Great Truths from a Poet

Of recent date I have become very fond of reading poetry. Many years ago I purchased a book called "101 Famous Poems" compiled by Roy J. Cook and have just recently resurrected if from my modest library. I have found many of the principled poets are quite prophetic. This one written by Rudyard Kipling had a particular unique effect on me. It is called, "The Gods of the Copybook Headings." (It may be helpful to the reader to know that a copybook was used in grade schools before textbooks. They contained moral sayings and principles that the children would have to copy down in the space provided in the book).

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place. Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all. We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn: But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind, So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind. We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace, Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place, But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome. With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch, They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch; They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings; So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things. When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace. They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease. But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know." On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife) Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death." In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die." Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more. As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man There are only four things certain since Social Progress began. That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire; And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins, As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return! (Bolded words and italics added for emphasis). The idea is held by most of the world that the human race has continually progressed in civility and technology since it first made it's appearance on the earth. But any serious student of history will see that mankind's movements are cyclic occurrences and do not progress continually upward. This poem does well to illustrate mankind's tendency to repeat the mistakes that proved the down fall of the generation before. May we be more wise and learn from the Gods of the Copybook Headings.

One big happy Republican brawl

     Tonight was the night for another of the many GOP presidential debates. This one was sponsored by Fox News. It is always fun to get an early look at what the ballot sheet may contain come election time. This was my first time to get acquainted with all the nominee hopefuls. Living in Utah I must admit that it was fun to see Gov. Huntsman up there putting in his two cents. He seemed logical, thought out and had a good handle of how to conduct himself with the questions he was given. Mitt Romney I noticed, as did many others, seemed to stay out of the firing line with excellent deflection when necessary and pounding his point of experience with the economy. After all is said and done, I think he is still the number one for the Republicans. Mrs. Bachmann was tooth and nail against Mr. Pawlenty which was a duel worth watching if you can get over the incredibly annoying repetition she is  guilty of. "I was the spearhead", will live on in my memory forever as a women without a real plan, grasping at straws. I am still struggling to see what people adore about her.

     Pawlenty for his part while arguing with Bachmann took a lot of the pressure off of Romney which in the end just hurt his own cause. It is worth mentioning that when asked about the abolishment of the Fed, Ron Paul was hesitant to own it completely, citing that it would be a process over time. This was a different approach than I am used to seeing from this no compromising Libertarian cowboy. I almost thought that he and Gingrich were agreeing on something. Overall it was an entertaining endeavor and it will be nice when Mr. Perry decides to enter the race in earnest so we can see how he fairs among his competition. It would have been more difficult for Romney tonight, I believe, if he were there. I will be reading more of the reaction from this debate and hopefully re-watching it in the coming days.

A great quote from Brink Lindsey of the Kauffmann Foundation via The Economist

"We are in the early stages of resolving a huge and enduring incoherence in American political economy: for a generation now, the American public has wanted more government than it has been willing to pay for. For many years it has been painfully apparent to anyone who cares to face facts that entitlement spending, especially on health care, is on a growth path that will eventually require enormous tax increases to sustain. Yet thus far, any efforts to either restructure entitlements or raise the taxes needed to pay for them have run into a buzz saw of hostility from the electorate.

But as Stein’s Law tells us, things that can’t go on forever won’t. The current, unsustainable political equilibrium has endured as long as it has because of the government’s ability to pile up debt. But that ability is being progressively exhausted, and so the looming choice between our relatively lavish welfare state and our relatively modest tax bill cannot be delayed much longer."

The Incomprehensible Stalemate

I spent several hours today watching several cable news outlets lamenting over the current economic position that the U.S. finds itself in. Being a somewhat average consumer I tried my best to listen and understand the babble and rambling of the talking heads on these different stations. What I heard was a continuing cacophony of blame and deflection in favor of conservatives or liberals depending on the outlet. This echoes what has been happening up on the hill. One only needs to look so far as the debt ceiling malarkey. As your average "Joe" I'm not sure I understand a fifth of all the points that made it so difficult to come to an understanding and solution on that matter. What I do understand is that this debacle clearly illustrates the inability of our current government to lead this nation.

The amount of squabbling and backbiting that occurs in our nation's capitol is appalling. It is a small wonder to me that S&P made the downgrade of our credit rating. As I've been reading articles on several sites online I'm convinced that the rating reduction was deserved, despite all the attacks against the S&P's reasoning.

As I see it and as my studies have taught me, there are certain principles that no one, not even the mighty U.S. government can avoid as it steers us straight into the oblivion of financial decay. We have for too long enjoyed a state of near Utopian proportions where our entitlements are concerned, (i.e. Petroleum subsidies, farming subsidies, healthcare, and social security), without paying the cost in real taxes. Our government has sought to pacify us with all of these entitlements. We are led to believe they are ours just because we are citizens of this nation. However, many of these entitlements, if any, were never a part of the Framer's ideas for this country.

But now that we have all these entitlements what do we do to sustain them? Should we sustain them? What is the actual cost of sustaining them? How will if affect the nations debt/economy 10, 20 years down the line?

I constantly hear the ramblings of politicians about cutting taxes and government spending. It seems to me that cutting government spending is the more important of the two, as long as we are talking about real reform. But here we are, locked in the proverbial political struggle over what to do to keep the status quo of spending and subsidies.

There needs to be consensus for real reform. There needs to be political revolution if necessary to help the leaders of this nation realize that it is not okay to gamble with the future of it's electorate. The job they have is bigger than themselves. It is bigger than us as a nation because of our influence in the global economy. There must be something done!

The issues that drive the stalemate of our nation's government are difficult for many to understand. However, the stalemate itself is easy to comprehend if one is acquainted with human nature. Either side is fighting for what it believes it's electorate is entitled to, afraid to risk their seat in the name of reason and principled governance. A call from people willing to abide good principles is needed to call our government out of it's selfish seat seeking ideology, into a forum of hardcore problem solving. But alas, who will answer the call. There are so few who care to look at what is really going on, their eyes glued to the screens of Fox News, or CNN, where talking heads argue back and forth about who is to blame. In so doing they stroke the egos of their respective constituents.

I, for my part, will attempt to discuss only principles that our nation was founded on. I will look for in this current political climate anything that is praiseworthy by definition of those principles. To any who seek truth among the rhetoric and want to see real change in the attitude of this nation, this is a place you can feel at home.