The American Mind

We are doomed

William Hillman

(6/2019) The town I live in and chose to raise my family in, is the same town where I grew up. When I say it’s the same town, I mean it’s the same location with many of the same buildings. That’s where the similarities end. When I was young, the population was ethnically diverse, mostly blue-collar service and factory workers mixed in with a significant population of wealthy industrialists. Today, the wealthy industrialists are long gone and the ethnic diversity and blue collar population has been displaced by academics from the many surrounding universities. They’ve moved into the town because they thought it quaint and were drawn to the area’s commitment to community.

Once they regentrified the area, all that remained from the older community was the buildings. The tight bond that existed between residents vanished with the area’s economic and ethnic diversity.

Last week, I was talking to the gentleman who for the last 15 years has run the Fourth of July celebration. For the last 6 years he’s been looking for someone to replace him as the chairman, but no one is willing. He told me that this might be the last year for the town’s festivities because no one is willing to step up and help. The ceremonies include a fair and festival that run half the day, and then in the evening the area’s largest fireworks display. It takes a lot of volunteers to make this all happen. Twenty-five years ago there were more volunteers than jobs. It was an unspoken rule of the town that at some point during the day your family would go and work one of the many game booths. Even the single men and women in their 20s and 30s would help out in the evening for the opportunity to attend the keg party that happened at the end of the fireworks behind the firehouse.

The number of game booths gets smaller each year for lack of volunteers.

Today there are few volunteers, but a long line of people who have opinions on how things should be run and what should be done. When asked to step up and help they feel no sense of community duty.

Last night I received a phone call from the gentleman who runs the area’s Memorial Day parade and services. He also told me this might be the last year for the Memorial Day services for lack of volunteers.

This is not unique to my area. Many once tight communities on the outskirts of large cities have experienced this shift as the new upper-class white liberals leave the cities and bring their "nanny state" political perspective with them to these old communities. They change the political structure of the community then wonder way it has become as dysfunctional as the city they left.

I started looking through some Pew studies and census data on areas where support of radical left-wing candidates was heavy. An interesting pattern I found was that the higher percentage of post graduate degrees an area has, the more the area tends to vote for politicians who favor big government, intervention and control. These are areas where candidates like Bernie Sanders poll well.

The bigger the government the smaller the citizen.

The deterioration of a sense of duty as citizens should not surprise us. For decades the schools have taught students that they’re not responsible for their own actions. Failings and shortcomings are not personal faults. They’re the result of external forces beyond an individual’s control. They are disempowered from believing that they have control of their own life and destiny. Students are indoctrinated into believing that the State can solve all their problems. Sadly, they are never taught the old adage that power corrupts.

I’ve often heard it said that one of the differences between conservatives and liberals is, when faced with a problem, liberals tend to look externally for blame and someone else to solve it. Conservatives look internally for what they need to do themselves to solve the problem.

A new poll from Gallup finds that 51 percent of Americans reject socialism and call it "a bad thing," contrasting with just 43 percent who say it is "a good thing."

It paints a picture of socialism on the rise.

Almost, but not quite half of Americans want socialism. Forty-three percent is way up from 1942, when just 25 percent thought socialism was "a good thing."

So, is America ready to nationalize industries and assume the means of production? As noted by prior Gallup surveys, the definition of socialism depends on the respondent. Twenty-three percent define it as "Equality — equal standing for everybody, all equal in rights, equal in distribution." Seventeen percent think it is "Government ownership or control, government ownership of utilities, everything controlled by the government, state control of business." Another 10 percent thought it meant "Benefits and services — social services free, medicine for all." And another 6 percent thought it meant "modified communism."