Why did millions of immigrants come to America in its first hundred or so years as a nation? Opportunity. And that includes both economic opportunity and the opportunity to enjoy a measure of freedom that did not exist anywhere else.
Now, part of that economic opportunity was predicated on the opening up of an empty continent. There was land being given away for a song and also the tremendous advantages that the industrial revolution was creating meant that all the potential locked up in this empty new world could be extracted at a phenomenal rate. The steam engine and then the internal combustion engine created the modern world and with it the enormous middle class that was the heart of America in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Now we live in the aftermath of those events. The continent has been tamed and to some extent filled. Technology has more or less leveled off. But as we experienced after World War II there is an enormous dynamism to the human capital that was mid-century America.
And that dynamism was fueled by a meritocratic outlook that tried to select the best man for the job and let him earn his way from there. Business was a sort of Darwinian selection where everyone competed for the highest salary, the biggest office, the best benefits package and if truth be told, the prettiest secretary.
Well, things have changed. In the last ten or twenty years all of the major sectors of our society have said that merit is racist, sexist, homophobic and now transphobic. Children will no longer be graded in school according to ability and effort and workers will no longer be hired or promoted according to ability or achievements. They will instead be given these academic and career rewards based on the color of their skins and their position in the sexual dysfunction hierarchy.
Now this will have a devastating effect on both the people who aren’t advantaged by the hierarchy (i.e., white people in general and straight white men in particular) and also the society itself. After all, if meritocracy was the driving force that powered the American century and its dominance of the world in almost every field, then the removal of this force will create the opposite effect. And we are already seeing this in multiple instances. Wherever “equity” has been introduced, mediocrity, at best, has set in. Anyone who has observed the American workplace from within over the last thirty years can think of several examples where a woman or minority affirmative action hire has proven so incredibly incompetent that people were hard pressed not to assume it was done as a way to punish those who worked in the same department as these disasters.
So now that equity has been codified by the government and this race based corporate sabotage will be practiced on an industrial scale, we can expect severe economic and societal dislocations. Companies that employ unqualified individuals and then shield these individuals from answering for the results of their incompetence will not be able to compete with meritocratic organizations. They will produce inferior and over-priced products that won’t be bought. So, this policy, if enforced, will doom American industry when competing against products and services provided by competitors who hire based on ability.
And so, after that long and winding introduction, I reach the point of my essay. In the future, it will only be possible to thrive by living in a place that allows people to be rewarded for competence and hard work. Maybe that will be a red state. Maybe it will be a foreign country. But for the foreseeable future it won’t be a Fortune 500 company operating in a blue state. Theoretically you can still be a small businessman living in a blue state if your skill set is in high demand. Tradesmen and technicians who can pick and choose their assignments may still be able to write their own tickets. Especially if their skills are needed for critical equipment and components.
But even these exceptions still have to endure the other shortcomings of living in these awful places. Their kids will have to be taught by leftist propagandists (unless they’re home-schooled). They will be subject to absurd administrative interference in their lives. They will be surrounded by brain-dead zombies. And they will be in proximity to dangerous urban areas from which violent mobs may erupt at any time.
Our current leftist leaders want to turn you into a serf. If you don’t want that to happen then you will have to do something about it. The best thing you can do is figure out where merit is rewarded and move there. I’m still trying to figure out which place makes the most sense for me. For younger people it’s easier. The only caveat I make for them is this. Make sure it’s a place where you can find a wife and raise a family. Everything else will probably take care of itself.