April 22, 2014

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Meanwhile, hits to Lady Liberty just keep coming, with the news that posterities are being charged for their forebears”€™ liabilities; worse, these are in some cases not even unpaid bills, but so-called “€œcorrections”€ of administrative errors. Even Charles Dickens never envisaged four-year-olds resigned to debtors”€™ prison, although in at least one instance that characterization is not far off.

Whilst Federales fiddle deficits explode, borders are wholly unprotected, and the electorate becomes debauched. With the finale of an admittedly entertaining television program millions flocked online to lament not being able to properly “€œmourn”€ the passing of a fictional character, there is obsessive angst over whether a comedian told an unfunny joke, and well-educated morons in Arizona riot because their group of over-tall idiots didn”€™t throw as many rubber balls in a metal ring as their opponents. If these are the popular outrages by order of importance, perhaps the people are deserving of those who oppress them.

Most galling is that many of these provocations are entirely unnecessary. This is not bending the law to ensure social cohesion, but obliterating it in the interest of harassing otherwise insignificant actors.

Although I love the nation, it is becoming difficult to believe that this remains the land of the free or home of the brave. It is increasingly terra firma for chiselers, liars, and outlaws cloaked in legislative garb. Primary in the First World among their ready ploys is the oldest in the book: the confidence trick. After all, you have to get your mark close before you can beat him into submission.

At selling the dream of independence no one is slicker than Uncle Sam, American adman in chief.

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