Reaping the Harvest

Jerry Pournelle posted this on his site today in a discussion about the public education system and the increasing gap between "haves" and "have-nots":

"Charles Murray in his Coming Apart points out that rich white people tend to be married, go to church, invest in educating their children, believe in the work ethic, and in general embody all the old American virtues that built this nation. But, he points out, they no longer preach what they practice. And the result is that the gap between rich and poor, between well off and poverty, grows greater. Those who don’t practice the old virtues descend further down in comparison to those who do; but no one notices that, or if they notice it they don’t say anything. It’s as if we are keeping The Protestant ethic as a secret."

I would go one further: many of the "have nots" are kept there by the rich elites who attend expensive east coast private school systems and are increasingly becoming something like a noble class in this country -- but completely absent any sense of noblesse oblige. They attack "American exceptionalism" and "God and Guns" and convince their constituents that such people are the problem with the country.

Their constituents are of two varieties. The first are the guilt-ridden whites of the hand-wringing class who are terrified their ancestors might have been less than perfectly enlightened and are ready to stumble all over themselves to make amends for sins they never committed. But of greater importance, and of more relevance to the topic, is the welfare-based vote farming system set up by LBJ and maintained by two successive generations of Democrat elites. It is a trap which keeps those dwelling in public housing utterly dependent upon their Democrat masters for their existence. The strutting donkeys eagerly lay out in front of huge crowds of undereducated inner-city blacks how the Republicans want to re-enslave them -- while hauling them all to the polls in buses and telling them to "Vote Democrat! We'll give you more stuff."

The public eduction system is failing precisely because it is in the interest of those elites that it fail. An educated voter with a work ethic is a threat to their power, but an ignorant thrall on the dole will keep them in power perpetually. A heroin addict keeps coming back to the dealer for his next hit, even knowing it will eventually leave him dead in a gutter. He's hooked and going nowhere fast, just as the permanent welfare class is utterly dependent. But while heroin simply kills the addict, a permanent welfare state keeps the cycle going for generation after generation, while race-baiting shills such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton get rich from their collaboration with the oppressors.

The situation cannot stand, and it will not. Inevitably, the economy will collapse under the burden of too many non-workers. And when that happens, blood will flow in the streets. But such toppling economies very often topple a government and its bureaucracy in the bargain. Ours may survive it, as there is some built-in resiliency. We had better hope it does, because history shows that strongmen and demagogues thrive in the chaotic environment of social collapse. Which is the strongest argument imaginable for keeping the Second Amendment inviolate. It's also the reason the Leftist elites want it destroyed so badly. Everything -- EVERYTHING -- hinges on it. In retrospect, it should have been the First. Perhaps future founders of nations will learn from that mistake.