Now that principles are obstacles to progress

We heard often during the bail-out debate that this is no time to let principles and ideology stand in the way of making the right decision. How one knows whether it's the right decision without using principles or testing the problem against an ideology I'm not sure, but there you have it -- principles are obstacles.

Pragmatic piddling down blind alleys of ignorance seems a preferable course to our current gang of porkers. There's not a large mind among the whole bunch. We desperately need the guidance of principles. The media and the politicians have reduced great ideas to situational ethics and petty manipulation of power -- barren souls and little minds (although they see it as grand achievement). 

The slow attrition of greatness in the political sphere has produced thieves, dullards, second-handers, cons and empty suits. They shun deep-thinking and principled action (yet, again, they view it differently, as if the course has been decided) because it's inconsistent with their plans to violate principles that Americans have died for through the years. I might be wrong, but it could be difficult to get voluntary enlistment in the armed services in coming years if this unprincipled power consolidation continues and people feel disenfranchised and betrayed.

This bailout bill was passed in spite of public disapproval and gives the government unprecedented power. Perhaps many people did not mind the power grab, but merely did not want to bail out "greedy crooks" on Wall Street and would not have been angry if it gave everyone a few thousand dollars to spend in exchange for loss of power, but I suspect many people disapproved the bill on principle -- the principle that freedom demands a limited government and freedom is a value to be protected. It would be interesting to know exactly how many people defending freedom exist. It might be depressing to know.

But what does it mean to stand on a principle such as this? Underneath the bailout bill and underneath the problems that led to it are forces that have gone awry -- I will narrow the forces down to redistribution and greed. I will be writing about this for some time because it gets complicated and I don't want to write long posts that no one will want to read. I just want to outline here what I see as the problems, then clarify later. Recently having re-read Robert Nozick regardiing distribution, re-distribution and holdings, I've been amazed at the prescience of writers such as Nozick foretelling the cause of our present problems.

It now appears that through government influence and finagling via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other methods of social engineering that re-distribution efforts have opened the flood-gates of unharnessed greed for money and power, creating a state/corporate cronyism that constantly trades in wealth and control. The corporate players grow in wealth while the state grows in control, i.e., power (which entails money, but is a value in and of itself.)

However, re-distribution is causing the problems foreseen by Nozick, Mises, Hayek and others. So, now it appears the state has set itself up to go directly to distribution, distributing at the source rather than re-distributing down the stream. The Barney Frank Gang of Porkers see an opportunity to seize original control, manipulate justice before injustice can take effect and thereby consolidate power in government by bypassing the free market system. Greed will then be harnessed to flow from the market to the state, thereby establishing a much larger power base using greed to control the economic activities of the whole country, placing us in line with other countries to deal state to state rather than continuing the cowboy capitalism which is an embarrassment to those who wish to be world-stage players. After all, isn't it an historical inevitability?

The government is confident that it has already established the necessary power to begin the statist plan of dominance in earnest without fear of public unrest. Effectively mollified to accept the bones tossed by politicians, the public will accept the government's brave actions when they (the government) know best what is best for us. This could be a miscalculation of the public, or it could be a shrewd calculation, time will tell.

Yet, what about principles? This is what I want to continue later. What about principles, indeed. Will there be resistance? Oh, I hope so, I hope so.