April 14, 2013

Two theories of history

There are two broad theories of history:  The first holds that a handful of heroic figures can change the outcome of events, and thus the course of history.  Since this theory was formally outlined before the age of political correctness it was called the "great man" theory.

By contrast, the other theory is a bit depressing:  It holds that because major nations are so large, the sum of the beliefs and acts of all a nation's people has such massive inertia that it can't be altered by any one person.  Thus even if a heroic person manages to inspire fellow citizens to win one battle against impossible odds, it won't change the course of history because a nation eventually, inevitably goes where the collective desires of its citizens take it.

Accordingly, this destination is beyond the power of one person to change.  This probably has a name but I'll call it the "momentum theory" of history.

These competing theories seem to be analogous to the religious ones of free will versus pre-destination.

As a big fan of free will I would like to think a determined, inspired person can change the course of history for the better.  Unfortunately the combination of a media totally devoted to supporting one party, and a government that has arrogated to itself the power to buy the votes of the indigent and low-skilled, would seem to be beyond the power of any single person to counter, short of war.

Moreover, the momentum theory has a crucial advantage:  people who live off the taxpayers typically have significantly more children than the average--and their offspring are more likely to vote to increase the number of taxpayer-funded "freebies" they can get. Thus the number of people who will vote for politicians who promise them more taxpayer-funded benefits will grow exponentially.  If 52% of voters vote Democrat today, that figure may not decline in the future.

For the first 120 years after the signing of the Constitution we could count on its seemingly clear language to restrain the federal government to its original, Constitutional functions.  But thanks to liberal judges and corrupt pols the Constitution has been discarded as the supreme law of the land.

And if this isn't enough, in a few months the number of people voting for taxpayer-funded "freebies" will be swelled by 11 million currently-illegal aliens who will be given American citizenship, courtesy of Obama, the Democrats and a handful of corrupt RINOs.

If anyone out there has any ideas about how to get this country back to the Constitution I'd love to hear 'em.

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