So why do I care?

Why did I start to care about this stuff; the importance of History.

I know most people who have been listening to me this past year probably think I am at best a little obsessed and at worst totally kooky. To be honest for most of my life I didn’t much care about politics, and I hated watching the news. But for some reason as long as I can remember I have identified with the conservative position. I am a fiscal conservative and social libertarian for the most part. I am not technically a religious conservative although in almost all cases I am on their side in a purely black and white choice scenario. I attribute this to the fact I was taught two basic things.

1. We live in a great country. In fact, the greatest country on earth.
2. I am responsible for me.

Now, the first one of these is partly because of my parents. Neither of my parents were overly patriotic, they just always seemed to instill the idea that this country was the best country on earth and probably also due the fact I came from a small rural town in a generally rural republican state in a small school that was not incredibly progressive and for the most part I was not lied to.
The second condition is 100% the fault of my family. I was always told I could accomplish most anything I put my mind to, but that no one would do it for me. These two things are not taught to children any more and that is the beginning of why people and especially young people do not understand what is going on and why it is potentially the beginning of the end of our country.

If you don’t know where you have been you can’t tell when you pass it again...you can’t realize you have made a circle. We have failed to teach our kids where we came from and why we are special and we have succeeded in teaching them that nothing they do has consequences and nothing is their fault. Like I said, for most of my life I didn’t pay that much attention. I always enjoyed what I heard of Rush Limbaugh but I never listened much. I always thought that everything that rolled out of Bill Clinton's mouth was a lie and I always thought Hillary was a power hungry super bitch. What I DID do was read a lot of history. When you remember where you have been you recognize when you pass that spot again. Something else I have always been is a logical person, and I always want to understand WHY? I started to see the progression this year and now that I started I can’t stop. The frustrating thing, and a lot of people are beginning to feel it, is the vast majority do not UNDERSTAND. Part of the reason they don’t understand is they aren’t interested, but more than that they simply do not have the point of reference to know why where we are is bad thing. If you start to explain it then they think you are a kook. So I do not know how to combat this, sad fact is most people today are incapable of following a logical well constructed argument if they hear it.

“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think”
-Horace Walpole, 18th century author.

"we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridles by morality and true religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
-John Adams, some old guy in a white wig

“How Lucky for Rulers that men do not think”

-Adolf Hitler, great progressive statesman




I will add to that quote of John Adams something I hope and believe the founders would have agreed with. Our government was not intended to govern the apathetic or those who do not understand history. And therein lies a big part of the problems we face.