Europe is burning. Again. This time it is not some power hungry dictator or a zealous religious fanaticism stoking the fire. The news that blazes across our TV screens almost nightly pictures lines of police in fluorescent green holding Lexan shields against surging waves of young people throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks. First Greece, then France and now Great Britain have erupted with violent discontent. The rioters are not the radical fringe; they are students and workers unremarkable in their everyday-ness.
What has caused these otherwise docile citizens to engage in such outlandish behavior? Have they been beaten without cause, dragged from their homes at night, tortured by evil inquisitors? No. They have been told that there will be no seconds at the dinner table. Oliver has stood in the workhouse mess to ask, "Please Sir, I want some more," and those who run the orphanage have said no. We have apparently jumped the next chapter in which Oliver rises up and beats his tormentor, or in this case, his provider.
Europe has been undergoing an experiment in socialism since the reconstruction that began after the two World Wars. Wealth equalization through heavy taxation has provided such treats as universal health care, free or heavily subsidized university education, tenured employment for all, 36 hour work weeks, months of paid vacation, state funded retirement and much more. This all sounds so wonderful that many here in America are trying to catch up with Europe and their enlightened social structure. There is just one problem with the whole experiment: it has failed. Most of Europe has reached the point of bankruptcy; Oliver cannot have more because the pot is empty.
The governments are announcing cuts in programs, lay-offs of hundreds of thousands, increases in tuition (or reductions in aid,) and countless other measures to staunch the economic bleeding that will ultimately result in the patient's demise. So the people riot. They have become so accustomed to feeding at the government trough that they believe it is their right to continue the feast. The government now realizes that only a fast will save the system. The people are expressing their disinterest in fasting violently.
I don't watch Sean Hannity very often (he's become too whiney for me,) but last night around midnight I was waiting for my laptop to download a security update after getting attacked while browsing and the subject of his Great American Panel caught my attention. They were discussing the riots in Great Britain and elsewhere in socialist Europe. Hannity asked if that scenario might not be repeated here if our financial difficulties are not soon relieved. I was encouraged to hear the response of Peter J. Johnson, Jr., a Fox News legal analyst. He expressed the belief that "American exceptionalism" would keep our citizens from becoming violent.
Johnson's comment made me pause to consider just what is exceptional about America. I think I know at least part of it: it is our religious faith. No, I do not believe we are a "Christian nation." But I do believe there are millions of ordinary folks across the heartland who would not riot because they know that government is not their savior or even their provider. During the French revolution the people consciously jettisoned everything that sprang from faith. During the American revolution we clung to the principles that stem from a faith in something greater than ourselves, certainly greater than the government we created. If there are riots in America, I suspect they will be against government efforts to deny our God-given rights, not our desire for "More, please."
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