An African-American Who Gets It
By Robert Ringer - Tuesday, October 4, 2011
I have long thought about printing the subscriber e-mail below, and with the far left now hysterically beating the class-warfare drums, I thought this would be a good time to do just that.
I have been a long-time fan of yours and have always enjoyed your newsletters, although I admit I have not always been diligent in reading every one. Recently I read a newsletter about the most persecuted group in America. Since you wrote it, I have no need to remind you what it said.
I read it with an open mind, and I admit that at first I did not agree with you. However, due to my massive respect for you, I spent the day really pondering your message, and after reflecting on it, I realized that you were absolutely right.
I am not rich, so my agreement with you is not based on my own interests. I just purely considered the reasoning you presented. My father is from West Africa, and although my grandfather was a hardworking farmer and landowner who did not have much, he and his brothers sacrificed so that my father could have a Western education and a possibility for a better life.
Many back in Africa consider him to be rich. They constantly beg him to give them things they have not earned. He has sent many people to school, bought them houses, sends money for food, has sent money and equipment so that people can start businesses, and it has only led to more begging and laziness.
No one earnestly tries [to] make their lives better. All they have done is become bums. The land that my grandfather was once proud to farm is deserted because no one would dream of work now that they can get handouts.
Now it has gotten so bad that they constantly come up with new scams and lies in order to squeeze my father out of his money, as if he owes them something. I see the poor in this country the same way.
Working hard in this country may not guarantee you will be rich, but it will guarantee that you will not be poor, and I am happy with that. If people are punished for being successful and rewarded for being lazy, the entire system breaks down and I am starting to see that clearly now.
Just wanted to thank you for all that you do to promote success and austerity.
— S. F.
Believe it or not, I wouldn’t go as far as S.F. when it comes to lumping all poor people together as lazy. I’ve met a lot of hardworking poor people and, more importantly, honest poor people.
Thanks to the relentless and divisive rhetoric of progressives, however, I think it is fair to say that a disproportionate percentage of people in the lower income brackets have probably bought into the idea that it’s “fair” to use force to redistribute wealth. And, to be honest about it, I can see why it would appeal to folks who are financially challenged. Human nature is what it is.
That isn’t to say they should be given a free moral pass. But the real culprits are the progressive politicians and their trouble-making allies outside of government. They conjure up images in one’s mind of serpents offering shiny red apples to all who agree to join with them in doing battle against the greedy privileged class.
Unfortunately, when the uninformed masses reach for their apples, they become entangled in an entitlement net and soon find themselves hopelessly trapped on Uncle Sam’s plantation (credit, Star Parker).
Which is why I find S.F.’s e-mail so refreshing. He’s a black man whose father came here from West Africa and made it on his own. His e-mail speaks for itself, and it almost gives one cause for hope.
This again demonstrates something I have repeatedly said — that the challenge lies in educating the masses as to the evils of socialism and the moral superiority of capitalism. The former leads to enslavement and meaninglessness. The latter leads to freedom and a purposeful life.
Only one side will prevail in the titanic struggle that is heating up by the day, and I wouldn’t want to place a bet on the outcome, given that a large percentage of the population has little or no understanding of politics, ideology, the economy, and, above all, morality.
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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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Typo *Austrian economics*
Dear Pope Reality Seeker:
With all due respect – which I confess is less than your pontifical-character may choose to accept, but the TRUTH has its draw-backs at times: In your “Morality as it relates to the our modern system of finance, politics, religion, general economics, the news media, law, war and other aspects of life in general is a very sophisticated subject. Far too sophisticated, unfortunately, for most undereducated amerikans to grasp.” postulation; “Amorality” is the far more apropos term. Albeit:
I DO respectfully submit, a little more of your attention devoted to that 66-Book Library, known as the Holy Bible, shall greatly improve your concept of this word.
… WHERE DOD THE POPE GO?!?!
I call’em as I see’em Hal:
And unlike many of my fellow pontificates, I’ve read all sixty-six books and then some (there’s others, too). So relax Hal, because the solution for you is simple: I have a strong opinion which you can take it or leave it by not reading it.
Speaking of the Bible, I like the part where Joseph (Imhotep) worked as Pharaoh’s chief economist and head banker during the “seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine.” Joseph saved up an abundance of commodity money (i.e. grain) during the years of plenty. And then, during the latter half of the seven years of famine the starving people cried out, “Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
Human nature hasn’t changed much over the last six-thousand years, has it?
< Human nature hasn’t changed much over the last six-thousand years, has it?
6k years, rs? prognathous jaws, weld bead brow ridges, and even tails are still around. hives and colonies and exoskeletons, too.
where's the punctuated equilibrium, when you need it? (and where's a safe place to stand, when it comes?)
lol…..
hal, then you know, i’d guess, about smedley butler. his book is only 2.99, on amazon. should be required reading, esp for marines……
Yes, and I agree with the ”must read”! … as well as Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Gen. Chesty Puller, and My all-time favorite: Greg “Pappy” “Show Me hero; I’ll show you a bum!” Boyington – VMF-214 … Baa! Baa! Black Sheep!!! …
He kept “T-Totalers (NON-Drinkers)” from giving Naval-Air a bad reputation!!! A short video interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F_pCdtATos
Semper Fi!!! the Old Corps.
(HUMAN) AMERICAN GREED
Everything you say, Robert is true. But,there are a few things I want to “defend”. I am a “poor” person. My only income is Social Security Disability, (and SSI) and food stamps. I live in vouchered (state paid) housing. Am I lazy? In a way, I am. I’ve gotten used to life at home, hour after hour, day after day, year after year. But I didn’t start out this way. I started out by going to college, then joining the Army. Then, the docs found a large, rare brain tumor. That was the turn (not a fork!)in the road. Because of this medical monster in my head, I was medically discharged and spent the next 5+ years as a depressed “professional patient.” I couldn’t keep a job, despite my skills, etc., because of the many medical appointmentsI had. I ended up homeless. I never turned to drugs or prostitution. Never.
I finally rallied my courage, and did what I had to do, regardless of the social stigma. In 1982 the docs said I probably wouldn’t live past 1987. Here I am.
The social welfare system is a vicious set-up that, once you’re enslaved, you cannot escape. (Not legally, that is!) Any monies you earn, over a small “allowance” will result in the same amount being deducted from, say, your food stamp allotment. You are prevented from getting ahead. You are investigated, watched, surveilled, almost! Although I am grateful that the sysmtem exists, I despise how it works. The “profiling” is an interference for help. I’ve had many a case worker scoff at me for telling “lies” about my background. They automatically think, like many others, that all people who are on public assistance are lazy, drug-addicted whining slobs. I will tell you now: No! That’s not true. By thinking that, you have robbed us of our last shreds of dignity. Think about it, people.
… Pope “Reality Seeker” had his usual “!st Chair” on the thread here, and “Poof” – all of a sudden, he’s GONE!!!
Well, I guess we’ll just have to suffer the loss.
if you never meet winston smith, there’s a good chance you’re not a redneck, but also that you’re not doing it right (to paraphrase jeff foxworthy).
sorry i missed whatever i missed…this site has been flagging, past day & a half, or so, as dangerous (as in malicious, infective bugs); any details about that? rr is attracting hackers…..
“Poof”…..
….. “If people are punished for being successful and rewarded for being lazy, the entire system breaks down and I am starting to see that clearly now.”
Yes, he gets part of it; but, he, like so many others, is still very unsophisticated. His eyes are opening, but he has only taken a baby-step in the right direction.
Sorry, but that’s not going to be nearly adequate enough to win the fight for free markets. We need intellectual warriors, 7ft tall Zulu warriors, lots of them, if lovers of freedom and liberty are going to prevail.
We need people who understand why amerika is collapsing, e.g. people who understand what morality is, and how it relates to important subjects such as Austrian economics-vs-Keynesian economics.
“Poof”….
The immorality of poor, lazy welfare-moms, who are looking for a free lunch, is trivialized when compared to, say, for example, the willful and highly sophisticated immorality of The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank which subscribes to Keynesain morality; which, in turn, as just one example, motivated The Fed to create trillions in fiat currency and loan out the sum of 16.1 trillion U.S. dollars at a negative percent (factoring in inflation) interest rate to US and EU banks—-EU banks which are again collapsing and yet again will need trillions more payed out to them in immoral ponzi-dollars in order to stay in business so they can pay their CEOs billions in pecuniary rewards and all other forms of remuneration.
you beat me to the balance weight. actually, the welfare moms are as gnats, and ejected from the atmosphere by this elephantine counterweight.
the connection to see, however, is that stuff rolls downhill. the gnats are merely emulative of the elephants (appropriately the repub symbol…) – and as well, merely envious at their much smaller portion of the loot…..
zulu warriors? if you go zulus, you lose.
the thing to do with intellect, ability, productivity, competence, integrity is…take it with you, away.
galt’s gulch……..
I hear you, reunion. But as much as I agree (partly) with your prudent reasoning, I’m still going down like a Zulu.
I’ll be at the Dallas Federal Reserve this Friday with a back-up blow-horn, which I will use if Alex Jones gets arrested using his during the Occupy The Fed Protest.
Saturday, if I’m not in jail with Alex, I’ll be protesting the Houston branch of the Fed.
Sunday, it’s on to San Antonio to protest there.
I missed my chance in history at the first go around battle of the Alamo, but not this time around.
“poof”…..
You see, morality or the lack thereof is like a two way street: Morality Street runs right through the poorest and most ignorant country neighborhoods on down to the ghettos and on up until it intersects Wall Street; Morality Street continues on past until it reaches the White House, Congress, The Supreme Court, Church Street, Presstitute Street and beyond. Morality Street is a very long, winding road which finally dead-ends at The Federal Reserve Bank; the location where money and credit are created, issued and controlled.
Morality as it relates to our modern system of finance, politics, religion, general economics, the news media, law, war and other aspects of life in general is a very sophisticated subject. Far too sophisticated, unfortunately, for most undereducated amerikans to grasp.
A good example—a case study, in fact—of moral ignorance as it relates to what’s left of the free market system is going to be displayed this week as Acorn, MoveOn.org, Van Jones’ Rebuild the Dream movement, George Soros’ proxies, demagogues such as Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon, the Teamsters and other thugish unions etc, etc, all converge in an effort to co-opt and dominate the Occupy Wall Street Protests.
The goals of the immoral anti-free-market socialists are to build grass-roots support for a movement that will counter and fracture the neocon, co-opted Tea-Party, gain popular support against a highly corrupt Wall Street and gain support for the election of a progressive President and/or a forceful dictatorship in 2012.
alamo…hmmmm…flashing on gary sinise convinced of missed vietnamese “destiny”, in forest gump…no lt dan, no bubba gump shrimp co…….
“this site has been flagging, past day & a half, or so, as dangerous” … I can confirm that: … My Webroot Security just tried everything short of melting-down My laptop to prevent My posting the 5 Oct. 12:42 entry here.
PLEASE,COMMENT ON WHAT WE CAN DO BESIDES COMPLAIN????????
Vote for people that believe in and follow the Constitution! America come back to following that sacred document,in that the founding fathers warned us of this day in time that America is experiencing! I don’t know when or where these communist,Marxist,socialist,progressive people infiltrated from but they are not friends of the American way of life called freedom! These people will destroy America if we let them! We must return to the teaching of our Founding Fathers.
whataboutbob…loved that flick, “death therapy”! lol…just added it to netflix queue…..
< sacred document
just a pair of little letters. ac. ca. the latter erect consoling idols, juxtapose, presto! a god is born.
life was giving me lemons and I was scared. so I turned it all over to the machine, set to frappe, and out came the sacred lemonade….
< founding fathers
even literal, biological fathers are not necessarily paternal. or avuncular, even. coke, apple, walmart…nobody speaks of their ff’s, but usa co., and it’s “employees” do…oh, but the mafia does have godfathers – now I see (do you?)…..and, what does ’the fatherland’ make you think of?
Educating the masses is frustrating and exhausting, but educate we must.
When raising my children, I reminded them, as I remind myself, that one can learn the “hard way,” or the “easy way;” either way, leaning takes place. The hard way of course is through the experience of trial and error, which can be dangerous and sometimes deadly. The easy [easier] way is by listening to and heeding what others with experience have to teach us.
I suspose that most Americans are learning the hard way at the present time and will continue this process until the pain becomes too much. Perhaps as RR continues to educate we can assist my spreading the word and pointing them to this site.
Updated NCAA-FB Conference Rankings (100 is par)
———————————–
1. Big-12…151
2. S.E.C….136
3. Big Ten..116
4. Pac-12…105
5. I-A Ind…99 (BYU, ND, Army, Navy)
6. A.C.C…..74
7. Big East..69
8. Mtn.West..58
————————————-
An African-American who “gets it” would take the “African” out his his nationality designation, and just be an “American.” I could be a “Dutch-English American” or, better yet a “William of Orange American,” consistent with my lineage, but what purpose would that serve? “American” will do fine, for now.
Didn’t we get rid of the “Irish-American, and “Italian American,” ethnic-distancing some time ago? Maybe those who have not yet done so should also join in and just become Americans, like the rest of us. Or maybe they don’t want to, after all, not everyone living here “loves” this country.
and taking your correct logic all the way to truth, the african-american who ‘gets it’ would take “african” and “american” out of his, um, “designation”. then, who he is conversations would no longer be analogous conversations about the weather.
put another way, the father was who he was, in part, because the grandfather was who he was (and uncles were). grandfather worked/succeeded in the patch of dirt named “africa”, son works/succeeds in the patch of dirt named “america”. the names of the dirt patches do not confer identity…in fact, just the opposite; such congealing, agglomerative, affiliations obscure identity, therefore accountability, therefore, “i’m proud to be an ___________(fill in name of dirt patch).
“I heartily accept the motto,—“That government is best which governs least;” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,—“That government is best which governs not at all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.” ~ thoreau
anarchy. rated r (for adults only).
Greetings All,
This is my first time posting on this site and have enjoyed reading the other comments. I too am a fan of RR, becoming first aware of him through ETR or Matt Furey…not sure which.
I appreciate RR bringing perspective to the honest poor scenario. I think it’s a safe bet that corruption in all its forms and venues has driven much of the economic downturn and poverty of honest, hard working Americans.
Not capitalism, class warfare/envy, or the latest rant by fans of the Cloward-Pivin strategy…but corruption.
*The sub-prime loan bubble and collapse,
*issuing over 1 MILLION+ foreign worker visas per year to companies who use them to displace Americans for the purpose of depressing wages (i.e., Bill Gates),
*illegal hiring/tax evasion,
*politicians selling out to what’s unjust and harmful for personal gain…the trail of it all is mind boggling.
There’s heaping full plate in front of us to educate the masses.
BTW, Rosanne Barr is advocating re-education camps for rich business people (bankers in this context) and beheading of those who resist cap on and/or re-distibrution of their wealth. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/10/01/roseanne_barr_behead_bankers_rich_who_wont_give_up_wealth.html
Hmmm, theft and beheading…sounds like something the savage Mexican drug cartels would do.
< Hmmm, theft and beheading…sounds like something the savage Mexican drug cartels would do.
oh, those frenchicans and their guillotines…and "revolutions"……
@All,
Actually, I don’t think RS has read any scriptures, religious or otherwise.
At least not beyond cherry picking a few topics to take out of context for his own self-made ideology.
e.g. His comment about Joseph… I mean seriously where is the justification for assuming Pharaoh stored grain just to hold the people in bondage in the Bible? Not that it makes a difference, Pharaoh owned everyone anyway, and regularly levied corvee payments on the people. He did so because he was responsible and had a long-term view of his pyramid plantation.
Although I frequently agree with RS, I suspect it is an accident: I frequently agree with many people who need to get govt out of their lives.
< I mean seriously where is the justification for assuming Pharaoh stored grain just to hold the people in bondage in the Bible?
i'll leave biblical exegesis, deconstruction/reconstruction to you, topeka.
but grain storage, exactly as in the pharaoh story, was what led to invention of futures markets/exchanges, in chicago.
wealthy speculators built silos, filled them at height of harvest, when glut supply had prices at nadir, and waited for winter, and harder times, to come. yo-yo nabisco (and the price of anything that had grain in it).
pharaoh, faro on the nile, free markets you cannot beguile……
yes. you're right. it is an accident. but accidents are experiences that can be learning opportunities……
Topeka,
There is a noteworthy difference between taxation and abject slavery.
Furthermore, do I really have to get out and thump one of my Bibles in order to set you straight as to the biblical facts?
“Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.”……Genesis 41:39-40
If you’re a true believer that the Bible is inspired by God, then it was no “accident,” as you so incorrectly assert, that God made the future known to Joseph through a dream….. Do you follow me, Topeka? Can you connect the dots? i.e. God’s will is no accident, right? God knows what’s going to happen, right? God’s servant, Joesph is working for Pharaoh with foreknowledge of the future slavery of God’s so called people, right?
Hey, Hal -
When did “whipping a dead horse,” and “changing the leopard’s spots” become your foremost social objective?
Hey, Robby Bonfire –
When & Where did you ascertain that My “foremost social objective” – even IF I had one – might be “whipping dead horse,” or “changing the leopard’s spots”?!?!
When did Leftist convoluted “Mumbo Jumbo” replace English as the national language and dialect?
robby…the crackling and popping of your burning bush is making it hard to understand you…
what does “left” mean, in your dimension?
How exactly did we get from “An African-American Who Gets it” to a theological rabbit trail?
Is this kinda what anarchy looks like Reunion?
yeah…ain’t it cool? lol….
I LOVE IT!!!
Left, the reference to politics, is capitalized, whereas “left” refers to a direction,the opposite of “right.”
Anyone who has to ask what “Left” refers to belongs in a kindergarten water-coloring painting class. Unless, of course, it is a “bear trap” question, which would be typical.
robby….it wasn’t a punctuation/grammar question, and you know that. but, if there is anything that should not be capitalized, it is anything to do with politics. you may as well insist the various other sorts of criminals be capitalized, too…..
maybe one of these days you’ll engage in conversation/debate, instead of graffiti tagging.
*compelled to ANOINT with “Morality”?!?!