Two Americas

Right now I guess you can say that I am fascinated with The Pretenders' song "My City Was Gone," as I think this is my second blog post which will make reference to it. Yet it captures the essence of my feelings about where our country is currently headed quite succinctly.

(Maybe it's cuz Rush is moving to a new radio station in my hometown and the channel's been blaring this song all weekend, as a promotional gimmick. Actually, no, but it's hilarious anyway.)

When I say "two Americas" I don't mean it the way ambulance chaser shark-turned-politician John "$500 haircut" Edwards does. I mean that in this country there are fundamentally two broad social classes - those who are connected and privileged, who know the powerful or rank among them, and make government work for them; and then everyone else, who have to pay for this orgy, and for whom government is designed to screw royally.

So many films and works of art (like the aforementioned paean) criticize the system for its corruption and its wanton destruction of life and liberty. We all hope, as if there is some perfect world yet to be achieved, that the system can be reformed to some alleged ideal. Yet no one ever conceives that the system is working exactly as it was intended to operate. There was no perversion along the way; the perversion was built in from the get go.

The solution is to abolish the State, and let freedom reign.

There is no such thing as a perfect world. The State cannot produce Utopia. In fact, it creates the opposite - a desolate wasteland of malaise, misery, want, and death. In a world without the State, there will remain those who practice violence and coercion, wanton thuggery and lack of moral character, hate and discord. Yet in a world without legalized coercion, they hold no claim to moral legitimacy, and will be forced to deal - or else.