Freedom of Speech and Religion

 

Bezalel Smotrich started a firestorm after he spoke with a receptive audience, “We all want the State of Israel to follow the law of the Torah,” Let’s be honest, if this had been the entirety of his statement, it still should not have elicited any rebuke nor should it have started what can only be decried as sheer panic while instigating what we can only describe as a vile and venomous hatred. His audience was largely, if not totally, in favor and accepting of what Bezalel Smotrich had stated before he added a little caveat, which, we are willing to bet, was seldom reported with anything near the hyperventilating hysteria as the introductory statement. The remainder of the critical section reads, “we just can’t because there are people who think differently and we need to get along with them.” Now that sounds like adding the honest assessment where the opposition to such a move is currently too strong and opposed to such a state. All Smotrich had consciously stated was his desire and the reason that such a desire need be checked before one enters the halls of power, the Knesset, simply because Israel, as she is currently populated with almost half the Jews not being particularly religious or not at all religious and along with the mainstream media make a loud cry of lament and agony merely at the mention of the Torah becoming the law of the land, are not to this point in their slowly evolving evolution moving inexorably towards a more religious nation. But Bezalel Smotrich did not claim that he was planning on introducing something which not only called for Torah observance but recognized that there exists far too much resistance to such an idea for such legislation to pass becoming law. But Smotrich could have stated something so benign such as, ‘the Torah has lessons from which we could all take benefit.’ There would have been those who would have yelled and screamed to an even higher level with the media making sure to use all their stored and ready hyperbole to drive the hysteria.

 

The insinuation that should Israel decide as an overwhelming majority that the time has arrived to prepare and work to establish the Messianic Age and hopefully make Israel prepared and deserving of the Messiach, that Israel would become a theocracy similar in its visions as Iran and is actually more preposterous than if one would claim that Israel, due to her relatively sizable population who favor socialism are taking Israel towards becoming an Atheist Communist nation similar to the USSR. What is amazing about most of the media in Israel is that were somebody to announce their desire to make Israel a socialist nation where the rich are burdened with exorbitant taxation in order to eliminate poverty, they would treat this news as an inspirational vision for the Israeli future and a step towards their desired goal. The media had a similar outbreak of hyperventilation when retired General Rafi Peretz made a favorable statement favoring religious Zionism when speaking to a Yeshiva. The leftist media is so vehemently against any and everything which has even the slightest taint of religiosity as if it is bringing on the End of Days. Their view of religion is that it no longer has any place in this modern world. What is beyond irony is that their Secular Humanist-Socialist world view is so solidly entrenched in their minds that religion is treated as an ancient set of rituals which have absolutely no place in their views of the modern world. What makes their anti-religious attitude is that even many physicists are approaching the view of whether or not there was (is) a creator is leading them to believe that there had to be an intelligence behind the evolution of the universe. Some physicists have found one means of proving that a creator is unnecessary by claiming that the reality is a Multiverse where every possible combination of properties possible all exist in at least one of the infinite universes which exist. This allows them to claim that we exist in this universe simply because the right formulae exist describing the forces and dimensions necessary to support our kind of life-form. They would need to accept that there exist infinite universes where life itself, as we know it, even including Tardigrades, is completely impossible. That implies a great waste of dimensions as in their models the vast majority of universes collapse in upon themselves or simply fly apart expanding faster than matter can be permitted to form still becoming a wisp of nothingness. Their model claims that our universe is special in that it has permitted not only life, but intelligent life, assuming that Homo Sapien is actually intelligent. All this theory is, is a means of eliminating the need for a creator and some intelligence behind the formation of our place in our universe. By the way, the media love these physicists as they give erudite backing to their idea that there is no Supreme Being or intelligence behind the formation of our universe. They, and the physicists who back them, will take any theory which removes Hashem from the equation. One could always postulate that Hashem created all of the universes of the Multiverse simply as a means to forming one which was special, our universe.

 

Is the Multiverse Real

 

This brings us to the crux of the situation in which we reside. Academia and the mainstream media along with most of the entertainment media and much of the society have decided that religion is something which was possibly necessary thousands of years ago, but in this modern and so sophisticated society, the most primary intelligence and the control of what is to come in our future comes from the efforts of man himself. They believe that humans are the supreme intelligence and are the means of all which is to come. They are adamantly entrenched in Secular Humanism and insist that socialist governance is the greatest means by which everybody receives that which they might need. When anybody suggests that capitalism or religion have a place in our future, the media and academia unite in denouncing the person who made the offending comments. The media will castigate anyone who deviates one iota from their ideas of a perfect world where mankind is the driving force and there is no higher entity and religion is simply a set of rituals from an era from which humanity has progressed beyond. These beliefs actually have a place out of history. The Hellenistic Greeks also believed that mankind was at the absolute pinnacle of evolution and there could be nothing more advanced or perfect than the human being. They worshiped the human form and believed that upon birth a person was deemed to be the coming of perfection. In ancient Greek society, were a child born with any defect physically, such a child was permitted the graces of death as they were not the perfect human form, the ultimate form in all of creation. This idea that humans are the ultimate form of creation and there is nothing beyond the human being is far from a new idea as the Greeks expounded such a belief and the Romans were close behind. Yes, sure they had their gods, as we are merely human and despite the almost unlimited abilities any human might have where they were considered almost equal to the gods, they still knew that a human was not omnipotent. The Jews at that time also believed that the human being was at the pinnacle of creation. The difference is that in Judaism there is a creator, Hashem, and we are but his chosen creation and everything around us is credited to Hashem. The Greeks and Romans had their gods for everything from fire to lightning to the sustenance they consumed but their gods were more human than noble. Judaism is different in that people, unless chosen as were the prophets, are nowhere near the level of Hashem, the creator of all that is. The Greeks, in particular, believed that many of the best amongst them were on such a level as to argue with their gods where in Judaism, with the possible exception of Moses during the Exodus, nobody was of sufficient power or ability to argue with Hashem. In Judaism, we look to Hashem to provide when we are unable and pray that we are worthy of his favor. Hashem reacted to the Jewish people in a manner directly connected to the ability and actual enactment of following Hashem’s commandments as expounded in Torah.

 

The Torah has been the foundation stone for the Jewish People for over three thousand years. But that is far from the end of the story of the Torah and that which it teaches. All of Judeo-Christianity is based entirely upon the commandments written in the Torah and upon many of the teachings of the prophets. Modern Western society had been based on the Judeo-Christian ethos for much of the last few thousand years. It remains the cornerstone of all that is the developed modern world. The problem which much of the developed world is currently facing is the lack of planning for the future. Those who have developed the concepts and defining ethos of the latest human belief system, Secular Humanism, is that the one, themselves, are the center and most important set of desires which need to be fulfilled. This egocentric set of values has had some serious consequences. The concept of the individual being the most important individual and that they should serve their own needs, desires and wants before they worry about other items. This view has the consequence in that there are no concerns, regards or obligations for the forming of the next generation. As a matter of fact, they see children as something unwanted and an undesirable imposition which would deny them of using all of their efforts and resources for their own pleasures and betterment. This has led to the situation where the people residing in these developed societies and whom are very often well-off not having any children. This is evidenced by the evidence of the swelling numbers of women having abortions. Between 1970 and 2015, the Center for Disease Control reports nearly 45.7 million legal induced abortions decreasing the numbers of births per woman to fall well below the required amount for replacement levels. This has led to the depopulating of Europe to such an extent that they are willing to import any and every potential immigrant as they require far more workers than they have produced through reproduction in order to support the otherwise aging population. This will be the epithet for Secular Humanity as a healthy option for a society proceeding into the future.

 

Offspring and a dedication to the following generations being a central pillar of Judeo-Christian society made for a far healthier society where the future was guaranteed. Some people have equated abortion with the idolatrous sacrifice of their children, often newborns, to Baal. That may be slightly overt but the reference is well understood. Certainly, late term abortions could easily be equated as such. One of the misconceptions when it comes to Judaism is that all abortions are forbidden. This is not true as Judaism does permit abortive procedures when the life of the mother is endangered. This makes sense when one remembers that half of the children birthed did not survive to age five, thus an adult woman was far more viable than any unborn fetus and thus the life of main concern. This is definitive threat to the life of the mother, not her mental health believing that a child would be an imposition to their life of seeking pleasure for themselves as is often the health condition used in the developed world. That is the main difference between modern atheist Secular Humanism and the traditional religions of Judeo-Christian religions where in Judeo-Christian beliefs are the desires, needs and requirements that children and future generations have the utmost importance while in Secular Humanism children are seen as an imposition interfering with the social lives of those who would otherwise be responsible for the establishing of the next generations. Secular Humanism is based on the now while Judeo-Christian belief is more focused on the future generations as well as a high standard of expectation on the individual to work to assist in the establishing of future generations.

 

In this little fact is the solution which is inevitable. Leftist Secular Humanism, and likely all forms of Secular Humanism regardless of their underpinnings, has one serious problem, they are dependent upon individuals who are disgruntled with religious life to repopulate their ranks as their reproductive rates across the Secular Humanist societies of less than one and a half children per woman, well below the necessary two to two and a quarter children per woman. On the other hand, the religious populations have reproductive rates well above necessary rates and thus they have growing populations. In time, the Secular Humanist population will dwindle while the religious population continues to increase. This sets the framing for the future in that religious populations and societies are at an advantage over those choosing the latest fads, namely Secular Humanism. In the interim, there will be a secular media and academia, but with time these too will be corrected and slowly become more religious and open to the religious dogma. For Europe this means that they will slowly fall under the influence of Islamic doctrine as the religious Muslims will reproduce while the indigenous European population which has largely adopted the Secular Humanist attitude and are not reproducing will be overrun by Islam as the Muslims reproduce at a far higher rate. The United States will fall to the Hispanic populations coming across the southern borders who are religious and have healthy reproductive rates while the former population which had fallen prey to Secular Humanism and lost their religious underpinnings and left the idea that having children is a healthy and necessary requirement of any society behind when they decided to follow the new age Secular Humanist philosophy and stopped having children. The religious, be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim or virtually any similar religion will become the fore of future societies while the new ideas which place the individual as the foremost individual whom one is to serve slowly become extinct. As Torah taught, the main responsibility for one to live a complete and proper life takes more than their obedience to Torah but also their responsibility to the society and its health is reproduction and the care of those youths born as they are your future and the continuation of the principles of the faith. Once again, this is a problem which will be self-repairing with religious thought continuing into the future as it has since years gone by while Secular Humanist self-centered viewpoint will lead to the end of their numbers over time. In the end, Bezalel Smotrich will be able to witness that Torah observant Israel providing he lives long enough for the future to unfold before him, as will the rest of us who are part of the religious Zionist movements.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Racial Disruptions in Israel

 

You may have, or even probably have, heard about the racial protests currently occurring in Israel. You will hear how this is exactly the same as the Ferguson, Missouri, United States, where the chant “Hands up, Don’t shoot,” slogan was born. The similarity is that an officer shot a teen and in Israel it was supposedly a ricochet as he fired into the pavement. The investigation will reveal the truth and any mistakes will have their consequences. But there are some parts of these protests which do not survive closer scrutiny. It appears that there exist two separate protests, one completely peaceful and the other violent with rioting and burning of vehicles, particularly police and other government vehicles. The peaceful protests are virtually totally populated by Ethiopian Jews while the more violent rioting has some Africans and numerous, if not a majority, white European protesters. There exists a far-left organization funded by the New Israel Fund which has been actively aiding the recent wave of protests, particularly the more violent protests. It is the joint Arab-Jewish ‘Standing Together’ organization which the NIF is funneling the necessary funds and still remain one step removed such that they can later deny their financing of the violent protests. All of this begs the question, does the Ethiopian community have valid reasons for their protests.

 

They certainly have every right to protest and demand answers after a second of their tiny community being shot by law enforcement personnel demands a closer look and explanations. The violent riots are not a valid protest and we believe that the vast majority of the Ethiopian protesters are taking part in the peaceful protests while the far-left instigators are the ones behind the violent protests. Where they might find people which could be said to represent the Ethiopians is an easy answer; they could hire any number of African migrants who are in Israel illegally. But the idea that there are racial problems in Israel is errant accusations. The reality is that the Ethiopian community is one of the most successful integrating into Israeli society and performing with exceptional efforts and accomplishments. We wish to quote this informative article relaying the following:

Turning to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics in 2011/12 and in the transition to 2012/13, we can select a few examples of the real and complex reality that portrays the Ethiopian community in Israel.
The percentage of pupils of Ethiopian origin who dropped out was slightly lower than that of the general population of pupils in Hebrew education: Approximately 1.6% of approximately 35,000 pupils of Ethiopian origin who began to study in grades 1-12 in schools under Ministry of Education supervision in the school year of 2011/12 dropped out during that year or in transition to 2012/13, compared with 1.88% among the general Hebrew education.
The percentage of women among students of Ethiopian origin who are studying for a first degree was higher than the percentage of women among the general population of students for a first degree – 66.8% versus 56.5%, respectively.
The average monthly household expenditure in households of Ethiopian origin was NIS 9,539 compared with NIS 14,272 among the general population households.
As for the I.D.F.; 90% of Ethiopian-Israeli combat soldiers complete their service, as opposed to 70% of other combat soldiers. 30% of Ethiopian-Israeli soldiers serve in combat positions, and are likely to complete their full military service

These are the statistics of an ethnic group which is integrating with effort and success out-performing the median norms for the general society. This was often one of the reasons Jews were hated wherever they were free to become thinkers as they regularly outshone the non-Jewish population. The difference is that in Israel they are out-performing other Jews and this is welcomed as it shows a desire to become a vibrant member in our society. The Ethiopians have been quite a success story but also an adventure tale of many rescues and the saving of a remote tribe of Jews. The Ethiopians came to Israel in two waves of mass immigration assisted by the Israeli government: Operation Moses (1984) rescue for six-to-eight-thousand Jews, and Operation Solomon (1991) rescuing from 1990 through 1999, of over 39,000 Ethiopian Jews were transported to Israel. Never have so many African people been taken in by a developed nation and treated as equals and given all the assistance required to bring them into the society and allowed to flourish. Almost every other importation of Africans resulted in their being sold as slaves. This was not such, this was the rescue of our brothers and sisters whom we embrace and give all the kindness we have. Israel is the least racial country one could imagine. In Israel there is virtually no form of hatred outside of a strong distaste for terrorism and other forms of violence. That is also part of why we are so assured that the violent rioting is not representative of the Ethiopians who are largely taking part in the peaceful demonstrations.

 

Tale of Two Protests both Peaceful and Violent

 

The real problem is the media, specifically the world media which loves to produce news which depicts Israel and Jews in the worst light possible. This is what much of the media are specifically covering, the violence, while their story line depicts the Ethiopian complaint represented by the peaceful protests nearby. But a peaceful protest does not reflect their preconceived notions that Israel is full of racist haters. This is best represented by the violence which is probably partially peopled with non-Israelis consisting of both African illegal migrants and European instigators. The fact that the coverage is centered on the violence which is very possibly not merely flushed out with Europeans but organized and instigated by these Europeans with few if any Ethiopians involved in the rioting. Will they also show the respectful peaceful protests, the kind of popular protest which is capable of getting results and answers from the government and an honest investigation. The peaceful protests are exactly what would be expected of the Ethiopian Jews as they were often victims to brutal treatment while in Ethiopia. They were very appreciative for the efforts Israel went to, to bring them from camps in the Sudan where they were placed in camps when they were caught attempting to walk to Israel. These were the Ethiopian Jews rescued by Operation Moses where unfortunately as news of these rescues became known, the Sudan quickly shut the operation under the insistence of their neighboring and other Arab countries. Ethiopian Jews rescued in Operation Solomon were being held in camps presumably for their protection in Ethiopia. The difficulty these Jews faced was blatant anti-Semitism as they were seen as the reason for every problem and many people wanted to kill their Jews. Israel took them from this situation and brought them directly to Israel using El Al aircraft. The Ethiopians who came from these rescues often were illiterate and required training in order to gain employ. On the plus side, they were so enthused to have been rescued and brought to Eretz Yisroel and their enthusiasm was applied to finding a means for support and fitting into their new society. This was the and has continued to be the ethical code for their society such that they desire to excel and be the best they are able. Any country would have been blessed to have such new citizens as these. The reality the mainstream media desires to hide from the world is that there exists no hatred within Israel. There is no racial hatred, no cultural hatred, no religious hatred, only an extreme discomfort with violence and hatred. That is the Israel we know and love.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Continuing March to the All-Powerful State

 

We hear much about the split between right and left political parties and individuals. With a media fed by leftist academia, there is the dual-attack on everything not progressive, the new word which replaced liberalism because liberalism had its name destroyed and tied to failed policies. The interesting thing about this change is that when the progressive politicians had destroyed the name of progressivism, at that time they changed their name to liberals hoping that their ideas and policies could be sold as liberating instead of the stifling which progressivism had come to represent. It was Hillary Clinton who referred to herself as an early Twentieth Century progressive when she attempted to strip herself of the liberal label. This worked almost well enough for her to win the Presidency on her second try. She was counting on the fact that most people have little recollection of what exactly was a progressive of the early Twentieth Century and thus she could define herself as the candidate for progress. This has been the systematic redefining that the socialists have had to do to avoid being labeled exactly what they are, Statists. The progressives, and the liberals after them and now again with the moniker progressives have always stood for has been socialism and the empowerment of government. They offer programs which sound marvelous and all inclusive but these programs are all based on one simple concept, the government must be the provider of rights and all means of survival thus having the power to decide who lives and who does not. Gaining this power, despite the claim that they are empowering women, comes through in the abortion debate where the plans of Margaret Sanger remain alive and well within Planned Parenthood, to remove the unwanted types of people from the society through sterilization and abortion preventing their reproducing. This is also central in the discussion over euthanasia of the terminally ill and the elderly. What is almost always refused entry into this debate is the speed with which medical discoveries and breakthroughs are being made and how this will only become more miraculous with time and thus some who may choose to be euthanized may do so only to have their loved ones read of a new miraculous cure or treatment which could have returned their loved one to a productive and healthier life which could have continued for decades. The newest discussion in these areas has been the right of a parent to abort a disabled child after their birth simply because they are not prepared to make the sacrifices required by their infant’s disability or illness. Thankfully, this was not the custom when Ludwig van Beethoven who was almost completely deaf, and as such in his time was most definitely a difficult imposition on his parents. By the standards being touted today by the left, one such as Beethoven could be considered not worthy of the effort to be permitted to live.

 

While reading an article which took a slightly differing approach to the difference between the left and right, as stated in this article the difference was between Leftism and Americanism, an odd and not too sophisticated movie, which was amusing just the same, came to mind called, “Idiocrasy,” about life in the far future. We are not recommending rushing out to order this on Netflix or any other means to view it, that is unless you have some time to waste on puerile enjoyment and flatulence jokes used to set the level of the society and not intended to entertain. In the film, a not so intelligent soldier and a woman who volunteered for the financial reward end up in the 2500’s, where the society has all but collapsed due to government programs and regulations ruling every part of life and the general dumbing down of the population reaching its logical conclusion. The rest is unimportant beyond the fact that this is where every experiment by mankind has led to, or would given sufficient time, where the government gains total control over every facet of life, the means and methods of production and virtually everything is regimented by rigid regulations. Somehow, in Idiocracy, it led to humorous institutions run by ignoramuses where television shows of the basest variety are more important than working or virtually everything else. The world, by rule of law, is restricted to using an energy drink for everything for which Hashem gave us water and for some reason they are unable to grow food, yet everyone still eats. This comical look at a total socialist existence which had been in place for quite some time and where it invariably would lead is, in its own way, educating.

 

The reality of government dependence and reliance solely on the government to fix every little problem is that people will tend to lose their motivation to actually perform any actual service to the society. Socialism works well in small groups which have a common goal and where there can be societal shame used to motivate any slackers. Further, in a small group such as communes or the Israeli Kibbutzim, members who are not pulling their weight and have no specialized skills making them worth carrying are often invited to leave the group and try being shiftless elsewhere. Such a control mechanism does not function with such means as shaming in a large, metropolitan society where often people know absolutely nothing about their neighbors. Also, when the goodies provided by the all-powerful government includes housing, then those who are completely dependent upon the government for their food, shelter and all other necessities end up residing together where their way of life is the norm and thus shaming again is useless, or in this case, nonexistent. Currently, there are two shining examples of a completely socialist governance and where such leads, and they are North Korea and Venezuela. There is another item such societies posses, and that is a complete ban on private ownership of firearms. This makes the people completely dependent on government and with no power to resist any policy. They also make resisting anything the government may decide is necessary to continue ruling including deciding that certain people no longer have any right to exist. This can lead to the extermination of an entire group in any random basis such as the Nazi near extermination of European Jewry, and the Nazis were socialists, National Socialists. Currently, in both Venezuela and North Korea, people are starving and without their medications or any of the niceties of life such as toilet paper. Changing the leadership in either nation or infusing capital in an attempt to restart economic activity will result in throwing good money after bad as they will slowly grind their economic engine to a halt in order to serve government programs.

 

There is another oddity which we and some of our friends have discussed at length and come to what originally we thought was something odd, but later we reached some conclusions. The item we noted was that the people supporting leftism and the socialist agenda mostly resided in the larger cities while those who supported individualism, capitalism and such were those in the rural communities. This appeared perplexing, especially since we all resided in larger cities and would have politically stood with those from the rural areas, so obviously this was not a universal qualifier. We finally hit upon the differentiating factor, or at least we settled for this reasoning. Disclaimer, we are not necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer. What we found was that in each of our lives, should something break or if we did not have the exact item needed to complete some task, we would improvise and get the item functioning or complete the job and then, when it was more convenient, we would go and get the correct item or fabricate some elaborate piece and actually repair or complete some task. This did not mean we would use a roll of pennies instead of a fuse in our homes, but we would wrap a gum wrapper around a fuse in something like a flashlight to get it to function when needed and later replace the fuse. None of us admitted to doing such with the fuse in a vehicle, but we all knew that at least some of us had probably committed such a not so brilliant fix. The people we all knew who were avowed leftists, and yes, we managed to remain friends with such people because they can be perfectly wonderful people and even good friends, until something breaks, but we avoided talking politics with them as we realized long ago that leftists must find their own path taking them off the government plantation. Truth be told, some of us were once leftists and have found our way to self-reliance. And that the term which most often delineates leftists from those on the right, is self-reliance. It actually comes down to do you at least try to repair things yourself or do you wait for a repair person to come and repair it because they were trained for such jobs.

 

We noted another difference which was less obvious and had a greater number of exceptions. What we noted was that most of the leftists worked either in a union, an office, or some regimented type of work where people were, to varying degrees, interchangeable while the more conservative people worked often in some form of repair or technical work and often for smaller companies where each person has their particular specialty which adds to the whole and all are able to perform multiple jobs required by their employers. What we were never quite able to get our arms around was why the vast majority of highly educated university graduates were almost all leftists, and the more education they had and the more advanced degrees they had attained, the stronger this attachment. This may be due to our age and the majority of these highly educated varieties of people we meet are often twenty or more years younger than ourselves. We also had noticed that the highly educated which were closer to our age were more likely not to be leftists and abhorred socialism. We might have fallen into the trap of believing age has something to do with political views, but we know far too many people our age who are committed leftists. These other descriptions appeared to be somewhat more accurate and telling.

 

George Orwell’s Animal Farm

 

We understand the concept of assisting the poor, especially those who have some disabling difficulty which prevents their being gainfully employed. Special instances must not become generalized privileges available to the general public at large. We understand the necessity for taking care of the elderly, but this too is not universal as there are those of advanced age who are still fully capable and there are some who prefer working to taking a government handout. It is for these people that we oppose age restrictions such as mandatory retirement age. Some people can be unable to functionally work due to age and other related injuries and complications at age forty-five while other people are still vigorous and fit at age seventy plus. One-size fits all rules are seldom a great idea as, in case you may have missed this, people are all different with different needs, abilities and desires. This is part of the problem when the government makes rules for the society; these rules are, by necessity, one-size fits all. What is interesting is that those who make these rules always find some means of excusing themselves from the same rules. The example which has always upset us and our friends was when regulations and rules were passed to make insider trading of stocks and bonds illegal, the legislators of Congress and their senior aides and advisors, you know, the people most likely to have insider information and even information even insiders do not have access to such as who is about to get the big defense contract, these people were exempted from all prosecution for insider trading. This should provide everyone with the answer as to how people after four years in an elected government position or high post for an elected member of the government become multi-millionaires when they were almost dirt poor upon entering office. Rules, what rules, we are the governing, not the governed, we do not have to obey the rules. Members of Congress cannot be ticketed for speeding or other driving violations as long as they are on their way to the office, that is another great rule which is just wrong. These are just a taste to get everybody upset. The other item you will see is even in Venezuela and North Korea the leadership and their friends and the military eat and live well, the closer to the leader, the better one lives. Socialism is all for equal treatment of the common people and not of the privileged people. Those who matter, matter and those that don’t, don’t, it is that simple. To quote George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” To that, we need add nothing as if you do not understand this, you will never understand socialism and the privilege of the governing, something relatively valid no matter the governance. All governments will tend to grow and once they pass a certain size, they are next to impossible to bring back under the control of the people as they have amassed too much power and the ability to know far more than is required to govern about every individual and more so once you become a person they find interesting, gain ballot access to Congress and you will find out exactly how interesting you can become. Thomas Jefferson stated, “The government which governs best governs least.” Unfortunately, the government which will govern least is the one with the least number of employees. When it comes to government, the first thing that matters is whether they are capitalist or socialist, the next is whether they are elected or some form of plutocracy, and finally, no matter what you have heard, size matters. After these three items, the rest can be diced out by the people for the government still belongs to the people and not the people to the government.

 

Beyond the Cusp