Health & Fitness
Hello, King George. Are you there?
What happened to self-reliance? What happened to working to solve your problem? What happened to the belief that no one is going to stop that person in the mirror? They've all been replaced.
Recently, Mark Steyn1 provided a satirical picture of our history. In it, he describes our country depending on something like "His Majesty's Ye Olde FEMA" (basically, an 18th Century version of a Problem Solver bureaucracy) to help build this country. He followed up the thought with, "... if that were our history we wouldn't be a country,"2 or something to that effect. Mark's right. Think about it for a bit.
Our self-determination, exemplified by George Washington's fighting spirit at Valley Forge: "Jeez, it's a bit nippy out here. OK, guys, let's call it a day; red coats aren't really that bad anyway ... Revolution shmevolution ... who wants some hot chocolate!"
Our fearless resolve: "Give me liberty, or give me death...unless it's too hard, then just give me the phone number to the Department of Resolve!"
Founders everywhere: "Hello, King George, we're fine with Taxation without Representation, but we need to clear land. Can you dispatch an Earl or two to handle it?"
Of course, that's not an accurate depiction of the founding of this country; however, it's getting pretty darn close to describing history's eventual treatment of early 21st century America, because that's where we're headed. We are now so conditioned that we instinctively call on the Problem Solver residing on the Potomac for help, even when it comes to condoms. What happened to self-reliance? What happened to working to solve your problem? What happened to the belief that no one is going to stop that person in the mirror? They've all been replaced. Soon, even in our most intimate of moments, we'll look at each other and say, "What bureaucracy is in charge of this? Wait here, sweetheart, I need to get the Department of Marital Bliss on the line to help me figure out this maneuver."
It appears funny, until you look around and realize how dangerously blind and pathetic we've become. We're swimming in the biggest sea of debt a nation has ever seen, and we're asking our government to focus on copulation. "Get the government out of the bedroom" is now replaced with "Get the government out of the bedroom, but before going, leave some cash on the nightstand."
Take this Fluke situation. I know one shouldn't comment about a person's name, and I am aware that it is pronounced differently, but seriously, Fluke is perfect; this is a perfect fluke of a distraction for the Administration.
(Please note, Dear Reader, that I'm using this story, not in the discussion du jour, i.e. religious liberty vs condom rights, but to illustrate another point. So please read on!)
As I understand it, a 30-something-year-old female law student at the very prestigious and expensive Georgetown University Law School (by the way, note that the average salary of a 2008 graduate from this institution is $160k3; this is the 1 percent folks) was pleading to the receptive House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee – not the Congress – that she and women like her spend $3,000 on birth control during their time at the expensive and prestigious law school; and that they have " ... suffered financially, emotionally and medically ... ,"4 because they have to pay for their own birth control.
Suffered? The little mention of General Washington above speaks to suffering. More than 2,500 soldiers died due to disease and weather conditions at Valley Forge. They suffered. Having to shlep drinks, wait tables, or tend a cash register to afford birth control is not suffering. That's called paying your way. This woman is going to be a millionaire if she doesn't mess up, and she, the exemplar of our deteriorating culture, honors her lack of self-reliance by coming to demand that someone else pay for her peccadilloes, i.e., "Yes, I have a problem; someone else fix it."
She's not the only one. Google Sandra Fluke, and you'll find our fine members of Congress discussing the cost of birth control pills and addressing how they're cheaper at Target.5 They're doing that because it's an easy problem to solve for the Potomac Problem Solvers, not like the 16 trillion dollars in debt (that's nine zeros: $16,000,000,000) that these Problem Solvers have accumulated on our behalf and in our name. That's a much harder problem to solve, especially for a group raised in a culture that continues to find itself relying on others to solve hard problems, and when that dependency train eventually runs out, then what? Who do the Problem Solvers call to solve their problems?
Hello, King George. Are you there?
1.http://www.booktv.org/Program/13139/In+Depth+Mark+Steyn.aspx
2. ibid.
3. http://www.top-law-schools.com/georgetown-law-center.html
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xlRC0nsjtKQ about 2:00 minutes in
5.http://www.theblaze.com/stories/pelosi-flukes-3000-figure-factual-despit...
