Greetings From The Vale Of Tears!

 by Joe Siano

Our first parents left a sad legacy.  They and their offspring were evicted from Paradise into this Vale of Tears, the “valley of the shadow of death”.

They fell for impossible promises. Thus we all fell into the misery of  “painful toil” to survive by the sweat of our brows all the days of our lives until we “return to the ground” from which we were taken.  Adam and Eve got a stern realty check. They were dust and to dust they, and we, shall return.

In his epic, The Golden Bough, J.G. Frazer notes the unique perspective of

human beings.  Of all creatures, only humans comprehend that life is short, fragile, painful.  No one gets out alive.  That's scary.

Frazier traces man’s struggle to overcome this dilemma through magic, religion and, ultimately, science. 

Being a Victorian gentleman, Frazer overlooked the most recent totem- the political solution.  It was just over the horizon in century to come.

As a man of  both faith and reason, I vouch for their efficacy.  Science and technology make material existence much more comfortable.  Faith provides hope and meaning.  It shapes our moral conscience.  Neither science nor true religion pretends to solve the quandary that life is short, challenging and often painful.

Democracy's leading political operators are serpent-oil salesman.  The curs that appear on Fox, CNN and MSNBC night after night peddle pipe dreams that are impossible, at best and deadly at worst.

Politics is a false god.

The age of big nation states with popular governments was just ramping up in the Nineteenth Century when Frazier was writing.  Bismarck united Germany and invented the welfare/warfare state.  In America, Lincoln crushed Federalism and laid the foundation for a centralized progressive empire.  In London, Karl Marx was polishing up his misguided philosophy that would bring misery and death to millions.

The era of mass democracy gave rise to demagogues.  These power hungry individuals will promise anything – no matter how illogical, unaffordable, dishonest or outlandish – that gullible voters will swallow.  Their pitches work best when seasoned with bile and enmity towards one or more imaginary bogeymen.

The specter of Marx lies behind all collectivist endeavors of the past hundred years be they known as communism, socialism, fascism, Nazism or progressivism.  Sometimes their Marxism is veiled behind a thick cloak of secrecy. Other times it is worn proudly for all to see.

America’s young Lefties sport their radicalism like a Prada purse.   It is the fashion accessory du jour for the AOC, BLM set.  Supporters, sympathizers and posers believe that they have found the lost path back to Eden.  The revolution will transform fallen angles into secular saints, cleansed of the sins of our fathers.

We are blessed have the real-life testimony of escapees from Communist nations  - those darkest corners in the Valley of Death- to disabuse America from socialist fairy tales.  Two recently came to my attention.

Carmen Alexe, was born and raised in communist Romania during the Cold War.  Alexe writes:

“Despite the fact that Romania was a country rich in resources, there were shortages everywhere. Food, electricity, water, and just about every one of life's necessities were in short supply. The apartment building in which we lived provided hot water for showers two hours in the morning and two hours at night. We had to be quick and on time so we didn't miss the opportunity.

Considering the shortages created by the government-controlled economy of my birth country, I came to understand and appreciate capitalism, the one system that had the most dramatic effect in elevating human civilization.

Only in a free-market system can we truly achieve individual liberty and human flourishing.”

Victoria Spartz, a newly elected Congresswoman from Indiana, comes from Soviet Ukraine.  Like Carmen Alexa, Spartz relates:

“I grew up in socialism, I saw what happens when it runs out of money and it’s not pretty.

And now we’re building socialism. I’m kind of going full circles. I can tell you what is going to be next. It’s very sad for me to see that.

there are only two systems: freedom and free enterprise, (or)  you have a system where government decides, political elites on top, how we’re going to live and what we’re going to do.

This system creates a lot of destruction and misery so we have to be smarter than that”

How ugly can things get?  Chai Ling, a pro-market/free speech advocate activist from China, was front and center for the Tiananmen Square massacre.  That’s how ugly. 

Ayn Rand, became one of capitalism’s most ardent and advocates based on her experience in the early Soviet Union.  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn exposed the horrors of Stalinism from firsthand experience its prison camps.

e.e. cummings, the bohemia rebel poet, toured the newly minted Soviet Union.  He was repulsed by what he found.  Cummings became an strident anti-collectivist, setting him apart from his Lost Generation cohorts.

Perhaps the best A/B Test of free enterprise versus state control of was example of East Germany / West Germany split during the Cold War. 

Immediately after fall of the Berlin Wall. U.S. Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich,  crossed over from West into East Germany.  What he discovered was eye opening.

"As soon as our bus crossed the old Inner German Border, we entered a time warp.

 Now, we found ourselves face-to-face with an altogether different Germany. Although commonly depicted as the most advanced and successful component of the Soviet Empire, East Germany more closely resembled part of the undeveloped world.

The roads—even the main highways—were narrow and visibly crumbling. East German automobiles .... tended to a retro primitivism. 

 The villages through which we passed were forlorn and the small farms down at the heels. For lunch we stopped at a roadside stand. The proprietor happily accepted our D-marks, offering us inedible sausages in exchange. Although the signs assured us that we remained in a land of German speakers, it was a country that had not yet recovered from World War II."

Upon arrival in Jena, we checked into the Hotel Schwarzer Bär, identified by our advance party as the best hostelry in town. It turned out to be a rundown fleabag. As the senior officer present, I was privileged to have a room in which the plumbing functioned. Others were not so lucky.

It is oft observed that capitalism is the worst economic system of all, except for all the others.  Yet it has lifted billions out of abject poverty.  Churchill remarked, ‘The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Utopia is not an option.  Human beings will always live in the Vale of Tears.  Liberty, respect for the lives and property of others, free markets and freedom of thought and expression are the surest means to minimize suffering and elevate the human condition.

Friends do not let friends buy the empty promises of demagogues, centralizers and utopians.

 

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"Half the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction." 
- Paul Simon