Misguided Search

"The gift of freedom is yours by right. But the home we seek is not in some distant land. It's in us, and in our actions on this day!"
--Arthur Castus (King Arthur)

I've read a number of recaps about the recently ended 10 yr period, ranging from magazine cover stories to blog posts. A dominant theme in these missives is that this was a difficult decade (the worst ever according to Time). Commonly cited factors linked to the malaise include 9/11, wars in Middle East, crashing stock markets.

There is also a theme of 'poor leadership' in many of these missives--with most such comments directed toward the Bush administration years. And hope is often expressed that the 'new' leadership of the Obama administration will deliver us from the malaise.

Let's look at a few factors selected from a different thematic set that have plausibly shaped our present situation:

-->Obsession with elevating our standard of living in the present, which has caused us to borrow or acquire resources in gargantuan quantitites from others--often using coercive means such as war and taxation.

-->Unwillingness to accept the pain of dialing back our present day standard of living to pay off the debts we have accumulated.

-->A reliance on government 'leadership' to solve our problems.

The theme here, of course, is that it has been our poor individual choices that have brought on our current difficult situation. Viewed thru such a lens, improving our situation is grounded in personal actions such as:

• cutting back on personal consumption
• increasing personal saving
• paying down personal debt
• refusal to support government programs that seek to spend at the national level while individuals seek to save
• refusal to support government programs that seek to elevate standard of living of some individuals at the expense of others
• reallocate resources for decentralized self-defense rather than for a centralized standing military

Taking personal responsibility and action.