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| Rob's Soapbox | ||
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Congratulations!
You have finally landed on the one page on this entire site (and on the entire internet for that matter) that is purely without bullshit... my soapbox page. There are a lot of times during our show that, whether it's because of time constraints and other obligations, I don't always get to address some issues that I feel don't get the attention they deserve. There are even more times when I just don't feel like waiting until the show the next day to get some things off my chest. Thus, I have started the "Rob's Soapbox" page. If you have clicked on this page looking for someone to coddle your fragile sense of self-esteem, or tell you what you want to hear or to reinforce your outdated world view, then exit this page right now and go somewhere else. If you are in search of the last forum for reason and common sense left in the world, then sit back, relax, and enjoy. I make only one promise with this soapbox page... if you read long enough and often enough, you will eventually be offended. So here's my latest soapbox. Listen up, 'cause you just might learn something... |
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April 6th, 2009 THE RESULTS ARE IN; 30% OF AMERICANS HATE AMERICA There’s a lot of blame going around right now; As America struggles with a seemingly overwhelming number of challenges and a total lack of leadership and vision, everyone from bankers to politicians to irresponsible citizens are taking their share of culpability at the hands of angry Americans. Most Americans, of course, have no idea what the hell they are talking about. People are rightly angry, but sadly they’ve spent the majority of their lives apathetically taking for granted the fact that they’re Americans; home to the most spoiled, unappreciative, ignorant culture on earth. Most Americas have awoken from their intellect slumber to discover that something is wrong in their perfect little world and they’ve immediately looked for people to blame. Whether it be AIG employees, the CEO of General Motors, past or current presidents of the United States, citizens who bought homes they couldn’t afford, or all of them combined has really not mattered. As long as the angry American could fit the target of their rage on a protest sign or their Facebook page, the legitimacy of the victim was irrelevant. With populist rage and mob mentalities come calls for action; any action. That’s how we’ve gotten where we are; last summer things began to disintegrate and the American people irrationally and emotionally demanded that “Someone do something.” The government did and hasn’t stopped since. In hindsight, almost every single action taken by the Bush and Obama administrations, ranging from bailouts to stimulus packages have been 100% completely wrong; few care, seemingly, for at least something was/is being done. Since none of it is working and few think any of it will, more calls for more extreme action are taking hold. Those of us who calmly know that nothing done “right now,” is ever better than something done “right,” are standing in awe at the level of hysteria permeating our society. Calls for full on socialism, one world currency, a globe ruled by the United Nations, tax rates of 90% on the wealthy and government controlled utility meters installed in every American home have all been floated in the past 2 weeks, just to name a few. To be fair, there is opposition to the hysteria, currently taking hold in the form of seemingly silent dissent and totally silly “tea parties,” being held across the nation. All of this leads some of us to ask exactly how many Americans have actually, truly, finally learned to hate their own country. No sane person can argue that there hasn’t been a full on assault on America, in America, for more than 4 decades. The idea that America is the cause of all human suffering throughout the world has been propagated endlessly in every form, in an attempt to systematically change what our nation was founded on. Oh, that’s right; most people have no idea what America was founded on; and there, in lies the problem. The destruction of the fundamental basic principle of what America was founded on has been so brilliantly attacked and destroyed by teachers who change history, politicians who crave power from a dependant society and a media that reports lies and ignores truths, that Americans have no idea what America is about or was meant to be about anymore. And so, many of us are left to wonder exactly how many Americans truly hate America, versus how many of them are simply lost wayward, angry, impressionable sheep? The latter group, while reprehensible, is lost but not gone; those amongst us who are simply so angry, frustrated and lost that we’ll believe whatever point of view presents the most charismatic argument are part of the problem, but they are still changeable and not necessarily fundamentally lost and anti-American. These are the people that when confronted with logic, fact and reason begin to calm down, back away from the madness and acknowledge their frustration, admitting that it’s no reason to fundamentally alter America. It is the committed and the too-far-gone that we all must fear. The committed are those who believe that all successful people achieve at the expense of others. The too-far-gone are those who believe that they’ll never be successful and deserve to be supported by the achievers amongst us; both groups are who we must fear. The people who refuse to acknowledge that all great things invented, discovered, created or engineered to improve the human experience came from the relentless pursuit of greatness by self-interested individuals are the most dangerous among us; how, though…how do we find out how many of them there are? It’s a difficult challenge because you can’t simply ask people “pardon me, do you hate America,” or, “should we destroy the basic principles that America was founded on?” While it’s true that some of the committed will admit that yes, they want to change or destroy America, most won’t. They know that lying about their intentions by hiding behind claims of “just wanting to make life fair for everyone,” or “giving everyone a chance,” or “making people happy,” sounds so much better and garners far more support than admitting that America’s destruction is their goal.
As for the too-far-gone people, they don’t think they want to destroy America; they have no idea what the country was really founded on so they’ll hide behind idiotic clichés like “I just want to make America better,” so they’ll not answer correctly either. This brings us back to our quandary of discovering how far gone the nation is as a collective; I believe I have stumbled upon one such sign. I acknowledge that it is far from scientific and further away from irrefutable; I submit to you however that it is chilling (or should be) and it is disturbing and it is indicative of the fight before us and the damage that has been done to the greatest nation on Earth and its people. A new survey of Americans shows that 30% of all citizens believe that the United States government should make it illegal to pay athletes and movie stars more than $1 million per year. Imagine; 30% of all Americans want a law passed making it illegal to pay Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp and Seth Rogen more than $1 million in any given year. This is chilling and noteworthy for a myriad of reasons. - For Starters, look at the target. The poll would be meaningless if it asked if bankers and Wall Street brokers should have their income curtailed, because those groups are at the heart of the current mob frenzy taking the country by storm. Americans believe bankers should be shot on sight at this point so asking to curtail their salaries would be a slam dunk. - Look at the target part two; Not only did athletes and movie stars have nothing linear to do with the global economic meltdown, they are, in fact, as close as we get to revered members of our culture. This is a nation that loves its football, weekends at the movie theater, March madness parties and sold out ball parks, yet 30% of us are still willing to institute a government mandated pay cap! - $1 million per year? Did I stumble into an Austin Powers movie? This is a direct indication of the loser mentality of 30% of our nation who have been told and fully believe that they will never make anything of themselves. In a mindset like that, $1 million is more money than has ever been printed since time began. In reality, of course, $1 million, while a nice salary, is far from extravagant. - Beyond the issue of holding down the individuals who make the athletic and cinematic world work, is the unspoken further confiscation that would occur if 30% of Americans got their way; if Kobe Bryant were only allowed to be paid $1 million per year, what would the Lakers and the NBA do with all of his extra money? The truth is that those companies would then be compelled by the government to give it all up as well. In the end, there would be no incentive to even have a basketball league, let alone play the sport, because you’ll never do better than $1million. - 30% of this nation will scream “no one needs more than $1 million per year.” In America, it isn’t about need. If you don’t need $1 million per year, then kindly step aside and allow me to scoop it up. I don’t need it, but I want it. - Most scary and sad, of course is that 30% of Americans simply want to attack people they believe are “paid too much” and/or don’t deserve it. If the poll had asked if teachers and firefighters should have their pay increased to $1 million per year, the overwhelming number of Americans would have said yes, because we are told to place a higher value on those amongst us who “serve the public.” News flash; we all serve the public via self interest. Kobe Bryant, Tom Cruise, Seth Rogen and dare I say, the Rob, Arnie and Dawn show have collectively served tens of thousands of teachers and firefighters in ways uncountable, ranging from providing entertainment to relieving them of their stress to helping them forget their problems to directly raising money for causes they support. As actors and athletes and entertainers pursue their own self interest, countless rolls of other people benefit from it. - The final nail in the coffin of stupidity for the 30% is the short sightedness of believing that such government mandated salary caps would only be directed at the groups of people in society that had been vilified the most. Grow up. Once you start capping salaries of CEOs and baseball players at $1 million per year, it isn’t long before cops, garbage men, computer techs and doctors are all told that $40,000 per year is enough for you. So we have the good news and the bad news; The bad news is that if you’re in a room with two other people, the odds are that one of them, whether he or she knows it or is willing to admit it, is a collectivist who wants the government to control individual pursuits of wealth. The good news is that 2 people can still beat 1. The good news is that 70% of us know how absurd this notion is. There are still more of us than there are of them. The bad news is that for the past 4 decades, America has been altered, shifted and changed in ways our grandparents never thought possible because we have allowed the vocal minority to control our policies and our nation by making us all feel bad. The good news is we can take it all back. The question is whether or not we’ll bother.
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