Can Socialism Really Guarantee the Forward Progression of Humankind?

Many Democrats believe that they had won the election and the voters gave them a mandate, and that their progressive ideas have been voted upon by the American people. However, I would submit to you the Democrats didn't win the election at all, rather they bought the election, and they bought it with US taxpayer's money. Why do I say this? Because there are 47 million people on food stamps, and I'm pretty sure that if you are getting free food, you probably don't want that to go away. And you probably and rightfully assumed that if the Republicans got elected, that there is a good chance that you might lose your free food, especially if you didn't really need it.

Many Democrats believe that they are the party of progress, and to them it means that we progress as a civilization and society to a more utopian concept. To do that, they believe we need more socialism. However it is the great abundance of the socioeconomic strategy of free-market capitalism which provides abundance. As the socialists engage in crony capitalism, vote buying, and their spendthrift ways they are hijacking the flows of capital, labor, resources, and money to the point that there is no longer economic efficiency.

Because of this they cannot afford to build their utopia and their grand ideas, as they run out of money. They run through all the money they have available, and they borrow the rest, until no one is stupid enough to lend them more money, because they've probably not only run out of all their money, but they run out of other people's money to take as well. Would like a case in point? Let me give you an example here.

In Physorg Online News there was an article on November 29, 2012 titled; "Italy cancels 1 Billion Euro SuperB Collider," particle accelerator project.

Whereas, many socialists consider themselves progressive, still, it's obvious that their agendas are not compatible with future technologies or the forward progression of the species. Let me give it to you in a nutshell; socialism is not progressive, it is regressive. It is a back-track from abundance. You can have a utopian society that wasn't built on efficiency, but apparently even though history has shown us time and time again that socialism doesn't work, political leaders are far too often standing ready to take up the cause.

In the short term they look okay, sometimes, but in the end it is always bad. Would you like some more present period examples; Venezuela, Argentina, Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. Would you like some more? Stay tuned, we aren't that far behind if we keep up this nonsense of the Obama Administration. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Economic Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Gun Control or Better Media? Which Will Really Stop the Violence?

Anyone who's been in touch with recent events in America knows that the school shooting in Connecticut has refocused attention on gun control. But will gun control really curtail gun violence?

THE PROBLEM IS THE ENVIRONMENT?

Certainly, as best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell points out in Tipping Point we are shaped by our environment. In a no-gun environment, gun violence would drop to zero. But no one seems interested in making America a no-gun environment. Gun control, yes. Gun elimination, no. We want our police and our military to have guns. Politicians, Hollywood stars, and high-level businesspeople want their bodyguards armed. As a people we don't seem terribly concerned about allowing people to hunt or to shoot guns recreationally. What we want is to curtail gun violence. So the question is: how is that possible in an environment where both legal and illegal firearms exist?

THE PROBLEM IS MOTIVATION

In his landmark TED talk Tony Robbins says, "If I pull a gun on you and I'm in the hood, instantly I'm significant from zero to ten how high? Ten!" Tony claims that everything we do is motivated by our six human needs. Particularly violence is motivated by our need for significance, that is our need for attention, or our need to feel unique, special, different. Looked at from this angle, people will turn away from violence when we take away its significance.

STORIES MOTIVATE

Going back to Tipping Point, Gladwell analyzes the meteoric rise in suicide attempts by teenage boys in Micronesia after a highly publicized 1966 suicide by the "charismatic scion of one of the wealthiest families" of Ebeye. That story motivated other boys whose publicity motivated others in a vicious cycle that has caused the suicide rate among young males in Micronesia to hit one out of every thousand, and on some islands, one in forty. Many of these suicides seem to be triggered by banal disagreements with older family members and do not fit the traditional "cries for help" model. Still, each one is highly publicized, giving permission and even encouragement to the next.

MORE LAWS OR BETTER MEDIA?

Now of course, Micronesia could outlaw rope, wire, belts, and anything else these men might try to hang themselves with, but wouldn't it make more sense to take away part of the reason they're committing suicide? What if the Micronesian media refused to report on suicides the way TV stations now refuse to show stadium streakers at baseball games? By taking away suicide's significance, you could take away a major motivational factor. And what about gun violence?

SHOOTER VS. HERO

By now everyone knows the name of Adam Lanza, the Newtown shooter. How many instead know the name of Victoria Soto? She's the 27-year old Newtown teacher who lost her life while saving a whole classroom full of first graders by hiding them in the classroom and telling the gunman they were in the gym. What, she didn't make your local newscast? What if the mass media agreed to a total media blackout about the shooters and focused on the heroes? What would that give us permission and encouragement to do?

Now I'm not saying we don't need intelligent gun laws. We do. I'm suggesting that violence could be greatly curtailed by a media blackout like they already use for streakers at sporting events. Cut away from the action, give a brief commentary, and then focus on the heroes everyone wants to see. Couldn't that spark a social revolution of heroic generosity?

Fr. Scott Kallal is one of the founding members of the Apostles of the Interior Life, a new community dedicated to answering Pope Benedict's call to raise up "a new generation of apostles rooted in Christ's word, able to respond to the challenges of our time, and ready to spread the Gospel far and wide." You can contact Fr. Scott at scottkallal@gmail.com

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Covenant of Ulster Parades - We Take a Step Back to See Orange Marches for What They Really Are

100 years ago today 500,000 people in Ulster signed a pledge to resist the imposition of home rule for Ireland, by force of arms if necessary. It seems odd today that the British government was on the side of Irish nationalists but at the time that was the case, it was the common folk of Ulster that didn't want Irish home rule. But what does it mean to be a member of the Orange Order today and why do they like to parade?

For anyone but Ulster Protestants these parades are confusing. To nationalists they are insulting, intimidating and misunderstood. To anyone not from Ireland they are just strange. But to Ulster Protestants these parades and the organisations that go with them are central to their culture. They are a connection to the past, an assertion of identity and a source of strength in a world that seems 'out to get' them.

Over the past 30 years Ulster Unionists have seen their power, dominance and control of Northern Ireland taken from them as part of the peace process. Nobody in their right mind would say that this is a bad thing, equality is largely a reality today and long may it continue. However to a working class unionist, it feels like they have suffered an unrelenting string of humiliations and that everything 'goes to them', meaning of course the nationalist community.

I will resist the urge to launch into a full diatribe about the need for tribalism in our evolutionary past, however we should state that human beings are tribal. We need to feel part of a larger whole, and it helps to have an opposing tribe to cement this.

These marches are unionist mutual grooming, a reaffirmation of the tribe and their shared strength in a world that has them locked in a siege mentality. Put yourself in the position of a young, possibly unemployed, man from Belfast. You're once proud community and culture has been eroded by your enemies who you are told you must respect. Wouldn't it feel good to march alongside your brothers in arms and to publicly state your pride in your history?

It will take many years but we hope that one day these feeling will subside on all sides, and that the marches can be seen as an expression of Irish history and the culture of many of the islands inhabitants without out causing insult to anyone else.

This article was brought to you by Richard Hamilton of Whole Story News.

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