American capitalism isn’t perfect. However, it has transformed the lives of the wealthy and not-so-wealthy. It created the ignoble and noble, who’ve left their finger prints on our nation. Indisputably, America is the most generous nation on God’s earth. No other nation bails out those ravaged by war or natural disaster like America, coming to their aid, before other nations lift a finger. Both NGO’s and the federal government respond when disaster strikes. Perhaps we’re too generous-Forty billion dollars to Ukraine.
We’ve ignored the Biblical admonishment in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, that those unwilling to work, shall not eat. For example, in communities nationwide, students are now the ward of the school district, feeding and supplying students twelve months a year, letting parents off the hook even more, fostering a culture of dependency on bureaucracy. On the prosperity column, it appears to be the spirit of capitalism that works. Go to the towns of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico. One’s north of the fence. The other is South. North of the fence kids and families prosper. South of the fence, incomes drop a third. Education rates plummet, and infant mortality rates rise. No difference in geography, climate or little culturally.
James Fenimore Cooper, best known for his 1841, “The Deerslayer,” warned in his publication, “The American Democrat,” that equality is widely misunderstood, maintaining it isn’t absolute, saying, “The very existence of government infers inequality,” and “liberty like equality is a word more used than understood.” He added, “That perfect and absolute liberty is as incompatible with the existence of society, as equality of condition.” Cooper reminded us, “The inclination of democratic peoples to invade the securities of private life is a shocking perversion of liberal democracy, for individuality is the aim of political liberty.”
With these arguments, Cooper attempted to awaken the American public of the danger of its own vices. He held that social injustice and inequality are unavoidable “due to individual pursuit, station in life, education, habits, on caprice or fashion,” insisting, “No civilized society can exist without these social differences.” Too, he understood the wiles of avarice and oppression. Absolute individual liberty, as a noble cause, has, in the end, some restraints. He also believed America has a Biblical duty to be a “Light upon a Hill.”
Is there still space for individuality, while our culture inclines toward collectivism, where individual rights are amalgamated into those with the shrillest voices, dominating the 24/7 news cycle, social media, and Progressives, who’ve commandeered our educational system? Sadly, Leftist, hear the endless drone on inequality and injustice, even on the theological realm. Rev. Jim Wallis, social justice theologian, no friend of Evangelicals, claims that “God hates inequality,” absent any supporting biblical proof text. Based upon Wallis’ assertion. God would have to disperse HIs gifts uniformly, which He doesn’t. Wallis blasted, “Trump’s Un-Godly Wall, that contradicts Jesus’ teaching of welcoming the stranger.” He should revisit Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem. Wallis’ net worth is estimated between $5-10 million dollars.
Our Republic’s rich with accounts of individuals rising above daunting circumstances and poverty, inspiring rags to riches stories. Why are legions troubled that there are those worth billions, yet others eek out an existence? The poster child for Socialism, New York Congresswoman, Alexandria Casio-Cortez, a graduate from prestigious Boston University, who couldn’t correctly identify the three branches of government, continues to push for a government guaranteed living wage for everyone. However, the very economic system she opposes, comes closest to enabling the impoverished to realize their dreams of upward mobility. She wrongly assumes that Peter’s poor because Paul’s rich.
Most informed Patriots understand our Republic’s annals have notorious tales of the ignoble rich, unfairly disadvantaging the poor. However, it’s descriptive, not normative. The Leftist Socialist perpetuates this lie that justice means sameness or equality of everything. This has the patina of morality, that’s flimsily upheld by a sinful impulse of envy and avarice-that which they accuse entrepreneur or capitalist of perpetuating. If Bonny and Clyde distributed their ill-gotten gain with the downtrodden, would Cortez champion that system? Robin Hood re-invented.
In the 2008, Presidential campaign in Toledo, Obama was approached by “Joe the Plumber,” who asked, “Your tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?” Eventually Obama replied, “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” Obviously, the “you” Obama meant, was the government. Individuals get kicked to the curb for the “good of everybody.” When Florida Governor DeSatis shipped illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard, does anyone recall Citizen Obama inviting them to crash at his $15 million estate? In 2017, Seattle’s imposed a graduated $15 minimum wage, USA Today reported, it left low-wage workers with less money in their pockets, due to many employers slashing worker’s hours to balance their payroll. Individuals get hurt by such socialistic initiatives, reportedly “good for all.”
Taxation’s our government’s most pervasive weapon for “spreading the wealth.” President Trump’s tax cut plan was vociferously opposed by the Left and Democrats, even though it misguidedly still punished top wage earners. The vast majority of Americans still think it’s fair for the wealthier to pay more taxes than the middle class or indigent, according to a 2021 NPR-Kaiser poll. Why are so many indifferent when the government distributes wealth? We’re experiencing a diversity and inclusion conundrum-the individual has lost meaning to the collective group. As the clout of group-think metastasizes culturally, the loss of individuality shrinks proportionately.
Universities are the Petrie dish for those onerous socialist experiments. Academe has distorted America’s melting pot, E pluribus unum, where diversity now means agreement to one set of values-theirs. Old fashion fables like Judeo-Christian culture, must be expunged from the campus. Diversity of ideas, political, religious or otherwise, are a mirage. Tradition is taboo. Anything resembling Western Civilization is repugnant.
Most religious organizations, Evangelicals in particular, are marginalized, or expelled from campus life, except the highly touted ubiquitous “green religion.” Vanderbilt University, Rollins College, Grinnell College and 23 campuses in the California System, expelled InterVarsity Fellowship for refusing to alter their requirements that campus leaders “commit to Christian standards.” Such organizations are voluntary; students aren’t compelled to join or attend. In California there’s not a whit of difference between state high-jacked higher education, and legislative opposition to conservative and traditional values, weaponizing the taxpayer’s dime to assault the Divine, with impunity.
The late syndicated columnist, Walter E. Williams, economist at George Mason University, noted that the Left bias at most of the nation’s universities stand in stark contrast to the nation’s political leanings, according to a Pew Research Center survey. His dire warning, “These Americans are seeing their tax dollars going to people who have contempt for their values and seek to indoctrinate their children with Leftist ideas.” He was a voice in the wilderness for years on the relentless onslaught from those in academia who’ve disdain for Western Civilization, hastening its demise. In 2014, Skidmore College, tuition $65K, offered a tomfoolery for-credit course, “The Sociology of Miley Cyrus.”
Does the University of Wyoming still champion Western Civilization? Early in his presidency, President Trump drew criticism from the mainstream media and elitist academe, for stressing the importance of “Western tradition” in a speech in Poland. With their hands in our pockets again, begging for more money from the legislature, in 2017, while preparing to lay off 37 staff workers, UW doled out $150K annual salary for a vogue new position, “Chief Diversity Officer,” reporting directly to, at the time, trendy President Nichols. The National Association of Scholars, in a lengthy 2008 exposition, wrote, “Actually, it is yet to be proven that radical diversity lends to educational benefits. Many have tried; nothing has been conclusive.” Zero empirical evidence.
In 2022, Wyoming legislators must remind the university’s board of trustees that bloated salaries for such “academic window-dressing” jobs, having frivolous relationship to educational outcomes. They are designed as a soporific agent to atomize naive students, disengaged parents, and the public-at-large. Most major university’s core curriculum avoid Western Civilization history like the plague. In 1988, after caving to pressure from vocal freshmen, Stanford University altered its’ “Western Culture Program,” favoring PC courses like “gender, minority, and class studies.” Dropping Cervantes, Dante and Homer like a hot rock.
Still relevant, Allan Bloom’s 1987, “The Closing of the American Mind,” traces the origin of such one dimensional movements, that’s infused with a grim one-sided political litmus test of radical antagonism to long held tradition. Such fatuous initiatives are clear to those who understand the story of Western Civilization, that once cast a majestic shadow across our Republic, giving meaning to individual virtuous liberty, that now hangs in the balance in most academic hordes.
Denial that we are a product of Western Civilization, won’t alter history, as Dr. Bill Bennett reminds us. Few are the places where that story is still told. It will require do diligence to unearth such a place to send your offspring. What do you think?
Mike Pyatt’s a Natrona County resident. His email’s mikepyatt44@gamil.com.
