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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looking for someone to coddle your fragile sense of self-esteem, or tell you what you want to hear or to reinforce your outdated world view, then exit this page right now and go somewhere else.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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Monday, September 15th, 2008 THERE IS NO CAUSE GREATER THAN YOURSELF Between now and the presidential election in November, we will all hear a lot about “committing to a cause greater than yourself,” or some paraphrased version there-of. This is nothing new. In fact, according to one recent journalistic study, current President George Bush has used the phrase while speaking publicly more than 1,000 times in the past 7 years. Perhaps more famously, President John F. Kennedy claimed that we should “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” JFK had it half correct. Certainly, in a capitalist republic we should never ask what our country is, should or can be doing for us. The country owes us nothing and we should never look beyond our own individual means as a way to whatever goal we are trying to achieve. However, it is equally true that in a land of free will, unlimited opportunity and supposed total freedom, we should also never be forced, asked or shamed into “doing what we can for our country.” Freedom means the freedom to be selfish, not just the freedom to lay your life on the line for others. If freedom is compromised in any way, good or bad, it ceases to be freedom. The very notion is intellectually insulting, to be frank, for it implies that certain types of behaviors, defined most commonly as “service” are more noble and/or helpful to the country than others. This is abjectly false and nothing more than political pandering and condescension. On this issue, as with most when politicians speak, there are a variety of specifics we could focus on; most notably, we could discuss the stunning hypocrisy of two men named McCain and Obama who have disregarded everything else in their lives to pursue their own personal self interest of becoming the most powerful man in the world preaching to us about the horrors of “self interest.” Or perhaps we could focus on the fact that both have used a variety of forms of “pursuing self-interest” to become wealthy beyond most of our imaginable dreams. Rather, I prefer to speak of things that matter. In a nation void of actual leadership, it is laughable to hear those who claim to be the next great leaders of our time lecture the rest of us who are actually making the country run. Hate is not the opposite of love, indifference is and I find myself caring less and less about what these supposed great men think of us and more and more about what we think of ourselves and each other. My fear, therefore, is that many people hear this drivel and soak it up. It sounds so good, after all, doesn’t it? “A Cause greater than ourselves…” how noble and pristine. Barf. The truth of the matter is that there is no cause greater than yourself. Selfishness is not only good, it is glorious, and the trickle down affect of your personal happiness and success will reap rewards on all those around you. Imagine a nation filled with such success stories! Those of us who achieve great personal success (defined individually by each of us) find ourselves, through some sort of osmosis none of us can actually explain, compelled to pass that success on in our own way. Some do so through philanthropy, others through offering employment and creating jobs. In any case, the class-warfare image of all successful people being akin to Scrooge McDuck is both false and absurd. The fact that many people in America simply don’t appreciate job creation as a form of service to the nation is simply a sign of the public’s ignorance and susceptibility to the politics of class warfare of the past 40 years, not an indictment of fact. The gift of service to the nation via self interest is not confined to business and financial pursuits. A man who selfishly commits himself to be the greatest father he can be will reward society with a fully functioning and prepared adult. Arguing that committing yourself to fatherhood is, in fact, not selfish, is simply stupid beyond description for nothing defines my very point more clearly; all self interests are, in the end, both selfless and a service to the nation. Rather than lecture us on giving back, today’s leaders (such as they are) should encourage everyone to discover and define what passionately drives them and then implore them to follow and pursue that passion, selfishly.-----
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