They Cut Quarterbacks, Don't They

I'm familiar with a team that has a beloved QB. He was highly recruited and especially admired by enthusiastic new fans, people who didn't know the game and  even the referees. The front office thought for sure this man was the one who would bring their struggling team back to the place it had been for many many seasons ... #1. Alas, after several seasons some in the front office began to have their doubts. The team wasn't winning, and the truth of the matter is the team was just getting stomped on a regular basis. This QB would hand off when he should have  passed and he would pass when he should have run with the ball himself.  Seldom would he even get the team close enough to kick a field goal.  Between games, he wouldn't communicate with his team mates, and when he did, it was often at his own convenience and in vague or misleading terms. The perception of some in the front office was that he would rather play golf than be in a team meeting. He was often seen fraternizing with rival team members, and was even overheard giving assurances to one rival team that he was going to help them win in the next season. I mentioned before that the refs really liked this guy ... often ignoring his flagrant rule violations.

Well, in about 50 days,  the front office has to make a choice; renew his contract or cut him from the team. I'm praying that the front office has enough insight and where-with-all to cut Barak H. Obama from the team. Like an old familiar actor recently said ...and I'm paraphrasing ... We own this team, and  If somebody can't do the job ... you have to let them go.

The Virtues of Conservatism - Part 8

Conservatives uphold voluntary community and at the same time oppose involuntary collectivism. Conservatives believe that most challenges faced by families and individuals should be addressed at the lowest level of governance possible, that tax dollars collected from them should be used first at the community level,  then at the State level, and finally the national level.  A careful reading of the constitution will bring the reader to one conclusion. Congress is authorized to tax the citizenry for very limited purposes, the single most important being national defense.   
Conservatives hold that  local institutions, churches, synagogs, and the like, are best suited for the purposes of charity, health care, and education ...to name a few. Centralized control of these functions, at the State or national level, offer inviting opportunities for fraud, corruption, and incompetence. In light of current events, do any of those words seem to ring true?  Conservatives maintain that communities understand the challenges of their citizens much better than a distant centralized system, and should consequently be afforded the opportunity and resources to meet those challenges. 
Conservatives vociferously oppose involuntary collectivism, for a host of reasons.
1. Involuntary collectivism shifts responsibility from individuals and communities to a centralized system. Inevitably, the centralized system becomes laden with bureaucracy and inefficiency, leading to the unmet needs of the community and individuals.
2. Underneath involuntary collectivism is the principle of wealth redistribution. This principle presupposes that men and women are perfect, equal in skills/abilities, and share a common sense of justice. We know from history, and from our own experience, that no one is perfect, that we are not equal in our skills/abilities, and what one man make think just, another  may think cruel.  Involuntary collectivism has failed everywhere and every time it has been tried. The early settlers in America tried it, but quickly abandoned it, once realizing its many flaws.
3. Involuntary collectivism steals the dignity from what would be self reliant individuals. 
4. Involuntary collectivism preys upon societies'  talented, successful, and hard working individuals to subsidize, support, or nurture the lazy and irresponsible members of the society.  
5. Involuntary collectivism leads to class envy, discourages entrepreneurship, inhibits workplace creativity, and ultimately destroys economies.  We have only to look at the last 100 years of history to realize this fact. 
6. Involuntary collectivism limits the individual his/her right to pursue happiness, in that the system determines the worth of individuals, and artificially imposes limitations upon them. 
In conclusion, "A central administration, or a corps of select managers and civil servants, however well intentioned and well trained, cannot confer justice and prosperity and tranquility upon a mass of men and women deprived of their old responsibilities. That experiment has been made before; and it has been disastrous. It is the performance of our duties in community that teaches us prudence and efficiency and charity."  Russell Kirk

The outline for this treatment is credited to Russell Kirk and the web site at: 
http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/detail/ten-conservative-principles/

The Virtues of Conservatism - Part 5

Conservatives pay attention to the principle of variety, and embrace inequality as a healthy and necessary factor in societal development. Let us be clear. Conservatives are not insensitive to inequality! Rather, they embrace philosophies and strategies that offer a reasonable management of the reality. One of those strategies is called competition. Competition necessarily and predictably causes inequality ... not for the purpose of subjugation, humiliation or domination, but for the purpose of advancing excellence. To quote Russell Kirk. "For the preservation of a healthy diversity in any civilization, there must survive orders and classes, differences in material condition, and many sorts of inequality. The only true forms of equality are equality at the Last Judgment and equality before a just court of law; all other attempts at leveling must lead, at best, to social stagnation."  

The Utopian dream of social justice is just that; a dream. Of course we recognize that social justice is just code for the redistribution of wealth. Social Justice sounds like a great idea, but it's unsustainable, because it violates the law of productivity:

• People will be productive when properly rewarded
• People will prosper in an environment that fosters creative expression, productivity and autonomy
• People want to keep the proceeds of their labor and the freedom to distribute it according to their self interests
• People will resist productivity when not adequately rewarded
• People will resist productivity when rewarded for another persons labor

Humans are born unequal and die unequal. It is this reality of inequality that, in part, feeds the human need to seek significance. Those misguided individuals and organizations who seek to take earned resources from the productive members of our society and distribute those resources to the non productive members of that society are wrong on two levels: On the first level, redistribution is unsustainable. On the second level, there must be a system in place for redistribution, and that system, however noble the effort, will not and cannot be equitable in its organization, methodology or outcomes.

Conservatives embrace variety, accept the reality that inequality will always exist, and submit that"... attempts at leveling must lead, at best, to social stagnation."  Russell Kirk

The outline for this treatment is credited to Russell Kirk and the web site at: 
http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/detail/ten-conservative-principles/