Recently by Gary North: Bill Bonner’s Big Idea
I got this in my email box today: spam.
This spam proposes a way to change America. It begins with a preposterous premise: the Marxists have taken over the American media since 1999.
The Marxist Left has spent nearly ¾ of a billion dollars on anti-American propaganda in the last decade and we need to do *something* to counter this outright war on the American people. To that end, [SPAMMER] is directly asking the American people whether they would support a grass-roots media project to expand the conservative presence in broadcast media.
We put up a new website explaining the extent of this propaganda attack on the US and how we propose, with the support of the American public, to create a new radio and television broadcast network dedicated to getting greater exposure for the principles this country was founded on.
We’re not asking for anything except comments on whether the public would support the idea. Whether the project will go forward depends on what feedback we get from the public about it.
Marxists spent $750,000,000. Right. These are the guys who could not raise enough money to keep The Daily Worker in print. It died in 1991, the year the USSR died.
I know. I know. The Communists were not the true Marxists. The true Marxists are invisible and unnamed and had $750,000,000 to invest.
By the way, $750,000,000 in a decade is chump change. Americans spend over $350 billion a year on higher education, and 95% of this funds the Left. The rest funds engineering.
Add to this K-12 spending per year: $970 billion.
Then factor in what the TV networks spend.
But the spammer thinks a new radio and TV network will turn things around.
Did you ever wonder why conservatives are regarded as aluminum foil hat stylists?
THE SECRET PLAN
For 45 years, I have been told that there is a secret plan to take over America. It is just about completed.
America got taken over no later than 1893 — after Grover Cleveland’s final months in office. Some of us think it was earlier. Much earlier. “Politically incorrect even for conservatives” earlier. See my report.
Anyway, everyone who proposes The Latest Plan To Save America assumes that he has discovered what no other conservative has seen in the past (say) 130 years. He assumes that he has a way to overturn the Secret Plan. All he needs is money. Or donated time.
Has anyone ever heard of these people? Their wives. Or ex-wives.
Have they started an organization? Has it stayed solvent for 10—20 years?
Is there a record of one major success? I don’t mean a success like stopping the ERA. That was the only big one the conservatives have had in 50 years. I mean a success like winning a Federal court case or getting a piece of legislation passed in some state.
No.
Then why should we take them seriously?
Why do they have The Secret Plan to Defeat the Secret Plan that for 50 years, or 130 years, gifted conservatives have not seen? Why should this plan work?
If it’s a centralized plan, it’s leftist. It’s another top-down, twist arms, centralized power solution. Avoid it.
If it’s decentralized, then why not post The Latest Plan on the Web and see if anyone implements it?
But no. It must be secret. It must be By Invitation Only. It is like the other side’s Secret Plan.
For 45 years, I have been invited to “get in on this nation-saving deal on the ground floor.”
Pardon me for my skepticism. I am too old for this. Try it on some kid.
Anyone old enough with money enough to fund The Latest Plan has been hit 1,000 times with similar proposals. They all have one thing in common. They did not work. I know. I have funded several of my own. Not one of them matches what Matt Drudge did in 1998.
Who was Matt Drudge? He had no money. He had no secret plan. He had only this: (1) a tip that Newsweek had spiked a story about Clinton and an unnamed intern; (2) a Web site. That was all it took.
Ideas have consequences. Secret plans to expose secret plans don’t.
Send a donation to an outfit with a public plan that you like. The plan won’t save the world in the next 10 or 20 years, but it may inflict a bit of damage on bad guys, or help good guys a little.
The next time you hear about The Secret Plan — good or evil — recall North’s law of successful politics:
You can’t fight city hall, but you can pee on the steps and run.
August 14, 2009
Gary North [send him mail] is the author of Mises on Money. Visit http://www.garynorth.com. He is also the author of a free 20-volume series, An Economic Commentary on the Bible.
Copyright © 2009 Gary North
