Want to Understand What's Happening in New Orleans?
A HUMAN Disaster
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
(To those of you that got stuck in New Orleans as tourists or through no fault of your own because you really did try and leave, this is not directed at you. My thoughts are with you and I hope that you can use your ingenuity and leadership to keep yourselves safe and get out.)
For the last week basically I've been at a loss for words as to what has been happening in the southern United States. We've been getting ridiculous commentary from the media here in Canada, even from the most right wing of news papers in the Global and Mail saying it's American individualism that is causing what's going on down there.
I've been completely stunned by the lack of response by the government, and worse, the complete lethargy of the people. In almost every other crisis I've ever seen in North America the people get out and help. They start rebuilding. Leaders come to the fore.
Not in New Orleans. The people are wandering around doing nothing. When their interviewed they keep demanding that someone give them something, that someone save them.
Unlike when the lights went out in the North East there are no leaders stepping up and leading the people. No one is metaphorically directing traffic at stop lights that are not working.
I couldn't figure out what was going on for the longest time. I can tell that the media is in the same boat. They're stunned. They're angry. Bush is to blame! It must be him!
It isn't. Sorry.
http://tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1026
Don't read another word until you've read the entire article at that link.
After reading that article it became so clear! Combine an inept government without a plan for the inevitable (it was statistically guaranteed to happen within my life-time, and this was a near miss, not even a real Cat 5), combined with the trash of our society, leaching off of the government in the "projects" and the criminals, large portions of which came from these very "projects" themselves, and you have a recipe for exactly what is happening now.
There are no leaders stepping up, because there are no leaders in these people. Leaders aren't in the projects. Leaders don't need social assistance and low income housing. They earn their living. More to the point, leaders listen to those that are more knowledgeable and evacuated no matter what they had to do when they were warned that this was exactly what was going to happen instead of expecting it to not happen to them for some bizarre reason (either praying to god, or praying to the government to somehow stop a hurricane).
(Little tip for the religious that are out thanking god for the food and the evacuations right now: That is the direct result of leaders, men and women working hard. It has absolutely nothing to do with god. There is only one thing that is miraculous and out of the purview of humanity: The hurricane itself. So don't be thanking God. God (if you believe in god) brought this down on you. Men and women are saving you. - - Paraphrase of something John Daily said about the plane crash in Toronto)
How many deaths laid at the feet of socialism does it take before we learn the evil of the concept? Soviet Russia killed 50+ million people in their "grand experiment". I would call that a failure that the entire world should listen to and not only that, go the other way as fast as possible, do not pass go, do not collect $100 in social program money. But no, the government of Canada with its social welfare state is killing people in our public health care system "for the greater good" and the "greater good" that drove the governments to create "the projects" in New Orleans has directly caused their deaths.
Oh, and before you make this a racial thing, this has nothing to do with race, it has to do with wealth. These people are poor. It doesn't matter if they are white, black or purple. They're poor and they're acting like poor people always do. (it's why they're poor) They're blaming everyone but themselves, their demanding someone give them a handout and when people do try and help them, they're shooting at them and then when that is suppressed, dare to lash out at the national guard because "the national guard treated us like animals!" Tip: You're acting like animals and thus you're being treated exactly the way you deserve.
Of course, as with every human disaster (this is not a natural disaster) the socialists are coming out of the wood work demanding a war on poverty and oppression and a new race war because we don't have equality damnit and the blacks should be given it and not have to earn it! And of course the end result of all of this will be more socialism, not less. And that's sad, because poverty and homelessness are both conditions that can never been "cured". Why? Because they're a choice, just as surely as sitting around rotting in the Superdome is a choice instead of banding together and building boats and retrofitting trucks with snorkels and getting the hell out by your own initiative is a choice. If you choose to do drugs there is nothing that anyone can do to stop you from being stupid, because no matter what road blocks are put up, you'll find a way to be stupid.
This is the fundamental failure of understanding that the socialists have. If someone chooses to be stupid, you can't stop them. And trying to stop them only ends in disaster. We've been fighting a war on drugs for 30+ years now, and it's worse, not better. Legalize all forms of drugs, allow people to be stupid. Require surgeon's general warnings and complete chemical specifications to be posted on the packaging and allow every drug store in the country to carry it if they so choose. Everywhere that this has been done, the amount of drug use has gone down, and more importantly violence and crime as a result of drug use and trade has virtually disappeared (sections of Belgium, Denmark etc.). Why? Because one way or another people are going to get them if they want them. They will be stupid, regardless of what road blocks you put up. If you make it a capitalist endeavour then at least there is a framework for fair trade instead of criminals dealing with criminals, which of course only has one outcome.
And for the religious people out there: You're to blame for socialism. It is the completely false ideal of altruism as thrust upon us by Jesus in the new testament that created the concept of socialism in the first place. "Give of yourself" becomes "make others give of themselves too" because "if I give and it helps, then if everyone gave, it would help even more so let's get the government involved and force everyone to give!".
Charity is a good and required thing for any society to succeed. But lets be clear about what charity is. (and no, I'm not going to use a dictionary because they seem to be completely incapable of writing a definition now… look in Webster's on the definition of "human", they use the word "man" to define "human". Tip: You can't use the world or its roots to define it. It's called a circular reference and is a contradiction and thus WRONG.)
Charity: An individual's freely given gift of one or more of their possessions to another whom has not earned said gift but is in need because of extraordinary events out of their capabilities to predict or deal with.
Note that possessions is not constrained to simply material items, it includes effort and time as well, such as a doctor's services.
Note 2: Notice how complex the definition is? Notice how many abstractions are necessary? Compared to "rational animal" as the definition of "human" and you understand why so many don't understand the conceptualization of "charity" and thus bastardize it with socialism.
What's important here is that it is one person's FREELY given gift. It must be the choice of the individual to give it to the other person. It is a transaction between two people. At the height of its goodness it is a purely selfish act predicated on enlightened self-interest. "If I were ever in that same situation I could really use someone else's help too, thus if I would want that if I was in that situation, I better give in this situation."
Everything in the universe requires trade. You must expend energy to get an action. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Charity is no different. It is the expenditure of energy for a future action that you will inevitably need done for you. You are in effect trading with yourself. It is only when this is true, that charity is GOOD. And to be clear, your expectation of someone helping you in the future when you are not able to deal with a problem because you're not equipped doesn't have to be the same thing. (that would be irrational because you're helping specifically because you are equipped to deal with it, and the other person isn't) It simply means that you're "paying it forward" for a future event where someone else is equipped to help you and you're not equipped to help yourself.
Altruism and its evil child, socialism have caused this human disaster in the southern United States. The rest of the world that is quietly being smug and saying that it looks good on the United States needs to look again and realize that it is specifically because the United States is becoming like those other socialist countries (Europe) that this happened, not because of individualism and the things that the United States is built upon. If the United States was true to the foundation built by its fathers, this would be a natural disaster to be sure, but it wouldn't be a human one, and the death toll would reflect that reality.
To all of the people that got out and showed forethought, I salute you. If anyone knows a way to help these people, and NOT help the fools in New Orleans, please let me know. I fear however that anything that I could do for these people would be subverted to poor and foolish...
For the last week basically I've been at a loss for words as to what has been happening in the southern United States. We've been getting ridiculous commentary from the media here in Canada, even from the most right wing of news papers in the Global and Mail saying it's American individualism that is causing what's going on down there.
I've been completely stunned by the lack of response by the government, and worse, the complete lethargy of the people. In almost every other crisis I've ever seen in North America the people get out and help. They start rebuilding. Leaders come to the fore.
Not in New Orleans. The people are wandering around doing nothing. When their interviewed they keep demanding that someone give them something, that someone save them.
Unlike when the lights went out in the North East there are no leaders stepping up and leading the people. No one is metaphorically directing traffic at stop lights that are not working.
I couldn't figure out what was going on for the longest time. I can tell that the media is in the same boat. They're stunned. They're angry. Bush is to blame! It must be him!
It isn't. Sorry.
http://tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1026
Don't read another word until you've read the entire article at that link.
After reading that article it became so clear! Combine an inept government without a plan for the inevitable (it was statistically guaranteed to happen within my life-time, and this was a near miss, not even a real Cat 5), combined with the trash of our society, leaching off of the government in the "projects" and the criminals, large portions of which came from these very "projects" themselves, and you have a recipe for exactly what is happening now.
There are no leaders stepping up, because there are no leaders in these people. Leaders aren't in the projects. Leaders don't need social assistance and low income housing. They earn their living. More to the point, leaders listen to those that are more knowledgeable and evacuated no matter what they had to do when they were warned that this was exactly what was going to happen instead of expecting it to not happen to them for some bizarre reason (either praying to god, or praying to the government to somehow stop a hurricane).
(Little tip for the religious that are out thanking god for the food and the evacuations right now: That is the direct result of leaders, men and women working hard. It has absolutely nothing to do with god. There is only one thing that is miraculous and out of the purview of humanity: The hurricane itself. So don't be thanking God. God (if you believe in god) brought this down on you. Men and women are saving you. - - Paraphrase of something John Daily said about the plane crash in Toronto)
How many deaths laid at the feet of socialism does it take before we learn the evil of the concept? Soviet Russia killed 50+ million people in their "grand experiment". I would call that a failure that the entire world should listen to and not only that, go the other way as fast as possible, do not pass go, do not collect $100 in social program money. But no, the government of Canada with its social welfare state is killing people in our public health care system "for the greater good" and the "greater good" that drove the governments to create "the projects" in New Orleans has directly caused their deaths.
Oh, and before you make this a racial thing, this has nothing to do with race, it has to do with wealth. These people are poor. It doesn't matter if they are white, black or purple. They're poor and they're acting like poor people always do. (it's why they're poor) They're blaming everyone but themselves, their demanding someone give them a handout and when people do try and help them, they're shooting at them and then when that is suppressed, dare to lash out at the national guard because "the national guard treated us like animals!" Tip: You're acting like animals and thus you're being treated exactly the way you deserve.
Of course, as with every human disaster (this is not a natural disaster) the socialists are coming out of the wood work demanding a war on poverty and oppression and a new race war because we don't have equality damnit and the blacks should be given it and not have to earn it! And of course the end result of all of this will be more socialism, not less. And that's sad, because poverty and homelessness are both conditions that can never been "cured". Why? Because they're a choice, just as surely as sitting around rotting in the Superdome is a choice instead of banding together and building boats and retrofitting trucks with snorkels and getting the hell out by your own initiative is a choice. If you choose to do drugs there is nothing that anyone can do to stop you from being stupid, because no matter what road blocks are put up, you'll find a way to be stupid.
This is the fundamental failure of understanding that the socialists have. If someone chooses to be stupid, you can't stop them. And trying to stop them only ends in disaster. We've been fighting a war on drugs for 30+ years now, and it's worse, not better. Legalize all forms of drugs, allow people to be stupid. Require surgeon's general warnings and complete chemical specifications to be posted on the packaging and allow every drug store in the country to carry it if they so choose. Everywhere that this has been done, the amount of drug use has gone down, and more importantly violence and crime as a result of drug use and trade has virtually disappeared (sections of Belgium, Denmark etc.). Why? Because one way or another people are going to get them if they want them. They will be stupid, regardless of what road blocks you put up. If you make it a capitalist endeavour then at least there is a framework for fair trade instead of criminals dealing with criminals, which of course only has one outcome.
And for the religious people out there: You're to blame for socialism. It is the completely false ideal of altruism as thrust upon us by Jesus in the new testament that created the concept of socialism in the first place. "Give of yourself" becomes "make others give of themselves too" because "if I give and it helps, then if everyone gave, it would help even more so let's get the government involved and force everyone to give!".
Charity is a good and required thing for any society to succeed. But lets be clear about what charity is. (and no, I'm not going to use a dictionary because they seem to be completely incapable of writing a definition now… look in Webster's on the definition of "human", they use the word "man" to define "human". Tip: You can't use the world or its roots to define it. It's called a circular reference and is a contradiction and thus WRONG.)
Charity: An individual's freely given gift of one or more of their possessions to another whom has not earned said gift but is in need because of extraordinary events out of their capabilities to predict or deal with.
Note that possessions is not constrained to simply material items, it includes effort and time as well, such as a doctor's services.
Note 2: Notice how complex the definition is? Notice how many abstractions are necessary? Compared to "rational animal" as the definition of "human" and you understand why so many don't understand the conceptualization of "charity" and thus bastardize it with socialism.
What's important here is that it is one person's FREELY given gift. It must be the choice of the individual to give it to the other person. It is a transaction between two people. At the height of its goodness it is a purely selfish act predicated on enlightened self-interest. "If I were ever in that same situation I could really use someone else's help too, thus if I would want that if I was in that situation, I better give in this situation."
Everything in the universe requires trade. You must expend energy to get an action. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Charity is no different. It is the expenditure of energy for a future action that you will inevitably need done for you. You are in effect trading with yourself. It is only when this is true, that charity is GOOD. And to be clear, your expectation of someone helping you in the future when you are not able to deal with a problem because you're not equipped doesn't have to be the same thing. (that would be irrational because you're helping specifically because you are equipped to deal with it, and the other person isn't) It simply means that you're "paying it forward" for a future event where someone else is equipped to help you and you're not equipped to help yourself.
Altruism and its evil child, socialism have caused this human disaster in the southern United States. The rest of the world that is quietly being smug and saying that it looks good on the United States needs to look again and realize that it is specifically because the United States is becoming like those other socialist countries (Europe) that this happened, not because of individualism and the things that the United States is built upon. If the United States was true to the foundation built by its fathers, this would be a natural disaster to be sure, but it wouldn't be a human one, and the death toll would reflect that reality.
To all of the people that got out and showed forethought, I salute you. If anyone knows a way to help these people, and NOT help the fools in New Orleans, please let me know. I fear however that anything that I could do for these people would be subverted to poor and foolish...
