“When a man, a business corporation or an entire society is approaching bankruptcy, there are two courses that those involved can follow: they can evade the reality of their situation and act on a frantic, blind, range-of-the moment expediency — not daring to look ahead, wishing no one would name the truth, yet desperately hoping that something will save them somehow — or they can identify the situation, check their premises, discover their hidden assets and start rebuilding. America, at present, is following the first course.
“The grayness, the stale cynicism, the noncommittal cautiousness, the guilty evasiveness of our public voices suggest the attitude of the courtiers in the story ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes,’ who professed admiration for the Emperor’s nonexistent garments, having accepted the assertion that anyone who failed to perceive them was morally depraved at heart.”
Ayn Rand said this in 1960. Wow !
Someone has to be the child in the story and declare that the Emperor is naked — or that America is culturally, ethically and economically bankrupt.
Do not expect the Mediacracy to do that. No, they have installed their president and regardless they will continue to redefine reality with their last gasping breath.
Rand said, “Bankruptcy is defined as the state of being at the end of one’s resources.What are the intellectual values or resources offered to us by the present guardians of our culture?
“In philosophy, we are taught that man’s mind is impotent, that reality is unknowable, that knowledge is an illusion, and that reason is a superstition. In psychology, we are told that man is a helpless automaton, determined by forces beyond his control, motivated by innate depravity.
“In literature, we are shown a line-up of murderers, dipsomaniacs,drug addicts, neurotics and psychotics as representatives of man’s soul — and are invited to identify our own among them — with the belligerent assertions that life is a sewer, a foxhole or a rat race, with the whining injunctions that we must love everything, except virtue, and forgive everything, except greatness.”
In politics, we are told that America, the greatest, noblest, freest country on earth, is politically and morally inferior to socialist states, that have led to the bloodiest dictatorships in the world — and that our wealth should be given away to be fair, with apologies for the fact that we have produced it, while others have not.
If we look at modern politicians, we are confronted with the grotesque spectacle of such characteristics as spineless denial, uncertainty, crusading cynicism, dogmatic agnosticism, boastful selfabasement and self-righteous immorality all used for the attainment of power at any cost.
Cosmetic political correctness which is divisiveness designed to maintain power over those who pay the bills that they create. If this is not bankruptcy, what is?
“The child is the father to the man.” Wordworth said.
There are children out there who will pay for all of this. But does it take one of them to tell us that we need to grow up?
Robert H. Snyder
Swanton
Editorials
Politically correct won’t pay bills
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An old story
What for years has been an on-again, off-again battle over funding between the Allegany County Commissioners and the Allegany County Board of Education seems to be growing even uglier.
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‘Forgotten warrior’ not forgotten
The Korean War is often called “The Forgotten War.” My generation remembers the Battle for LZ X-Ray at Ia Drang, The Tet Offensive, and Khe Sahn of the Vietnam War.
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Organization needed to help utilize the Potomac River
I am a committee remember on the Tamiami Trail Scenic Highway which stretches from Palmetto to Venice, Fla.
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Reducing meat consumption can help ease climate change
A review of 12,000 papers on climate change, in the May 15 issue of “Environmental Research Letters,” found that 97 percent of scientists attribute climate change to human activities.
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Editorial Cartoon - 05/18/2013
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Maryland has stopped being “The Free State”
I am a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and, last but not least, the National Rifle Association. I am a yearly member of the American Legion.
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Outrageous
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
This amounts to spying on an American news organization — common practice in dictatorships but scary conduct in a democratic system that prizes the public value of an independent watchdog press. -
Prevention
The Allegany County Board of Health on Tuesday heard some alarming numbers involving overdoses involving drugs and alcohol. Fortunately, the group already has a plan to ease the situation.
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Financial gutting will damage school system
I am writing in response to the Allegany County Commissioners’ efforts to cut local education spending to the lowest possible level allowed under state law.
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Cemetery organization plans events to mark Memorial Day
This upcoming Memorial Day marks the 30th anniversary of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization (CHCO).
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