December 31st, 2011 @ 4:01 pm

    Iran is the model for all these “Arab Spring” revolts.  Of course, Iran was enjoying a higher standard of living than any of them are today when the left and students began the protests which brought down the Peacock Throne.  As soon as the advocates of “democracy” had won the battle, the radicals swooped in and seized power.  There was never a chance for a democratic republic, it was only an illusion.

    As soon as Khomeini and his mad mullahs took power, they consolidated it into near-absolute power.  This is why the Iranian people today have a lower standard of living and less individual freedom than under the
    Shah.