Carthago Delenda Est revisited...

(Had to leave early for babysitting job.)

While the posts at Stop Shouting! (see earlier post) are few and far between, they are worth checking out. The bloggett happened to be in DC on the day of the Stewart/Colbert rally and wrote about the experience. Aside from the rudeness and piles of trash, she enjoyed an interesting and telling conversation with some of the young attendees. My pull quotes:

Many of these young people worked for "non profit advocacy groups" and it was clear although they idealistically liked the "Mission statement" of their organization, they were becoming frustrated that no real results/meaningful change in their clients lives were being seen. We chatted about that, and I discussed some of the meaningful, privately funded, small-scale, local projects that I had worked on in the past, and had made positive impact in the lives of those who chose to take advantage of that. As I stated, "Change only comes if and when your clients are committed to change. You can throw as much money and support at it as you want, but unless THEY choose to change the direction of their lives, it will never happen".

They agreed that this was what they were seeing in their own "advocacy" work.

And

We also talked specifically about Obama, the "community organizer" and their disappointment with the "Hope and Change" agenda. I then asked them a question -- you voted to elect someone to the highest office in the land, to lead us out of this huge financial and moral morass we are in. We needed the best the country had to offer. Obama stated his experience as a "community organizer" in the south side of Chicago, and worked there for several years. How are the residents there doing now?

Absolute silence. I could see they were thinking. Deeply.

Well, maybe not everyone.

The young rally-attendees were urged to do their own homework on the issues of the day, rather than depending on media soundbites. Suggested resources included hillbuzz (a Clinton Dem turned right by the way Barrack Obama won the election), the Ludwig von Mises Institute and, one I hadn't heard of but looks amazing, Shadow Government Statistics.

It would be a miracle of major since-the-beginning-of-time proportions if 18 to 30 year olds, raised on a diet of unquestioning fear and guilt, actually did the uncool thing and questioned the uninterrupted onslaught of government-will-fix-everything sibilation. And it is uncool, requiring a special courage.

Who knows? It wouldn't be the first time.