This lecture, delivered March 9th at Hillsdale College and adapted to print and web access last month, stands as one of the best reads I've seen on the subject of encroaching Big Government, ever.
Mark Steyn posits five increasingly insuffocating stages of Big Government:
Stage One, the massive expansion of a government (Mark places the U.S., with our recent economic 'stimuli' injections, as well into the 'Stage One' phase.) During
Stage Two, we see the inevitable government control phase that follows the stimuli. We see Stage Two activities now, and hardly masked. Ask the ex-CEO of GM, and the almost ex-CEO of Bank of America what they think. We are what we eat; since we, America's people and many corporations, have dieted on Government 'Stimulus' (yes, the government 'cheese' programs count), we also have to accept the inevitable coalescence of government controls that are now flowing in our arteries. It's just a matter of time before we have to accept whatever we're told to accept.
Stage Three is the '
what you can think' phase. Since Government is providing
so much for you, shouldn't you pay attention to what
we (an overlord sort of committee comprised of the great, the Left's, best 'thinkers'; no doubt to include the best free-thinkers the Harvard's and Columbia University's can ooze), feel is
right for you to think?
Stage Four, the ominous 'now, here's what you
can't think, or say, because if we
hear you in public conversation saying those racist, sexist, homophobic things, you'll be sent to jail.'
Once-Great Britain is now firmly a Stage Four participant, as Mark Steyn illustrates.
Stage Five, the final stage, is the current European model. The State gives one everything one could possible want or need; every group is considered equal; work is an afterthought. I posted just last week
this video that's explaining how and why cultures die. Mark Steyn sums up the European State quite nicely...
The key word here is "give." When the state "gives" you plenty—when it takes care of your health, takes cares of your kids, takes care of your elderly parents, takes care of every primary responsibility of adulthood—it's not surprising that the citizenry cease to function as adults: Life becomes a kind of extended adolescence—literally so for those Germans who've mastered the knack of staying in education till they're 34 and taking early retirement at 42. Hilaire Belloc, incidentally, foresaw this very clearly in his book The Servile State in 1912. He understood that the long-term cost of a welfare society is the infantilization of the population.
But a controlling nanny state is exactly what our infantile Left
wants, exatly what they voted for... a sea (at sea?) CHANGE. This CHANGE will destroy the very
essence of America, our heritage and culture, if it progresses as has the European model. Since we've accepted
Stage One, is there any way to get off this mindless ship what's heading for an iceberg?
Where are we, America, heading? Are we just going to accept what the Europeans accepted, become a Eurosocialist state? Or will something give along the way? When will enough be enough?
Ric Locke points out (in comments on Jeff's post, h/t BTW) that we (
Stage One, America) might see the fall of the European socialist model, before we too go over the cliff...
What’s going to be really interesting, provided anyone’s still around to notice, is what will happen in Europe and Japan.
The U.S. economy has been carrying the Europeans for at least the last half-century — not just in the obvious ways, like we spend for defense so they don’t have to, but in trade imbalances (some of them not easily accounted for, like us requiring the drug and aerospace companies to finance research out of their own pockets) and providing a credible reserve currency. I had a Frenchman rejoice over the election of Sarkozy, on the ground that now the French could get back to what they do best: fucking Americans.
Note to the French, and other Europeans: that’s over. No socialist regime has ever succeeded without an outside subsidy; the fact that the subsidy to Europe isn’t readily visible doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, and it does. So when “the Americans will pay, as usual” (quote from Tom Clancy) goes away, what price European “safety net”?
Regards,
Ric
Americans, how close are we to the choice: "Live free or Die" ... ?
With the final Senate Democrat vote counted, Barack Hussein Obama has lost another foreign policy initiative and has failed to deliver on yet another campaign promise -- this time, the promise to close the U.S. 'Torture' Base in Guantánamo. From 
