Warning: This is a rant that contains political speech, a controversial one at that. I'd ask everyone to keep to the high path here and not devolve into endless bickering and cheap hate speech. But hey it is politics so I guess I might as well have never written that at all.
And so it begins...
I've been seeing a sudden re-emergence of this fantastic line of reasoning lately, and it's taking a serious toll on my sanity, so I had to write this piece in order to vent a bit of the frustration I feel.
First off the whole arguement of "if you don't like it then get out" is so fundamentally ****-tardedly flawed that I feel a little piece of what little belief of humanity's intelligence I have left die every time I hear it.
Logistics: It's difficult to emigrate, it takes time, money, and it's like moving to a new town where nobody knows you, but in addition to that they may not even speak the language (of course that's getting dodgy here in the US too, but we'll get to that later).
Second: We were founded by a group of people who largely (well with the exception of good Ol' Benjie) had no freaking clue how to run a country, so they just borrowed everything that was to become America from Rome, and made the rest up as they went along. This worked well only because they were largely self-made intellectuals, unlike those that we find leading our country right now. Cause you know anyone that's actually intelligent scares off the average voter, which is why white male landowners should really be the only ones to vote (hell yea sexism, racism, and bigotry in one statement, and it's a quote from our founding fathers... rock on).
Thirdly: When you don't like what the country is doing you are forced to change its policies from within, it's your damn duty as a patriot to do so. It's why our Constitution was made with provisions to change aspects of it. It's why our founding fathers decided that freedom of speech was so important. Hell the concept of Democracy was founded to put elected officials in place that mirrors their voters own expectations, and to represent policies they want to have in place.
Fourth: I'm not saying America is totally bad, America does a number of things right.
Democracy (representative democracy, not true democracy, there is a difference google it)... well that's not working out because our elected officials are becoming inherently corrupt. On top of that they are becoming indecisive, making choices they feel will benefit them politically instead of the choices we want them to make (I'm looking at you Barrack). I can only imagine what it's like to hear the constant chattering of small-interest groups, while the majority that elected you remains silent... it must be unnerving, but the greatest leaders have been ones with an iron will (and a generous heart).
Um free-market enterprise... oh wait now the unbridled corruption of a purely free market has been tried, and there were unsafe labor conditions, ridiculous hours, child labor, indentured servitude, and ultimately product that could kill you. But hey that's just in the food industry, don't even get me started on railroad companies, or the mining industry. That was of course in the days before government regulation. Regulation we're lead to believe, by the same people that make this stupid quote, as 'dangerous'. Of course today we have the shining examples of Enron, and others to show how 'great' a free market enterprise is.
Let's see... we've done freedoms fairly well, oh wait speech has always been impeded and in the days of McCarthyism outright outlawed (oh yea and Abraham Lincoln toyed with the idea of outlawing free speech too), and multiple types of prohibition on things we damn well know can kill us but don't care are still in place?
I can almost see the comments being written now... comments like "FREE MARKET ENTERPRISE!!!!111!! IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN IT UR A COMMIE! YOUR A RACIST, YOU DON'T BELIEVE BLACKS/WOMEN/HOMELESS PEOPLE/TRAILER PARK PEOPLE SHOULD VOTE?!?!?! THAT'S WRONG!
Of course there could be slightly more intelligent comments of "they changed voting rights for a reason...", or "free market enterprise inspires people to do the best they can based on the fact that they will be richly rewarded for their hard work and effort" being written. But these would be off-topic as the title clearly states "if you don't like America then you can git out!" ;-)
Lol, anywho... I have an answer for both of these. The first, is that I made the comment (about white landowners) to further state that change is good, and people that were decidedly against what the government was doing, people like the good Dr. (if you're paying attention in February at all you know who I'm talking about), strove to change. Sure he could have moved to another country where he wouldn't be persecuted, but he decided to stay, fight, and make this country just a little bit better. The second... free market enterprise is flawed and has proven it cannot work for a society that wants to sustain itself. The auto industry is a good example. And as far as people being inspired solely on monetary gain, is quite simply... greed. As Gandhi said "The world can provide all people's needs, but not all that they greed" (sic).
Okay so I've gone thoroughly off topic... *sigh* there's just so much to be pissed about right now...
And so it begins...
I've been seeing a sudden re-emergence of this fantastic line of reasoning lately, and it's taking a serious toll on my sanity, so I had to write this piece in order to vent a bit of the frustration I feel.
First off the whole arguement of "if you don't like it then get out" is so fundamentally ****-tardedly flawed that I feel a little piece of what little belief of humanity's intelligence I have left die every time I hear it.
Logistics: It's difficult to emigrate, it takes time, money, and it's like moving to a new town where nobody knows you, but in addition to that they may not even speak the language (of course that's getting dodgy here in the US too, but we'll get to that later).
Second: We were founded by a group of people who largely (well with the exception of good Ol' Benjie) had no freaking clue how to run a country, so they just borrowed everything that was to become America from Rome, and made the rest up as they went along. This worked well only because they were largely self-made intellectuals, unlike those that we find leading our country right now. Cause you know anyone that's actually intelligent scares off the average voter, which is why white male landowners should really be the only ones to vote (hell yea sexism, racism, and bigotry in one statement, and it's a quote from our founding fathers... rock on).
Thirdly: When you don't like what the country is doing you are forced to change its policies from within, it's your damn duty as a patriot to do so. It's why our Constitution was made with provisions to change aspects of it. It's why our founding fathers decided that freedom of speech was so important. Hell the concept of Democracy was founded to put elected officials in place that mirrors their voters own expectations, and to represent policies they want to have in place.
Fourth: I'm not saying America is totally bad, America does a number of things right.
Democracy (representative democracy, not true democracy, there is a difference google it)... well that's not working out because our elected officials are becoming inherently corrupt. On top of that they are becoming indecisive, making choices they feel will benefit them politically instead of the choices we want them to make (I'm looking at you Barrack). I can only imagine what it's like to hear the constant chattering of small-interest groups, while the majority that elected you remains silent... it must be unnerving, but the greatest leaders have been ones with an iron will (and a generous heart).
Um free-market enterprise... oh wait now the unbridled corruption of a purely free market has been tried, and there were unsafe labor conditions, ridiculous hours, child labor, indentured servitude, and ultimately product that could kill you. But hey that's just in the food industry, don't even get me started on railroad companies, or the mining industry. That was of course in the days before government regulation. Regulation we're lead to believe, by the same people that make this stupid quote, as 'dangerous'. Of course today we have the shining examples of Enron, and others to show how 'great' a free market enterprise is.
Let's see... we've done freedoms fairly well, oh wait speech has always been impeded and in the days of McCarthyism outright outlawed (oh yea and Abraham Lincoln toyed with the idea of outlawing free speech too), and multiple types of prohibition on things we damn well know can kill us but don't care are still in place?
I can almost see the comments being written now... comments like "FREE MARKET ENTERPRISE!!!!111!! IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN IT UR A COMMIE! YOUR A RACIST, YOU DON'T BELIEVE BLACKS/WOMEN/HOMELESS PEOPLE/TRAILER PARK PEOPLE SHOULD VOTE?!?!?! THAT'S WRONG!
Of course there could be slightly more intelligent comments of "they changed voting rights for a reason...", or "free market enterprise inspires people to do the best they can based on the fact that they will be richly rewarded for their hard work and effort" being written. But these would be off-topic as the title clearly states "if you don't like America then you can git out!" ;-)
Lol, anywho... I have an answer for both of these. The first, is that I made the comment (about white landowners) to further state that change is good, and people that were decidedly against what the government was doing, people like the good Dr. (if you're paying attention in February at all you know who I'm talking about), strove to change. Sure he could have moved to another country where he wouldn't be persecuted, but he decided to stay, fight, and make this country just a little bit better. The second... free market enterprise is flawed and has proven it cannot work for a society that wants to sustain itself. The auto industry is a good example. And as far as people being inspired solely on monetary gain, is quite simply... greed. As Gandhi said "The world can provide all people's needs, but not all that they greed" (sic).
Okay so I've gone thoroughly off topic... *sigh* there's just so much to be pissed about right now...
