Our Coming Crisis...

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I had a brief communication with a longtime online friend, earlier today, who said;

"Hey, JMK!  I was reading one of your posts and then started thinking about how many years I’ve been reading your writing (FB, the old Bey board, your book, your WC blog, etc.)  Then I started thinking about common themes that threaded through the years. Then it occurred to me that you presaged the Trump phenomenon that “no one saw coming” by what, a dozen years at least?  How does it feel to be so far ahead of the curve?  :-)"

I replied that I didn't think I was prescient, at least, not in terms of my  knowing anything others didn't...nor having any kind of secret information.

I also mentioned that I've never been so pessimistic about individual liberty and "Americanism"/Constitutionalism.

It's true that I don't revile Trump, even though I've never liked him personally. He seems now...a last gasp of traditional Americanism.

I was thinking the other day, how we've shifted Left/Right in the Presidential elections over the past 30 years; Bush Sr....Bill Clinton...GW Bush...Barack Obama...Donald Trump, with each shift getting more extreme. (https://www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/national/national-charts/demographic-trends-should-worry-republicans)

What comes after Trump?

If the trend continues, someone much more extremely Left, then Trump is "Right." Look at the leading Democrats of today, Bill DeBlasio recently spoke about how he sees a strong "Socialist impulse" among New Yorkers, claiming he feels most people want the government to decide how each piece of property is used, whi gets to live there and at what rent (there would be no more "owners"). He's not alone. (https://nypost-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/nypost.com/2017/09/05/a-plea-to-democrats-to-back-anyone-but-de-blasio/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQECAFYAQ%3D%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2017%2F09%2F05%2Fa-plea-to-democrats-to-back-anyone-but-de-blasio%2F)

Here's the irony. I tend to alienate a lot of people due to a combination of their misunderstanding me and my propensity for hyperbole and being an overall jackass. I don't like my propensity for being a jackass and have tried, with mixed results, at being less of one.

I think what most misunderstand, &/or reject about my views is that the reason I revile Marxism/Socialism is because I'm a pragmatist. I am not now, nor ever have been an idealist like most hardcore Leftists.

They NEED to believe that, "To move forward, we must change human nature from competitive to cooperative and that can only be done by changing government." So, they have to reject the idea...the actual truth, that the people in government, ESPECIALLY the DeBlasio's, the Ocasio-Cortez's are as greedy and misanthropic as they believe those in business are.

Socialism, is NOT Sweden's Nordic Capitalism, it IS the former USSR, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. It IS authoritarianism because government taking what some have built, in order to redistribute more to all, requires authoritarianism and inevitably violence...always and everywhere.

The irony is that most Leftist idealists would be among the first protest, challenge and fight that violent authoritarianism.

While I vaguely admire that, I would not.

I'm a pragmatist. If I were told to round "dissidents" up in the middle of the night...I'd do it, thinking, "Better them than me." I'm NOT an idealist. I'm a pragmatist, a survivor...and in many ways, a moral coward.

I know myself...for better and for worse. I get the distinct impression that most idealists don't.

I HOPE I'm wrong...very wrong about this future, but I believe the trend is obvious, and it's not a good one for liberty and individualism.

Ironically enough, it's ultimately not a good one for those who'd welcome it, either.
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