[e-gold-list] Re: e-gold's "moral" attackers

[Paul Davis]

Jim said: 
>> I remember when decent men and women protested this sort of crap.<<

Well, I'm here, and I'm also old enough to have been there -- the 60s, which
is what I presume you're referring to. My sense is that the people now are
aren't so different from the people then.  The difference I see is The
Draft.  

Kennedy and Johnson were conscripting young men from all socio-economic
strata to go get blown up and shot at in 'Nam.  People in universities were
facing the prospect of going straight from a graduation gown to camo and
then slogging around in Asian mud.  This made them unhappy and motivated
them to march in the streets -- something unhappy students are known
throughout history to do, even for lesser reasons.

The demonstrations got bigger and noisier, and finally the grownups got so
nervous they ended up shooting and killing some of those noisy students
right on campus (at Kent State) without even waiting to send them to 'Nam
first.  You don't want to shoot and kill the sons and daughters of people
with money and privilege right on campus and right on the six o'clock news.
You could tell right there that you were seeing the beginning of the end for
the grownups' war.

One of the things the students were railing against was The Draft, and so,
along with the end of the 'Nam war, they also got that taken away.
Ironically, that made it possible for future tyrants to launch increasingly
bold foreign military adventures without having to worry about anyone of
consequence raising a stink.  The tin soldiers started coming from the ranks
of the economically and politically unconnected, so who would care about a
few dead bodies?  Give mama and daddy and flag, spout off some cliches about
patriotism and "keeping America safe", and the machine could and does grind
along.  The university grads are now going safely on to their high-paying
careers, so they can't be bothered.

Now, I'm not getting ready to launch into an argument for reinstating the
draft.  I just want to point out that people act politically only when their
self-interest is threatened.  From the looks of things, I'd say the biggest
storm brewing nowadays that's likely to get people riled up and active is an
economic one.  

If, as I assume, the Fed and the Treasury and the European central banks
will fail at their increasingly desperate cat herding exercises, you're
going to see big-time economic changes that are going to hurt a lot of
people in a big way -- much bigger than the home foreclosures we've seen in
the last year or two.  Bush bought some time by sending out little scraps of
money -- "economic incentives", I think he's calling it -- and it is
bringing the predictable small uptick in consumer spending.  He's probably
hoping the band-aid will hold long enough to get through the next election.
Maybe it will. 

Then again, if more oil sellers unlink from the dollar, it's not hard to
imagine things getting completely out of hand very quickly and the dollar
finding its true value down there somewhere with the money issued by those
other debtor nations -- such as banana republics.  

"Honey, grab that suitcase full of C-notes, would you?  We need to go get a
few groceries down at the store."

"Sorry, babe, we used up the last of our savings the other day.  I hear
they're rioting over in the next town, maybe we should go over and see if
there's anything left that we can loot in their supermarkets."

What's really scary about this scenario is that people have, historically,
rallied around even worse tyrants when they find themselves in dire straits.
Meaning people will stop even giving lip service to the Constitution and
just follow whatever Great Leader steps up to promise what they want to
hear.

Those of us who care about the ideas of indivdual liberty and responsibility
have a big job ahead of us.

Paul Davis
 




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