FRANCE’S TURMOIL – FINIS
FRANCE’S TURMOIL—FINIS
by
Ken Eliasberg
To wrap up our look at France (which as previously noted, is itself in the process of wrapping up), let’s take a look at socialism (which France has actively practiced, off and on, and which is really at the core of the Democratic party’s domestic agenda in this country) as a contributing factor in France’s decline. The thing that never ceases to amaze me about the thinking (or the nonthinking, as the case may be) of socialism adherents is that it doesn’t work. It has never worked, and its proponents, while bashing America, cannot point to any country where socialism has created a healthier, more prosperous society. Indeed, well over 75 million people have perished in the effort to make the socialist (communist, same thing—socialism is merely a speed bump on the left-wing highway to communism) dream a reality. Again, as my readers know, 2 historical observations define for me the blind ambition of the Democrat party: (1) he who does not pay heed to history is doomed to repeat it, Santayana, and (2) they forget nothing and they learn nothing, Talleyrand, referring to the Bourbons. Both observations have never taken hold among the ranks of Democrats—they keep looking for Utopia, refusing to realize that they are living in it.
SOCIALISM AND THE ENTITLEMENT STATE THAT IT HAS SPAWNED IN FRANCE ONLY COMPOUNDS AND AGGRAVATES THE ASSIMILATION PROBLEM. As noted France has opted for a welfare state approach to governance. And these unassimilated immigrants go right on the dole as soon as they arrive in France (our situation is not totally dissimilar, but there is still time to profit from France’s experience). Socialism, as you know, is a system where government plays an instrumental role in the economics of your society by virtue of the management role given to government. This, in and of itself, is perplexing because government is not a producer of wealth; on the contrary, it is a consumer of wealth, and, typically, an extravagantly wasteful consumer at that.
How do you get to Socialism; how is a country lulled into such a state? Simple, by first secularizing it, as has been the case in Europe and as is becoming the case in this country. How do you do that? By attacking religion; Socialism and communism require a Godless society.
And, all around you today, you see signs of an unrelenting attack on the prevailing religion in this country CHRISTIANITY. I am not a Christian, but I believe that this is a Christian nation, and that all of us are better off because of it. Every religion has the opportunity to flourish in America because Christianity is a fundamentally tolerant religion. Of course, there have been bouts with intolerance; there are rotten apples in every barrel, but name me a country where both tolerance and opportunity flourish to the degree that they do here. That is why people flock to America in numbers that no other country can match. It is because we are a Christian country, and that status is incompatible with Socialism.
And that is why Christianity is under attack. How? By attempting to take God out of the pledge of allegiance; by taking the Cross out of the County Seal (and trying to have it removed at a historical site near San Diego); by taking Christ out of Christmas; by removing the Ten Commandments from public places; by attacking the Boy Scouts, a morally upright group that has played a fundamental role in raising responsible and patriotic Americans; and by replacing majority rule with that of minority rule (i.e. letting atheists shape our moral agenda or having the Gay agenda shoved down our throats by substituting political correctness for reasoned disagreement, etc.). In short, Christianity is under siege, and, quite frankly, appears to be too fragmented and frightened to properly defend itself against the vicious, and, in my opinion, un-American attacks by organizations like the ACLU (an organization that seems more concerned with defending the rights of Communists, Fascists, and various reprobates than they do in protecting either our Judeo-Christian traditions or our Constitution). That is why I have come to think that ACLU stands for Anti-Christian Left-Wing Unamericans.
Again, America is a Christian country, and if Christianity goes down, America goes down. And if America goes down, a darkness descends on the world.
To compound the felony of socialism, France has, to its detriment, energetically embraced the concept of “guaranteed employment” —almost from the date of hire. That is, you hire a kid out of high school, and you’re stuck with him—you cannot fire him. While I am against any form of guaranteed employment—i.e. tenure, civil service, etc.—this form of immediate guaranty is absurd. It is absurd for it is counterproductive. If an employer knows that he cannot fire a new hire, what will he do? Hire only family, friends, or similar types that give him some assurance of his not getting stuck with an incompetent. That is why the strike in France was so foolish, and, of course, France did what it does best in response—SURRENDER.
Why do I oppose employment guarantees? Because they attract the least competent among us. These are types whose overriding concern is security, not a challenge. Don’t get me wrong, we all desire some measure of security, but we get it by earning it. In a guaranteed-employment situation, what you eventually get is a lot of dead wood. That is, these types become comfortable, then complacent, eventually stagnant, and finally paralyzed. In my time in government, I observed that the average civil servant retires 24 hours after he starts work, and you could not fire him unless you caught him dynamiting the building. Something similar occurs in the ranks of teachers, where you have what I call a Gresham’s employment law, i.e. bad teachers drive out good ones. If excellence is not going to be rewarded, then excellent people will not want to work in that environment. I didn’t mind tenure (and I’ll deal with our education situation down the road at some length) 20 or 30 years ago when we had many, many more fine scholars who sought a measure of protection for free speech in protection of their educational efforts. Now, when we have a great number of Marxist mediocrities whose only concern is left-wing indoctrination (and can’t spell scholar, let alone be one), I am opposed to it. Our Universities, rather than become bastions for the pursuit of scholarship, have become comfort stations for lazy and less than brilliant radical left-wingers. Sure there are lots of excellent teachers; unfortunately there are lots of thoroughly inadequate teachers—Ward Churchill is not that atypical. In this regard, I recommend David Horowitz’s latest book, The Professors.
In all events, enough of France; indeed, it would seem that France has had enough of France.