Think About It

“Trust me, put your faith in me, and I’ll make your life better!” That’s the big lie. The lie people tell when they want power. It’s what Lenin told the Russians, Hitler told the Germans, and what every politician whoever sought public office has told the voters. The liar’s intent doesn’t matter. It could be benevolent or sinister, what makes the lie so convincing, is that the people telling the lie actually, believe it.

When Vladimir Lenin formed the Communist Party and overthrew the Czar, he believed it was going to improve the lives of the Russian peasants. He never envisioned that his party would one-day murder 20-million of its own people. Or when Adolf Hitler became the leader of Germany, as evil as he was, he didn’t intend to plunge the world into war and destroy his own country. It just doesn’t work that way.

History is full of dreamers and schemers that are going to change the world. They mesmerize and beguile with the promise of creating a utopia on earth.  And we willingly accept the lie because they passionately and sincerely believe what they’re saying.

So what happens? Why can’t these liars deliver on their promise? Well, Christian theology calls it Original Sin, but most everyone else knows it as human nature.

Putting your trust and faith in another human being, or a human institution is generally not a good idea. Giving government more power and control over your life, has never in the history of mankind worked out well for the people. No matter how noble the intentions, no matter how alluring the promises, no matter how plausible the policies, it will not in the long run benefit the people. It will however, benefit those in power.

Programs created to help people become more self-reliant, instead create dependence. Policies designed to improve education, only guarantee mediocrity. Government agencies formed to safeguard the homeland produce a labyrinth of bureaucracy that endangers its citizens.

It works this way not because the people who run these programs are bad or evil. It works this way because the people who run these programs are people. It’s inherent in our human nature. We will automatically and subconsciously, do the things that benefit us personally.  When given the choice between completing the job and keeping the gravy train going, we’ll choose to keep the gravy train going. That’s why government agencies never end, and why government programs never solve the problems they’re intended to solve.

The truth, is that no human being, or human institution is worthy of our trust and faith. The Founding Fathers understood this; that’s why they set the country up as a Republic where the rule of law reigns supreme over a monarch or a president.  That’s why they separated the branches of government, and most importantly, that’s why they guaranteed the freedom of religion.

Our individual free-will is the key to our freedom and prosperity. No political party or politician, and no policy or program can give it to us.  We must choose it for ourselves. We must make the conscious decision to take the talents and gifts God has given us, and use them to improve our lives, the lives of our loved ones, and the community and country in which we live. The only one truly worthy of our trust and faith is God, because God is the source of both our free-will and freedom. That’s why totalitarian states suppress religion.  They don’t want the people to be dependent upon God. They want the people dependent upon the state because that’s how they secure their power.  God’s the competition, and it’s better for them to eliminate the competition.

For the past fifty-years, liberals have been telling the American people, “Trust me, put your faith in me, and I’ll make your life better.”  It started in 1965 with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. “Give those who don’t have a little more,” and end poverty in America. That was the promise. However, five decades and 22-trillion dollars later, the poverty rate remains at fourteen percent, and for some, things have actually gotten worse.

Today, seventy-five percent of African Americans are born out-of-wedlock, and forty-seven percent live in households that receive means-tested benefits. The percent of black men in the workforce has dropped from eighty-one percent in 1965 to just sixty-seven percent in 2015. And in America, a black person is eight times more likely to be killed than a white person, and ninety-four percent of those killed are killed by another black person.

The truth is that the prospects for a young black person growing up in the inner cities of America are abysmal. Their neighborhoods are infested with drugs, gangs and violence. Their public schools are appalling failures. They have no education, no marketable skills, and little or no hope of improving their lot in life. Even the election of the country’s first African-American President in 2008, hasn’t provided any real hope and change. They are part of an entitlement class that is permanently and terminally dependent upon the government. They bought the lie, and are now entrapped by it.

What do we do when we discover that we’ve been lied to? We get angry. We strike-out and try to extract our vengeance on those who have taken advantage of us. But when the lie is this big, and this intricately woven, who do you go after? Well, the liars are never going to admit the lie because they still believe it’s true. So, who do you blame? Enter the scapegoat, the lie wrapped inside the lie, the convenient way to redefine the truth, absolve yourself of responsibility, and continue the lie. “Hands up don’t shoot!”