danriverboy: blog 
danriverboy's blog
so good it's worth repeating ...
Published Aug. 20, 2008
Thanks to Just One Opinion for posting a particularly apt quote from the past. Spoken 80 years or so ago, it's proving to have been right on target ...
“When a candidate for public office faces the voters, he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand.
So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
H. L. Mencken
close16 Comments
top-voted stories
(2 votes) relatives fear mom, boy dead
(1 votes) repaving i-795 could cost up to $22m
(1 votes) homebuilders feel economic pinch
(1 votes) workplace deaths on rise
most recent
Welcome to GOLO, where WRAL.com visitors can comment on stories and create profile pages, blogs and photo galleries.
You must be a registered WRAL.com user to use these tools. Click here to register or log in.
August 20, 2008 9:59 a.m.
August 20, 2008 8:52 a.m.
Without values and morals then the concept of "delayed gratification" leaves the society. It is easier to steal from someone else than it is to go get a job and save your money.
If one morning this country woke up and began to save their money instead of spoiling our kids with every shiney gadget that goes on the store shelves then Sooo many of our national problems would go away!
Ever buy a house and had the banker say..."But according to your income figures you can afford THIS!" What a crock - I know what I can afford and you must be on drugs!
Morals and Ethics resulting in delayed gratification. Look at the asian cultures. This is one of the big reasons they are kicking our tail.
GOLO member since November 2, 2007
August 20, 2008 8:48 a.m.
This is insightful as well. As a nation we can only seem to muster our best when adversity strikes. WWII for example, had huge positive effects economically and socially here at home that lasted well after the war ended. One could argue that too much peace and prosperity (desirable as they may be) tend to promote banality and apathy in daily life, creating the "Rome Syndrome" DRB alluded to. Let us hope we don't sink so deeply into the morass of mediocrity that we are unable to save ourselves from the challenges that await us. The quote from Thomas Jefferson is very relevant - "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
GOLO member since March 18, 2008
August 20, 2008 8:36 a.m.
In many ways, it already has ... :-D
GOLO member since June 10, 2008
August 20, 2008 8:31 a.m.
GOLO member since August 20, 2007
August 20, 2008 8:27 a.m.
I once told my Father that I thought I would be OK if I was 'right' more than I was 'wrong'.
He said that I was close to the mark, but not quite on. He said that I must "make more money from being 'right' than I lost from being 'wrong' ".
That fits in quite nicely with your contention that the givers must outnumber the takers.
Unfortunately, I think that the balance has already shifted and we on the ‘giver' side are already outnumbered.
The only reason that it’s still working is that we are giving a Hell of a lot more than the takers are taking. For the time being, anyway ....
STS
GOLO member since June 7, 2008
August 20, 2008 8:15 a.m.
People that are elected tend to be good at getting elected, not necessarily good at doing whatever the elected position is really about.
History is replete with rulers that have been just as nutty as your local Sciurus Carolinensis. A few examples are the Roman emperor Caligula (Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, circa 12-41 CE), Austria’s Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm II, (circa 1845 – 1886), or Great Britain’s George II (circa 1683-1760)
Aside: In all fairness, George II was probably not really insane; merely incompetent. We can’t really blame our British cousins too much for that one; we too have had a few like that ....
For the most part such countries have survived intact.
But, it must have been a real pain for the citizens, the way it seems to be for us now ....
STS
GOLO member since June 7, 2008
August 20, 2008 8:06 a.m.
I do however know this - - when the takers in our society outnumber the contributors we will become non-governable and our fall will make the fall of the Roman Empire look like a toga party that just went a little sour.
Good chatting with you. Have to go to work now to support my family and a bunch of people that I don't even know.
JOO
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
August 20, 2008 8:06 a.m.
Honestly, I wish I knew. I have suspicions that, on some level, the relative ease of life in the US and the focus, by and large, on the mediocre instead of the worthwhile produces an entitlement mentality and banality that serve to undermine the health of the whole thing in the end.
Sort of like Rome in some ways, you think? Fixing it may prove to be a difficult thing, assuming it's even possible at this point.
GOLO member since June 10, 2008
August 20, 2008 7:58 a.m.
Please log in to add comment.