What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander
History has proven that the United States is the greatest system for freedom, prosperity and encouraging the human spirit to achieve it’s greatest potential.
A free market and a freedom from manipulative intervention has proven to be best. It is the free market that rewards responsibility and diligence, thwarts the efforts of criminality and shines the light for all to see the world clearly.
Why would anyone or anything ever want to alter or manipulate such freedom and prosperity?
Does it not seem odd to those who believe in freedom that limitations could ever be proper?
History is full of oddities. Yet it is the best teacher.
It is said that history is written by the victors.
However, my view is that history is rewritten by the victors.
This is an important point – because the victors want to remain in charge. No matter what the reality was at the time.
History is “cause and effect”.
Yet – recorded history is many times a manipulation. A manipulation in order to project an ideology onto a moment or person. This can be past, present or the future.
One case in point is how a biased media will attempt to manipulate your opinion and how you will vote.
The best example in my mind is when Literary Digest Magazine in the 1930s lost confidence in its readers when it wrongly predicted the outcome of a presidential election. The magazine went from the leading publication to bankruptcy in a very short period of time.
Better yet – when Truman wasn’t supposed to have won the Presidential election by decree of the newspapers!
There are many, many examples in the world of deliberate attempts of manipulating recorded history – and many in our nation’s history.
Facts can be stranger than fiction. It can prompt a person to look more closely as we all should.
Another case in point:
Ulysses S. Grant is a great source of interesting examples. My Boston born high school history teacher was not a big fan of his.
You would think a staunch Boston born yankee history teacher would not be more critical than any southern born citizen of Grant or Lincoln – yet it is true … and she was!
She taught us that Grant was the absolute worst President ever. She backed it up with facts and real history – not her opinions. Her factual methodology was the greatest influence on me.
Imagine my surprise to learn the fact that during the American Civil War, General Grant owned slaves while General Robert E. Lee did not. Lee had actually freed his slaves well before the war.
Are you also just as surprised? This fact is like a strand of thread that will cause the entire reason behind that period to come apart like a badly made tapestry.
It is also revealing as well as humorous that while President – Grant received a speeding ticket in Washington DC for running his horse and buggy too fast down the street.
Horace Greeley, who was the most powerful newspaper publisher of the time (and who was the one who said “Go west young man, go west!”) was a strong supporter of Grant to be elected to his first term.
Greeley then fervently opposed Grant to be elected for a second term. Greeley went so far as to help form the “Liberal Republican Party” to try and defeat Grant. How oxymoronic!
Not that I want to pick on Grant – it was just the first illustration that came to mind.
The point is – do not trust how a package is wrapped. Some of the best gifts come in a plain brown wrapper.
Take a look and you will find that during America’s best times, our Presidents appeared to be uninteresting and even boring – not remembered very well today. But is that not the best way to be?
While in our worst times the Presidents were divisive, intrusive, controversial and became very unpopular in their time. Yet – “recorded history” paints a glorious and noble picture of their administrations. Why is that? Because of manipulation. It is history rewritten.
I was taught as a kid that everyone had the freedom to become what they wanted to become and live their life according to their own way. To just “get by” and have a peaceful and uneventful life – or to work just as hard and build an empire of wealth.
As I heard many times when growing up from those wise elders in my life: “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander!”
In a free America, the goose and the gander are free to achieve their full potential without limitation. That benefits us all!
Category: Tony Rollo Blog
