THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 238, September 27, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE WORLD IS HAVING A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
By Alan Caruba
WHY THE NATIONS & CONTINENTS OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD ARE ON EDGE: FISCAL IRRESPONSIBILITY ON
THE PART OF MANY NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS -- UNWISE ECONOMIC POLICIES IMPLEMENTED BY THESE GOVERNMENTS --
GOVERNMENTS & INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CATERING TO THE RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT -- THE
THREAT TO WORLD PEACE POSED BY THE ISLAMIST MOVEMENT -- THE GLOBAL ISLAMIST JIHAD BEING WAGED AGAINST
THE U.S.A. & WESTERN CIVILIZATION -- THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY & THE AMERICAN POLITICAL LEFT IN A CONCERTED
DRIVE TO TRANSFORM AMERICA INTO A COLLECTIVIST ECONOMIC & SOCIAL SYSTEM
FULL STORY:
If one has been in the habit of reading history, then the events of the past and of the present inform each other. For this
reason, it occurred to me that the world is once again having a nervous breakdown.
It’s not just about money, though surely the nations of Europe, along with the U.S.A., have spent themselves into the
poorhouse in ways that defy the imagination. If it weren’t so serious, it would be comical to see the desperation that has
led our Federal Reserve System to print money backed by nothing and to watch the central bankers of Europe move
gobs of euros around between the new mother church, Germany, and the banks of Greece, Spain, Ireland, and Italy so
that they can pay their bills.
They’re all broke. In the U.S.A., we have individual states that not only have balanced their respective budgets, but also
have higher GDPs than does Greece. Those are usually the states whose state constitutions require that they balance
their budgets annually. The rest of the states are run by Governors torn between taking the federal largess intended to
deprive them of more autonomy and hoping that the next natural disaster hits the state above or below them instead.
Few arrive at a nervous breakdown overnight. It takes time and a variety of bad decisions or bad luck or both. After
blaming George W. Bush and Republicans for his problems, President Barack Obama has taken to blaming bad luck.
Does he even know that people have concluded the economy is now officially and completely his fault?
When he proposed Obamacare, a million Americans showed up in Washington, D.C. to tell the U.S. Congress not to
pass the proposed legislation. Obama and congressional Democrats should have listened to the Americans who
opposed Obamacare. Now we call those objecting Americans the Tea Party.
Obama cannot explain away having increased government spending by 50% between 2008 and 2010, while calling for
higher taxes on everyone at the same time there are an estimated 14 million Americans out of work, stopped looking for
work, or can’t get a job because Obamacare has so screwed up the near future that businesses are reluctant to hire
anyone.
The 2008 financial crisis was 100% a government creation, a creation dating back to the establishment of Fannie Mae in
1938 to purchase mortgages from banks in order to encourage more lending, more home building, more home ownership.
It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it ignored the timeless role of greed in banking.
Rule Number One: Almost everything the government touches, it ruins in some fashion. At the very least, it increases
its cost of operation.
Rule Number Two: The government’s primary function is the defense of the nation against attack. As Ronald Reagan
said, “Nobody ever started a war with us because we were too strong.”
Rule Number Three: Government exists due to its ability to tax and spend other people’s money. Spending always needs
to be restrained.
Rule Number Four. Government will always produce more laws and regulations than are needed. It should be restrained.
(See the U.S. Constitution).
Globally, we are just emerging from a bout of total insanity called “global warming.” This was a theory that said that
something that represented 0.038% of the Earth’s atmosphere was trapping all the heat and would kill us, unless
massively reduced. That “something” is carbon dioxide, a gas on which — along with oxygen — all life depends. It is
plant food; the less carbon dioxide, the less vegetation. Herbivores eat vegetation and carnivores eat herbivores.
Humans, being omnivores, eat both.
The other craziness afflicting the planet is “radical” Islam. The truth is that it has been just plain old Islam for about 1,400
years. There are a billion Muslims, most located in the Middle East, Africa, India, and Indonesia. Wherever they are, their
non-Muslim neighbors cordially hate them because Islam teaches that all other religions are false and that those who
believe them — infidels — can be killed for not being Muslims. The strange part of this is, depending on whether you’re
a Shiite or Sunni, it is perfectly okay to kill other Muslims, too. Christianity went through this during the Reformation,
1517 to 1648.
When I was a child, the world went crazy and held a great big war. It involved Germany, Japan, and Italy as the “Axis”
powers and just about everyone else did their best to destroy their military in every way possible. The Axis powers in
Europe were defeated first, and, then, still holding out, the Empire of Japan had not one, but two, atomic bombs dropped
on them before they quit.
World War Two was the direct result of Europe’s World War One. The surrender terms were so awful the Germans
embraced a lunatic called Hitler and the Italians fell in love with Mussolini.
The Soviet Union came out of World War One when the Germans permitted Vladimir Lenin, a Communist, into Russia. He
started a revolution and the Russians swapped a czar for a new dictator. Stalin took over from Lenin, but because
Communism has never worked anywhere it was tried, the Soviet Union eventually fell apart, doing so in 1991. Now a
"republic," Russia has a new dictator, who is named Vladimir Putin.
As the French say, “Plus les choses changent, ils plus elles restent les memes.” The more things change, they more they
stay the same.
The world is having a nervous breakdown because institutions, religions, and political ideologies are having difficulty
adjusting to the migration and growth of populations. Modern communications technologies are playing a role as well.
The chimera haunting everyone is the fact that military capacity to inflict massive devastation and death has increased
beyond the confidence of governments and people that it can be controlled without having to kill a lot of people (e.g.,
Iranians) in the process.
Capitalism, despite an abundance of Communism still around, has triumphed, but, like any system, has been subjected to
a great deal of abuse, rocking the economies of the U.S.A. and Europe, and making most other nations nervous as well.
And, finally, there are six-going-on-seven billion people on a planet that is probably not intended to have that many. It
puts intense strain on everything from water to food to the sources of energy that fuel modern and developing nations.
So everyone’s on edge. Nations and continents are on edge. The world is having a nervous breakdown.
© Alan Caruba, 2011
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Fiscal Policy: Taxation & Government Spending
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at Warning Signs, his popular blog -- and thereafter on dozens of other
websites and blogs. His monthly report on new books is posted at Bookviews.
A business and science writer, Caruba is the Founder of The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information
about "scare campaigns" designed to influence public opinion and policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity