HEATH ASTER, AND THE SLIDE TOWARDS FASCISM

A HAZY MORNING

HEATH ASTER

Wednesday, 8:00 AM.  70 degrees F, wind N, calm at present.  The sky is cloudless but hazy, and particularly hazy on the eastern horizon.  The humidity is 82% and the barometer predicts rain but I doubt it.  I have the side deck and the front porch all prepped for staining and painting so it could hold off a couple of days.
    The heath aster, Aster ericoides, in the sunflower family, is blooming, probably a little early in our region.  The species name refers to the short, narrow leaves, which resemble those of the heath plants.  There are probably several hundred species of North American asters, but I am pretty sure of this one.  There are many garden asters, which usually have larger flowers and are easier to control that the wild species, which can take over a garden pretty quickly if left to their own devices.
    Charles Murray wrote a thought provoking article, “Why Capitalism Has An Image Problem,” for last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, a few of which thoughts that I present without comment.
    “The US was created to foster human flourishing.  The means to that end was the exercise of liberty in the pursuit of happiness.  Capitalism is the economic expression of liberty.  The pursuit of  happiness, with happiness defined in the classic sense of justified and lasting satisfaction with life as a whole, depends on economic liberty every bit as much as it depends on other kinds of freedom.”  
Murray goes on to say that  happiness in the classic sense “can arise from a successful marriage, children raised well, a valued place as a member of a community, devotion to a faith. also from achievement in the economic realm, which is where capitalism comes in.”
     “Making a living, starting a business and finding work that you enjoy all depend on freedom to act in the economic realm,” and the role of government is to provide clear and just laws to uphold and foster that freedom.
    He goes on to decry the ascendancy of crony capitalism, the alliance between government and specific businesses which support it, which defiles the true meaning of capitalistic freedom, and creates a brand of capitalist who have little connection with and few obligations to the rest of society.
    My own comment: there is a name for the alliance of big business and big government that subjugates the individual to the corporate state.  That name is fascism, and we have slid precipitously towards it in the last four years.