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by Eric
Englund
Our founding fathers gave us a republic, if
we could keep it. The United States' Constitution was crafted
to strictly limit government so as not to deprive citizens
of their natural rights to life, liberty, private property,
and the pursuit of happiness. Ever since the Civil War (which
it really wasn't), the founding of the Federal Reserve, two
world wars, FDR's New Deal, and LBJ's Great Society, American
government has transformed into a democracy. So now we must
worship, and abide by, the will of the majority at the expense
of our liberty. This is a particularly frightening thought
considering that what passes for wisdom today is based upon
feelings and emotions while logical and rational thinking
have been eviscerated. In turn, it is quite common to encounter
terms such as "Demopublican" and "Republocrat" to
describe the emotional and illogical citizenry of the United
States (with the most mentally imbalanced seeking elective
office of course). Add in environmentalism, moral relativism,
multiculturalism, political correctness, and a public education
system that pushes this tripe, a truly confused citizenry
emerges from this messy hodgepodge. When combining democracy
with a dazed and confused citizenry, the United States has
devolved into a dadacracy.
From where does the term "dadacracy" come?
The Dada movement, which began in 1916 (and, in essence,
still survives to this day), embodies what it means to be
illogical, self-referential, and emotional. Dadaism was an
artistic and literary movement that was nihilistic and anti-Western
civilization. "Dada was more than an art form or culture;
it was a state of mind" (Information
on Dadaism). For those who shared the Dada state
of mind, the following were considered to be positive attributes
of Dadaism (A
Brief History of Dadaism):
- All forms of modern civilization were found to be disgusting.
- One of its aims pertained to the relativization of
all values.
- It sought a complete break with tradition (Dadaists
didn't want to be reminded that anybody existed before
them).
- It sought the systematic destruction of culture and
of civilization.
In Dadaism, "Freedom from everything was
the watchword. Revolutionary spirit, relativity, spontaneity,
and primitivity ranked as positive values." Moreover,
Dadaists were typically supportive of communism.
When examining moral relativism, multiculturalism,
political correctness, and environmentalism (which is socialism's
Trojan horse aimed at destroying private property rights),
it is quite apparent that those who are part of today's alleged
intellectual vanguard are simply modern-day Dadaists. In
turn, these college professors, public school teachers, newspaper
editors, television anchors, and countless others, undermine
Western civilization every time they open their mouths or
put pen to paper. With enough repetition in the classroom,
on the TV, in the newspaper, and elsewhere, Dada indeed does
become a state of mind. Emotion and feelings are celebrated
as the pinnacle of intellect whilst logic and true scholarship
are eschewed as worthless relics. The mind dies as it becomes
infected by illogic. Thus, we become engulfed by "the
culture of the moron" (to use Bill Bonner's phrase).
Consequently, when such people enter the voting booth, typically
registered as Republicans or Democrats, be assured that they
are really Dadacrats. Hence, America has become a dadacracy.
Examples of Dadacrats abound. The gymnasium
at which I exercise has a member that wears T-shirts from
Earth First! and from Greenpeace. When he has completed his
workout, he drives home in his luxurious Mercedes E 400.
I doubt either aforementioned organization would approve
of his vehicle. Ah, but as long as he feels good about himself.
Speaking of vehicles, I frequently see a Hummer H2 with an
Oregon DMV custom license plate with the state-mandated phrase
of "Cultural Trust." A car owner must pay additional
fees for such a license plate with the excess fees going
to the state's "Litter Patrol Fund" and to the
state's "Trust for Cultural Development." It is
rather ironic to see such an "enlightened" multiculturalist/environmentalist
driving a Hummer. No room for logic in that enormous SUV.
What really gets to me is that the Democrats I know can't
stand President Bush even though his administration is working
hard to bring about the second incarnation of the Great Society.
Conversely, Republicans I know love President Bush even though
he is trying to bring about the second incarnation of the
Great Society. When Dada becomes a state of mind, logic dies
and we see it all around us.
Just as a quick sidebar, it is obvious to paleolibertarians
that President Bush is immoral and is a coward. To propose
any budget that will result in a $500,000,000,000+ deficit
is tantamount to fiscal child abuse. Perhaps we will get
to buy a lot of guns and butter today, yet it is immoral
to make future generations pick up the tab. The following
is an excerpt from H.A. Scott Trask's fabulous essay Perpetual
Debt: From the British Empire to the American Hegemon:
In a 1789 letter to his friend James Madison,
Thomas Jefferson raised the philosophical and moral question
of whether "one generation of men has a right to bind another." He
believed the answer was no, "that the earth belongs
in usufruct to the living." He believed it a principle
of "very extensive application and consequence, in every
country." Applying it to government borrowing, he argued
that it was unjust and unrepublican for one generation of
a nation to encumber the next with the obligation to discharge
the debts of the first. After all, the following generation
cannot have given their consent to decisions made by their
fathers, nor will have they have necessarily benefited from
the deficit expenditures.
For Jefferson, every generation has the same
right to enjoy the bounty of nature and the fruits of their
labor as the preceding ones, without being bound or encumbered
by the profligacy or ambition of those who went before. "No
generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during
the course of its own existence," and if they do so, the
following generation is under no obligation to pay it. "They
and their soil are by nature clear of the debts of their
predecessors."
George W. Bush is advocating deficit spending
that would warm the hearts of LBJ and FDR. He is doing this
for the sake of getting re-elected. Future generations will
recognize this as moral cowardice as they will be footing
the bill (unless they repudiate it and justly so). Dadacrats
cast a blind eye toward this reckless spending as the future
is not something to be pondered today.
If I were to select a well-known figure, who
embodies what it is to be a Dadacrat, I must choose Bill O'Reilly
of "The O'Reilly Factor." Mr. O'Reilly is so muddleheaded
that he has become television's king of illogic. For example,
on his February 2, 2004 show, he expressed outrage about how
the New England Patriots' fans behaved after their team's
Super Bowl victory. In particular, he aired a film clip in
which someone's car was being destroyed by unruly celebrants
(when they were done, the car was ready for the junkyard).
The sanctity of private property was being desecrated by these
thugs. His outrage, regarding the destruction of this car,
is nonsensical in light of his well documented position of
being anti-SUV. If one is to take the anti-SUV dogma to its
logical conclusion, all SUVs would be confiscated and sent
to the junkyard. Thus, according to Bill O'Reilly, only certain
kinds of private property are worthy of defending. This statement
is buttressed in light of Mr. O'Reilly's post-9/11 interview
of Congressman Ron Paul. In this interview, Dr. Paul warned
Bill O'Reilly that the Patriot Act effectively suspended the
4th Amendment of the Constitution (which states
that "The rights of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."). In
an intellectual tour de force, Mr. O'Reilly essentially countered
that the Patriot Act will only be used against the bad guys
(i.e. SUV owners?). Wow! This is comforting especially considering
that the U.S. Attorney General is John Ashcroft who is empowered,
by the Patriot Act, to arbitrarily decide who is "good"
and who is "bad." Finally, to showcase Mr. O'Reilly's
self-referential Dada state of mind, Bill O'Reilly chooses
to believe in global warming (which is socialism's Trojan
horse aimed at destroying private property rights). The alarmists,
asserting that Earth is baking to death, have nothing but
junk science to back their position. Oh, now we can see a
logical consistency here. Bill O'Reilly could care less about
your private property rights. So in Mr. O'Reilly's crowning
achievement in Dadaism, he has the audacity to title his latest
book Who's
Looking Out for You? I suppose if you are a propertyless
drifter, with only a few dadollars in your pocket, O'Reilly
is your man.
Why be alarmed that O'Reilly is popular, that
public schools have become left-wing indoctrination camps,
and that logic and true scholarship are on the wane? After
all, isn't the United States the greatest country on earth
where people are allowed to control their own destinies by
voting in democratic elections? Let me answer with a quote
from Alexis de Tocqueville's masterpiece Democracy
in America:
After having successively taken each member
of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him
at will, the supreme power [of democracy] then extends
its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface
of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute
and uniform, through which the most original minds and
the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise
above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but
softened, bent and guided...men
are seldom forced to act, but they are constantly restrained
from acting...Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents
existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates,
extinguishes, and stupefies a people...
Thus, their spirit is gradually broken...gradually
losing the faculties of thinking, feeling, and acting
for themselves. People then console themselves at the loss
of their liberties by the reflection that they have chosen
their own guardians.
Indeed, the American experiment has gone from
a republic, to a democracy, to a dadacracy. I fear the next
step is totalitarianism. Unless we roll back government to
a minimum (as idealized by the Constitution), we have a Dadaist
populace on the verge of taking the next step beyond voting
for its own guardians. The next step is voting for its own
masters. Therefore, the following chilling quote is appropriate:
The receptivity of the masses is very limited,
their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting
is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective
propaganda must be limited to a few essential points...These
slogans must be repeated until every last member of the
public understands what you want him to understand. (Adolf
Hitler)
Environmentalism,
multiculturalism, political correctness, moral relativism,
illogic, self-esteem and emotionalism are revered at the
expense of our liberty. In the United States, Dada has become
a state of mind. Right under our noses, the Constitution
has become a joke. It has become more like a menu from which
our guardians (politicians and judges) can pick and choose
which rights shall and shall not be granted to citizens.
Ah, but the Dadacrats are carefree. They feel great about
themselves. In this soil, fertilized by smug and sterile
minds, the seeds of totalitarianism have been planted. In
an election coming soon, Americans may prove capable of voting
for their own masters.
February 10, 2004
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