From time immemorial Mankind has fantasized about ways to become wealthy by creating something costly from something common. Alchemy, the Perpetual Motion machine, solar energy… Each generation, it seems, needs to learn the lesson their fathers learned before them, and their fathers before them: there is no free lunch; or, in the recent words of a wise beyond his years Ashton Kutcher, “…opportunity looks a lot like work.”
The rich man can use his riches and the labor of poorer men to invest in ventures that can make him even wealthier. The poor man has only his strong back, and too often that has served only to contribute to other people’s fortunes in his own subsistence. And so always there arises the snake oil salesman, the slick con-man, …the politician. Their targets are the poor, blinded by their poverty, and the young, blinded by their idealism and inexperience. The pitch is always the same, goods and riches untold for just a small investment to learn the secret. Often we think it will cost us nothing at all. We’ve all seen the promotions, “Win a free vacation!!”, or, “Free Disney Tickets (in return for participating in a brief time-share presentation)”. Usually people don’t stop to consider why anyone would possibly be just giving something away; we don’t really want to think about that. Obviously they are selling something, or sometimes stealing something. What they are getting from you is of more value than what they are giving away, if they are giving it at all, and people are often too naive to see that. In the Coen Brothers film “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou”, a talented guitar player reveals to his traveling companions that he had gained his musical ability by trading his soul to the devil. When his companion expressed dismay at his bargaining for his everlasting soul he replied “Well, I wasn’t using it.” I sometimes fear that we as a nation are making the same deal.
Let me explain. Remember when the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was being sold to us? And I do mean “sold”! It was a hard sell to rival any time-share or used car salesman you could find. Like the “health tonics” of years gone by, the ingredients were secret, you had to buy it to see what was in it, but there was always a sufficient amount of opiates to create a pleasurable euphoria to keep you coming back for more. Of course, it didn’t actually cure anything. The con-artist was particularly smooth this time; it wasn’t going to cost a single dime… it would actually save us money… millions more insured, and yet costs would miraculously decline… we wouldn’t have to give up our doctor or our insurance plan if we liked them… there would be no rationing or government intervention into healthcare decisions… business and insurance companies would swallow the costs… no, no, not a stepping stone to single payer government controlled healthcare– where would you get that idea? It was a tough sell, but the charlatan knew all the tricks, and he used every one. Only now are we beginning to see how empty those promises were, and how much it will cost us. It’s going to be hard to change the deal now, the con-man has taken your money and moved on to his second term. The charges will be reflected on your credit card statement, or your 1040, as the case may be.
IMHO: The quote so often wrongly attributed to Tocqueville is none the less true despite the controversy over its origin: “…America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” In recent decades we have to a large extent begun to stop using our uniquely American soul.
We have greatly abandoned charity, the only genuine free lunch many will ever receive. In its stead we now have a plethora of impersonal, dehumanizing government programs that provide almost no accountability, and do little to lift people out of the poverty that necessitates such programs.
We have in the business of our lives neglected the love for our fellow man, the only alchemy that can change the leaden drudgery of desperate lives to a golden future of opportunity. Rather, we have left the spiritual needs of our friends, neighbors, and even relatives to bureaucrats, social workers, and educators.
And we have neglected our own immortal souls, the only perpetual motion machine that God ever created. Instead, we have succumbed to the bondage of fear, giving over our liberty for the empty promise of safety, the fire of the words of Patrick Henry now but a dying ember.
And so we might be tempted to trade this soul of America for all the wonderful offerings and false promises that surrender can bring us. Or we can see the snake oil for what it is. We can work hard and pay for our own lunch, and whatever else we might need. With our fading breath we can kindle again that dying ember back to flame and declare, “No, damn it, you cannot have our soul!” …after all, we might need that.
