Life in 3D

Crossing Borders

I was talking to a fellow student of mine from Norway the other day. We were discussing politics, he is a socialist, and the US government. He was doing his best to convince me that the government had an obligation to help the people and provide for them while I was arguing that the government’s best move was to stay out of the people’s way and allow them the freedom to move forward on their own.

I will say that it was interesting because here was an avowed socialist, not a communist, but a person who believed in true socialism explaining his way of thinking and trying to be reasonable about it while I was trying to convert him over to the dark side of the force.

It began with concealed carry laws (he against, me for), we moved from that to taxes (he supporting taxing the rich, me supporting equal taxation across the board), and finally discussing the role of government in people’s lives and as we discussed it all I realized something that I knew, but took it in only as an intellectual knowing instead of a ‘universal truth’ kind of knowing.

We are unique in the world.

Here was a man who had grown up in Europe and as we talked I got him to agree with me on almost every point as he realized that while the programs that he loved in his country worked very well for them, they would never work in the United States due to our vast sized and differences from state to state. The population of Norway is 4,644,457 while the population of California alone is 36,553,215. Hell, the population of Los Angeles is 3,849,378

It became obvious why he could be so comfortable with socialism and still end up agreeing with me on every subject. When a country has a population that is less than that of most of our states the federal government can actually be more responsive to the will of the people. Add in the fact that this is a people who have always had a ruling class that was in control and that kind of mentality it leads to the socialism he is so happy with.

He had never seen American independence in action. It was an alien concept that, living in San Francisco I guess, he still had never seen until he ended up having a class with me and my attitude towards it. He kept asking me questions like “Why DON’T you want the government to help make your life better?”

“Because,” I said, “the price they would want for it is too high. Besides, I can make my own life without their help.”

True independence was something new for him. We are a unique people whose government, lifestyle and attitude will be found nowhere else on this planet .He had never thought of doing something totally on his own without some help from his society, that’s the way his world is. His government is a deep part of his life and control quite a bit of it.

I happen to carry a copy of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence in my book bag. I gave it to him so he could see what our government was intended to be. He was stunned that the foundation of our country fit into a booklet so small that it was the size of most travel brochures. He said the Constitution for Norway was about 1.5 inches thick and lays out every detail of what the government will do for the people.

We talked for a few hours and by the time we were done he was very excited to have the booklet to read and learn from and I think I realized that Europe really doesn’t hate us, they just really don’t understand us at all. Like Football, NASCAR and shooting, it’s just one of those things that I guess you have to actually experience before you can understand it.
But I’m working on them – one at a time.

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security - Benjamin Franklin