Part 3...Why the "Obviously Obvious" is often not real

Welcome to the "Front Porch."

This is Part 3 of some thoughts we've been sharing about why some people can't seem to see the obvious, particularly what politicians are doing to them, and how we can wake them up. If you have not read the first 2 parts, scroll down. This section is built from them.

In 1989 I was a millionaire. Back then being a millionaire was still an accomplishment...of sorts. I 'owned' a home appraised for $1.2 million dollars, had partial ownership of 2 new vehicle dealerships, and was involved in a partnership that was buying up rental properties in Portland, Maine. After a handfull of serious roller coaster rides of the financial kind, I 'knew' this time I was home free. Not that I consciously thought of it this way, but I was "ENTITLED" to the success I had achieved.

As someone said way before John Lennon, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." 3 years later I had lost all of it. Again. What happened? What seemed to be obvious wasn't real. It was obvious that "since they're not making any more real estate" that owning property was a can't miss proposition. It was obvious that my car business successes would continue, even if I were paying a teense less attention to the present matters at hand. "History" somehow assured me that I could go on, knocking the doors off the industry, because...well...because I already had.

Since real estate was an automatic "win" it made all the sense in the world to accumulate more of it, using my other properties as "leverage." Yes, in a word, or two, I was taking stupid pills. When the bottom fell out of the real estate market in the Northeast in 1989, I found myself "leveraged" out of all my possessions. Bankrupt in 1992. A fine lesson in "This would never happen to me..."

Small comfort, but there always seems to be something "obviously" inevitable that isn't. Many other folks today are confronting being upside down in their mortgages, which is not supposed to happen. Now their adversity has the seed of equivalent benefit if they choose to take responsibility for their decisions, learn from them, and eschew the temptation to soothe thier wounds with the toxic balm of blaming and feeling victimized. In the words of somebody, "Some will, some won't, so what? Next!! It's hard enough to manage our own predisposition to avoid the pain of error, withou thinking we can take primary responsibility for how someone else responds.

So what is next? We need prophets. I don't mean in the mystical sense.

The best prophets are the good students of history, which has nothing to do with the public educational system, public media, or our Ivy League doctorate(that's one hoax I didn't buy into. Even a blind squirrel...) As obvious as this should be, most people look to tribal witch doctors (figuratively) to determine their choice of a course of action, rather than people with real and long track records of being right most of the time. In the arena of politics, for example, there have been numerous historians who unpopularly forecast correctly, instead of telling people what they want to hear. For me, my favorite prognosticators of the "Obvious that isn't" include Ayn Rand, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and, thanks to Glenn educating me on 'missing' history, the Founding Fathers.

Whether we choose being likely to be right, or keeping our PC and the friends who value belonging with the herd over truth, it is up to each of us. It's important to know that regardless of our choice, we chose it. It would therefore "seem" obvious that we would maintain our individual autonomy rather than cede it to the next guy, usually a charlatan, who claims he'll place our welfare above his, and that, thanks to some magical bestowment, he knows better than we about what's good for us. (And then takes 40% or more of our income to execute his plan, which somehow includes Ancient Roman-type parties with food and celebrities flown in from the far corners of the Earth, and to which we're not invited, a private fleet of jets and Mercedes for himself.) But, for a lot of reasons, for a huge number of us,the "obvious isn't so obvious."

Now---let's hear from you. We don't win without each other's mutual support!! Then we do win!!