Some tribes are better than others

This is a most “anti” multicultural idea. Not all tribes and nation-states are created equal. Some are better than others.

“Better” in western terms means things like rule of law, women’s equal rights, and basic social services like police protection, fire protection, and public health policies (to include clean water, sewage control, and malaria control). Those who want to return to more lawless and savage states are invited to move to these places on earth, for which many still exist, and then tell us how to live like them if they are even still alive or can communicate in the near future. This idea is not political, like the old “America, love it or leave it”. It is a practical idea, like go check it out, and report back.

To be preached to by those who have derived their “truth” in the West is appalling unless they live as they preach. Former Vice President Gore’s mansion in Belle Meade, Nashville is such an example with its enormous carbon footprint and home base for “his family” all the while he preaches for the rest of us “to cut down”. I’ve been there and it is a big monstrosity. Even more appalling is those who practice unelected environmental promotions that denigrate our energy lifestyles, all the while not denigrating their lifestyles. Just who elected or appointed them (of course many appointed themselves since they know the “truth”)? Since I believe there are too many humans in the world, and even if demographics suggest a lowering of total numbers, it will be overcome by increasing energy lifestyles of the existing numbers; the future over the next 200 years or so is gloomy. But there are other ways to go after this problem than the self-anointed environmentalist’s ways. Yes, some tribes are better than others. And some courses of action are better than others, starvation being a poor course of action, for example. For the poorly informed, the cost of basic rice and wheat will become more newsworthy in the next year. And few will volunteer to starve.

To speak of the New World we live in almost always has the tone of some idealistic and even academic theme. Yet this tribe in America is also a practical idea of success. We no longer have to “carry the waters of our Old World ancestors”. However we came here, we (who are mostly descendents) are a successful tribe in our own right, now. That this tribe is not God given, nor automatic in human history, is obvious to those Americans who have lived in other tribal areas and learned other “truths”. Certainly we are full of our own problems, many brought on by our own compounded successes to date. Today’s financial problems are a good example.

And so to the sale’s pitch. Forming a more perfect union is part of our tribe’s instincts, and history. Fighting over how to form a more perfect union is so American. Tearing down America is not a good method, given the better alternatives. Some of us object to being torn down, given all the work and good that has gone on so far, and having lived in other parts of the world and seen the alternatives. Best future leaders will recognize this, acknowledge this, and explain how they want to make things better. That they can explain, and we can vote, is a still a privilege unique in much of our terrible human world. We Americans are a pretty good tribe, all in all. A little nurturing by savvy citizens will go a long way.