January 23, 2008
by Clay Barham

Look back at the beginning of America almost 400 years ago to understand how we became so free and wealthy when compared to the Old World from whence we came.  That's right!  Something happened when we began that set us apart from every other nation.  Men and women, as Americans, could think out of the bubble and live out of the box.  They did it so well that, today, 5% of the world's population controls 25% of its wealth. 

Individual freedom never existed elsewhere in the world.  Individual freedom opened the door to prosperity and greater happiness for a greater number.  It gave each individual control over his or her life.  There were bumps in our road and scabs forming in some places that ultimately fell before the march of freedom.

Now, Americans want to turn it all around. They want leadership other than themselves. They want to split up the treasure, take a share of what others have created and built while thinking out of the bubble and living out of the box.  To get their share, they must impose limitations on those who create, invent, pursue their own interests and aspirations, and use different talents and skills.  Since FDR suggested it was time to design, engineer and manage a perfect America, using a government to serve all our needs, legions of elite have answered the call and imposed on the rest of us their wisdom and guidance.

The elite among us, small in numbers and claiming greater knowledge, have established new limits on Americans.  They have given us politically correct moral limits on how we think.  They have written restrictive laws placing a box around what we can do.  They have designed and applied these limits for our own good.  They want to keep Americans in line with their vision of how America should blend best with the rest of the world. 

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Using local, state and federal government as their instruments, they employed manipulative taxes to encourage one behavior and discourage another. Creativity is discouraged. Thrift is punished. Charitable giving is usurped. They limit individual freedom and the pursuit of legitimate self-interest for the benefit of what they see as community interests.  In doing all of this, they have convinced the majority that this is the best way to have happiness.

Ask most anyone today, if a person should be allowed to think wild and crazy thoughts on how to change something we are all comfortable with, and the answer would be no.  Most people do not want to change anything if it rocks the boat, challenging the accepted and established mind-sets. 

Yet, America, like a great speedboat, grew strong and wealthy because it was rocking, rolling and kicking up a big wake.  Americans are asked now to vote against any more big changes while the spoils are being divided.  Is that our new way?

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Clay Barham [send him email] has been a candidate for the California legislature and a stand-in talk show host for ABC.  He was educated in physical and behavioral sciences, with a Ph.D. in sociology.  He is the author of five books, with his latest being Foundations of Modern American Conservatism and Liberalism: The Roots of Freedom and Tyranny.  Visit his website at http://www.claysamerica.com.

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