Email
Print
SyndicateOne Person at a Time
By Robert Ringer - Saturday, December 5, 2009
By Robert Ringer
I’m old enough to remember when America was guided by certitudes, pride, and resolve. The old-fashioned America didn’t go to war very often, but when it did, the aggressor on the other side soon found it had made a terrible mistake.
Unfortunately, today’s America is driven by an insatiable desire for oil and an arrogant desire to save other countries from themselves. Even more unfortunately, these two desires require vast amounts of money, wasted lives, and frequent wars.
Meanwhile, diseases in the U.S. go uncured, potholes adorn the streets of our nation’s capital, and diversity and multiculturalism reign supreme. But it’s okay, so long as we keep pounding our chests and bragging that we are “the world’s only superpower.”
No one seems to think about the wisdom contained in the Rule of Holes: If you’ve dug a deep hole for yourself, the first step toward getting out is to stop digging. Then, once the digging has stopped, maybe we should rethink who we have become and what we would like to be.
Do we really want to allow judges to rewrite the laws of the land?
Do we really want our children to grow up in a country where the ACLU rather than certitudes dictates our way of life?
Do we really want the government, which has proven to be inept at everything it touches, to control all aspects of our lives — including our health care?
Do we really want to bestow upon our enemy combatants the same rights that we give to U.S. citizens?
Above all, do we really want to try to save starving and tyrannized people around the globe, while at the same time lacking the resolve to use overwhelming force against their murderous rulers?
A guy by the name of George once spoke to this last issue with great clarity:
“I have always given it as my decided opinion that no nation had a right to intermeddle in the internal concerns of another; that everyone had a right to form and adopt whatever government they liked best to live under themselves; and that, if this country could, consistently with its engagements, maintain a strict neutrality and thereby preserve peace, it was bound to do so by motives of policy, interest, and every other considerations.”
Which one of our Georges spoke these words? George Clooney? George Soros? George Foreman? George Orwell? George Bush? Not even close. It was, in fact, none other than Big George himself — George Washington.
If Big George has been looking down on us from that Special Place in the Sky, what must he be thinking about the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan Wars? Not to mention whatever the new mess is going to be just around the next oil derrick? It’s enough to make his wig spin.
Flags waving, bands playing, and self-declarations of our being the world’s only superpower are feel-good, subconscious diversionary tactics that only succeed in shielding us from the truth. And the truth is that, compared to George’s rag-tag bunch at Valley Forge, we are an incomparable collection of relativist wusses whose feelings get hurt at the drop of a PC word. We are so civilized that we’ve become uncivilized.
I don’t think we ever should have gone into Vietnam, but, once there, we could have ended the affair in one day by dropping a nuke on Hanoi — and saving thousands of lives and billions of dollars in the process. Now, President Wuss is timidly keeping a minimum of American troops in Afghanistan, where thousands more are sure to get maimed and killed.
But that quagmire, too, could be ended pretty quickly with the use of overwhelming force. Perhaps by employing the Dresden carpet-bombing approach? Look, I don’t like war. I don’t believe in war. And, above all, I don’t believe in getting into a war and dragging it out. But if politicians insist that this or that war is a “war of necessity,” I say get it over with quickly or just forget the whole thing and get out.
What’s that you say? People around the world would hate us if we did that? News flash: People around the world already hate us. And they always will, so long as we are free and prosperous. Of course, if President Wuss has his way, free and prosperous will soon be a thing of the past, and ultimately he may get the uncivilized folks on Planet Earth just to dislike us rather than hate us.
And while I’m in a grumpy mood, let me tell you another frustrating truth that most people are unwilling to face up to: You can’t do much to bring about positive macro changes in the United States of Decadence, because, to the extent you try, the secular progressives will frustrate you at every turn.
But the good news is that each of us can work hard at straightening out our own thoughts, our own actions, and our own lives. With that in mind, a good thing for each of us to think about as we head into the Christmas season is to look in the mirror and make a vow to get straight with ourselves.
It may take a hundred years or more, but the only way we can ever straighten out America — meaning, return it to a sane, moral, and just land guided by civilized certitudes — is for the populace to straighten itself out, one person at a time.
I’m game. Are you?
_______________________________________
Liberty Education Interview Series
Please encourage your family, friends, and coworkers to listen to the Liberty Education Interview Series. Liberty needs all the support it can get right now.
_______________________________________
You have permission to reprint this article so long as you place the following wording at the end of the article:
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.
To sign up for his one-of-a-kind, pro-liberty e-letter, A Voice of Sanity, Click Here.
Comment Policy: We encourage an open discussion with a wide range of viewpoints. Make your case passionately, but please keep your comments civil and to the point (150 words or less). Obscene, profane, abusive, or off-topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked.
If your comment does not appear, it is likely because it violates the above policy or contains links or language typical of spam. We reserve the right to remove comments at our discretion. Thanks for your participation.
13 Responses to “One Person at a Time”
Leave a Reply
1500 characters maximum.
As usual, Robert, I agree with 99% of what you’ve said.
We have no business policing the world when we haven’t put our own house in order. Just as in personal relationships, we all have baggage. No one is qualified to carry another person’s baggage until they’ve learned how to handle their own. The money spend on: foreign nation-building (which always seems to result in nation-destroying); foreign aid (didn’t we learn back in kindergarten that you can’t buy friends?); the UN, (where our enemies have voting rights equal to our own), etc; could go a long way toward rebuilding this nation, aiding our own small businesses, and creating friendships around the globe simply by minding our own business.
I said I agreed with you 99%. What is the other 1%? I can’t condone dropping bombs on anyone. We don’t have that right (and it is not conducive to making friends).
Hi Robert,
You’ve inspired me for the past 30 years, I started reading you as a teenager. As always, you are right on the money.
We as INDIVIDUALS absolutely MUST become the best we can become, in all areas of our lives. It is only then that we can accomplish what needs done to take our lives and our country back.
Thank you Robert for keeping it simple and real.
With all of my heart, I give thanks for you.
Mr Twenty Twenty
That guy who actually did change his name to the number of perfect vision, because YOU living YOUR VISION perfectly matters!
http://www.2020unleashed.com
“Do we really want to bestow upon our enemy combatants the same rights that we give to U.S. citizens?”
Actually, we don’t “bestow” rights on anyone. Our “rights” are gifts to us as individuals from a higher source. The proper role of government under our Constitution is to protect the rights of sovereign individuals – citizen or no. It’s what differentiates us from the rest of the world, and made the USA a shining beacon of freedom for decades.
Our forefathers fought, bled, and died, from Saratoga to Omaha Beach to preserve those rights. Protecting the fundamental rights of the individual – no matter how loathsome that may seem to us at times, sends the most powerful message to the rest of the world:
“This is who we are.”
And sometimes that means defending the undefendable.
That’s our strength, our uniqueness, our promise.
I’m a big fan, Robert. Been one for 30 years. But you are totally wrong on this one.
In Lieu of Nuking the mountain countryside:
There is the old story about a Preacher holding a revival meeting under a big tent. While preaching the Gospel of salvation an old boy stood up and yelled “I don’t believe a word of it.”
Well, the preacher encouraged all in attendance to pray that the old boy would drop dead by the end of the service.
Apparently the naysayer wasn’t quite honest because he ran off yelling “Don’t you do it.”
It is written “He that hath faith the size of a grain of a mustard seed can remove mountains.”
And the dust cleared and the people said, “Amen.”
“But that quagmire, too, could be ended in one day by dropping a nice, neat string of nuclear bombs on the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
My guess is that the public response to the above statement will be to send Mr. Ringer a small mountain of hate mail for Christmas.
All hyperbole put aside, nuclear war very nearly occurred during the 2001-2002 standoff between India and Pakistan. It shows how tenuous the situation was and is. Most Americans don’t know it, but Pakistan is undergoing a civil war right now; therefore, that “nice, neat string of nuclear bombs” might still get dropped and fulfill somebody’s Christmas wish. Yes, they just may all nuke themselves off sometime in the foreseeable future.
If President Washington were alive now, then he would understand that America has a greater power than it’s nuclear weapons. That power is found in the Constitution. All America need do is start abiding by the Constitution and applying the wisdom of President Washington and the other founding fathers. Then America would be a superpower fueled by freedom.
Metaphorically speaking, America is nuking itself in the foot with it’s current foreign policy.
I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Ringer’s statement that the only way in which we straighten out America is to straighten out ourselves as individuals first.
Approximately 2000 years ago, a wise carpenter and subsistence farmer by the name of Jesus spoke the same type of wisdom: “Hypocrite! First extract the rafter from your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to extract the straw from your brothers.”
Jesus was a straightforward leader wasn’t he? So different than our current leaders. For example, what politician would ever stand up to the masses of people and tell them what is the matter with them and get it right? None.
Jesus was in a class all by himself.
Happy holidays and a happy new year to all.
“Meanwhile, diseases in the U.S. go uncured, potholes adorn the streets of our nation’s capital, and diversity and multiculturalism reign supreme.”
Correct me if I’m wrong please Robert but from the above excerpt, are you saying that “diversity and multiculturalism” is a bad thing?
Thanks.
Andy
Hi Robert,
As always, nutritional food for self reflective thought and personal inventory.
I believe that we can each take personal responsibility for ourselves, regardless of the ongoing decline in values, morals, and self disciple in the nation as a whole. Yet, it seems to my perceptions that the odds against making such a dramatic turnaround without the United States having to experience the slow drawn out morass and chronic pain and suffering of a complete eventual collapse are against us. Most people are losing ground and floundering and do not want to treat the cause because they’re being offered palliative promises to continue their unsustainable lifestyles. The American people and those people we elect (who are a reflection of our now standard decadence, not defined or accepted as “decadence” ) are looking for short term solutions to continue the American “Feel Good Express” racing down the track with the champagne and caviar cars crammed with denialists and fools trying to get their last thrills on the way to the only subliminally recognized national cemetery. The conscious extrapolation of the future is so frightening to most, that they repress and deny what is apparent to those
who actively seek the unvarnished truth.
The ‘Rule Of Holes’ analogy has always been a favorite of mine, as it makes absolute common sense. Yet, obsessive compulsive people cannot refrain from their continued digging. Their maladaptive coping strategies have been implanted, developed, and encouraged into the accepted national lifestyle during the still ongoing age of reckless hedonism and personal lack of restraint. Too many Americans presently engage in any and all immediate gratification activities as these are all societally accepted as “the norm”. It’s believed by too many that the lessons of the past, simply do not apply to the United States. Damn the torpedoes of massively unsustainable personal debt and the floundering of the endemically corrupted ship of state. The fatalistic dangers we are facing as a society and nation are all hidden in plain sight, and yet so few people are willing to speak up and go against the trance cowed crowd in what amounts to a hypnotized mob mentality. The manipulative U.S. politicians then sing and play to the mob to continue the illusion of competence and eventual stability and unfortunately, most citizens are all ears.
These same politicians promise that all will eventually be prosperous again, without the expanding massive balloon note coming due for what we’ve over consumed,with the accruing price tag being paid for the transgressions already committed. These cultural and financial transgressions are still being embraced as acceptable. Mainstream America has eaten the lotus fruit offered by secular seductionists in believing that people can achieve prosperity without sacrifice and self discipline. This is why I believe too many Americans can no longer clearly discern reality from fantasy. Reality hurts sometimes and is always fatal when the linear time line runs it’s course. The lonely quest is for integrity and a more profound meaning in life over being merely “entertained”. I agree that this solitary quest has to be maintained on a strictly personal basis by those who can still face what is and for what it actually is. This is solely for the sake of an individual’s peaceful clear conscience in the face of a society that has long since surrendered it’s ability to think objectively and be rationally judgmental in what current actions, or inactions, portend for the future.
“This above all,—to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
These above sentiments expressed in ‘Hamlet’, were true in Shakespeare’s time, as they are true today. We must first and foremost be true to ourselves, but it’s imperative that one initially understands the difference between right and wrong. The matrix of societal values has become jumbled and chaotic in the pervading environment of amorality. The dividing line between what is good and what is evil has become blurred , if not totally eradicated.
There was a book out a few years ago entitled ‘Sissy Nation’ by John Strausbaugh that illustrated how America went from a country of stoic and formidable individualists into a nation of pampered narcissistic wimps in the span of less than perhaps 50 years. Our egos have been over inflated. As in the recent manifestation of real estable bubbles, we are experiencing “ego bubbles” caused by the hypnotic trance of the secularist’s hedonistic promises and the unquestioning accepting of those seductive lies. Now for the majority of people to break free from the spell, it appears to my prognosis that the current downward macro cycle we are all in, has to inevitably take it’s course until the mental, physical, and financial suffering brings a sufficient number of lost people back to their reason and senses. Only at that critical turning point, will America willingly embrace the long established virtues in the values of humility, frugal financial stability, and lifestyle simplicity.
One thing we can learn from the present is how easy it is to brainwash an entire population.My neighbour…a white American baptist…told me about her son wondering to her how the Germany people could have been manipulated to descend into barbarity in the way Hitler did.
I informed her (my Jewish psychotherapist edified me) that this was happening right now…today under our noses.
HITLER MODE OF OPERATION: Make ‘em feel guilty…plant the intended suggestion…So
If you query the wisdom of the dilution AND EVENTUAL REPLACEMENT of the European Christian influence on the US by a multi-cultural mish mash…you are deemed a “racist”…with punitive career consequences.
Ditto…you are a homophobe…
Robert,
Once again this is brilliantly written…
You really should rename your blog “The Voice Of Politically Correct,Controlled Partial Sanity”
You should run for republican office, you have all the tools….
Artists are taught to visually concentrate on spaces and voids…
This article/Blog really SHOULD be judged on what you leave OUT on a regular basis…
You seem to be a “conservative” hack with your blind support for things like israel.
Shouldn’t you have mentioned the ridiculous 15 billion a year (total)in U.S. direct and indirect support for israel? Did israel pay for their arsenal of 250 nuclear weapons?
(Iran NEEDS nuclear arms to DEFEND itself against that insane, agressive gangster state.)
You mention: ” If Big George has been looking down on us from that Special Place in the Sky, what must he be thinking about the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan Wars? Not to mention whatever the new mess is going to be just around the next oil derrick? It’s enough to make his wig spin.”
What about the U.S. invpolvement in WWI and WWII?
the “controlled media” consistantly writes how evil Germany was but in reality they were just DEFENDING themselves…Didn’t France and England insanely and agressively declare war on them?
Yes, (as you frequently mention the HollyHoaxCaust myth, I suspect your jewish.) they put jews in concentration camps but they were work camps NOT death camps…The occupants only starved at the end due to allied bombings…6 million? there were anywhere near 6 million jews in all of Europe at that time. Yes, they cremated dead concentration camp occupants. Incidentally, many of those hollyhoax photos were proven to be doctored.
Hilariously the jew hero Eli Weaselthal lived through 6 DEATH CAMPS (this is too funny). By the way, the dumb GOY/White U.S. taxpayer has made him a multimillionaire…
By the way, if anyone wants the TRUTH about the U.S. tragic involvement in WWI (which continued in WWII) please see this…
http://benjaminhfreedman.blogspot.com/
It is an online recording by an American, Jewish patriot (Benjamin Freedman) spilling the beans in the early 1960′s…He was in President Wilson’s cabinet which was pack with jews (“The Chosen People” Christian psycho/fanatic Wilson “KNEW” the jews were the chosen people.
http://benjaminhfreedman.blogspot.com/
You need to give your head a shake or perhaps bang it up against a brick wall. Your opinion expressed here is perhaps one of the most vile thoughts I have ever heard. Is violence the only solution to anything. Perhaps you could use your voice of sanity and intellect to come up with a more reasonable solution than nuclear war. Are you completely insane!!!!
Dear Robert,
While I agree with many thoughts you have expressed in your article, I heavily disagree with two points:
point 1: the use of nukes:
I am shocked that you advocate the use of nukes.
How about the following alternative:
If the US-government comes to the conclusion that it or a former government started a war which the US-government shouldn’t have started at first, then the logical conclusion is to get out of it, by getting out of there, by withdrawing all military force as quickly as logistically possible.
If communicated correctly, this will be regarded as a sign of strength.
point 2: the argumentation “they hate us anyways”:
This is black-and-white thinking which is usually a sign of psychological illness. ( Narcissism, Borderline or similar conditions ).
In your case I don’t think it is a sign of illness, but I guess that you fell victim of black-and-white thinking propaganda of former US-governments, especially the one led by George W. Bush, i.e., Mr “You are either for us or against us”.
My impression about worldwide feelings towards the US is as follows:
- There is a tiny minority of extremist groups who hate the US.
- Most people worldwide like the US. But they criticize some actions of the US-government. Especially they criticize those wars which you fortunately wrote that the US-government should not have started at first.
This is constructive criticism which comes out of love for all citizens of planet earth, including the US people.
Especially, my impression is that most people worldwide admire the US for its (still) relatively high amount of freedom for the individual and for its prosperity, and they see it as a positive example to be imitated.
But as everywhere, there is some tiny minority of the extreme left, who just happens to be very loud, and therefore appears to be much larger than it is, who suffer from the GAVEC illness and really do hate the US for prosperity and freedom. But that’s a tiny minority.
Don’t listen to the loud extremists. ( whatever insane ideology they have. )
Listen to the silent majority of people worldwide
* who just lead normal lives,
* who speak through their actions and not through their voices,
* who will as happily start a friendship with a US-citizen than with everybody else,
* who happily do business with US-businesses, both as customers and vendors,
* who are as much against the abuse of government force by any government, just as you and most US-citizens are against the abuse of government force,
* …
- Of course, most people worldwide can and do differentiate between the US people and the US government.
Best wishes to you,
Chris
P.S. I am not a US citizen and I don’t live in the US, so I have at least some authority to say something meaningful about feelings of people from outside of the US towards the US people and the US government.
P.P.S. If the US were to use nukes, I am pretty sure that the feelings of people worldwide towards the US would shift dramatically. In that case, most of the 6 billion people worldwide would see the US as a severly sick nation and/or having a severely out of control government.
I actually thought that Pres Wuss’s latest declaration was a first step at changing from Panties to Briefs and acting as though we might just be a superpower. But you are correct in trumping that assumption. He is still a community organizer at heart trying to make sure that the bake-sale brigade remains steadfast in his court.
IF WE ARE GOING TO BOTHER WITH THESE INTERNATIONAL NEANDERTHALS THEN DO IT RIGHT. There is a differnce between a Wooden Club and an M16. There is a difference between a catapult and a stealth Bomber. WE bought all of these toys for our military. Use them correctly and then get out. Remind the Third World that we can retaliate and be effective in the process.
You mean like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGO42gvCSPI lol
Being career Army Reserves myself I can appreciate what you have to say. My peers are always saying “let’s get the job done and over with”. It is politics that get in the way.