It’s clear that you don’t know what “common sense” is either, since you didn’t offer your own definition. You’re too busy ruminating on your bathroom habits and snack preferences. I know, that’s not exactly what you’ve written on your blog, but it’s at the same level of banality.

Purenonsense isn’t old enough or experienced enough to form his own ideas, so he parrots what he reads or hears from others. He’s like most of your generation, self-deluded and too self-confident, likely from a lifetime of being told he’s “special.”

When you grow up and gather your own experience, Mike, you’ll learn to trust and follow your own intuition. You clearly aren’t there yet. What you know about human behavior you could fit into a thimble, that’s quite obvious.

Reality isn’t run like a classroom where you have to supply an annotated bibliography to please some pinhead who has never worked a day in their lives in the real world, either. You need to get out of that mindset.

Someday, you may also arrive at the conclusion that all the money you or your parents have spent on “higher education” has been complete wasted. At this point, you’re little more than a parrot, taught to supply preconceived responses to certain questions or ideas. You likely have had some paleo-con or LOSERtarian demagogues influencing you as well. You think being a “conservative” requires adherence to a set of rules set by a collective majority, basically a bunch of followers. Basically, conservatism needs only to be one thing … anti-bleeding heart and collectivist liberal who see the world hoping it could reflect an ideal which may not be able to be attained.

I follow no one or nothing. I don’t have time for ideals. Self-preservation at all cost is my goal. That was my father’s goal as well. He had no time for anything else after seeing what happened to our people in the Holocaust. I agreed with him completely. The world is a foul and festering sty, so the best thing to do is amass wealth and tell most everyone to f- off.

Keep thinking like a dewy eyed lib, Mike, that will increase your conservative cred, I’m sure.

“That is the vision the Founding Fathers strove for,”

Let’s get one thing straight, you don’t know what they strove for except for what’s fed to you in the history books. I know wealthy people very very well, being one that’s lived among that class for most of my life. They are not all the altruists you may think. The FFs knew they were getting hosed by England so if they broke away and created a society to keep the farmers and the shopkeepers happy while being able to hang on to their own wealth, then it would be a win win for everyone. It’s no different from someone working for a company and realizing one day they can do better by running their own company, thus becoming wealthier as a result. The FFs needed to ensure that their lifestyles were preserved first. Once that was accomplished, they could address the needs of their constituency, which really is no different than how all politicians regard the general public today. I represent you, I do you favors, you vote for me. Patricians need the underclasses to do their heavy lifting, so if keeping them happy with some sense of hope, then it made their lives ultimately easier and hence, more profitable in the long run.

Political ideologies are really no different from religious ones. They are both systems to keep people at bay and to provide some measure of services to ensure comfort, security, and personal well-being. However, there is always a trade-off. These services never arrive without a price. They all depend on declaring some fealty to figureheads, whether mortal or immortal.

“They were sick and tired of the injustice of the world and they did something about it.”

They were only sick and tired of what was happening to their power and wealth. Stop believing that these patricians were altruists. That’s a myth that history perpetuates because again, our system depends on setting up figureheads to put on pedestals. Those in power know that the farmers and shopkeepers need that.

Unfortunately that is sometimes true. Human nature has often pitted us against each other, but we have made progress over time despite all the noise around us. We can only hope that over time we can get ourselves closer and closer to an ideal world.

I said nothing about liberal causes such as social justice or empty rhetoric about leveling the playing field. Stop attempting to put words in my mouth! Also, I did not say that all people were equal in practice. That’s obviously a falsehood. The best we can do is have all people equal before the law and allow people to make the best of themselves in a free environment. That is the vision the Founding Fathers strove for, which, for all you claim to know about them, you seem to know nothing about. Go read a history book or two.

“The FFs had pragmatic reasons to break from England. They were rightfully sick and tired of forking over a portion of their wealth as a tribute to the Crown and receiving nothing in return but harassment.”

Yes, you’re right on the money about that. They were sick and tired of the injustice of the world and they did something about it. You-are-proving-my-point.

“Religion and creating deities was a means to use fear to keep men in control.”

Sometimes that has been true in the past (and in the present.)