Choices

Usually I write a post and sit on it for at least a week. That has seemed to work out well for me in the past. It allows me to refine it and not be such a slave to the moment. Sometimes they get trashed as a result of that week. This time however, I have ignored my usually prudent methods and am just sending this one straight out.

Someone will be offended.

So in my adventure here with the armed forces of the as yet un-named European country I have become friends with an ex-pat from a different un-named European country. It is a somewhat strange thing to me to get to a point, as this guy did, where your country stops being what it once was, what you want it to be, and you feel the need to move on.

As he put it the politicians took his once great (mostly economically) country and ran it into the ground with leftist policies. His country once was productive and prosperous. Now it is a welfare state where the government controls nearly all aspects of society and the entire country is in steep decline. It is possessed by this attitude that the greater good should be the primary focus of all ventures, public or private. It is absorbed in the mentality that to seek a profit or to be successful is an evil venture that causes the unwashed masses to remain extensively downtrodden and oppressed.

As I am knee deep in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged I see that the country I used to know as America is headed that way. My dad brought up the same sentiment a few months ago at the beginning of all this and I somewhat dismissed the thought as premature and over-reactionary. I'm beginning to agree with him though.

I love America. I have spent the last 15 years of my life in servitude to her and would give my life should she require it. Having said that I see our country on the brink of the point of no return. I fear that this current wave of government expansion as one way, a ratchet type effect so to speak. In other words the wheel can turn to the left but the only hope the right has is to stop the turning for a short time.

I don't mean to sound doom and gloomy but that's how I see it right now. Maybe my perspective is skewed because we are in the midst of it and it's really not all that bad. I can't help but feeling that's not the case.

So I wonder, in five years when it's time to retire will I still see America as beyond hope or will things change? I tell you what, if things keep up like this I could see myself in the same position as my friend here who found himself and his ideals deserted by his own country.

It pains me to face that reality. I hope that it does not come to that. I hope that our country wakes up and elects politicians who believe in the free market and individual responsibility and not ones who's sole measure of experience lies in their ability to give a good speech. As it stands now I could easily see myself moving on and living abroad.

But were would I go? It seems to me that America is the last bastion of conservative principles, and that is rapidly slipping away. Our most liberal politicians would be considered pretty right wing by European standards. Someone once told me that Australia is a pretty conservative place. I haven't looked into it but I know their immigration policies are pretty stringent. A friend told me once that New Zealand, although a haven of social programs, is far enough out of the way and small enough that it's not such a big deal. Not too sure about that one though.

Oh well, the way I see it is America has about 5 years to straighten up and fly right. Otherwise my options are to fight the changes I see or just give up on her altogether. I'd rather not have to make that choice.

Your thoughts?