Citizens would rather be here than there

Levine is a junior politics major and can be reached at benjamin.levine@drake.edu

Without a doubt, aren’t we so lucky to be Here? I mean, let’s be honest, Here is so much better than There. At least we have freedom Here, which I certainly don’t take for granted.

Could you imagine living in a place like There? Take, for instance, the fact that a citizen of There can be indefinitely detained by his government. Yeah, I know! Crazy. Want to hear something even more shocking about that? It was a policy that was passed and signed by the There president in the name of security. I repeat: In the name of security. Really?

Do the citizens of There feel that much safer when their government can indefinitely detain them without trial? Could you imagine the shock and uproar if that happened Here! Our adept and strong principled citizens would never allow it.

Perhaps this is sufficient for you to really appreciate Here, though. That’s okay, just take a look at the drug laws over There; certainly, we wouldn’t be so ignorant as to continually prohibit a drug without any reasonable effect from the policy. However, that is exactly what they do There. The government of There has, for the past many decades, declared a war on drugs in order to promote “healthier living” and reinforce normative values against drugs; the only problem, of course, is that the prohibition hasn’t worked. Drug use hasn’t been deterred despite billions of dollars being spent every year aimed at this very goal. Still, the stigma attached to drugs — rightly or wrongly — creates a feeling that legalizing it, however economically sound this would be, just isn’t the right thing to do. After all, what about the kids? I love when citizens of There say that: What about the kids?! Such a classic form of demagoguery, surely below the people of Here.

And then there is the insurmountable debt over There. Could you imagine having a debt so large that it has grown beyond your own country’s GDP? Or the fact that it is in trillions of dollars, an amount so large that it is nearly inconceivable to think about. I mean, do the people of There really buy that old, outdated economic theory that they have to spend trillions more in deficits to get out of debt? When are they going to realize, over There that is, that spending in deficit will merely create more debt? I guess the citizens of There find it easier to simply not talk about it, look the other way, get lost watching reality TV shows (thank goodness our society is not so debased as to actually place reality TV show “stars” on a pedestal), and pretend like the debt isn’t ticking upward at an alarming rate.

Now, you’ve heard about the indefinite detention over There, as well as the counterproductive (although benevolent) drug laws and the massive debt. So, obviously, being a reasonable person, you — a citizen of over Here — must be thinking that There would never be an acceptable place to live. I do very much so agree. However, this was not an exhaustive list. We have still not discussed the secrecy of the central bank over There, which prints money to support their deficit spending at the cost of devaluing their own currency, or even the fact that There’s biggest city’s mayor banned soda pop bottles that are 16 ounces or over! Of course, the mayor did it for the health of his constituents. But, really, do the people of There think that’s acceptable? As C.S. Lewis asserted, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny expressed for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” Totally.

So, after absorbing this information about over There, take comfort that you live Here. Don’t fret about the policies of There, which would assuredly never get off the ground Here, and remember that your freedoms are unlimited. Here, no doubt, is better than There. Right?