June's Required Reading

This is one of the finest pieces I have read since the coronavirus crisis began. It explains why so many are contemptuous of liberty and wants someone -- especially during the COVID crisis -- to lead them (even if in the wrong direction).

Every word is worth the read but, if you don't have time, consider the following:

When North Korean despot Kim Jong-un visits a factory or farm, he makes pronouncements for improvements. Such pronouncements are called “field guidance” or “on-the-spot guidance.” No matter how nonsensical, the pronouncements of the despot are revered and obeyed. 

In North Korea, there is no path forward that doesn’t begin with 100% obedience. There is nothing to be discovered, only edicts to obey. To serve the despot is the only purpose of life for North Koreans.

Andrew Cuomo is a beloved politician, despite having issued “field guidance” sending thousands of nursing home residents to their deaths. Even in May, after news of his disastrous nursing home orders were widely available, his approval rating was at 81%.  [Note: I had finished this about an hour before CBS News published the story referenced in the posting immediately below. The story proves my point that relying on government to do the right things is nothing but a formula for disaster.] 

Today, voices in opposition to the field guidance of politicians and experts are still being heard. But don’t take this for granted; tolerance for communicating opposing views is shrinking.

A March 2020 poll of Americans with 3,000 respondents showed strong bipartisan support for criminalizing speech. About 70% of those surveyed supported government “restricting people’s ability to say things” deemed as misinformation. Nearly 80% endorsed the conscription of health care professionals. Government seizure of businesses and property was supported by 58%. Over 70% supported the detention of COVID-19 patients in government facilities. The majority of those surveyed did not change their opinion even when told their views may violate the Constitution. 

When you see the riots and nonsensical things being said today, consider the above.

The rule of law, liberty and free enterprise are extremely fragile and we are in danger of losing them. And, we are giving them up without so much as a Letter to the Editor of our local papers.

• With the Supreme Court decisions of the last two weeks, SCOTUS has told us in the clearest way possible the rule of law -- for the foreseeable future -- is a thing of the past. 

• Cities are allowing rioters to run roughshod over private property -- ask the people who own (?) businesses in the CHAD area, among others.

• We have allowed the government -- literally -- based on nothing except whim, close private businesses not for two weeks to "flatten the curve" but for months. 

Just twenty years ago, Venezuela was a free county and the richest in South America. Now, people are starving and surgery, when it is available, is being done on bloody operating tables because cleaning supplies are not available.

It can happen here.