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Schaller's Politically Incorrect Lexicon: A Navigation Guide To The PC Cultures of Mckinley County NM (and planet earth )

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By Joe Schaller

Part 2 in a Series

CHAPTER TWO – THOSE DARN TREES ARE OBSTRUCTING THE FOREST

COLLECTIVISM: Collectivism is the subjugation of the individual to a group – whether to a race, class or state does not matter. Man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called ‘the common good’. Statism has always been the political corollary of collectivism.

ALTRUISM: The foundation of collectivism and statism. The basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value.

FAIRNESS: Those who hold political power are authorized to pick winners and losers in the economy, at the expense of the consuming public, the taxpayers, and others who may be adversely impacted but who are ignored in the discussion.

BUREAUCRACY: A system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives.

BUREAUCRAT: Forces you to obey his decisions, whether you agree with him or not – and the more advanced the stage of a country’s collectivism, the wider and more discretionary the powers wielded by him. If he makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences; if he fails, he passes the loss on to you, in the form of heavier taxes. A bureaucrat’s success depends on his political pull.

PUBLIC or CIVIL SERVANTS: Nice work if you can get it. Public servants are employees of the state protected from the ravages of the commercial world by contracts written by other civil servants and featuring minimal working hours, maximum holidays and generous pensions all at the expense of taxpayers actually producing things in the private sector. In theory the government serves as servants of taxpayers, rather than authoritarian masters.

CITIZEN ADVISORY BOARD: Uses power and influence in shaping policies of local government. Responsibilities include studying critical issues, taking public testimony and performing independent research. The process should be non-biased, avoiding group-think, and challenging prevailing paradigms. However some of our local boards have engaged primarily in passing on biased information used to promote political causes, and that is the definition of propaganda.

CORRUPTION: The misuse of public power by elected politicians or appointed civil servants for private gain. The key word is public. Private sector corruption begins only when it interfaces with the public sector however it is the government which holds the upper hand of power.

CONSPIRACY: Almost always a misnomer for garden-variety corruption.

LAND GRAB: Politically incorrect for ‘land reform’. The forceful or fraudulent acquisition of property by the state in order to expand territorial holdings or broaden power.

CENTRAL PLANNING: Central and urban planning are the guidance of the economy by direct government control over a large portion of economic activity, as contrasted with allowing markets to serve this purpose. Central planning always fails because it is not about efficiency, it is about the desire to control others. Also, the planning elites don’t have a clue regarding basic economic realities.

CRONYISM: The appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications.

CRONY CAPITALISM: An oxymoron. Government favoritism is the antithesis of capitalism. The fact that money is involved doesn’t make it capitalism.

CORPORATE WELFARE, CRONY CORPORATISM AND FASCISM: The contrast to free market capitalism. Corporatism is defined as a partnership between government and established firms characterized by regulatory government agencies that cartelize industries like a gang or syndicate, at the expense of small business. Corporatism is one of the defining economic characteristics of fascism and progressivism, both requiring big powerful government and heavy-handed rulers. It is our current US system. Crony corporatism arises from the need of socialist governments to control the state. This requires businesses to operate closely with the government to achieve the greatest success.

LABOR UNION GANGS: Another form of collectivism gone awry. Don’t we teach our children to avoid coercive criminal gangs and to stand up to bullies?

MARXISM: The collectivist ideology of force and coercion behind the curtain of political correctness, manipulating the strings of its authoritarian offspring; socialism, communism, statism, fascism and progressivism.