Be Careful What You Ask For...

 I remember sitting in a class in the—you guessed it—the Classroom Building at the Oklahoma State University in the late 1970s. Each school had its own buildings and classrooms, but the Classroom Building served as an overflow facility.  It was also across from the student union. Between them was an area suitable for public demonstrations, and the demonstrations at the time were by Iranian Students. Oklahoma State had many of them.

The chants were, “Down, down, down, down with the Shah.” The chants repeated without variation for hours. After a few days, the natives showed up. By natives, I mean mostly those with a little redneck in them. They encircled the protesters with twice their number, crossed their arms, and said nothing.

There was no violence. The Iranian students just decided that attending one class this month might be in their best interests. Protests became fewer for the rest of the year, but the protesters got what they asked for, and the liberty they knew briefly while in the United States would not await them at home.

Be careful what you ask for; you might just get it. The nation of Iran is pushing fifty years of subjugating its people in a self-serving theocracy.

For the past several years, the socialist movement in this country has grown much more than I thought was possible among liberty-loving Americans. At first, I thought it consisted of a small minority of undereducated, overly pampered crazies. Plenty of them are, but others with mainstream jobs, families, and two dogs are buying into the money-for-nothing offers. Few seem interested in doing an actual cost-benefit analysis, case study, or just talking to people who once lived in a socialist country.

No magic pill cures society's ills. Human governments are all flawed, but those rooted in liberty and individual rights have the best chance of improving lives, families, and nations because people want to improve their own lives and those of their posterity. Neither governmental authority nor its permission is required. 

Socialism takes authority from the people it claims to serve and dispenses privileges and resources as it sees fit. For a short time, it must appease the masses who surrendered their freedom, but sooner than most realize, the things once promised are no longer part of the conversation. To disagree runs contrary to the common good. There can be no public discussion as the government is always right.

And just who is the government? Those poised to seize power at any opportunity. The whole Marxist philosophy, which sounds good in some ethereal scenario, is eviscerated by the drive for power. It’s human nature, and without rights residing in the individual, nothing within the nation itself can resist it.

If you vote for socialism by whatever name it’s labeled this year, you are spending the inheritance of liberty of your children’s children. If they ever know liberty, they will pay in their own blood first.

I plan to leave my grandkids a nation that values liberty.

For those so convinced socialism is the way forward, be careful what you ask for; you might just get it. I pray you don't capriciously dismiss the blood that was shed for what you now enjoy

Be careful what you ask for--you might just get it.