Date: April 27th, 2010

The Forgotten Man

By Robert Ringer

Why have the combined mudslinging voices of the media (so called), Congressional Democrats, and the thin-skinned boy wonder who occupies the Oval Office not been able to turn the tide against the tea partiers? If you look at the poll numbers, the answer is obvious: Most Americans are tea partiers.

However, most of them are not yet in enough pain to skip a day at the ball park and stand in a crowd of thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) and listen to tea-party speakers. That’s a shame, but it doesn’t change the fact that they identify with the tea-party movement.

So, what is the common bond with which they identify? Taxes? Healthcare? Financial regulation? I thought about this question as I was rereading Amity Shlaes’ landmark book, The Forgotten Man. In it, she quotes Yale philosopher William Graham Sumner, who, clear back in 1883, explained the crux of the moral problem with progressivism as follows:

”As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine … what A, B, and C shall do for X.”

Shlaes goes on to add: ”But what about C? There was nothing wrong with A and B helping X. What was wrong was the law, and the indenturing of C to the cause. C was the forgotten man, the man who paid, ‘the man who never is thought of.”’

In other words, C is the guy who isn’t bothering anyone, but is forced to supply the funds to help the X’s of the world, those whom power holders unilaterally decide have been treated unfairly and must be compensated.

FDR, however, did a switcheroo on Sumner’s point by removing the moniker of ”the forgotten man” from C and giving it to X – ”the poor man, the old man, labor, or any other recipient of government help.” Very clever … very Obamanistic. As I recall, FDR originally used the phrase the forgotten man to refer to the victims of the dust bowl in the 1930s. Zap! Just like that, Sumner’s forgotten man was transformed into the opposite of what he was meant to be.

Today, I believe it is the tea-party people who represent Sumner’s Forgotten Man. They are taxed and told what they must do and what they must give up in the way of freedom and personal wealth every time a new law is passed. I believe it is this reality that bonds the tea-party people together.

Put another way, it is not healthcare or any other single issue the tea-party people are most angry about. It is all of the issues combined that have to do with impinging on their individual liberty. Above all, they are outraged by the fact that immoral politicians and bureaucrats not only violate their God-given right to live their lives as they please, they dismiss them as ”extremists.” Collectively, the tea-party people are today’s Forgotten Man.

In his essay (http://mises.org/books/forgottenman.pdf), Sumner went on to say:

”All history is only one long story to this effect: men have struggled for power over their fellow-men in order that they might win the joys of earth at the expense of others and might shift the burdens of life from their own shoulders upon those of others. It is true that, until this time, the proletariat, the mass of mankind, have rarely had the power and they have not made such a record as kings and nobles and priests have made of the abuses they would perpetrate against their fellow-men when they could and dared.

”But what folly it is to think that vice and passion are limited by classes, that liberty consists only in taking power away from nobles and priests and giving it to artisans and peasants and that these latter will never abuse it! They will abuse it just as all others have done unless they are put under checks and guarantees, and there can be no civil liberty anywhere unless rights are guaranteed against all abuses, as well from proletarians as from generals, aristocrats, and ecclesiastics.”

Sumner was a man of great insight. He saw the absurdity of assuming that the poor man is morally superior to the rich man. This is where I believe that sincere revolutionaries go wrong. While their initial intentions (to help ”the poor”) may, at least in their own minds, be well-meant, they begin with a false premise (that the misfortunes of those at the bottom of the economic ladder are a result of the evil actions of those who are more successful) and, from there, leap from one false conclusion to another.

Which is why politicians who pose as conservatives to get elected so often take the Mush McCain-Lindsey Graham-Charlie Crist route and continually rush to the aid of their progressive Democratic pals. I believe that these philosophically lost souls do the bidding of the intimidating left because they have never given any serious thought to the possibility that the very premise of progressivism is morally wrong.

As a result, they have no feeling for the (perceived) rich man. In plotting their do-gooder schemes, he is easy to forget. They see nothing whatsoever wrong with society’s sacrificing his liberty for the ”public good.” Bring out the guillotine! As Montaigne said, ”Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.”

What gave birth to the tea parties is that the Forgotten Man syndrome is like a metastasizing disease. As politicians long ago realized, there aren’t enough rich people to support all of the X’s. As the number of X’s (i.e., those who live off the surpluses of others) increases, a lot of A’s and B’s must, by necessity, be reclassified as C’s. And that is when they become candidates for joining the tea-party movement.

Put simply: When A’s and B’s are transformed into C’s, they mysteriously lose their enthusiasm for new laws to help out X. Put even more simply, they suddenly realize that they are now the Forgotten Man. And that realization is what automatically qualifies them as tea-party people. No recruitment necessary, thank you.

Oh really? You were joking? I find that hard to believe. Choggie's banned any you're dancing on his grave. Well I've had it with the flaccid PC legions of Sift. From now on I'm taking on his task, so just because he's gone don't think no one's going to call you on your infantile crap. As a matter of fact I might come down a hell of a lot harder than he ever did. Same goes for the thin skinned over-reactionary milquetoasts around here. I'm fucking sick of the pogromes of anyone who doesn't prostrate themselves to Olberman, Maddow and TYT. Tolerant, are we?

I'm going to shove tolerance and understanding so far up your ass that it'll tickle your uvula. Is this a vernacular you understand? It's got rectal references for additional elucidation.

And mother raping? You're disgusting.

It's unfortunate so many thin-skinned critics 'round here are so easily spooked.

While you're waiting, how 'bout another health care fact: 60 billion dollars is lost to Medicaid fraud every year. But don't worry, I'm sure Obamarxcare will have it alllll worked out so there's no money wasted .

Why can't people like this just let such an ugly thing as Racism die? Why do they always get away with their fear-mongering? If the propaganda machine can make Obama look like he is actually qualified to be our President in three short years of campaigning and with no experience other than the campaign itself and the backing of Leftist News Papers and TV News spots then why can't it just as easily tell us that Racial Prejudice is totally gone from American Culture? Just think of it. It is actually gone, but in just three short years it will be actually gone because the News said it was so! Think about it for a minute.

The Democrats are perpetuating this lie for us right now that it is some great big thing getting in the way of freedom or justice every where you look. They and the Leeches who make a living on it such as Faraqakan, Sharpton, Jackson and Obama (and his Church Pals) thrive on the lies and perpetuate it wherever and whenever they can. The Republicans don't have anything against minorities either in speech, writings or actions. Democrats tell minorities how shitty their lives are and how badly they are treated even when they themselves know it isn't so. Republicans tell minorities how much better their lives COULD BE!

Stop listening to the haters or Democrats as I like to call them and your life will be so much happier. Want to end Racial Tensions in America and I mean TODAY! Stop doing it! That's right, just stop it. Cut it out. Quit it. Shut the F*** up about it. Let it go. Don't be thin skinned about every attempt someone else has towards humor.
Taking turns at injustice won't work. Don't contribute to any politician who says they will make your life better by giving you something you know you didn't work for or deserve. Democrats have promised everything for as long as there have been Democrats and so far they have delivered nothing except higher taxes and bad feelings.
Don't believe me? Look around right now. Still not convinced, read about it in your History books.

Why are so many Democrats Lawyers? So they can pull the wool over your eyes and you will thank them for the Blanket. I like this better: Where do Vampires learn to suck Blood? AT LAW SCHOOL!

Doh! (Smacks own head) SCALE, not scale! My bad.

In reply to this comment by rottenseed:
that's why it's a scale...I know, thanks I added some pink feathers for fashion

In reply to this comment by videosiftbannedme:
In reply to this comment by rottenseed:
>> ^videosiftbannedme:
Well, well, well. Here we are, all with our peckers out, and nobody has the same measuring tape.
And in 3 months time, nobody is going to care. (Except for the thin-skinned and small-peckered of us.)
(...and my acknowledgment to all the ladies of the Sift, who don't have to be bothered with having peckers in the first place. Mmmmmwah. )

I don't use a measuring tape...I use a scale

1/8" = 1'-0" is usually enough to make me average

I'm sure you meant to use a # sign in there somewhere, as I don't recall an eighth of an inch equaling a foot. Unless, of course, you're a midget. Oh, and btw, you look sexy in handcuffs.

In reply to this comment by rottenseed:
>> ^videosiftbannedme:
Well, well, well. Here we are, all with our peckers out, and nobody has the same measuring tape.
And in 3 months time, nobody is going to care. (Except for the thin-skinned and small-peckered of us.)
(...and my acknowledgment to all the ladies of the Sift, who don't have to be bothered with having peckers in the first place. Mmmmmwah. )

I don't use a measuring tape...I use a scale

1/8" = 1'-0" is usually enough to make me average

I'm sure you meant to use a # sign in there somewhere, as I don't recall an eighth of an inch equaling a foot. Unless, of course, you're a midget. Oh, and btw, you look sexy in handcuffs.

>> ^videosiftbannedme:
Well, well, well. Here we are, all with our peckers out, and nobody has the same measuring tape.
And in 3 months time, nobody is going to care. (Except for the thin-skinned and small-peckered of us.)
(...and my acknowledgment to all the ladies of the Sift, who don't have to be bothered with having peckers in the first place. Mmmmmwah. )

I don't use a measuring tape...I use a scale

1/8" = 1'-0" is usually enough to make me average

Well, well, well. Here we are, all with our peckers out, and nobody has the same measuring tape.

And in 3 months time, nobody is going to care. (Except for the thin-skinned and small-peckered of us.)

(...and my acknowledgment to all the ladies of the Sift, who don't have to be bothered with having peckers in the first place. Mmmmmwah. )

The first day of school was always the hardest
The first day of school the
hallways the darkest
Like a gauntlet
the voices haunted
Walking in
with his thin skin lowered chin
He knew the names that they would taunt him
with
Faggot sissy punk queen queer
Although he'd never had sex in his 15
years
And when they harassed him it was for a reason
And when they
provoked him it became open season
for the fox and the hunter, the sparks
and the thunder
that pushed the boy under, then pillage and plunder
It
kind of makes you wonder
how one can hurt another
But dehumanizing the
victim makes things simpler
It's like breathing with a respirator
It
eases the conscience of even the most conscious
and calculating
violator
Words can reduce a person to an object,
something more easy to
hate
An inanimate entity, completely disposable,
no problem to
obliterate

But death is the silence
in this language of
violence
Death is the silence
But death is the silence
in this cycle
of violence
death is the silence
It's tough to be young, the young long
to be tougher
When we pick on someone else it might make us feel
rougher
Abused by their fathers but was at home though
so to prove to
each other that they were not homos
The exclamation of the phobic
fury
executioner, a judge and jury
The mob mentality, individuality was
nowhere
Dignity forgotten at the bottom of a dumb old dare and a numb
cold
stare
On the way home it was back to name calling
Ten against one
they had his back up against the wall and
they reveled in their laughter as
they surrounded him
But it wasn't a game when they up jumped and grounded
him
They picked up their bats with their muscles straining
and they
decided they were gonna beat this fella's brain in
with an awful, powerful,
showerful, an hour full of violence
Inflict the strictest brutality and
dominance
They didn't hear him screaming, they didn't hear him
pleading
They ran like cowards and left the boy bleeding
in a pool of red
'til all tears were shed
and his eyes quietly slid into the back of his
head
dead...

You won't see the face 'til the eyelids
drop
You won't hear the screaming until it stops
The boy's parents were
gone and his grandmother had raised him
She was mad she had no form of
retaliation
The pack didn't have to worry about being on a hitlist
But
the thing they never thought about was that there was a witness
to this
senseless crime, right place wrong time
Tried as an adult one of them was
gonna do hard time
The first day of prison was always the hardest
The
first day of prison, the hallways the darkest
Like a gauntlet
the voices
haunted
Faggot, sissy, punk, queen, queer
Words he used before had a new
meaning in here
As a group of men in front of him came near
for the first
time in his life the young bully felt fear
He'd never been on this side of
the name calling
Five against one they had his back up against the wall
and
he had never questioned his own sexuality
but this group of men
didn't hesitate in their reality
with an awful, powerful, showerful, an hour
full of violence
Inflict the strictest brutality and dominance
They didn't
hear him screaming
They didn't hear him pleading
They took what they
wanted and then left him bleeding in the corner
The giant reduced to jack
horner
But dehumanizing the victim makes things simpler
It's like
breathing with a respirator
It eases the conscience of even the most
conscious
and calculating violator
The power of words, don't take it for
granted
when you hear a man ranting
Don't just read the lips, be more
sublime than this
Put everything in context, is this a tale of rough
justice
in a land where there's no justice at all ?
Who is really the
victim ? Or are we all the cause, and victim of it
all
?

You won't see the face 'til the eyelids drop
You
won't hear the screaming until it stops

Hopefully so

In the meantime, this looks very sift-worthy (Bill-O owned by guests on made-up rights he violates every day, etc), and if I can't submit it, someone should

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/oreilly-sure-has-thin-skin-about-per

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
You have to be a gold star or above to embed from any source, so that's your problem. Any day now you'll be able to do it.

Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the Mormon church, or any church for that matter. I found myself wondering if there was a big distinction between personal attacks and attacks on one's faith. Still a good question in my mind, as some people are "born into" faith. At any rate, you're approach seemed disproportionately agressive, and that you seemed to be holding this Sifter accountable for something the church had done.

I wasn't sure if Aemaeth had deleted your comments or if you had left them privately (deleted it seems). Religiosity seems such a crime on The Sift, and as I hovered my mouse over the little manacles, I wondered if you had any kind of belief system that could be challenged.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
Looks like Project: Empathy was a bit too successful, as he managed to get the point (that being singled out sucks) without getting the point (that he was cast as the gay person in my staged allegory). It's a shame he couldn't make that connection. Oh well...... either way, that's some thin skin for a denizen of the internet. I've seen tougher talk in the *catsanddogs channel. <shrugs>

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
* dangles handcuffs *

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
[saving this comment in case it gets erased.]
Yes, by all means, run away. That is what Mormons do best when ... your absurd belief system. ... so called 'Prophets' ... pull their heads out of their asses ... means you are gullible.

Looks like Project: Empathy was a bit too successful, as he managed to get the point (that being singled out sucks) without getting the point (that he was cast as the gay person in my staged allegory). It's a shame he couldn't make that connection. Oh well...... either way, that's some thin skin for a denizen of the internet. I've seen tougher talk in the *catsanddogs channel. <shrugs>

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
* dangles handcuffs *

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
[saving this comment in case it gets erased.]
Yes, by all means, run away. That is what Mormons do best when ... your absurd belief system. ... so called 'Prophets' ... pull their heads out of their asses ... means you are gullible.

>> ^Ornthoron:
Mercury is very non-volatile, so it's reasonably safe as long as you don't spend days locked in with it.

>> ^Asmo:
Quicksilver (elemental mercury) is relatively safe if well ventilated even with bareskin. You wouldn't immerse your hands in the tank but splashes landing on your arm wouldn't do you any harm.

>> ^flavioribeiro:
Mercury is only really dangerous if it enters the bloodstream (which happens if you ingest it or breathe its vapor). It's ok to have mercury bounce off your skin once in your lifetime, as long as it doesn't come near a wound or thin skin (like under your fingernails).


So mercury is only dangerous if it gets into your blood stream, and does not absorb through the skin very quickly. I wonder how it gets into the blood stream, and how people get mercury poisoning these days?

http://www.videosift.com/video/Mercury-vapor-from-dental-fillings

>> ^thinker247:
I like how he's wearing gloves as a precaution, then just drops the ball in there, letting the mercury splash.

Mercury is only really dangerous if it enters the bloodstream (which happens if you ingest it or breathe its vapor). It's ok to have mercury bounce off your skin once in your lifetime, as long as it doesn't come near a wound or thin skin (like under your fingernails).

Gee, you seem really smart so I'm probably out of my league here, but do you understand that you downvoting my comment does not make me 2% closer? I said 50 downvoted comments. I have 246 comments and 4 of them (including that one) are negative. Math is tough huh? Look, this isn't about being stupid or being a pussy or having thin skin. It's about maintaining a community that is VERY tolerant and where diversity is not only encouraged but praised. They don't need to hire staff. This site regulates itself quite well. That doesn't mean we have to suffer an endless stream of abuse from people who apparently live for conflict and want to turn VideoSift into a vehicle for their hate. Maybe if you find yourself with 50 downvoted comments this is not the community for YOU. Maybe that person should make the change and leave this site instead of expecting everyone else to suck it up and ignore.


>> ^imstellar28:
^well you're 2% closer there burdturgler.
who or what are you afraid of? is your brain incapable of scanning over comments? what is lost that you need someone else to regulate the signals between your eye sockets and your brain stem?
i understand that the gaussian nature of humans leaves some with more ground to make up, but how much of a head start do you need? you are never going to be safe.
what about those poor souls who have to see the comments before they are downvoted? what of the horrors they cope with? the only sure solution is to hire staff to read and approve comments before they are posted--that way we can be absolutely sure that there are no victims of mental piracy. we need this landscape sterile.