The New American Ethos

     I recently heard one of the winners of a mega lottery contest exclaim that he could now decide what kind of car he would drive and where he would live. I thought it was sad that people have become so hopeless in the age of Obama that they no longer think those basic decisions are a natural part of the American experience. This resignation that independence and prosperity are no longer within the control of the individual, is illustrative of the deliberate substitution of the rugged can-do spirit that built this great nation with the hopelessness that is government dependence.
     The idea that someone can work hard and attain a certain level of success, and that that success would precipitate an increase in the availability of choices for the individual, is lost to the Leftist-sponsored entitlement mentality that now permeates this country and is used by Democrats to ensure their re-elections. And with this new mentality comes an acquiescence by individuals that government has more control over their lives than they do themselves. This new American ethos is antithetical to  the opportunity society that the founders of this nation endeavored so diligently to create.
     When men like Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Adams and others created the documents that formed the foundations of a new kind of nation, for the first time in history they built a nation on the inversion of the previously accepted model of organized societies. Whereas in most other systems the power of governance emanated from the top down, this new nation of the United States of America, with its Declaration of Independence, Constitution and other founding documents, gave the most power to the individual, then to local governments. The least amount of power was given to the federal government. The founders knew that the more freedom individuals had to unlock their own potential, the more opportunity would be created for others.
     The new American ethos imposed by Leftist ideology teaches individuals, like that recent lottery winner, that choice is not their birthright, but is the result of luck or government largess. It teaches that the only opportunity is that which is graciously doled out by a central government that decides who is deserving and who is not. This new American ethos, created by people like Barack Obama, has elevated selfishness to the level of virtue and has replaced individual generosity with government confiscation of wealth. The new American ethos created by politicians with a rapacious appetite for power has inculcated the public with a rapacious appetite to indulge in the fruits of other peoples labor. The new American ethos, born of the soulless and immoral trappings of Leftism, devours the ideals that built this great nation and has sustained it for over two hundred years. The new American ethos is not all that new, it is born of the same defective thinking that has caused most of the strife in the world and is as old as man himself. It is the thinking that says governments can manage the affairs of individuals better than that of the individuals themselves. This is the basis of all tyranny and the enemy of all liberty.