Surely, when you were in your early teens, there was at least one other kid in town whom your mother, in no uncertain terms, warned you to steer clear of. “He’s no good, he’s headed for either reform school or prison, and don’t you are go around with him! Or he’ll get you into the same kind of trouble he’s in.” You’ve got to have heard that, somewhere along the way.
Listening to the news yesterday, I heard how New York and New Jersey and quite a few other states are racing to see which can be the next state to legalize marijuana. They all mean to do it as soon as they can. Why? Because the sale of pot will supposedly create a “revenue stream” for the state–just like it does for the pushers.
Also on the table is legalization of sports betting, so that the state will profit from people ruining themselves–but hey, we’ve already got a whole bunch of lotteries, and casinos, and–you guessed it–those are a “revenue stream”!
A few commentators are also talking about legalizing prostitution.
And suddenly it came to me. “The no-good delinquent my mother told me to keep away from, because you don’t need a bad companion–why, that bad companion is the freakin’ government! It’s the government wanting to lead people into drugs, gambling, and fornication.”
And man, they’re kidding themselves about those revenue streams. Wealth is created, in any economy, by alert, motivated people in the context of a strong and stable family, in a sane and orderly community. Wealth is not created by stoners who’ve pissed away their paychecks betting on stupid sports–and who have no families, only fleeting sexual connections and probably an STD or two. Wealth is used up by these losers.
So here’s the government volunteering to lead untold hosts of suckers into vice, all for the sake of a revenue stream that’s only going to be used up taking care of these failures when they crash and burn, or as they shamble pointlessly through life.
I am sure that, at least once upon a time, American governments wanted citizens who were sane, decent, and productive.
And now, it seems, they don’t.
They are content to profit off of people’s sins and weaknesses without any regard for the consequences. They have told us for decades how bad smoking is, then suddenly turn around and legalize marijuana. Where’s the logic in that? Marijuana has all the cons of cigarette smoking, and some it doesn’t have. At least with cigarettes it doesn’t impair judgement, coordination, reaction time, among other things.
Everyone always refers to Orwell’s “1984” when deploring the way society is going, but Huxley’s “Brave New World” may be closer to the actual direction we’re taking: bread and circuses, tinkering with genetics and redefining “gender,” doping up the population, endless brainwashing in one’s sleep, and so on — in other words, manipulation by pleasure and hypnosis more than by fear (although those who emerge from the hypnosis in “BNW” are expelled, reprogrammed, or, ahem, eliminated).
The whole thing of the government leading people into vice, and facilitating it–do they have any idea what they’re doing? Or are they just cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?
The legalization of recreational marijuana has changed Colorado; in my opinion it has destroyed my home state. From the mid sixties until 2016, I could feel safe almost anywhere in Denver. Since 2016, I don’t feel that sense of security anymore, even in smaller towns along the Front Range. Some of the outlying towns seem to have been spared, for the time being, but they are still feeling secondary effects.
A few months ago, I spoke to a man who had a security business in Colorado Springs, but both he and his wife had life threatening experiences since recreational marijuana was legalized. Shortly before I spoke to him, he had folded his business and moved to a smaller town.
Legal marijuana has attracted all sorts of people to the state, many of whom have no way of making a living wage in a place where housing costs have soared. I have met networking professionals working in Colorado whom can’t afford so much as a studio apartment because of the exorbitant housing costs.
Because many youths have come to the state seeking drugs, there are all sorts of beggars working the street corners and off ramps. They came with only one thought in mind, but they have never even considered the fact that they will have to find work and pay for their treasured drug, not to mention the other necessities of life.
Sadly, I fear that this is the way of the future. I hope that I’m wrong, but I fear that I’m right. Apparently, the “progressives” will not be satisfied until they make the US into a Third World Country.
That’s been their objective all along.
Nice of ‘em.