The Folly of the Inauguration

I submitted this to SoloHQ, quite possibly my most favorite website, and certainly the best new one that spend a lot of time on. Hopefully they publish it, but, I thought I would let my cozily small audience read it first:

The Warfare of Politics, Tribalism and the Inauguration

By: Steven Druckenmiller

Because of the nature of the United States Government and its over-involvement in the lives of its citizens, meaningful public debate about the political issues of the day has fallen by the wayside. In its stead is an “our side vs. their side” mentality, with no consistency or principles in either of the two dominant political parties. Citizens who cheer for the Republicans vote for and support anyone with an “R” next to their name, be they Rockefeller Republicans or the Robertson kind. It goes without saying, of course, that the same holds true for the Democrats, with the unsurprising discovery that neither side distinguishes itself on the important issues facing America. The tragic truth is that libertarians have it right when they call the politicians “Republicrats”.

Because of the increasing tribalism of politics, it is natural that worship of the chief and revelry of his victory has come to a fever-pitch. In the city of Washington, D.C., with its Soviet-esque landmarks that deify our “leaders”, the inauguration of the President was exceptional because of its brazen cost to install a leader who should be negligibly important, yet, it was also disappointingly consistent with the warfare of politics. With the increasing “team sports” mentality, it is almost no surprise that the Presidential Inauguration has become a twisted “Super Bowl” of the political world.

Why twisted? Because, we as Objectivists recognize that the actual Super Bowl is the recognizance of superiority, the summation of hard-work, effort and talent. What makes the inauguration so disgusting is that it is the celebration of the installation of a politician, someone who makes his living off of the backs of others, exploits individuals and sacrifices the common man to interest groups, all in the name of power. Instead of having true talent and ability, like football players, politicians have mastered the art of the “backroom deal”, that ubiquitous action in politics that always infringes on the rights of the individual to act for himself. Of course, the other idea that makes the Inauguration disturbing is that, while private businesses and viewers all voluntarily participate in the Super Bowl, we are all forced to finance the $100 million dollar tab it took to shut down the District.

Of course, the real question on every “lover of liberty’s” mind is: will it get worse? If the growth of the State goes unchecked, then yes, we can only expect for this kind of political worship to continue. In nations where the government was the people, it was necessary to distract the people by deifying the political leader. History is rife with these examples, from the thousands of swastikas and pictures of Hitler in every German home, to the gigantic pictures of Mao Tse-Tung in Beijing, and the depictions, in stone, of Soviet leaders as the heroic “liberators” of the people. We are, unfortunately, seeing this reflected today with the over-the-top nature of the inauguration, where only the President’s backers can exercise their right to demonstrate on Pennsylvania Avenue, and the leader is becoming increasingly disconnected from the people, guarded with security of which Stalin would have been jealous.

Although the worship of governmental leaders makes me disgusted, what truly makes me despair is that appreciation and reverence is inversely rewarded, that is, the less that you actually produce, as a politician really produces nothing, the more you are revered, and the more productive you are, the less appreciation there is. The last acceptable discrimination, as eloquently pointed out by Ayn Rand, is that of the discrimination of the businessman, and this truism has not diminished in value since Rand said it. The ideal Objectivist society would be where we have inaugural-style festivals for the businessman, the man who makes his living trading freely with other rational beings, instead of one where someone who abuses the monopoly of force society has entrusted him.

MLK Letter to the Chimes

Enclosed is my letter to the staff of the Chimes concerning our MLK Day of Learning. If I could have thrown in a few f-words and a sprinkling of bastards (as in, those sick multiculturalist bastards) to express my rage, I would have:

To the people of Capital University,

Here we are, recent celebrants of another Martin Luther King Day of Learning, and what have we truly learned? Well, if our keynote speaker is any indication, it’s that the administration, faculty and the organizers of MLK should be ashamed to the holy heavens. Their unfailing incompetence and liberal brainwashing resulted in us being forced to listen to a black keynote speaker, a State Senator, accuse a black Secretary of State of stealing the election from black people. There are no words to state how disgusting this administration is for allowing something so nakedly partisan and poisonous to the learning atmosphere to occur. I call on no one less than President Fredrickson, the Vice-Presidents and the organizers of this event to issue a full apology for openly trying to push their liberal agenda onto the community and cravenly masking it in the name of “learning”.

Most disturbing of all, this Administration has allowed the Day of Learning to descend into nothing but conservative and Republican bashing, permanently spoiling the idea of MLK Day in the minds of many students, myself included. I will never again think of the legacy of Dr. King when the holiday rolls around, I will instead think of the nauseating actions of armchair socialists and revolting multiculturalists who hijacked the man’s legacy to cram their own agenda down the collective throat of this University. Instead of the message of tolerance, openness and color-blindness that the Rev. King preached, the New Left has made this event one of intolerance for conservative viewpoints, close-mindedness and race-baiting. (Don’t forget about the sick stereotype that is served to us in the MDR every MLK Day in the form of fried chicken, collard greens and watermelon). Shame should not be reserved for the supporters alone, however. Those of us who do not speak out against this evil that has befouled our University share some of the blame as well, for Ayn Rand said that “evil requires the sanction of the victim”, and we are all victims when we let the higher ideas of learning be pre-empted by the brainwashing of these violators of academia.

Steven Druckenmiller
Senior
Economics Major and Fortunate Soon-to-be Graduate

Quotes from Me

Want to snazz up that AOL profile? Give someone a zinger in class? Get some quotes from ME!:

• It is only when a man has his house fully in order that he can or should then invite someone to share it with him.
• What's the difference between forcing someone to give a dollar to charity and forcibly extracting their kidney? Or taking their life? None of them are yours to take.
• A man needs three things in life: a drink to call his own, a good sturdy hat and a woman to not laugh at that hat.
• Why do we worship our political leaders? Did they bring us fire, electricity or the New Technological Age? No. They have done nothing but bring us war, taxes and oppression.
• The Republic will fail as our political leaders justify their broadening violations of liberty through the two legitimate functions of the State: war and the law. If the United States is destroyed by anything, it will be by perpetual war and too many laws.
  

How Will the Republic End?

All good things must come to an end, so it is said, and this includes the ideal of a Republic in the United States. Small government, few regulations and the idea that each man has the right to his own labor and the product thereof is a thing of the past. So what idea will defeat the Republic, and when will the death blow come?

A lot of movies, fiction books and the like will posit that the United States will fall to a nefarious cabal of some sort, with intentions of world domination and greed. Usually this cabal establishes itself as the leader of the government in some way, abolishes rights and liberties, and establishes a dark and dismal totalitarian state. Somehow, though, it is doubtful that the United States will succumb to some threat so swiftly.

No, the death of the United States will come as a slow strangling, a draining trickle of the lifeblood of this once great nation: freedom. The Christian and humanists tendencies to worry about what your neighbor is doing in the privacy of his own home, coupled with the idea that charity is the greatest virtue, will press the United States into submission faster than stones on the chest of a man.

It is a commonly held belief that obligatory, guiltful charity, or how a nation treats its poorest, is the test of a civilization. The implication that morality comes from giving something to the poor because they do not have it is not the measure of the strength of a civilization; instead, it is the doctrine of self-destruction. It is socialism.

The terrible idea of self-immolation comes from two places: the state and the Church. Whether it is the state, forcing you to give merely because others do not take care of their own selves, or it is the Church,implying that the Fires of Hell are hottest for those who sacrifice themselves the least, the idea that you must engage in masochistic tendencies to become morally pure will wreck the Republic, and the free ideas of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.