West Nihil Virus*

            These days, you hear from a lot of politicians who have The Answer.  Some of them will tell you the only way to put things Right is to do away with the Department of Education.  Nobody with any sense, they seem to suggest, needs the government to supply educational standards.  What self reliant American can’t independently learn all he or she needs in order to find personally rewarding minimum wage work?    

The Answer also includes doing away with Social Security.  The investment returns are so shamefully low, albeit consistent.  Those who didn’t suffer in the Great Recession or know about the Great Depression, think it should be commercialized.  Everybody should be in the Great Roulette Game called Wall Street.  If nothing else, it’s good for Wall Street (and sadly, nothing else is exactly what investors can expect from this scheme).

Food Stamps, the S.N.A.P. part of the Farm Bill, are another absolute waste of taxpayers’ money for those with The Answer.  SNAP must be slashed, but not the noble subsidies that provide some in agriculture with multimillion dollar gifts.

Those with The Answer are sorting through all of our stuff.  Unemployment insurance?  Dumpster.  National Parks?  Garage sale.  Congressional perks?  Keep.  Health care?  Dumpster.  National infrastructure?  Dumpster.  Natural Resources?  Garage sale, or give away.  Government services?  Dumpster.  Whew!  Time to cut taxes.

Around here, we call this the West’s version of political nihilism that captivated Russia from the late 1800’s to 1917.  We all know how that virus worked out. 

           

*The intellectual sickness that single-mindedly seeks to dismantle large parts of our government. --rrclark

nihilism:  in politics (a) the doctrine that all social, political, and economic institutions must be completely destroyed in order to make way for new institutions; specifically (b) (N-) a movement in Russia (c1860-1917) which advocated such revolutionary reform and attempted to carry it out through the use of some terrorism and assassination.

                                                                                                  --Webster’ New Twentieth Century Dictionary