Thomas Sowell on the current occupant of the White House:
People who are increasingly questioning Barack Obama’s competence are continuing to ignore the alternative possibility that his fundamental values and imperatives are different from theirs. You cannot tell whether someone is failing or succeeding without knowing what they are trying to do. When Obama made a brief public statement about Americans being beheaded by terrorists, and then went on out to play golf, that was seen as a sign of political ineptness, rather than a stark revelation of what kind of man he is, underneath the smooth image and lofty rhetoric.
As per usual Thomas Sowell hits the nail on the head.
One of the most frustrating issues in life for me, especially in politics, is the reality that many people I come across in everyday life vote for politicians, parties, or issues that they are completely ignorant about.
I am hesitant to point fingers because I admit to being ignorant about most things, but in an 'information age' the one thing that we cannot use as an excuse is a paucity of information at our fingertips.
Some years ago I was a teacher and was amazed at how many intelligent and apparently educated colleagues voted for political parties like the Greens without actually ever having researched the party at its most fundamental level. No one I spoke to had considered reading the Greens 'manifesto', their intentions, their goals in politics and society in general, in fact most of these colleagues knew nothing about the personal ideologies of the leaders of the Greens they voted for or even who they were.
Some of the schools I worked at were Christian Independents and the teachers claimed to be Christian, yet many openly barracked/voted for the Greens who are unashamedly anti-Christian in both their writing and their policies. In short the level of ignorance about the people these colleagues voted for was staggeringly evidenced in their understanding of anything to do with the politics of the Greens. It made me wonder about the other 10% of the population which voted Green. These are people that are moved by the 'seeming' as opposed to the doing, about the gesture, the intention of something and how these intentions are viewed by likeminded 'elites'. 'Outcomes' is a concept found in Human resources jargon, not a reality
My personal 'polling' of perspectives was largely conducted in teaching staffrooms but turned out to be fairly broad because at the time I happened to be spending significant periods of time in quite a few different educational environments; public schools, independents, private and tertiary.
Perhaps it is bias on my part but by-and-large I found the (few) conservative to be far better informed about policies than the socialistic.
Which brings me to Barack Hussein Obama.
I was equally astounded during the period of 'Obama fever', just before his first election, at how similar the political ignorance appeared to be amongst friends of mine in America (and other places). Because the man was black and somehow represented hope for healing between the races, (a good thing) nevertheless they appeared to jettison any attempts to dive into his past and his ideological framework. As it turned out it was a very shallow pool to dive into and quite easily navigated.
His experiences (or lack thereof) can be traced in a direct line from socialist/Marxist thought, friendships with acknowledged terrorists (one mans terrorist is another's freedom fighter???)
born into the 'faith' and subsequently mentored by Islamic scholars and hate preachers who think and teach that everything about America is ghastly.
I even had Christian friends upbraid me for being hesitant about Obama, a man who incidentally can trace major life influences and subsequent career choices back to Saul Alinsky, who dedicated his most famous tract to Lucifer....all of this information is easily accessible and not at all hidden.
Obama's messianic announcement about his election being the moment when the 'earth began to be healed' aside, his actions and strategy of office fits completely with the ideology that appears to have been with him throughout his life. Why would we be amazed at how much damage he has done to America. He hates it in its present form as does his wife.
Perhaps people are generally disinterested in politics because most politicians these days are in the 'game' for themselves, this is demonstrably true. Perhaps the pace of life has become so frenetic that most people do not have the time nor the inclination to do much research on the various party ideologies, also true. Unfortunately, what is also true is that LEST WE FORGET, a catch phrase, which has become so popular in modern day Australia means more than remembering the soldier's who gave their all for our civilisation, it also means remembering the WHY!
They gave their lives for Freedom and that freedom was won at a cost. We don't enjoy the fruits of those freedoms because of some natural, evolutionary progress in the civil development of mankind (as some would have us believe)...No! These freedoms were won from men (and women) who sought to take them away; men and women whose 'will to power' was such that they tried to take other people lands and wealth by force.
Unfortunately such men and women still exist and if we just sit back and hope for the best, if we don't use our God given intelligence to decide on the best political system for not just us, but the society as a whole, then one day we are going to have those choices taken away from us.
No comments:
Post a Comment