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In the South Seas during the heyday of European exploration and first contacts with truly primitive societies the islanders who had never seen... well, anything before, would in many cases take the Europeans with their big ships, guns, armor, God, horses, mirrors, metal cooking pots, knives, and odd language as gods or demi-gods or even as regular men who were in contact with the gods or ancestors who whoever it may be, who GIVEN them all these things.
In some cases the islanders thought the evil Europeans had hijacked the goods which the ancestors had intended for them. And in some of those cases, things went badly for almost everybody involved.
This phenomena even carried through into World War Two where island hopping Allied troops would find the natives worshiping them, and their Jeeps and airplanes as tokens of the gods.
You don't have to search far on the net to find photos of models of airplanes made by natives out of bamboo or something as a tribute to the 'gods from the sea' where the people prayed that they would come back with more cargo. That the 'great man' would come and give them things. And in some cases, the villagers would all gather on the beach on certain days, and wait for them to come back.
This was even something of the case in the New World as the Aztecs, and Incas and others mistook the Spanish, or French or whoever, for the good guys (we need to be politically correct right?) and offered them boatloads of gold and cocoa and furs in exchange for a foreign religion and smallpox.
Now remember, even when the Spanish were busy conquering the Aztecs in the 1500's, the great city of Teotihuacán was already an ancient site. Makes you wonder if somebody did to the Toltecs/Tollan what the Spanish were now doing to the Aztecs.
Needless to say, the natives were always disappointed.
And in many cases the sailors and soldiers of old used the superstitions and ignorance of the people to their own advantage in whatever way suited them at the time. You may carry that as far as you please. But we need to move on.
Nothing has changed.
Campaign Promises are nothing more than politicians using the superstitions and ignorance of the people to take advantage of the people to their own ends. And to continue the thread, the natives are almost always disappointed.
You have seen it with Bush 41 who promised "no new taxes" to get elected, then he crapped on the people with one of the largest tax increases to date. Whether or not it will retain that record remains to be seen as the current Congress has no way to pay for the series of spending initiatives that
You have seen it with pork barrel - earmark - pet project promises and spending with Congress since forever. But everybody expects their Representative and Senators to go to Washington and bring back money for these things.
And now you see it with the President that was elected in November of 2008.
Regardless of what he promised during the campaign, people believed, and are recorded on news video as saying that he would provide for them. He would give them things. That he would make their rent payment for them, and give them a car, and so on. Maybe he will provide them with a new job, or give them a raise and benefits at their current one. Without their ever doing anything to make this happen, the 'great man' will just bestow these gifts on them.
There is no difference from those Stone Age people on the islands that thought that the explorers were the great men that would give them things.
The USA has degenerated into a Cargo Cult.
How many people now expect the Government, some TV show, somebody else, to GIVE them the things they need?
We're not even talking about people that go out and buy a lottery ticket and expect to win. With the lottery "you can't win if you don't play". You have to come off a dollar and buy a ticket. You have to take action, if you do not take the action: you will not win, you can not win.
These people simply expect the great man to show up and hand them the keys to a new car. To tell them where to show up for their new job, regardless of their qualifications. Maybe he will just give them a check.
In short, they're waiting on the cargo.
But instead of building a bamboo airplane they are wearing T-shirts with their great man's picture on it.
The problem is the same now as it was then.
No. The ancestors, or the gods, or whatever other superior being did not give the explorers the iron pots and mirrors. Somebody had to make them. Somebody had to build the ship that carried them halfway around the world.
The smith that made the cooking pot did so for a price. He had to buy the metal that was fabricated into the pot, so the miner that dug it up and brought it to town had to be paid as well. This means the sea captain that needed it for the trip had to have the up front money from either the spice company that was funding the trip or in the case of the earliest explorers, the crown.
The Federal Government, contrary to popular opinion, HAS NO MONEY. The Government produces nothing of value, sells nothing that is an original production, and has nothing of its own. The money Uncle Sam has is from Taxpayers in one way or another, direct taxes or fees and charges. Everything it sells comes from the people, or from land that belongs to the citizens of the country, such as oil drilling or cattle grazing or lumbering on public land.
The only way the government can get this money is by using its power of coercion to get it from you. If you don't pay your taxes, you will go to jail. Unless of course you are a politician, then if you don't pay, you call it an oversight and get a new job in the government as a reward.
So when Uncle 'gives' somebody something, they are making a gift of whatever they took from somebody else. Think of it as 're-gifting' with billions of dollars of tax money instead of the apple peeler-slicer-corer you got last Christmas.
This is exactly the same as when the seamen of old gave the pot to the chief. He had to have gotten the money from the king who had taxed the people for it, to have paid the coppersmith or whoever had made the kettle to begin with as there is no record of a sea captain making cooking utensils to give to the natives on his travels prior to departure.
And yet this is what so many of your fellow citizens want. This is what they voted for. This is what they keep asking for when they get in front of TV cameras or can catch the ear of the President. They want their gift from the government.
They are waiting on their Cargo.
If this isn't the case, then you explain it. Other Political Coverage
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[NOTE: The Desk is registered as a Conservative Independent Libertarian. It has never voted for a winning candidate in any major election, although it votes in every major election. thank you]
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