Monday, January 12, 2009

Mises.org for some Real economic education

Revisting Old Thoughts

While I know it’s a year later, and due to numerous reasons, the campaign failed, I would still like to give some aid in the realistic characterization of those who supported Ron Paul. Even though I was a big enough supporter to hop on a ride going to the Iowa campaign, I still felt massive apprehension towards meeting a bunch of potential conspiracy nuts. Thanks to media slander and me having met one such type of person, I wasn’t too thrilled to “hang out” or work with such people.

However, the first night I arrived quickly dispelled these fears. You see, though there were dozens of college student there they had come fully cognizant and read up on the ideas and applications of Liberty. Though some though certain conspiracies might be true that was only a passing opinion to them and not a life goal. Over all they believed sound economics, increasing civil liberties, and curtailing government spending were more than just bywords politicians used to grab public attention, but instead the only goals that should be striven for in today’s America before the Republic collapses on itself.

Many so-called conspiracy theorists get so wrapped up in delusions about ubiquitous government or secret commissions or, god help us all, lizard men that they become extremely pessimistic towards changing things for the better. Basically, they’ve fallen down such a negative rabbit hole that they’ll talk, and they sure know how to blab, but when it comes to actual action, never expect them to do a damn thing.

However, the people I worked with realized that government is basically a slew of positions that put people in power over their fellow man and hiding them from responsibility for their actions. Whenever you decrease the amount of responsibility a person has for their actions the more destructive those actions tend to be. Multiply this by millions of people and you get, not a conspiracy, but a destructive force naturally grown through typical human interaction under this particular paradigm.

On an end note, obviously the campaign failed. We could blame a mass media that is firmly in bed with government for a myriad of reasons and corporate interests. We could blame the social workers, government employees, and politicians that are more concerned about their jobs than the overall health of the United States. We could blame the millions of idiots who succumbed to propaganda and voted for no more than their choice had a nice smile, or was whiter than the rest. But the truth is that the Ron Paul campaign was doomed to fail in its presidential run from the outset. People simply do not want REAL change at this time. They choose to instead vote for politicians promising to increase the size of the military on the basis that they love peace. However, it did serve to connect a bunch of people and spread the message of liberty far and wide, which I would say makes it an astounding success.

There will come a time, and not too far in the future, when the destructive policies of our government do finally cause their final logical end and change the current United States into something either better or worse. If the people who supported Ron Paul stay firm in their conviction and actually WORK to spread the positive concept of Liberty, then we can effect a change for the better.