Thursday, August 27, 2009
Culture Counts
I am almost finished with "Russka" by Edward Rutherfurd. In the 19th century there was a supposed reform, and the serfs were freed. As it turns out, the names were changed but the situation remained the same. In fact, a continual thread throughout the entire book is the dominance of institutionalized paranoia and xenophobia, combined with the perpetuation of medieval government and theocracy. Reading about Russia today, nothing has changed except the names, instead of the Tsar, there is the Premier. Instead of the nobility, there is the Communist party. All of the corruption, buying of favors, and political maneuvering continues unabated from the last thousand years.
But Russia is not unique. Read about China now and China in earlier times. Instead of a Mandarinate there is the Communist Party. Everything continues with the paying of bribes and the extraction of money as it is handed down from the top to the recipients. (There was a very revealing article in National Geographic about the building of the dam on the Yalu river.) The plite of the peasant has not changed, and the ways of doing business are the same with different names.
From my own experience in France, the bureaucracy is just as it was in the 18th and 19th Century novels. Nothing is colder than a petty French bureaucrat or official. The King has been replaced with Government, but the structure rolls on. Taxes are just as heavy as they ever have been under the nobility, only they are paid to the government. Instead of the largesse of the rulers it is the welfare of the state.
From what I have seen in Great Britain, the Magna Carta may have provided freedom to the nobles from the king, but it did little or nothing for the people. There is still a class structure. Instead of the peers, it is the members of parliament that are profligate and corrupt, as witness the headlines earlier this year.
The United States has a different history. We have no indigenous government that has evolved in place for a thousand years. We are built from the people with enough spirit and independence to turn their backs on the known and try to build something different and better. Until the middle of the last century, our culture has been one of self-reliance, can-do attitude, and a well-earned and deserved arrogance towards the rest of the world. For over a hundred years socialism which found fertile ground in Russia, France, Great Britain, and other states of Europe, failed to gain any significant foothold in this country.
It is not without trying that this is so. Socialists have been working to teach those who teach for over a hundred years. They have come close enough to success at building an underclass that it came out in this election and the resultant government actions. Note that immigration is the attempt to import an underclass. Much of this has had sporadic attempts before, but eventually there was at least some retreat when people woke up to the fact that it didn't work.
However, this summer we are seeing a resurgence of the American Spirit. It is currently spasmodic and disorganized, despite the claims of the Democrats. But it is there, and eventually will coalesce into something, though what the form will be is a great unknown. What is driving it? The remains of the American Culture--the belief in self-reliance, in heroes, in work, in laws, and in God.
What will save our country is that CULTURE COUNTS.
But Russia is not unique. Read about China now and China in earlier times. Instead of a Mandarinate there is the Communist Party. Everything continues with the paying of bribes and the extraction of money as it is handed down from the top to the recipients. (There was a very revealing article in National Geographic about the building of the dam on the Yalu river.) The plite of the peasant has not changed, and the ways of doing business are the same with different names.
From my own experience in France, the bureaucracy is just as it was in the 18th and 19th Century novels. Nothing is colder than a petty French bureaucrat or official. The King has been replaced with Government, but the structure rolls on. Taxes are just as heavy as they ever have been under the nobility, only they are paid to the government. Instead of the largesse of the rulers it is the welfare of the state.
From what I have seen in Great Britain, the Magna Carta may have provided freedom to the nobles from the king, but it did little or nothing for the people. There is still a class structure. Instead of the peers, it is the members of parliament that are profligate and corrupt, as witness the headlines earlier this year.
The United States has a different history. We have no indigenous government that has evolved in place for a thousand years. We are built from the people with enough spirit and independence to turn their backs on the known and try to build something different and better. Until the middle of the last century, our culture has been one of self-reliance, can-do attitude, and a well-earned and deserved arrogance towards the rest of the world. For over a hundred years socialism which found fertile ground in Russia, France, Great Britain, and other states of Europe, failed to gain any significant foothold in this country.
It is not without trying that this is so. Socialists have been working to teach those who teach for over a hundred years. They have come close enough to success at building an underclass that it came out in this election and the resultant government actions. Note that immigration is the attempt to import an underclass. Much of this has had sporadic attempts before, but eventually there was at least some retreat when people woke up to the fact that it didn't work.
However, this summer we are seeing a resurgence of the American Spirit. It is currently spasmodic and disorganized, despite the claims of the Democrats. But it is there, and eventually will coalesce into something, though what the form will be is a great unknown. What is driving it? The remains of the American Culture--the belief in self-reliance, in heroes, in work, in laws, and in God.
What will save our country is that CULTURE COUNTS.
// posted by Bill @ 5:45 PM 
