Steven Misosky's Blog
November 21, 2014
Thoughts About Thanksgiving
Imagine an excited family going to grandmother’s house for a wonderful Thanksgiving Day feast. On the way, mouth’s are watering just thinking about the sumptuous banquet. With the first step in the door, that special aroma has all the memories of past celebrations come rushing back. Everyone begins taking deep breaths to excite their senses as they enter and exchange hugs and greetings. The smell of the turkey abounds because grandmother rose early in the morning to start cooking it long and slow, basting it often so that every bite would be a juicy delight. Her expertise pervades every aspect of the day. Her mashed potatoes have the perfect consistency, and the gravy is so savory it’s almost other worldly. Her rolls melt in your mouth. Her timing is exquisite so that everything is ready just as she calls everyone to the table. Nobody does it like she does because all her years of experience have enabled her to prepare each dish to perfection.
Now, imagine someone telling her that she didn’t prepare that meal. Somebody else did that.
Yes, somebody else raised that turkey. Somebody else, maybe her mother, taught her how to cook. Somebody else grew those pumpkins that she transformed into an irresistible delicacy. That may be true, others did what they do, but only she could bring it all together to make such a special day to remember.
So, what’s the point? Well, this is a good example when considering the words of President Obama: “If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
Here’s the expanded quote so you don’t think that I’m taking it out of context: “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”
Of course, it takes a collection of individual efforts to make a great country or to make anything happen. Of course, many of us had an inspiring teacher, but it was that teacher’s character and effort that made them exceptional. As you know, not every teacher is great. Individual accomplishment needs to be appreciated, respected and rewarded, not marginalized like we do in today’s society where every child gets a trophy. In today’s America, there is a push to make the state all important and promote cookie cutter citizens who fall in line and do as their told. In other words, a push to socialism.
Unfortunately, socialism never works, and grandmother did create that dinner, and you did build your business.
So, what does this have to do with Thanksgiving? This lesson about socialism is something that was learned way back when, in the lives of the pilgrims around the time of the first Thanksgiving. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, here's a brief version.
The Pilgrim’s Failed Socialist Experiment
By Dr. Harold Pease
http://www.libertyunderfire.org/2011/...
Few realize that New England’s first form of government under the Pilgrims was communalism (socialism) where “each produced according to his ability and each received according to his needs,” more than two centuries before Karl Marx first penned the above script. The result of “share the wealth” then and now was, and always will be, shared poverty.
William Bradford, the colony’s governor its first 30 years, wrote of the agreement between the Pilgrim passengers and the financial “Adventurers” in his book Of Plymouth Plantation. He noted that the seven-year contract signed July 1, 1620, before leaving Plymouth England, stipulated that the Pilgrims were to pool, for common benefit, “all profits and benefits that are got by trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means of any person or persons…” It further noted “that at the end of the seven years, the capital and profits, viz. the houses, lands, goods and chattels, be equally divided betwixt the Adventurers and Planters…” During this time the colonists were to “have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock and goods of the said colony.” It doesn’t get more socialistic than this because the government divvied out the goods and loafers received the same as those who worked.
The first two years the result was shortages and starvation. About half the colonists died. No one did more than the minimal because the incentive to excel was destroyed. The industrious were neutralized. Bradford wrote of the scarcity of food “no supply was heard of, neither knew they when they might expect any.” The socialist experiment Bradford added, “was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to the benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labour and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense….” In other words, socialism made strong men lazy. In another book written by the same author, History of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford spoke of another problem because of the government created famine—thievery. Even in this Christian community, “much was stolen both by night and day….”
After two years of such, with the survival of the colony at stake, they contemplated upon “how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery.” They opted to abandon the incentive killing socialist contract in favor of the free market. And so they “assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, for that end…”
The effects were almost immediate. A delighted Governor Bradford wrote: “This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor… could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.” In other words, the free market is a much greater stimulus than governmental force. The Pilgrims now wished to work because they got to keep the benefits of their labor. “Instead of famine now God gave them plenty,” Bradford wrote, “and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God…. Any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day.”
Secure property rights are the key to prosperity for all who wish to work. When this right is threatened by confiscatory taxation or outright confiscation of property, or by excessive government rules and regulations governing such, whether planned as in a contract enforced by the government at Plymouth, or gradual as in our day, work and production slow and can eventually stop. The answer for them was to extract socialism from their midst as it is for us today as well. May we have the wisdom to do so?
Many people have been fooled, but I believe that most Americans are sick about what is going on in our country right now. A greedy, ruthless cabal has usurped our government and has been dismantling our beloved country, little by little, for a long time now. Our politicians are under its power through bribes, blackmail, threats, and maybe even brainwashing. Time is getting short. There’s not much left of our once great country. Laws and regulations have been put in place to promote and consolidate wealth and power for the few. The opportunities for individuals succeeding based on brilliance and effort, as in small businesses, once the backbone of our economy, are diminishing fast, and are really almost totally gone. This must not be allowed to continue. We must route out the oppressors and resurrect our once great country.
So, this Thanksgiving Day, after pondering the blessings in your life, maybe you could also take time to consider what kind of country you want to live in, and whether current events are promoting your ideas of a prosperous nation, or, are they in fact moving us in the opposite direction. Hopefully, some of you will be inspired to further research and action.
Now, imagine someone telling her that she didn’t prepare that meal. Somebody else did that.
Yes, somebody else raised that turkey. Somebody else, maybe her mother, taught her how to cook. Somebody else grew those pumpkins that she transformed into an irresistible delicacy. That may be true, others did what they do, but only she could bring it all together to make such a special day to remember.
So, what’s the point? Well, this is a good example when considering the words of President Obama: “If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
Here’s the expanded quote so you don’t think that I’m taking it out of context: “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”
Of course, it takes a collection of individual efforts to make a great country or to make anything happen. Of course, many of us had an inspiring teacher, but it was that teacher’s character and effort that made them exceptional. As you know, not every teacher is great. Individual accomplishment needs to be appreciated, respected and rewarded, not marginalized like we do in today’s society where every child gets a trophy. In today’s America, there is a push to make the state all important and promote cookie cutter citizens who fall in line and do as their told. In other words, a push to socialism.
Unfortunately, socialism never works, and grandmother did create that dinner, and you did build your business.
So, what does this have to do with Thanksgiving? This lesson about socialism is something that was learned way back when, in the lives of the pilgrims around the time of the first Thanksgiving. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, here's a brief version.
The Pilgrim’s Failed Socialist Experiment
By Dr. Harold Pease
http://www.libertyunderfire.org/2011/...
Few realize that New England’s first form of government under the Pilgrims was communalism (socialism) where “each produced according to his ability and each received according to his needs,” more than two centuries before Karl Marx first penned the above script. The result of “share the wealth” then and now was, and always will be, shared poverty.
William Bradford, the colony’s governor its first 30 years, wrote of the agreement between the Pilgrim passengers and the financial “Adventurers” in his book Of Plymouth Plantation. He noted that the seven-year contract signed July 1, 1620, before leaving Plymouth England, stipulated that the Pilgrims were to pool, for common benefit, “all profits and benefits that are got by trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means of any person or persons…” It further noted “that at the end of the seven years, the capital and profits, viz. the houses, lands, goods and chattels, be equally divided betwixt the Adventurers and Planters…” During this time the colonists were to “have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock and goods of the said colony.” It doesn’t get more socialistic than this because the government divvied out the goods and loafers received the same as those who worked.
The first two years the result was shortages and starvation. About half the colonists died. No one did more than the minimal because the incentive to excel was destroyed. The industrious were neutralized. Bradford wrote of the scarcity of food “no supply was heard of, neither knew they when they might expect any.” The socialist experiment Bradford added, “was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to the benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labour and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense….” In other words, socialism made strong men lazy. In another book written by the same author, History of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford spoke of another problem because of the government created famine—thievery. Even in this Christian community, “much was stolen both by night and day….”
After two years of such, with the survival of the colony at stake, they contemplated upon “how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery.” They opted to abandon the incentive killing socialist contract in favor of the free market. And so they “assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, for that end…”
The effects were almost immediate. A delighted Governor Bradford wrote: “This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor… could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.” In other words, the free market is a much greater stimulus than governmental force. The Pilgrims now wished to work because they got to keep the benefits of their labor. “Instead of famine now God gave them plenty,” Bradford wrote, “and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God…. Any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day.”
Secure property rights are the key to prosperity for all who wish to work. When this right is threatened by confiscatory taxation or outright confiscation of property, or by excessive government rules and regulations governing such, whether planned as in a contract enforced by the government at Plymouth, or gradual as in our day, work and production slow and can eventually stop. The answer for them was to extract socialism from their midst as it is for us today as well. May we have the wisdom to do so?
Many people have been fooled, but I believe that most Americans are sick about what is going on in our country right now. A greedy, ruthless cabal has usurped our government and has been dismantling our beloved country, little by little, for a long time now. Our politicians are under its power through bribes, blackmail, threats, and maybe even brainwashing. Time is getting short. There’s not much left of our once great country. Laws and regulations have been put in place to promote and consolidate wealth and power for the few. The opportunities for individuals succeeding based on brilliance and effort, as in small businesses, once the backbone of our economy, are diminishing fast, and are really almost totally gone. This must not be allowed to continue. We must route out the oppressors and resurrect our once great country.
So, this Thanksgiving Day, after pondering the blessings in your life, maybe you could also take time to consider what kind of country you want to live in, and whether current events are promoting your ideas of a prosperous nation, or, are they in fact moving us in the opposite direction. Hopefully, some of you will be inspired to further research and action.
August 25, 2013
Changed Forever
4.0 out of 5 stars
By Grady Harp HALL OF FAME TOP 50 REVIEWER-VINE VOICE
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Author Steven Misosky offers here a book for the Young Adult reader, but the scope of the book, simplistic as it may be presented at times, is one that should touch the minds and lives of all who read it. It is filled with pearls of wisdom...
...Though in summary it sounds a bit heavy for a YA novel, Misosky unravels his novel with such an accessible tone that what follows - the exploration of dreams, the subconscious, the universe, karma and the conscious mind - allows the reader to slowly expand the mind through a series of short yet meaningful dreams that feel like well-sorted short stories. A finely sculpted book this, not without its flaws, but refreshing to see that some writers are paying attention to the thinking minds of young adults whom we often fear are lost in the ether of frivolous social media.
Changed Forever
By Grady Harp HALL OF FAME TOP 50 REVIEWER-VINE VOICE
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Author Steven Misosky offers here a book for the Young Adult reader, but the scope of the book, simplistic as it may be presented at times, is one that should touch the minds and lives of all who read it. It is filled with pearls of wisdom...
...Though in summary it sounds a bit heavy for a YA novel, Misosky unravels his novel with such an accessible tone that what follows - the exploration of dreams, the subconscious, the universe, karma and the conscious mind - allows the reader to slowly expand the mind through a series of short yet meaningful dreams that feel like well-sorted short stories. A finely sculpted book this, not without its flaws, but refreshing to see that some writers are paying attention to the thinking minds of young adults whom we often fear are lost in the ether of frivolous social media.
Changed Forever
