The Daily Reckoning PRESENTS: Today is the day we celebrate the unique American experience with “pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells and illuminations.” But, in this DR Classique, first published on the Fourth of July, 2003, Bill Bonner can’t help but notice that America has changed quite a bit since the Declaration of Independence was signed…
LAND OF THE FREE
by Bill Bonner
“This is a society of true believers. The belief in democracy, market economics and the importance of religion is far more pervasive here than Marxism ever was in Russia.”
– Michael Ignatieff, The Daily Telegraph
It is the Fourth of July. Should we hang out the red, white, and blue bunting from our office balcony…or the black crepe? Should we whine about the America we have lost, or give a whoop for what we have left of it?
That star-spangled banner still waves, but does it still fly over the land of the free, we ask? Or over a country with a spy camera on every street corner…a nation so deeply in debt that freedom has become a luxury it can no longer afford?
Whatever direction we take, we trip over a contradiction. Things always seem to be black and white at the same time.
That is why we took up tango, dear reader. People who dance the tango or write poems don’t let contradictions bother them. They glide across the floor and enjoy themselves. As far as we know, no serious tango dancer has ever committed suicide. It’s the mathematicians and engineers who blow their brains out.
An ideologue or a mathematician cannot tolerate contradiction. His little world has to fit together neatly, like a crossword puzzle. It is ‘cat’ in one direction and ‘day’ in the other. Each intersection has to work perfectly.
But that is not the way real life or real people work. A healthy woman loves her husband, but often hates him too. She has two eyes, and sees a slightly different view of him with each of them. What is wrong with that? Likewise, even a man with only a single eye cannot help but notice that the world is menaced by inflation and deflation at the same time…and that America is both free and un-free at exactly the same moment.
What we have come to dislike about the neo-conservatives is not that their view of the world is right or wrong – for how could we know? – but that it is so small. They are true believers in a very tiny world…one with no room for mystery, contradiction, ignorance or humility. It has to be small; otherwise they could not understand it.
Neo-cons think they can see what no mortal has ever seen: the future. That is the twisted genius of the ‘Preemptive Attack’; they stop the criminal before he has committed his crime!
They think they can know what no mortal has ever known: not only what is good for himself and his country…but what is good for the entire world. And they intend to give it to them, whether they want it or not. In today’s email box, for example, George W. Bush himself sends us the following message:
“…liberty is God’s gift to humanity, the birthright of every individual. The American creed remains powerful today because it represents the universal hope of all mankind.”
Here we will take a wild guess: there are probably more than a few bipeds hobbling around the planet for whom the “American creed” is not so much a hope as a dread.
But the president continues:
“We are winning the war against enemies of freedom, yet more work remains. We will prevail in this noble mission. Liberty has the power to turn hatred into hope.”
“America is a force for good in the world,” continues the leader of the world’s only super-duper power, “and the compassionate spirit of America remains a living faith. Drawing on the courage of our Founding Fathers and the resolve of our citizens, we willingly embrace the challenges before us.”
America’s citizens, meanwhile, are deeply in debt. They see little choice but to back the system, such as it is. Free or un-free, they could care less. Just keep the money flowing. They have come to rely on government. They need Fannie Mae…and unemployment insurance…and social security…and jobs…and the Fed…and fiscal stimulus. Or, at least, they think they do.
After 50 years of the Dollar Standard boom, the average American finds himself less free than ever. He is a slave to the highest government spending and biggest public debt burden in history…and to the heaviest mortgage and other private debt load ever. He has mortgaged up his house…he has taken the bait of credit-card lenders. Now he has no freedom left; he must keep a job…he must pay attention to the Fed’s rates…he must have an interest in George Bush’s government (for now he depends on it)!
“July 4 should be about celebrating freedom and independence,” wrote Richard Benson, published in this week’s Barron’s, “yet the bankers are the only people jumping for joy. Never have Americans owed so much in terms of their total debt, the ratio of total debt to income and the amount of cash flow the debt needs to serve it. Americans used to believe that if they were debt-free, they were free. Today, Americans just want the freedom to borrow more, even if it means they are on the way to becoming enslaved by their debt.”
The average citizen is only a few paychecks from getting put out of his house. He no longer has the freedom to step back…to reflect…to think…to wonder about things…or enjoy the contradictions. Instead, he must listen to the words of economists as if they meant something…and bow before the politicians who control his livelihood…and place himself at the beck and call of every government agency with a dollar to spend.
The message from George W. Bush concludes with an endearing personal note, in which “Laura joins me in sending our best wishes for a safe and joyous Independence Day…”
Laura who, we wondered? Oh yes…the First Lady.
How we got to be on a first-name basis with the woman, we don’t know. We have never even met her. Why she should wish us a happy day, we don’t understand. But these are the peculiar, baroque eccentricities of America that make it such an endearing place to its citizens and such a rich treasure for contemporary ethnologists and stand-up comics.
They, too, will wonder about the contradictions. Why do Americans celebrate “freedom” ever more loudly, while becoming ever less free…? How can they crow about the “home of the brave” when they attack pitiful, third world nations that can’t defend themselves? How can they ballyhoo their own independence when their armies occupy two foreign nations?
Most people will ignore the contradictions altogether. Many will see them as hypocrisy. Some will be outraged. And a few will hear the off-tempo tango beat, and enjoy the holiday anyway.
Your editor,
Bill Bonner
The Daily Reckoning
Conservative Libertarian Outpost 
July 5, 2008 at 19:08
[…] The Daily Reckoning PRESENTS: Today is the day we celebrate the unique American experience with “pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells and illuminations.” But, in this DR Classique, first published on the Fourth of July, 2003, Bill Bonner can’t help but notice that America has changed quite a bit since the Declaration of Independence was signed… LAND OF THE FREE by Bill Bonner “This is a society of true believers. The belief in democracy, market economics and the importanc Click here for the source […]
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July 5, 2008 at 20:03
I found that piece while surfing around. Now, I am no “neoconservative.” Not by any stretch of the imagination. I am a Free Market Capitalist See I2I.org for referencing, and have been one for a very long time. But then again, the person that wrote that piece is myopic, to say the least. His referrals to preemptive attack are juvenile to the point of remembering various school yard bully’s in school that would come up, get in your face, get you enraged, and then sucker punch you … Guess what, that only happened to me once. After that occasion, they came up, started their rant, and I fired. End of problem, except for Mister Myron’s paddle At Jefferson Junior High School in Oceanside California. The same can be applied to national situations. Why sit there and wait while opposing forces build up right next to you, and then kick the crap out of you. Saddam Hussein figured that one out, the hard way …
Hate to tell you this, but there are a lot of people “jumping for joy” here than Bankers. Take Michael’s family, Michael’s family name is Kuo. He is an American of Hmong decent that came to this country after being tortured and raped as a child by The Peoples Army of the Republic of Vietnam, as well as his sister, and his mother. His father was strung up by his heels, and disemboweled in front of the family. They are very proud to live here, and call themselves Americans. All four surviving sons, and daughters are, or have served in the United States military, all in combat, or in combat direct support MOS’s.
That was only a beginning. Mister Bonner, I will not spout some tired cliche like “love it or leave it,” and shout you down. I will however challenge you to go to other places in the world, and do a comparison contrast piece about the poor in whatever nation you choose, verses those in the United States of America. How about the ability of any person, of any race or sex to become successful? Then there are the basics, say according to Maslow, care to comment about those needs here in the United States verses wherever?
http://www2.ubersite.com/m/38264
Is America perfect? Of course not. Is George Bush perfect? Again, of course not. Doe’s Bill Bonner have any decent sense of International Economics or even a preliminary understanding of Political Science? Again, of course not. He doe’s appear to have PhD. level credentials in hating America first though.
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July 5, 2008 at 20:11
Would a good old fashon *Kiss My American Ass* be too far out of line for this Bonner charcter??
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July 5, 2008 at 20:34
Since this is a family safe blog it will just have to do.
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July 6, 2008 at 00:33
[…] bookmarks tagged beck The Fourth of July, economics 101 revisited saved by 14 others KiMarquis bookmarked on 07/06/08 | […]
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July 7, 2008 at 03:21
[…] and illuminations.??? But, in this DR Classique, first published on the Fourth of July, 2003, Billhttps://patricksperry.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/the-fourth-of-july-economics-101-revisited/Kinney takes on the big screen Chicago Sun-TimesGary Sinise has done it. So has John Malkovich. And […]
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July 7, 2008 at 19:32
A little background is required before I comment on your article. I was born in Canada but grew up in America (Southern California). I went to American schools and have many American friends. Now I am living in Canada again. Ok, now the response.
Your observation that Americans are less free now more than ever is, I think, very true and very relevant. Americans are quick to tout their ideologies of ‘freedom’ and ‘opportunity for all races, sexes and classes’. However many fail to realize that there are many other countries in this world that are just as free. Canada, for example, is a capitalist nation with a few social programs that many Americans consider to be “socialist” or “communist.” In reality Canada is a country very similar to the US but has, in my opinion, a more free society and at the very least better at dealing with issues of multiculturalism and immigration. And these are ideas that in general we are proud of. Americans, liberal and conservative, need to wake up to the fact that they are in trouble. Sure, wave the flags, light the fireworks, shoot some guns all in the name of Uncle Sam but at the very least have some humility and realize that the America that was created two hundred years ago is gone. Americans are owned by government and corporations and need to realize that their ideology of freedom is more than owning a gun or making money. Freedom demands responsibility of government not just to protect, but to enhance.
p.s. i don’t want to come off as some canuk that hates America and loves Canada because I don’t. We have our own problems up here but they are not as large in scope as to what is happening in the US.
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July 7, 2008 at 22:06
Thanks for the commentary. I was also raised in Southern California, Oceanside, to be specific.
Now, as to multiculturalism. That is a so called philosophy of a school of ethics, but I think that you are using it in a different manner than that. Are there cross culture problems here? Certainly there are, and have been. Show me a nation where there are none at all please. Over time though America has absorbed more varied cultures than any other, with Canada now running a close second.
Being an American is no more about the things that you listed than singing Oh Canada makes you Canadian, although both may be a part of both. One thing about Americans is that we do indeed know that there are problems here. Heck! We argue with each other about how to fix this, or that so much one would think that they had walked into a Libertarian Party meeting for the love of God! 🙂
Canada and the United States are Brother Nations IMO. I mean hell, we fight with each other like family members don’t we? But when one is threatened, we both take up arms, and do what needs to be done. Once that is over it’s like adolescent boys fighting in the bedroom again!
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