"One Clear Voice" (opens in separate window)
when the wicked rule
friday, november 4th, 2020
When the righteous are increased, the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. — Proverbs 29:2.
And there’s a whole lot of mourning going on. Here’s a partial list of some recent observations.
In 2020, we reelected President Trump in an historic landslide, but in a handful of key states, through several coordinated methods (including foot soldier election fraud and computerized voting machine manipulation), the election was stolen in the dead of election night. Joe Biden was not elected President. It was a criminal coup that put him there.
If the corrupt, evil Left didn't value mayhem, destruction and death, they'd have no values at all.There was NO “attack” on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021. There was NO “insurrection.” There WAS an FBI-orchestrated set-up by a small number of men to create an illusion and deception to feed the lying narratives of the communist Democrats and many so-called "Republicans," giving them a bogus excuse to make examples and political prisoners out of a number of innocent American citizens, "and for other purposes" (a phrase they love to stick into legislation).
In their deep hatred of President Trump and some of the good he was doing for our nation, the communists destroyed the rule of law of our Constitutional Republic. It’s breathtaking, the insane, baseless lawfare they’re waging against the President, his family, and so many who worked with him or helped him. It’s something routinely seen in despotic countries around the world, not in the United States of America.
COVID-19 is a lab-created bioweapon that’s very dangerous to the already sick and elderly. The COVID shots, falsely purported to be “vaccines,” are also dangerous bioweapons that are killing people. The planned global response to the release of COVID was for rulers worldwide to launch a fear-based, aggressive assault on freedom, resulting in the destruction of economies and countless lives and businesses in the Western world and beyond. It was never about “health” or “safety.” It was always about control of the people, coalescing global power, and especially tearing down the liberty, sovereignty, and wealth of the United States—and allowing the easier implementation of their scheme to steal the 2020 election, preventing President Trump’s rightful second term.
A promise is never better or worse than the character of the one who’s making itThrough their human militants, the ever-more aggressive demonic spirits of Sodom and Gomorrah have waged a detestable recruitment campaign against our children and young people. This has resulted in an explosion in the number of kids who are diving headlong into the hell of perverse sexual rebellion. The danger to the mind, body, and spirit of people who embrace this kind of wicked behavior cannot be overstated. It’s truly an infernal destroyer.
It’s also irksome to constantly hear about the “incompetence” of the Biden regime (or whoever’s actually running it). It’s not incompetence. It’s malice, and it’s purposeful. The Biden regime’s lawless facilitating of the massive illegal alien invasion of our southern border is on purpose. The destruction of our economy is on purpose. The crushing of the value of the dollar is on purpose. The food and supply shortages are on purpose. The skyrocketing inflation is on purpose. The outrageously high gas prices are on purpose, because Biden and his handlers want to drive us out of our vehicles and limit our freedom of movement.
The communist Democrats, their fellow-traveling buddies in the “Republican” party, and the Corporate Communists are positioned to disarm the American people, destroy the United States as founded, and replace it with a global-order communist “Utopia” of poverty and tyranny.
There are some in the United States who still believe we can vote our way out of this evil madness. I’m not one who thinks that. Yes, there may be some local and state elections in which the rational among us can prevail, but the communists have solidified their election fraud methods in key states, so they won’t be denied their federal outcomes.
The list of badness goes on indefinitely, and there’s much more I could mention. My purpose here is not to argue the truth of these observations, which are plain to those who can see and discern the times in which we live (or at least who are able to do some effective Internet research apart from communist “news” sources). My purpose is to say that there is no hope in the world outside of Jesus Christ, the living Son of God, Who is the only way of salvation, peace, and life. What we’re dealing with is a spiritual reality that most people in the world are currently unable to see—the forces of heaven and hell at war for the souls of all mankind.
Satan and his demonic minions despise God and His creation, and they’re determined to kill, steal, and destroy as many of us as possible before Satan’s time runs out. That’s why we’re watching what seems to be such senseless destruction of freedom, lives, economies, nations, food and water supplies—anything that’s being destroyed or diminished. The people orchestrating the destruction are on the side of the devil. Literally. They belong to him, and so they lust to do his deadly will.
It doesn’t get any better from here on out. The Bible tells us so. The darkest, most terrible days of the world are on the way. If you’ve never learned about the one true God and what He did to save you from eternal death—your certain destination without Him -- then you must hear that you are God’s creation, and He loves you. But each of us has sinned, breaking God’s perfect law, so we’re marked for eternal death and separation from God, as mandated by His law. On our own, none of us can save ourselves from that eternal death, but God loved us greatly and made a way for us to be reconciled to Him. He sent His Son Jesus, Who is God, to take on the form of a man, live a perfect, sinless life here on earth, and then sacrifice His life in our place. Jesus willingly chose to take the punishment each of us deserves in order to bridge the impossible divide between God and man.
The wonderful news is that all you have to do to get this eternal life for yourself is to believe in Jesus. Pray to God the Father through Jesus. Seek Him while He can still be found, and when you do, He will reveal Himself to you and begin to open your understanding to what He’s given us in the Bible, which is His powerful, living message to us. Study the Bible, and gain true knowledge by the Holy Spirit that He gives us. He will save you through Jesus and change you. He will give you peace in your mind and heart and everything you need. And when this lost and dying world is done, you will live with Him forever.
© June 16, 2022 by Gina Miller, "RenewAmerica".
A Day In The Life.
Up at 7:45a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee, took a 50mg Tramadol for hip pain, held off on breakfast, also took a 500mg Tylenol Extra Strength, had a couple smokes in the semi-cool garage and checked the leftover errands list. It was already 49°, and forecast to hit 72-75°, with blue skies ahead. A 10:50 Dr's app't, p/u order at New Eastern Market, and a few errands was the bill of fare for the day.
I left at 10:15 for Wellspan's Apple Hill Medical Center, just south of York, and with minimal construction delays, made it in ample time. My 60min session went well, I got my Sonofi Fall Flu Shot, left after 1hr and drove north on I83 to the New Eastern Market in East York to p/u my order with Pasta Plus, and got some BBQ goodies in the next booth. Next I stopped at the USPS Facility, also in East York, and made it home by 12:45p. After unloading 2 bags of food containers, I took my 19 morning pill regimen -- which I'd forgotten in my haste to leave for the Dr's app't -- had Lasagna and a banana for lunch, started a load of laundry and collapsed in my office-sunroom chair. The "Chris Plante Show" Podcasts were up, and I listened while I dozed, and the Jeep's massive HEM V8 cooled-off.
Yes, Shit-For-Brains Joey Lunch Bucket Bidet&Co is a true American Voice of Clarity, isn't he?
By 5:30p, temps were dropping as fast as the sunlight, so I closed the condo's front/back screen/storm doors, and switched to Fox News' "The Five" for a while, and then to the news. I went thru the usual "Watters" and "Carlson" shows, and then switched back to the "Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge Mine Rescue" series, and watched until 11p. Lights out.
Just remember that there are 3 types of people in the world: those who are good at math, and those who aren't. Heh.I slept-in until 9a on Saturday, a bright sunny 67°, and forecast to be near 80°, and by 12:30p, it was. I had sharp upper-back pain, so I took 2 50mg Tramadol, 1 500mg and 1 30mg Flexoril, and those helped. I didn't eat breakfast until almost 1p, just to let the meds work, and I also delayed my 19 pill regimen until after eating.
I had found some invasive wild grape vines mixed into the giant Roseum Elegans Rhododendron (Pink), so I grabbed my 30yr-old, trusty, still sharp-as-hell Felco #7 Pruners, and cleaned out what I could reach, and netted a BIG pile of vines.
By 2p, it was 81° and a strong wind was blowing, and gratefully knocking-off most tree leaves, so I don't have to deal with them, mixed-in with snow and ice. I had breakfast for lunch, and Sis wanted me to drive her over to her condo, and get the week's mail. It was a nice day for a drive, except for the heavy traffic and construction/bridge repair project chokepoints. I had Pasta & Beef w/ Marinara Sauce with Roasted Potatoes, for dinner around 5p. A NASCAR xfinity Series Championship Race came on at 6p, so I watched for a couple hours. No F-1 Grand Prix Races until next Sunday, in Abu Dhabi, and the following week in Qatar.
I hope you didn't forget to TURN YOUR CLOCKS BACK 1 HOUR, TONITE! I remembered, and it's going to take a bit of getting used to.
I watched the (boring 1 mile track) NASCAR xfinity Championship Race until 8p (really 9p), did some condo chores and kept relaxing for the evening. I watched some TV, made-up a food list for Weis Market, and unplugged around 10p (really 11p). Lights out.
I slept-in until 9a (really 10a) on Sunday, after some serious t-storms and rain last night, and it was an unusually-warm morning, at 68°, and the condo was at 74°, with the heat turned-off all night. I did the usual routines, made coffee and had a couple smokes in the garage. No F-1 GP races on today; just another crappy NASCAR (Cup Series) race, in the afternoon. I had a few mugs of Kona coffee, grabbed the morning shave and usual shower, and had a mega-large Croissant for breakfast. NBC (Nothing But Crap) on TV, so I did condo chores -- 1 more load of laundry, another load of dishes, took out the recycle bin, and got the garbage bag ready to go in my neighbor's bin -- "ice-cubed" the 3 orchids, and finished-up a small stack of paperwork. The NASCAR Cup Series Championship race came on at 1:30, so I watched. NASCAR is boring crap, but it's better than a poke in the eye, with a sharp stick.
By 4:30p, some rain cells came thru, wetting everything, and by 4:45, it was getting dark, so I closed-up the condo and garaged the Jeep. The 312-lap race took seemingly forever, but I stuck with it. My favorite -- Joey Logano, #22 on Penske Racing -- won the race and the NASCAR Cup Championship. I skipped dinner, watched Fox News until 10:30p, and unplugged for the night.
Up at 8:30a on Monday, it was a warm, sunny 67° with clear blue skies. I had cereal, coffee and tuned into the "CP Show", checked my day's list, and set-off at 12noon. I had 4 stops to make and finally got back to my condo just after 2p. After unloading, and some Shrimp on Angel Hair Pasta w/ Alfredo Sauce, I noticed that the recycle bin was partially full, and a corrugated box had blocked the truck dumping-out all the stuff from the bin. I cut down the box with my trusty single-edge razor blade, flattened-out 2 more boxes and duct taped them together, flat. It was getting dark by 4:50p, and I left the Jeep out for the night, since it would only drop to the mid-40s.
After dinner, I watched "Jesse", "Tucker" and switched to some "Gold Rush" episodes I hadn't seen, until 10:30. Lights out. It's going to be a very busy day tomorrow.
Up at 7:45a on Tuesday, it was a nippy 43°, sunny, mostly cloudless morning. I fired-up the furnace, heaters for the garage and office-sunroom, made coffee, did the BSL routine, and checked the news and weather. I had neck/shoulder pain, so I took a 50mg Tramadol, got a Croissant w/ Blueberry Preserves (sugar free) for breakfast, and Sis and I left at 10:30 for the voting polls and a load of errands. Sis' run: Walgreen's Pharmacy, WF Bank, Voting Station at Zion Church... my run: Voting Station at North Sherman St Fire Station, Rite Aid Pharmacy. Total time 2hrs, 26 miles RT. Back at my condo by 12:15p, for lunch. Traffic was light and I broke the speed limit on I83 south and north. My bad. I had Shepherd's Pie for lunch, and a lot of leftover morning Kona Coffee.
I continued monitoring the FR Official Pennsylvania Election Thread I started, plus check every new thread posted on the site, to alert the PA Ping List to anything germane to PA, with "revised HTML", which Tom sent to me. I listened to the morning's "Chris Plante Show" Podcast, which I'd missed, until 7p, when the "Jesse Watters Show" and 8p for "Tucker Carlson Show" came on. I kept-up with the FR site until 11p, called it a night, and set my alarm to get up at 6a, early enough for JoAnne, my cleaning lady's, arrival.
The alarm went-off at 6a, to a cold 34°, clear Wednesday morning; no frost yet. I did the usual routines, had coffee and checked the computer for weather and news of last night's election results.
I did more laundry, a load of dishes, emptied-out the recycle bin to clear out mail and other paper, to keep the other stuff from getting clogged at the bottom, some minor condo chores, and fell asleep on my comfy office-sunroom chair.
S-H-I-T. We got our asses kicked across the country; here in Pennsyl-tucky. FetterNeck and Shit-piro are staying. The leftist libtard morons in Filth-a-delphia, Shitt-burgh, Erie, and Harris-turd voted them back in. Nuke those 4 shitholes. Trump's "coattails" weren't enough, and most Republicans didn't come out to vote, as usual. Only us diehard Conservatives did -- mostly older and wiser people -- and there weren't enough of us to counter the demonKKKrats' fraud, cheating and corruption. Plus, Oz was a shitty candidate -- like all the rest we had -- and Dave McCormick, whom he beat in the primary, would have been a better candidate, with less personal baggage and ties to libs. End of story.
Lessons from the election:
• There is only a remnant of the righteous, remaining. They are a diminishing minority.
• Wicked leaders prosper because they truly reflect the electorate.
• Cheating and Fraud are rampant nationwide.
• The righteous cannot raise their families in an evil environment, and will accelerate their exodus to states that protect them.
• Purple states are going deep blue. There is no middle ground anymore.
• America, as we have known and loved her, is finished.
• Prepare to defend yourselves.
• God is not mocked. An even harsher judgment is coming.
This election spotlights how stupid the average voter is. We are enduring what might be the toughest economy we’ve seen in 50 years? High inflation. Extremely high gas and energy prices. Rising violence Massive homelessness. Possible nuclear war. And what did the electorate do? They seemingly handed more power to the party that has put us in this situation. At the very least they have kept the status quo which is unbelievable. Mail in votes are the problem. The vegetable-moron here in Pennsylvania winning, just cements my opinion: same fraud, different year. Elections are dead under Marxists. This country is fading fast. I have my storehouse of food, guns and ammo.
I was down in the "doldrums" -- pissed-off more like it -- that we did so badly, seemingly everywhere except Florida and Ohio. "72% of the country polled, said we're "going in the wrong direction", but they voted for the same people who put us on that disastrous road, as a country. I give up on Americans having any modicum of intelligence. Yesterday was a litmus test for your intelligence, and you failed. I never understood why people would vote against their better interests. But you did. What did you vote for? You voted for violent crime. You voted for the deaths of innocent people and children in Chicago, NYC, Detroit and Baltimore and other cities. You voted for criminals to be released without bail. You voted to continue the flood of Fentanyl into this country. You voted to allow China to profit from that
After my evening 16 pill routine, I took a 12.5 Ambien CR, and went upstairs at 9p. I'd had enough for the day.
Up at 8:30a on Thursday, another bright, sunny and nippy 42° start to the day. I did the usual routines, made coffee and checked the weather and news. I got a call from my old PNC Bank, telling me that a $50 charge had been made against an old VISA card, which I haven't used in 5-6yrs, since I moved everything to Wells Fargo Bank, in 2017. It was a Sam's Club Membership charge, and I tried to pay it off, but since it was 'pending', I couldn't. I decided to drive over to the local branch office, clean out the checking account , close it, and pay-off the CC, and close it. Too early for all this financial crap.
I had pain in my lower back, hips and R/S shoulder. I took a 10mg Oxycodene and that did the trick. I won't be driving anywhere or a few hours, so will go to the local bank branch after lunch. I tuned into the "Chris Plante Show" until 12noon, and got the Sam's Club personal information fix (new CC number and phone; I'd forgotten about that account with old numbers), and the PNC data together, with Credit/Debit cards, to close the checking account. That 10mg Oxy made me feel great. Heh.
Do you and your family have a plan in place, for when the diesel fuel prices hit $8-9-10/gal, the costs become too high for truckers to drive goods to us, they park their trucks, and all the shelves empty out? Better get one. Email me if you want6 one, and I'll point you to some online plans.
Despite Hurricane/ Tropical Storm Nicole coming up the East Coast, nothing other than *Gale Warning* and a *Small Craft Advisory* were posted for tomorrow and Saturday, for the York-Lancaster areas. Those pertain to DC-MD-VA and the Chesapeake Bay, not us. I called Sherry to confiurm tomorrow's walk at the massive York Galleria Mall, instead of the nearby park.
Want to know how the corrupt, Fascist, Marxist, criminal demonKKKrats steal elections? This is how they do it in Gabon, and how the demonKKKrats do it here. There are still 74 races yet untabulated and called. America is truly a Third World Banana Nation. The voting election system in this country is an utter disgrace, making a mockery of itself each and every time it condemns other nations etc, concerning their elections and voting. Every red state should adopt the Florida method for elections. The constitution states that votes need to be counted on Election Day. Florida does this easily. With this example in place we could hopefully shame states like Arizona into honoring the US Constitution.
I had a massive midday lunch, skipped dinner, watched Fox News until 10p, and called it a day. I have to get up early tomorrow, and get to the New Eastern Farmers' Market, to get my called-in order, add-in some BBQ from the next booth, and get out in TS Nicole's 2-4" of rain. Lights out.
Tomorow starts another week here in the "Journal", and next week involves a 3 month return visit to Wellspan Endocrinology, and taking Sis to PSU-Hershey Med Ctr & Hospital, to see her surgeon, and hopefully, she gets an OK to climb stairs and drive her BMW, and get back to semi-normal. And hopefully, get to be with Sherry, 1-2 days during the week, depending upon her schedule. It is what it is.
Lab Rats.
As the midterms approach, one way of looking at America’s current disaster is that we, the American people, were lab rats. And since 2021, the Left were the mad scientists, eager to try out their crackpot leftist experiments on us.
The result is that the housing market is tottering on the verge of collapse.
As interest rates soar, our $31 trillion national debt crowds out everything else in the budget.
Inflation roars at a rate of 8-9 percent per annum, higher than at any time in 40 years. Yet the prices of the stuff of life—food, fuel, shelter, energy—are far steeper still than the official rate.
No one is safe from thugs anymore—whether a commuter on a New York subway or the Pelosis in Pacific Heights.
The country reportedly has a 25-day supply of diesel fuel—the energy source that runs the nation. Meanwhile, we keep draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve of oil—a commodity we have in abundance but refuse to produce fully.
We never fixed the supply-chain crisis of last year, and so still face shortages of key consumer goods.
The labor participation rate is at an all-time low—given fat government COVID subsidies, the Siren-song appeal of staying home after the lockdowns, fear of COVID, and millions of workers with long COVID.
The post-Kabul Pentagon is quiet about the depletion of its critical stocks of weaponry. We have sent billions of dollars’ worth in howitzer shells, javelin missiles, and Hilmar rocket launchers to Ukraine without replenishing our own arsenals. The Army’s recruitment rate is off 50 percent this year.
Our broken Navy is ossifying as China expands its fleet in expectation of absorbing Taiwan.
When we look to the president for an accounting for these madcap experiments, we get nothing. In the last few weeks, Joe Biden has lied that gas was $5 a gallon when he took office when it was half that.
He falsely swears that he passed his student-loan amnesty plan by one or two votes when he simply signed away a half-trillion dollars in debt by an executive order and bypassed Congress.
Kamala Harris is our border czar but she avoids the nonexistent southern border like the plague.
As the country depletes its petroleum reserves, she gushes about “solutions” like transforming the nation’s school bus fleet to battery power.
On the rare occasion she is allowed abroad, Harris has no idea what North Korea’s official name is—only that it is supposedly one of America’s staunchest allies.
We are now headed for a decisive midterm election. Strangely the hard-left architects of the last two years neither offer a defense of their failing agendas, nor agree to change them.
No Democratic congressional candidates brag about the 3 million people who illegally crossed an open border.
None boast that they helped cancel key pipelines, reduced federal leasing of gas and oil, and shut down the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. None take credit for hammering investments in fossil fuels.
None preen over the no-bail and defund-the-police policies of left-wing, big-city prosecutors and mayors who have spiked crime.
None insist that an annual 8-9 percent inflation rate is a desirable spreading of the wealth.
And yet odder still, no Democratic candidate, state or national—and most certainly not Joe Biden—offers to alter these toxic policies.
If they won’t defend what they have done, they apparently will not undo what they have wrought either.
No Democratic gubernatorial candidate wants one foot built of a new border wall. No House candidate demands that the Keystone pipeline be finished. No senatorial candidate calls for fiscal discipline to lower inflation.
Instead, they stay mute.
Biden mutters lies about MAGA extremists under every bed while daily offering yet another made-up tidbit of his fantasy autobiography.
State and national candidates either avoid debates with their Republican opponents or delay them in hopes they will become irrelevant since millions of mail-in ballots are already cast.
Rarely have voters turned over their country to radicals, socialists, and nihilists.
We did in 2020.
And once the Left took the presidency, the House, and Senate, they tried a deadly experiment on us the American people, their veritable lab rats.
It failed—and has now nearly destroyed us along with the country.
Yet in November the Left apparently demands more time for more experimentation on more of us. But to do what exactly?
Pass more no bail laws and promote more defunding of the police? Make the jails and prisons emptier?
More destruction of what’s left of the southern border?
More biological men overpowering women in sports?
More printing of money?
More cutting back on federal gas and oil leases and canceling pipelines?
Apparently, the only thing that will stop their mad experimentation is that they have run out of us—their once willing lab rats.
© 11.2.2022 by Victor Davis Hanson, "American Greatness".
When Equality Becomes Evil.
Equality before the law is an indisputably good thing. Using force to make people equal is an entirely different story.
Memorize the following line, teach it to your children, and shout it from the rooftops every chance you get. It’s one of the most important truths you’ll ever learn or teach: Free people are not equal, and equal people are not free.
Your first reaction might be, “I thought equality was supposed to be a wonderful thing, something we should all strive for, but this sounds like a rejection of it.”
As the old saying goes, the devil is in the details. Whether equality is good or bad depends on the kind that you’re talking about. Context makes all the difference in the world.
Equality before the law—such as being judged innocent or guilty based on whether you committed the crime, not on what color, sex, or creed you represent—is an indisputably good thing. We should all want the law to be applied fairly and equally to all citizens. The blind-folded goddess of justice should never peek.
That kind of equality is a virtue and an ideal. It’s a pillar of Western Civilization for which untold numbers of men and women have given their lives.
The meaning of “Free people are not equal and equal people are not free,” however, is economic in nature. It refers to material income or wealth. Put another way, it might read, “Free people will earn different incomes. To ensure their incomes are equal, you must attack their freedom by using force.” This is the first of my “seven principles of sound policy,” as explained in this speech.
With elections just days away, I hope you will not vote for someone simply because that candidate is promising to steal on your behalf. To bow to such unseemly demagoguery makes the candidate a crook and therefore not to be trusted, and it would make you a craven accomplice whose freedom and independence can be bought with a handout.
Consider two violinists. One plays in an underground subway for whatever coins that passersby toss into his violin case. The other performs in concert halls before audiences of thousands. It does not matter that they may play the same tunes and be equally pleasing to the ear. The income of the first one will never come close to the income of the second unless and until he cleans up his act and finds himself a good marketer. This is economic inequality. It arises through no compulsion and reflects very different magnitudes of service to happy customers. It’s both natural and beneficial.
Deploying force to somehow make those two violinists equal in income would be stupid, counterproductive, and downright evil.
Even in unfree societies (such as Cuba or North Korea), we see inequality in incomes. The masses there live in quiet desperation while the political elites live in luxury. In the name of “equality,” such places not only fall far short of it, but they also produce tyranny and mass poverty in the effort.
Economist Milton Friedman stated this truth in a famous and memorable way: “The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.”
One of my favorite movies is Enemy at the Gates, which appeared in 2001. Disillusioned with the communist system, a Soviet propagandist named Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) heaves himself into the line of fire but not before he mutters, “We tried so hard to create a society where everyone was equal, where there was nothing to envy or appropriate. But there is no ‘new man.’ There will always be envy. There will always be rich and poor.” Then he adds, "Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love.” That is both common sense and profound.
Economic equality in a free society is neither obtainable nor desirable. Free people are different people, so it should come as no surprise that they earn different incomes. Our talents and abilities are not identical. Some work harder than others. And even if we all were magically made equal in wealth tonight, we would be unequal again in the morning because some of us would spend it and some of us would save it.
To impose economic equality, or anything remotely close to it, governments must issue these orders and back them up with firing squads and prisons: “Don’t work harder or smarter than others, don’t come up with any new ideas or inventions, don’t take any risks, and don’t try to be more successful than anybody else.”
In other words, don’t be human.
Consider the wisdom of this remark in a 1945 essay by Austrian economist F. A. Hayek: “There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. While the first is the condition of a free society, the second means, as De Tocqueville describes it, a new form of servitude.”
The fact that free people are not equal in economic terms is a cause for rejoicing. Economic inequality, when it stems from the freedom of creative individuals and not from government power and political advantages, testifies to the fact that people are being themselves, each putting his uniqueness to work in ways that are fulfilling to himself and of value to others.
People obsessed with economic equality do strange things. They become envious of others. They divide society into two piles: villains and victims. They spend far more time dragging someone else down than they do pulling themselves up. They’re not fun to be around. And if they make it to public office, they can ruin a nation. The envy that fuels their passions is at the root of many modern evils, as I explained in this essay.
The Nordic economist Anders Chydenius warned us in the 18th Century where the cult of redistribution leads: “The more opportunities there are in a Society for some persons to live upon the toil of others, and the less those others may enjoy the fruits of their work themselves, the more is diligence killed, the former become insolent, the latter despairing, and both negligent.” No economist worthy of the title believes that either freedom or prosperity can be built upon the dirty business of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Philosopher Eric Hoffer, in his classic book The True Believer, offered an interesting explanation for much of the quest to make us all equal (https://fee.org/articles/the-wisdom-of-eric-hoffer-part-i/):
Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is but freedom to establish equality and uniformity. The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others, and expose our inferiority.
For those who want to refresh their understanding of equality—the sort to strive for and the kind to avoid—I’ve assembled some excellent readings below. Please give them a look and share them with others.
This economic equality thing is parent to endless harm. When it’s just an idea, it’s nonsense. When it finds its way into public policy, it’s poison. Don’t drink it.
© 11.2.2022 by Lawrence W. Reed, "FEE Stories".
