Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s a bit ironic that religious terrorists created such havoc in India the day before Thanksgiving. I say ironic because Thanksgiving is a peaceful day … a family day … a day for counting one’s blessings. The destruction and bloodshed in India just didn’t fit in with the spirit of the holiday season.
What made the contrast so vivid was that much of the coverage on our TV screens was given to us by Indian newscasters on Indian television. It was a stark reminder that the world is now a very small place, a place where everyone is connected … global stock and bond markets … global business markets … global communications markets.
Taking full advantage of the invaluable gifts Great Britain left it with after plundering the country for nearly two hundred years (a highly educated work force, a language that makes it easy to communicate with the industrialized world, a good start on a modern infrastructure, and, above all, a democratic government that protects individual liberties and private property), India is rapidly moving toward becoming what America once was.
The fly in the Indian ointment is the clash of cultures, primarily between Hindus and Muslims. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Before giving India its independence in 1947, the British chopped off the northwest corner of the country, called it West Pakistan (now Pakistan), and handed it to the Muslims. That was supposed to eliminate violent clashes between the Hindu and Muslim cultures.
The problem is that there are still 154 million Muslims in India, and, as everyone knows, Muslims aren’t real fond of Western style life. Yesterday, radical elements among them sent a loud and clear message that they don’t intend to allow India to continue its evolution toward becoming a fully Westernized country. The idea is to terrorize and intimidate India’s other 1 billion+ people into not becoming too chummy with the U.S. and its Western allies.
Bengladesh (known as East Pakistan until 1971), though its population is 90 percent Muslim, is said to be much more tolerant of other faiths than its former counterpart, Pakistan, a thousand miles to the West. But cultural clashes between rival sects of the religion have caused a steady migration of Bangali Muslims into India.
I find the whole situation to be very sad, because India, sans its clash of cultures, could be mankind’s best hope for freedom in the coming decades. As a group, Indians are highly intelligent, warm, friendly people. While America continues its relentless march toward socialism, India continues to accelerate its march toward freedom and free markets.
But today I’m going to try not to think about the ramifications of what happened yesterday in India, about what’s happening to the once-proud culture of the United States, and about what an ugly sham our political system has become.
Instead, I’m going to relax and delude myself by pretending that I still live in the America of my youth. Unfortunately, if you’re under fifty, you can’t possibly share that wonderful delusion with me, because you never experienced the real thing.
On this Thanksgiving day, I’m thankful for all the great Thanksgivings of years gone by, for all the good things I still have in my life, and for all that is still good in our shrinking, violent world.
Of course, people also deluded themselves in the good old Thanksgiving days. They ignored the realities of the wars we lost, ignored the rapid growth of big government, and ignored the increasing dismantling of Western civilization’s values.
And India? It wasn’t a real country. It was just a fictional nation created by Hollywood – a fantasy you enjoyed watching on film. Terrorists? I don’t recall ever hearing the word when I was a kid. It was a time of delicious naivete.
Oh, and one other thing I’m going to be thankful for today. After seeing the The History Channel’s special on how turkeys are bred, raised, and slaughtered by the millions, I am, above all, thankful that I’m a human being and not a turkey. It was almost enough to make one think about joining PETA.
But, not so fast. Today I just want to enjoy a great turkey dinner. I guess it’s human weakness, but my appetite always seems to rule the day.
With that, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a joyful Thanksgiving day that provides all of you with many wonderful memories.
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Copyright © 2012 Robert Ringer
ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author and host of the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which features interviews with top political, economic, and social leaders. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, The Lars Larson Show, ABC Nightline, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been the subject of feature articles in such major publications as Time, People, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, and The New York Times.
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This may shock you, but outside the US, no one has ever heard of Thanksgiving.
Pitch says:
Shocked!
What is amazingly shocking to me is that there was only a one sentence reply to Robert’s Thanksgiving message! So, I would like to add a few of my own thoughts this Holiday Season.
Jerry is of course correct in his statement that most other countries do not have a designated “Official Day” of Thanksgiving. Our closest neighbor to the south in Mexico is a good example and perhaps the closest they have to a Thanksgiving Festival is their celebration called “Dia de Raza” (Day of the Race) which takes place each October.
Me thinks that RR and I must be of about the same age, as I too have shared many a wonderful past Thanksgiving in a much different America and world than we awakened to this Thanksgiving. But after all, is not change the only true “Axiom” we can each be sure of every new and beautifully formed day? Change for the better or change for the worse? We each in our own very small way can actually control our destiny and that of the world’s by our thoughts, decisions and the actions we make and take each and every day.
I also kick back and make each Thanksgiving as special and memorable as possible under any given set of circumstances I find myself confronted with and try to splurge on my favorite recipes of the season, many which are laden with so many calories and known man killer ingredients that I am very careful not to overindulge in too much of a good thing anymore. I try and ratinalonize this poor decision by telling myself; but, it’s only a few times each year! As Robert has so correctly lamented; we do still have many blessings to be thankful for in America 2008, despite taking the wrong fork in the road of life as a society so many long years ago that most in today’s America have no real world conceptions of taking part in a self responsible life and free society. But after all, this too is to be expected and is nothing but the natural, very normal essence and nature of life itself and unfortunately; it is all too true that “Nothing ever stays the same,” no matter the numbers of “Botox” injections, the wrinkles of life just keep coming back one day at a time!
The one thing that I am very certain of this Holiday Season as a lifetime and loyal fan of RR and his core beliefs is that I know for certain that he has found much “JOY” in his life mixed in with the adversity and he has brought much “JOY” into the lives of the many that he has touched with his words of intellectual wisdom and rational approach to life and this is something one can be “Thankful” for each and every day.
I can honestly say that Robert Ringer has been the most positive and motivating force in my life and for that I am forever indebted and grateful.
Response to Pitch
I never received his Thanksgiving message in my email box. I wonder if this happened to some of his other subscribers. Anyway, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Discovering Robert Ringer and other great Libertarian philosophers in the late 70′s was quite exciting and definitely rewarding. Since I am older and much wiser (thank God for that)I am able to utilize his teachings much more effectively. Thanks, Robert Ringer. I am forever grateful.