I know many of our readers here don't agree with me on this. In fact, a little over a year ago, I wouldn't necessarily have agreed with myself now on this issue. I beg of you though to give me 4 minutes of your time to watch this and then a couple of extra minutes to think this through, even if it's different than the way you've thought about this before. Let me know what you think.
4 comments:
There are things I disagree with Ron Paul on, but there are many things I agree with him on, though I would tend to support them to a somewhat lesser degree. Anyway, this clip didn't do much for me. It's just a collection of "what if this" and "what if that". His concerns may or may not be valid, but that validity has nothing to do with whether or not you can put it in a sentence that starts with "what if".
The clip reminds me of those movie previews where they haven't actually shot the film yet, so the preview is some dramatic music, and a voice over and a few 2 second clips that show nothing. Its only purpose and value is to get you interested enough to pay attention to it when it comes up again. The 4 minutes could have been better spent.
My clever come back was going to be "what if Ron Paul is wrong?" but he beat me to it. Except, I don't agree with his answer... If Ron Paul's concerns are wrong, and we did follow his advice, "nothing" will not be the result.
-Kordel
Given what's happened in the last week and the very real possibility that this man could have prevented it if he had any foresight, isn't it a little tough to watch a clip of him with an open mind.
His strategic and tactical skills obviously didn't look too impressive over the last 12 months, so why should we listen.
Frankly, my stomach only made it to about the two minute mark of the clip. But that still gives me a couple salient response points.
1. How does one with a straight face claim that war-time spending has never been beneficial to the US economy? I'm not by any means a historical economics expert, but isn't 1930-1960 a pretty well understood economic period. (A more sarcastic side of me wants to use the late 18th century instead.)
2. He makes the claim that borrowing and inflation are evil practice. I've spoken out in preference of inflation to deflation previously but that's on purely practical grounds. How exactly does one condemn as evil the practice of inflation. [Note here, I'm explicitly differentiating bad from evil. It's easy to make an argument that inflation is practically negative. That's very different from saying a government engaging in inflationary monetary policy (say one on a gold standard such as the US for much of it's existence) is evil.
My personal view is that we need to be careful of our own intelligence. All too often, it blocks the messages that the Spirit is trying to tell us.
This has nothing to do with Ron Paul. He is just one voice in the world trying to say that things are not right. That we need to make change, or have it made for us. This has everything to do with our personal freedom, our ability to raise our families in the gospel and our ability to fulfill the three-fold mission of the Church.
I suspect some could debate ad nauseum which side is right and which is wrong. Such as was the case in the war in heaven.
I would plead with everyone I know to read again more carefully the Book of Mormon. Read the words of the prophets from Adam to President Monson. Then, set aside your own intelligence, knowledge and wisdom and let the Spirit speak.
Satan's plan was very convincing. I would venture that there were some of us fighting for the Lord's side who argued the two sides with "what if" questions.
Go ahead, make fun of me. I'm just an old guy, I can take it... Go ahead, spew forth your supposed knowledge of economies and politics. But, at the last day, we will be judged by the Lord. On that day, we will be the ones to declare that we did "awake and arise". The Book of Mormon speaks very boldy about our day. Prophets have spoken boldy of our day. Yet, do we listen? Will we listen? What if we find at that day that we did not listen?
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