Have you ever known someone who was in the process of self-destruction? Perhaps the person was drinking too much, using drugs, neglecting his or her family, failing to meet the expectations of his or her employer, studying too little, or otherwise ignoring his or her responsibilities or acting in an irresponsible manner.
An individual who is in the process of self-destruction generally does not like to hear the truth about his or her failings. The truth always hurts, but the truth needs to be told. Some people will be more receptive to hearing the truth when the message is delivered by a friend or family member. Others will be more receptive when a stranger delivers the message. In many cases, the initial response to the message will be denial that a problem exists. The goal, however, is that the message will serve as a “wake-up call” to the person receiving it and that he or she will respond by taking corrective action instead of continuing down the path of self-destruction.
What happens when a country is moving in the wrong direction and is in the process of self-destruction? Who should deliver the wake-up call to those who have the power to change the direction of the country and thereby avoid the problems that could lead to the country’s destruction?
In my opinion, the United States of America needs a wake-up call. Unfortunately, politicians who are in power are not receptive when politicians who are out of power complain about the direction of the country. Most politicians have no credibility because they are expected to complain about the actions of the opposing political party regardless of what is at stake. Complaints by those who are members of the minority political party are dismissed as being purely political rants, which they usually are. In our current highly partisan political environment, any attempt by a politician or by someone with a strong political ideology to deliver a wake-up call will be ignored.
Perhaps what we need is a series of wake-up calls delivered by observers outside the United States who are not involved in our internal political battles. I don’t know whether anyone will pay attention, but we have recently received at least three such wake-up calls from outside observers.
One wake-up call came yesterday from Venezuela President Hugo Chavez. Let me make it clear I don’t have any respect for Chavez. He is a Marxist who is doing great damage to Venezuela. During the last decade, he has nationalized most of Venezuela’s key industries, including the oil industry, the telecommunications industry, and the banks. Nevertheless, I think we should pay attention when Chavez says he and his Cuban ally, Fidel Castro, could end up being more conservative than President Barak Obama.
According to a news report from Reuters, Chavez, perhaps jokingly, said, “Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also delivered a wake-up call of her own. According to a report in yesterday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Merkel said the Federal Reserve Bank and its counterpart in Europe, the European Central Bank, have gone too far in fighting the financial crisis and may be laying the groundwork for another financial blowup. Ms. Merkel called for a return to more independent central banks that are free of political pressure and that avoid extensive intervention in the economy.
The biggest wake-up call came from a Russian columnist writing in a Russian newspaper. The Russian newspaper Pravda recently published a column by Stanislav Mishin entitled “American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper.” In the column, Mr. Mishin said “the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath-taking speed” against the backdrop of a “passive, hapless” American public. In essence, Mr. Mishin believes the American people are surrendering their freedoms and their souls. He provides the following three reasons for America’s “decent into Marxism”:
(1) “[T]he population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather than the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas than the drama in DC that directly affects their lives.”
(2) The American people’s “faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different ‘branches and denominations’ were for the most part little more than Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more than happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the ‘winning’ side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. … Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.”
(3) “The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.”
Mr. Mishin said it “should be no surprise” that President Obama and a group of his “unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies.” He added that Prime Minister Putin warned President Obama “not to follow the path of Marxism, it only leads to disaster.” But he then observes that “we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our ‘wise’ Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.”
Mr. Mishin observes that the members of the U.S. Congress have responded to recent developments by putting “up little more than a whimper to their masters.” Likewise, “the American public has taken this with barely a whimper.” He concludes by saying, “The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world how free he really is. The world will only snicker.”
You can read Mr. Mishin’s column in its entirety by clicking on the link below:
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-0/
These three wake-up calls do not represent new insights into the current direction of our country. Republican politicians and conservative commentators have made similar observations during the last several months. Their observations have been disregarded because of the highly partisan nature of our current political environment. It may be time to start paying attention, however, when comments such as those mentioned above are being made by a Venezuelan dictator, a German Chancellor, and a Russian columnist. The truth hurts. Is anyone listening to the wake-up call?
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