The American Monkey Can't Let Go

[Marcus]

"Pondering Whither America, I reflected on a story, probably apocryphal but which I am going to believe because I like it, about catching monkeys. Tribesmen somewhere craft a heavy pot with a hole in it large enough that a monkey could insert an open hand, but not withdraw a closed fist. They then put monkey food in the pot. The monkey reaches in, grabs the food and, refusing to let go when the hunters approach, is caught and eaten.

Here we have our politics in a paragraph. The American national monkey can’t let go. The party is over, boys and girls, but we aren’t going to adapt.

For example: When people recently found that they could no longer afford the SUVs, the McMansions, the buying of absurdities in a frenzy of competitive consumerism, they just put it on the credit card. The monkey can’t let go. And now they are screwed.

Same-same domestic policy. The US has played War-on-Drugs for half a century, with no results but to make drugs an integral part of the economy. The evils engendered are great. Yet the monkey can’t let go.

It is internationally that the monkey principle really bites. The country is well on its way to being a merely regional power militarily, economically, and diplomatically. Short of a miracle, short of a conceivable but unlikely catastrophe in China, Americans will soon be medium potatoes. There is nothing we can do about it, but we will bankrupt ourselves trying. We can’t let go.

If you look beyond the Reader’s Digest patriotism of Fox News, and the high-school cheerleading of little Sarah Palin, if you look beyond the national borders, all of this is obvious."

Read the rest here....
http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed195.html

[ocean_314]

I agree, just watch California. This is the results of forty years of corrupt TV and other media empowering those that reward those that don't work hard and try to be successful, the not my fault types, and vilifies those that work hard and are successful achieving or trying to achieve the American dream.

[Marcus]

Revolutionary Ideas Start with Ridiculous Questions

"My challenge to you is to stop running and start thinking. And the best way to start is to ask a question that really makes you think or wonder. That gets you excited to find out! There are so many things to question. Sometimes the treasure you've been seeking might be right under your own nose.
The treasure is right in front of them. Yet the collective attitude keeps them from even considering trying. Just because something has always done one way, doesn't mean it's the best. Look around... look at your own daily life... why do you do the things you do? Why do other people do things the way they do? And what if you changed doing something you've always done or didn't do it at all?"