Kort Explores conundrums of the human condition

Celebrating the decline of freedom and the dignity of the individual in America

It's sad to witness how the true meaning of the 4th of July slips farther and farther away from the national consciousness each year. Politicians preside over ceremonies honoring those who gave their lives to build and preserve a free society, while at the same time actively engaged in destroying those same freedoms. Fearful citizens, their intellect dulled by a failed education system and bombarded relentlessly with manipulative propaganda, take their freedoms for granted and are increasingly willing to trade them away cheap in an unthinking hysterical response to an artificially created crisis.

Throughout history, civilizations generally rise and fall along a well worn path. America has long been the center and arguably the primary driving force behind western technological civilization. Political correctness aside, in the harsh and unforgiving light of reality, plotting the rise and fall of America pretty much plots the fate of the rest of the free world. Much as I would have it otherwise, I fear that America has crested the peak and is already accelerating down the other side. Let me site a few examples to illustrate.

The endless hordes of dull-witted cretins incapable of even the faintest spark of creativity have always sought to demean and manipulate the precious few with real talent and vision. After all, it's common knowledge that Michelangelos are a dime a dozen, while the Machiavellian manipulations of a Pope capable of coercing that towering talent into wasting years of truly exceptional potential painting religious propaganda on the Pope's headquarters ceiling, represents a "divine" ability worthy of the most fervent earthly worship and material rewards.

I can testify from personal experience that our current abomination of a legal system is most effective at punishing the creative and productive, while rewarding the unscrupulous and parasitic. I have a Federally registered copyright and a nearly a foot of legal documents - including a judgment signed by a District Court Judge - attesting to my uncompromised ownership of my intellectual property (computer software). I can also document over $1 million in diverted income missing from my bank account as testimony to the legal system's willingness to suppress the rights of the lawful and condone overtly criminal activities if it's inconvenient or unprofitable for the government to enforce the law.

Of course, that shouldn't be surprising since according to a suspiciously underpublicized Congressional investigation, the Justice Department is itself actively involved in software piracy and "outrageous abuse of power" in its overtly illegal attempts to suppress the lawful rights of their victim. Of course, in spite of the clear findings of the Congressional investigation, no Justice Department personnel have been indicted. With the criminals wearing the badges, it's not surprising that their victims continue to be denied their lawful rights and even the most trifling proxy for justice by their omnipotent antagonist, the Justice Department.

Today, those who engineer leveraged buyouts and hostile takeovers in order to pillage the assets of companies slowly and painfully built up through years of effort and sacrifice by others, are trumpeted as heros. Those who created the wealth squandered by the new Vandals of the business world are scorned as fools. Of course, if the world ever runs out of fools, the Vandals are in serious trouble....

The disaster of Communism has graphically proven that if you confiscate the production of people without just compensation, very soon people stop producing. The legalized rape of the creative sectors of our society can only result in the suppression of creativity. In a society thoroughly hooked on ever accelerating invention and creativity for its very survival, the short term windfalls coveted by the few can only spell long term disaster for the many.

It is said that people will gladly surrender their liberty in return for bread and circus'. Two primary interrelated causes for the decline and fall of the Roman empire were the ever escalating costs of circus', and the ever higher taxes to pay for them - which inflated the cost of bread. Basically the empire collapsed because the citizens decided the barbarians were preferable to the Emperor's tax collectors and Centurions.

Then as now, spectacles were used to distract the public's attention away from the destruction of first their liberties and then their civilization. Caught up in the frenzy and blood lust of the games, the citizens of the Roman Republic willingly gave up their rights and liberty to the Imperial Emperor. Today, as the government becomes ever more imperial and authoritarian in both its trappings and actions, the citizens of America are willingly giving up their rights - hoping to purchase with their freedom and individual dignity an uninterrupted supply of ever more violent spectacles to distract them from the increasingly desperate realities of their day to day lives.

Our colleges and universities - officially institutions of higher learning - have in large measure been reduced to publicly subsidized training and indoctrination camps dedicated to feeding a steady supply of starry eyed victims into the professional sports machine. The legions of failed and broken lives suffered by the used up physical and emotional cripples excreted by the professional sports machine demonstrate the failure of the educational/sports system to teach anything of value outside the arena if the victim shows promise as a gladiator.

As skill at fisticuffs and round house brawling replace the old fashioned spirit of good sportsmanship and the scornfully obsolete concept of fair play as the measure of value in sports, even those formerly "gentleman's" sports such as tennis and basketball have degenerated into bloody carnage and abusive behavior. Hockey rinks will soon need blood gutters to avoid unpopular (and potentially riotous) delays in the fighting. With the current trend toward glorifying violence in sport, I wouldn't be surprised to see cannons and gun crews added to the standard equipment of racing yachts. After all, the object of yacht racing is already to steal the other boat's wind. Cannons just add a bit of "leverage" or "body English" to the basic concept. Cannons would certainly add spice to the sport and broaden its appeal among the sports afflicted public.

Turning to a different problem area, there are over 30 new "health care" felonies created in the Clinton health care plan - making non-approved health care a criminal offense. "Official" medical organizations have always opposed new breakthroughs in medicine as well as "non-mainstream" alternatives such as chiropractors, naturopathy, herbal and vitamin treatments, etc. "Official" medical organizations will now have the power to physically incarcerate those offering alternatives to mainstream medicine - as well as legally suppress any treatments that don't directly profit the insiders of the new medical monopoly. Rather than representing the public good, our government is proposing to become the declared protector of the right of the few to enrich and empower themselves by imposing unnecessary pain, anguish, and even death upon an exploited public. Think about it. The American Medical Association and the various government "health" agencies have virulently opposed nearly every major advance in medicine when first introduced - treatments and procedures that we now take for granted. Progress has been made in spite of these organizations not because of them.

The age old battle of the sexes has also taken a malevolent turn in recent years. In spite of extensive scientific documentation of the biological differences between the sexes, the women's movement has made it politically incorrect to recognize the very real differences between men and women. One of the first things a novice computer user learns is that the physical structure of the hardware has a major effect on how the software will run - if it will run at all. This seemingly obvious lesson in basic logic is apparently totally lost on the women's liberation movement. Flush from their illusionary victory of manipulating the government into legislatively declaring that there is no physical difference between men and women (and with the blind arrogance of every power drunk elite down through history that forgot the difference between perception and reality), women are now trying to force reality to conform itself to their vision of "how men should be."

I think it is entirely possible that if men really were exactly what women wanted them to be, women wouldn't want them anymore. Also, how could there ever have been an age of discovery if men asked directions and accurately navigated to only those known locations they intended to visit? Only by accidentally making enough wrong turns and doggedly proceeding with great conviction in the wrong direction far enough can you discover (stumble across) that which is by definition unknown.

Men and women somehow coexisted for eons - the continued survival of the species is moot testimony to that. Those aspects of men's nature women now seem to find most objectionable are the ones most strongly tied to their basic biology and requiring generations to truly modify. So it isn't that men have dramatically changed. It's women's reactions to men that have turned malignant. The ever growing male bashing and lack of reasonable accommodation for the basic nature of men is a major contributing factor in the skyrocketing failure rate in human pair bonding. As a result, the next generation is denied one sexual role model or the other, and the ranks of lonely and bitter old women swell ever larger.

While claiming to promote equal rights, minorities advocate discrimination and suppression of the rights of their more successful competitors as a legitimate method of achieving equality of results. White males are the only racial/sexual group that it is now legal - and often legislatively required - to discriminate against, assault, or otherwise abuse. None of the self proclaimed civil rights advocates are actually advocating true race and sex blindness. Every new civil rights "reform" is in truth just another race and/or sex specific manipulation designed to force white men out of positions and situations desired by others unable to attain these positions through independent effort. While there may well be unfair conditions in our society today, I find it particularly disturbing that the sole purpose of all this social engineering seems to be aimed at redistributing the existing wealth and power already created by someone's efforts. There is little to no interest in simply providing minorities with a basic equal opportunity to create their own new real wealth from their own ambition and inspiration.

The tensions and inefficiency of racial and sexual discord are a major distraction and waste of resources - eliminating them would be a major boon to the entire society. But it's a bit much to expect white men to willingly give up real power if it means just exchanging places with the supposedly oppressed minorities. Speaking as one whom the government categorizes as a white male, I can see value in supporting true equal opportunity for all without any favoritism. If, on the other hand, we're still preserving the principle of unfair advantage and only redirecting the benefits toward a different group than mine, I'm afraid I'm going to have to retrench and close ranks with my fellows - and advocate my group over all others. An aggressive white male backlash would ultimately hurt all ethnic and sexual groups (including white males), increase the "Balkanization" of society, and accelerate the slide into catastrophe.

So is there a point to this endless rambling and seemingly incoherent tirade, you ask? I like to think so - but I might be wrong. First take a step back in perspective and consider the state of the earth as a whole. For a variety of cultural, religious, and other reasons, mankind has continued its irresponsible population explosion. None of the usual solutions for overpopulation are pleasant - famine, plague, etc. We've gotten far too good at war to use it for population control any more. Something has to be done with the excess of humanity, and when it comes down to it, there are only 2 possible resolutions: kill them or move them somewhere else.

I think it's reasonable to link the avoidance of unnecessary mayhem and violence with the basic concept of civilization. Not to mention the absolutely consistent failure of mankind's past attempts to control or direct population growth through force of arms. "Killing them" is essentially out of the question - especially since the definition of "them" might somehow be re-interpreted as meaning "us" once things got started. Unfortunately we're also distressingly short on "somewhere elses" nowadays - at least on the surface of this particular planet. The bottom line is if we don't do something about overpopulation, none of our other petty little conundrums will matter. An empty stomach voids all clauses in the social contract.

The current fad interest in dinosaurs should remind everyone of the tenuousness of survival in the long term for any earth bound species. T-Rex could out-nasty the most vicious street thug ever cultured into malevolent existence by the easy violence and crushing despair permeating the inner city wastelands. But T-Rex was gone in an instant when that big rock fell out of the sky. Eventual extinction one way or another is pretty much guaranteed for humanity if we quite literally keep all of our eggs on this one planet.

It seems obvious to me that the overall solution to the bulk of mankind's problems is finding more "somewhere else" - opening a new frontier to absorb the excess humanity and attract society's malcontents away from the center. Opening the space frontier represents the single most monumental undertaking of man's entire history. A successful effort will tax the abilities and creativity of the human race to the limits as no other before. We must to it or die. In the long term there isn't any other choice.

Further complicating the equation, we're using up the earth's natural resources at an ever accelerating rate. Recycling and high efficiency lighting make Yuppies feel good, but they're like trying to bail out the Titanic with a teacup compared to the global effects of overpopulation. Some estimates indicate we have less than 30 years to make the giant step into space before the converging resource consumption and population curves cross. After that, population pressures and the resulting resource scarcities will guarantee that we are never again be able to concentrate sufficient resources in one place to make the great leap into space. Perhaps we'll have another shot if any of us are still around after the population is massively reduced by the next great die off....

So the stage is set for humanity's greatest adventure or tragedy. Even in its current sorry state, America is the only nation in the world today that even comes close to the vitality and self confident bravado necessary to overcome the tremendous obstacles standing in the way of our becoming the first space faring species ever to step out of the Earth's nursery and challenge the universe. If America falters and collapses into decadence and corruption, the hopes of all humanity die with it.

The brilliance and foresight of the founding Fathers of America embodied in the Federalist papers, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, is nothing short of breathtaking even today. This country was gifted at its birth with an extraordinary legacy - a detailed set of rules and processes that defined a system of government that would work. Industry has only recently started to understand that the purpose of management is to facilitate the production of labor not to rule as dictator over an oppressed peasantry. It is critically necessary to all of mankind that we apply this same reasoning to government. Government must return to the role of facilitator and coordinator of the public's will and efforts - not the omnipotent autocrat dictating to cowed and subservient citizens it currently seeks to become.