Complacency
By Robert T. Smith
web posted February 22, 2010
Thank God that B. Hussein Obama was elected! Preferring the notion of Americanism over the mob rule of democracy, socialism, or whatever similar form of collectivism our new leader is selling, this may seem a bit of a strange exclamation.
As explanation, consider this familiar quote attributed to Alexander Tytler regarding the progression of civilization.
From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to great courage
From courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependence
From dependence back into bondage
Where do we stand today in our country in this algorithm assigned to civilization's progress? For the most part we have lived abundantly since Ronald Reagan unleashed the greatest engine of ingenuity and productivity in the history of the world, the American people. When un-tethered from stifling government taxation and freed to produce wealth, lives have been lived relatively abundantly as the norm for those who chose to participate in our American society. Independent citizens conducted their lives freely in the pursuit of happiness and participated in the American dream. While not everyone became extremely wealthy, a popular phrase was coined by a fellow believer in tax cuts to stimulate economic expansion, John F. Kennedy so plainly stated that "a rising tide lifts all boats".
Today we seem to teeter upon the edge of the 1980's-triggered abundance. Our most recent economic issues, combined with the grip of an insatiable government grown large at all levels have slowly been squeezing the life out of our abundance. It is not yet clear whether we will trade our individual freedom for the false promise of collective economic security; a trade that will, as a matter of course, involve our progressing toward a more comprehensive dependence on government.
There is no need to try to envision what dependence will look like. As example, we have all observed the dynamics of recent presidential elections, the usual red versus blue county-by-county summary of the winner and loser. The typically blue urban centers are the hot beds of a complacent and apathetic citizenry, people who feel a sense of hopelessness over their lives' conditions. These urban areas are populated by many citizens who pay little or nothing at all to fund the government, and who are provided goods and services passed through the government, taken at the expense of their fellow citizens. There is a demonstrated, many times generational dependency on taxpayer-supplied government largesse for their basic needs, and a continuous din for ever more.
Based on the National Taxpayers Union information, the top 50% of Americans pay approximately 98% of the individual federal income tax, and the top 10% pay almost three-quarters of the individual federal income tax. The American business tax rate is one of the highest in the world at 40%, based on the Tax Foundation information. Too many of our fellow citizens live dependently at the expense of other individuals and businesses.
Dependency lives where autonomy and the notion of self are given to another person, institution, government, or sometimes even a drug as examples. Dependence is offered, not taken. Bondage is the one way street where you have no choice. Bondage is taken not offered. Many of America's poor are dependent upon the government, while, for examples, the people of China, Cuba, and other repressive regimes live in bondage.
In our abundance we arguably grew complacent. We diligently woke early every morning for the better part of three decades now, filled our commuter to-go mug of coffee and headed off to work; living what we believed to be the American dream. All the while we were busy living our lives, the insidious creep of government was overtaking more and more of our fellow citizens; culminating in the humanity-killing dependence upon government handouts by so many of our fellow citizens. The safety net protection against short-term life issues became the government-induced hammock of long-term dependency. The slow-drip drug of dependence on government from left and right seeped into our political system, empowering government to expand, and displacing individual freedom to create a more collective society. More government means less liberty and abundance.
It seems as if many of us were suddenly shaken from our complacency on election day 2008; complacency was postponed by the cold slap of reality. Soon thereafter, as example, TEA parties broke out. Missing from much of the news coverage, and what can only be assumed to have been purposefully omitted by the party-detractors is the real acronym of the TEA parties – Taxed Enough Already. The old media seems to have missed the significance of the taxed enough already notion as they busied themselves slandering their fellow citizens with the various pejoratives unbecoming of thoughtful adults. Taxed enough already directly confronts the government bloat and related dependency-inducing economic issues.
Julius Caesar changed the course of history when he faced his own critical decision of whether to cross the Rubicon River with his Legions, an act of war upon the Roman government. Here we stand at the American Rubicon, deciding whether to set the algorithm back to liberty and abundance or continue the trajectory toward dependence.
Thank God that B. Hussein Obama was elected to shake us from our complacency and apathy. As quoted from the Roman writer and politician Marcus Tulius Cicero, "freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered." Let's rally for Americanism's progress one step back to liberty and abundance, back to the future of our country. 
Robert T. Smith is an environmental scientist who spends his days enjoying life and the pursuit of happiness with his family. He confesses to cling to his liberty, guns and religion, with antipathy toward the arrogant ruling elites throughout the country.