Today I was looking over President Obama's sales pitch for his budget, which is rather comically titled "A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise." You can find it here, although I can't imagine anyone wanting to read it in great detail. I only mention it here because one phase in particular caught my attention. Near the end of the "President's Message" on the first few pages, Obama writes:
"Our problems are rooted in past mistakes, not our capacity for future greatness."
On its face, this phrase seems harmless enough. It's the kind of lofty rhetoric one expects from a man who has built his entire public persona around the idea of "hope." And who can argue with him? We've obviously made mistakes, but we're capable of changing things for the better, right? Well, yes and no.
I think with regard to an individual, this is certainly true. But I believe these simple words, when applied to society generally, are the soil in which every disastrous social experiment in history has taken root. This one phrase is at the heart of the dangerously naive progressive vision of humanity. It is what Thomas Sowell calls "The Vision of the Anointed," (I highly suggest that you read his book on the subject. He explains it much better than I can)
Apparently the President's plan for "renewing America's promise" can be summarized as follows: stop making mistakes. Sounds wonderful...I wish him luck with that. But here's where it gets a little ominous. How, in a free society, can private citizens be prevented from making "wrong" choices for themselves and fouling the whole thing up again? Well, that's obvious. By taking their choices away, of course.
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