Hype-ocracy

"Economic growth is not an end in itself, but policy makers pursue it because richer countries are better able to provide health, jobs and a clean environment for their people," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Saturday in a commencement address to the graduating class at the University of South Carolina.

What Mr. Benanke left out was the modifier that those countries with strong socialist democracies, working in concert with nationally supported, taxed and regulated industries, such as Finland and Norway, far surpass other rich countries in providing for quality-of-life needs of their citizens. Of course, he was a Northern intellectual in South Carolina. He may have been afraid of being tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail.

My question is: Mr. Bernanke, when you were sitting by and watching your Wall Street friends ruining the American and world economies, did you caution them about the higher values and ethics of providing for the people with more regulation and higher taxes? Or were you hedging your own political bets?

Freedom

"Freedom" is a word bandied about in today's discourse about legislation and political bias. Freedom from something? Freedom to do something? The state of being free?

In the current context of U.S. political debate, freedom is coming to mean individualism. Individualism, unbridled by social responsibility, enforced by law and government, is just a euphemism for anarchy. Anarchy, the absence of government or rule of law, is by nature violent and socially regressive.

I would suggest that a citizen who, informed that the broken health care system is imperiling the health of the economic fiber of the nation, rails against fixing the problem through elected, legislative government, is an anarchist. Now, given the choice between anarchy and socialism, I would most certainly choose democratic, legislative socialism.

It is important to see what reactionaries of any stripe have to offer behind their rages. I see no intelligent alternatives offered by the Tea Party Movement, for example. I do see a propensity for anger and violence. In my opinion, I see the same rage once whipped up by the Militia Movement in the 1990s. This led to incidents like the Waco Siege. I doubt any sensible U.S. citizen wishes to see our country repeat those unfortunate times.