America’s Early Socialists

The Flint Striker

Om was a flint striker; actually, he was considered by many to be the best flint striker in the world. It was a much smaller world a thousand years ago, but his skills made him one of the richest men in the known world.

Traders, warriors, and hunters came to trade for his precious articles made of flint. He had never traveled far from the quarry he was born in; since the quarry contained the wealth of one of the richest kingdoms in the known world. If he left, a powerful man or chief might move in and be impossible to dislodge. It was true enough, he was said to be the greatest artisan in the world, but the skills needed to work flint and obsidian were not that difficult to acquire, he and his sons were just the best at those skills. No, he was content to stay in the quarry that had belonged to his ancestors for generations.

He made flint knives and projectile points. It was an interesting time; the bow was a recent invention, yet the atlatl or spear thrower was still used by many hunters and warriors. The atlatl spear was a lighter version of the heavier lance. All three weapons required projectile points of different sizes and weights. The projectile points had to be light, sharp, and balanced. If the projectile point missed its’ target and hit a rock or a heavy bone, it broke and had to be replaced; since the same qualities that made the projectile points so lethal, also made them vulnerable. There was another intrinsic characteristic of man that placed tremendous pressure on his rock carving industry: man has always been forgetful and careless. He was always losing knives, scrapers and awls. He dropped projectile points and he lost many arrows in the brush. Consequently, men could chip and shape crude tools for replacements or depend on the abilities of Om and his artisans to provide the best instruments in the world. It was the craftsmanship of his work and those of his workers that supported his little community.

The traders came from far away places to trade for his flint works of art and they brought the most wondrous treasures. Most of the professional traders used the rivers for transportation. Om had a vast knowledge of the world and the wondrous places and goods the world had to offer by communicating with the traders using sign language and a few universal words and grunts.

Women and children were some of the most common trade goods, but Om was open to trade for anything of value. Om liked young beautiful women for his bed and older women to take care of domestic chores, tending the garden, and watching over the children. He was fairly certain he had sired over thirty children and at least twenty children were slaves brought by warriors wanting his flint pieces. The boys would be raised up to be either flint workers or warriors to guard his empire. He tested them when they were young to see if they could learn the flint working skills. They had to recognize the pieces within a rock, chip out the instrument with an economy of work and time to produce a symmetrical instrument that became the tools and weapons of civilization. His work was noted for the flutes down each side of the arrow and spear points. The flute made mounting on arrows on shafts much easier. Men also looked at the flutes as a mark of status. For if a man owned these instruments, he was considered wealthy. Actually, the flutes were important because they allowed the point to be balanced, symmetrical, and considerably lighter. Om thought the flute style was from his family, but his knowledge of history was limited. The flute or Clovis type had existed all over North America for 12,000 years before he was born.

These were the characteristics that made his work so well known throughout the world. If a boy couldn’t learn the skills of an artisan, he became a soldier and hunter. The hunters practiced their accuracy with both the bow and atlatl to secure fresh meat. Sadly he realized his warriors were not as disciplined or as fierce as other tribes that specialized in war and hunting.

He liked to trade his daughters off to strong men of other tribes as wives. It was sad to trade off his daughters, but it was vital to maintain a healthy community. These outside marriages made for excellent alliances and protection among neighboring tribes; however, it was beneficial to keep the blood fresh within his tribe if healthy children were to be born. The spirits of the mists had told his forefathers that girls should not procreate with relatives of close blood and the spirits sent imperfect children when their laws were broken. Sometimes one of the boys would fall in love with one of his girls and problems would arise. He raised the slave children and his own children the same and over the years it was often confusing to remember which ones were his natural children and which ones were slaves. He knew there were good reasons for people to mate away from their own blood and those reasons often became painfully obvious through children, but sometimes you must accept the choices of people in love, even though there might be dire consequences.

There were good reasons, handed down from the ancients, for trading girls off to other tribes. It made alliances with more powerful tribes, that was one of the most beneficial reasons to send daughters to marry within other tribes and it was important to have girls from other tribes to marry within his tribe. He had many wives and never lacked for comfort, but his young workers and soldiers needed a wife at a certain age or they became restless and irritable, lacking a woman also interfered with their work. Sometimes he felt he had to spend a disproportionate amount of time securing wives for his young men, but it was best to keep the artisans working and the soldiers on alert. Sometimes it seemed like the responsibilities of leadership were overwhelming.

Women were an important part of Om’s tribe, they tended the fruit trees, corn, and melons they grew by the river and they did the gathering of edible roots and nuts. They would grind the foods and cook them to make them edible. Without hardworking women, his society would fall apart. He appreciated women for the pleasure they provided in bed and for the work they did, of course without them, there would be no children and the earth would wither and die. Om felt of himself as a learned man for being able to comprehend these complex issues. Most men were content to have a full belly and a woman in their bed. Om had evolved well beyond these basic needs of the common man.

Not only did he have all the women and children a man needed, but he had the strange shells from far away rivers and big waters, he had exotic furs to wear in the cold months, he had exotic foods, he even had the giant tusks of the monster (the mastodon, had been extinct for thousands of years, but his tusks were worshipped and provided inspiration for many legends). The traders had many scary tales of fighting the monsters. Men came to trade anything and everything for his flint and obsidian knives, and his points for arrows and spears. Many of these men were warriors, some of them made him very nervous; especially, if they were violent and had almost nothing of value to trade. That was the main reason he had to keep his warriors happy and ready to fight at any time.

There were problems, he remembers the warriors of his grand father’s time being more disciplined and frightening to the traders: the earlier flint strikers were better artisans as well, perhaps his grandfather was even a better artisan than he is. He was concerned; he knew if the quality of the work was in decline and the ferocity of his warriors was perceived to be weak, his empire was in danger of being attacked or liable to collapse from within.

Many men wanted his stone pieces for hunting and work, but others wanted them for war. These men were always dangerous and unpredictable.

His family had been the best flint strikers in the world for countless generations. There was no need to assume that he wouldn’t pass on the skills and control of the tribe to one of his sons; however, cohesion of community had to be maintained. Cohesion within the community meant that his people had to be loyal to the tribe, his flint strikers must maintain their quality, and his warriors had to be disciplined. If his people showed weakness or cowardice, a warrior tribe might descend on them for plunder and murder.

The Raid

He would never know how the raiders came into camp just before daylight on that fateful morning. He awoke to the sounds of screams and moaning. He grabbed a spear and ran outside his lodge, only to be struck down with a blow to the side of the head by a warrior whose entire body was painted red and black. The war club was heavy and had a sharp piece of flint set in it, the stone had pierced the bone of Om’s skull.

He was stunned and watched in horror as his young flint strikers had their hands tied behind them and were tied together in a long line with the young women and girls. Those who put up a fight were cut down with clubs, knives and spears. He noticed the stone weapons carried by these raiders were not made by his group, but they were well made, perhaps as well made as his own weapons. Nearly all his people were captured, dead, or dying.

His storehouse was being raided and the finest knives and points in the world were being stolen. They were also placing his treasures in leather sacks and taking everything. He stood up and stumbled forward to stop the theft, when he felt a lance impale him from behind. He looked down at the well-made stone weapon protruding from his abdomen and fell to his knees. He touched the stone lightly with the knowing fingers of a master artist and determined the stone to be of a superior and foreign construction. He marveled at its’ artistry, just before he felt a powerful blow to the back of his head; Om’s world turned black, his life and way of life was over.

Skills And Technology

Although Om’s life was over, his skills and more importantly the skills of the artisan passed on from his forefathers was embedded within his DNA and had been passed on to many of his sons and daughters. The young slaves and his sons who were learning the skills of flint striking were considered to be very valuable to the raiders. Trading them to tribes over vast distances allowed the skills to be disseminated. The girls who were traded over the same distances also possessed the ability to pass on the traits of the artisans to their male children through the genetic traits within the DNA. Thus the skills of the artisan were also spread over vast distances through the DNA of the girls. It was only the potential that was available, for each generation saw a dilution of the skills needed, but by rolling the genetic dice often enough, eventually a young man would be born who would pick up the tools and start turning out the tools and weapons that were so vital for the survival of man in history’s continuous and methodical march through the millennia to the present time.

Success And Excess

Om wanted to maintain the skills and wealth of Stone Age technology within his tribe. His skills at leadership and working the stones were not as great as his forefathers. He could see the deterioration of skills, from his grandfather’s time.

His extended family and his tribe were among the richest in the world. He knew that it was harder to maintain the discipline necessary when his workers and soldiers became fat and lazy and spent their free time lusting after each other’s wives.

His society was disintegrating before his eye; yet he felt powerless to stop the decline. He had watched for years as his people had become rich beyond comprehension. Unfortunately, with wealth came a lack of pride in community and pride in their stone working skills.

Sadly, he was one of the few who recognized the decline of the community. He saw his workers meeting clandestinely with the traders who brought intoxicating brews and leaves. These workers were debauched and living solely for themselves. In his grandfather’s day they would have been executed or exiled from the tribe. However, so many of his workers were stealing from the tribe to indulge their own personal weaknesses, that he would have a revolt on his hands if he tried to maintain the old laws.

Om’s goal was to maintain his tribe and their wealth. He knew he was responsible for inspiring the sense of community, so necessary for maintaining a strong tribe. It was obvious to him, that he lacked the leadership of his forefathers and the will to enforce the old laws that would have made his tribe strong for a few more generations.

His people were happy, but without discipline and a sense of civic responsibility or loyalty to the tribe, there is only a disintegration of society. Ultimately, it was he, who had failed the tribe. He had failed to provide leadership.

Stone Age Technology

During the time of Om, flint instruments were the only industry in the world. There was a pottery industry, but the skills needed to make the ceramics hard enough to withstand repeated cooking and travel had not yet been invented in, so tribes were making clay pots on a continual basis. Agriculture was in the formative stages, his women were just grasping the idea of selective pollination, agricultural skills were in practice to the South, yet slow to be adapted in the North. Traders were always providing useful tips and stories of huge cultivated fields, but such concepts were almost beyond the wildest imagination of Om.

Thus the areas that yielded the best pickings and diggings of edible feed materials were highly sought-after, as were the best hunting grounds. These areas have been guarded with the self-interest of the particular group in mind. Survival and starvation were constant considerations and the loss of a food source often condemned these tribal groups to death.

Trespass and transgressions often meant death to either the offender or defender; since a group that lost their traditional grounds had no choice, but to be nomads with no viable or reliable food source. They were always looking for a weaker group to overwhelm. The well-made instruments of work and war were extremely important to groups who wanted to defend their food sources.

Weaponry

The knife, the war club studded with sharp edges, and spear with a flint or obsidian edged points were the most awesome weapons since the dawn of time; eventually, the atlatl or spear thrower would be invented by a stone age Galileo and the technology would spread all over the world. For the power, speed, and distance of the spear were increased dramatically. Approximately a thousand years ago, the concept of the bow and arrows swept through the world with devastating results. For with the bow, the hunter or warrior was not restricted to a maximum of three or four spears before he was out of ammunition: he could now carry twenty or thirty arrows for long distances with no undue effort. The archer also increased the effective range of his weapons and when a village came under a barrage of continuous arrows, there was almost no defense, except to cower in fear. To mount a counter attack meant slaughter and to run in disarray meant that the group would be defeated and the loss of the food source would be assured. Yes, the atlatl and the bow were the super weapons for thousands of years and maintained this prominence, until the introduction of black powder and the gun.

Once the Stone Age man saw the awesome power of the gun and its many advantages, he quickly abandoned his Stone Age weapons to embrace the gun.

Trading Labor For Wealth Today

Obviously, the story of Om is fictional; however, the same drama continues to be played throughout history. In Free Societies, the success of a society depends on selecting leaders with integrity and the ability to lead and make tough decisions with solutions that are based not on the tenets of an ideology and the centralization of power and control, but on the well-being of the society.

It has been the nature of Socialist societies throughout history, to have leaders with few leadership abilities. Socialist leaders have shown no real interest in the people they purport to lead; indeed, their interests are directed to maintaining wealth and opulence among the Elite class, while paying a token amount of attention to the people they represent. This is the same situation the fictional leader Om found himself, a thousand years ago. His people realized they were being used to promote the wealth of Om; consequently, they lost interest in contributing to their society. They stayed because it was comparatively safer than being on your own out in the world, but they no longer believed in the system that revolved around Om.

Obama has been dancing around this same image by leading a lifestyle of a limited work schedule with multiple vacations and golf outings, while too many Americans are facing the loss of their homes and the equity that has been built around a lifetime of work. It’s true, there are many who still believe in the hype that elected Obama, but many people wearing rags have worshiped royalty in furs. There is no delusion greater or stronger than self-delusion.

With those who are suffering from the Obama delusion and those who see through the facade and are bitter over the hoax that has been perpetrated against them, there is an inherent danger: the society has been weakened through ineffective, indifferent, and incompetent leadership.

Coveting Technology

Today, most people want the finest machines and technology, and are willing to pay a high price for cars, trucks, computers, building materials, and food. If they can’t compete with the rest of the world in the trade of the goods and commodities, their civilization will be mired in decline and stagnation.

Still today, undeveloped societies envy successful civilizations. A group that decides it can overwhelm a culture and take over the fortunes and technologies that generate so much wealth will often make the move to overwhelm the culture. Thus weaker cultures are destroyed or overwhelmed; unfortunately, wealth and the means to create wealth, is all too often destroyed as well.

For the wealth of a society is not transferred by handing over cash and material goods to thugs, unskilled so-called workers, and ersatz intellectuals. The skills of a society that is producing wealth are a meshing of skills and knowledge working in harmony to create wealth. The self-serving hedonist and the indolent may demand their fair share because they exist, but in reality, they are only negative factors that hinder the creation of wealth within a society, rather than contributing to the creation of wealth within a society.

Manifest Destiny

During the expansion phase of the United States, a phase that was unapologetically termed Manifest Destiny, the US absorbed or destroyed many cultures in its march to the Pacific. Americans believed in the mission to claim North America below the 48th Parallel as if it were a divine mandate. In the mean time cultures that had overwhelmed other cultures previously, became weaker and over extended.

France assumed power over Louisiana and the native people that occupied this huge territory; just as Mexico assumed it could rule a vast empire without direct control. England managed to maintain control over western Canada, but lost control of Oregon and Washington.

There were events that facilitated Manifest Destiny: Napoleon sold the Louisiana Purchase to finance his wars of conquest, for approximately five cents an acre, Mexico lost Texas to the Texans, and later on, Mexico would lose the entire Southwest to America in a war with the US. Russia even sold Alaska to America, an acquisition that was considered an act of stupidity at the time. Called Seward’s Folly, to ridicule the American who brokered the deal, it is one of America’s greatest strategic acquisitions and would be greater still if we allowed the oil or wealth to flow freely from Alaska.

The rights of the Stone Age people were virtually ignored in this western migration, but Americans often paid for this oversight with a loss of life, yet many more Americans died from disease and starvation than from violence. Even though there was a terrific loss of life the Americans kept coming in an endless stream to overwhelm the former Stone Age cultures occupying the Western states.

Technically, the native cultures were no longer Stone Age cultures. They quickly abandoned the stone projectile points they had used for ten thousand years, to work iron into the same triangular shapes in a fraction of the time, without looking for suitable rocks, and with more assurance of a uniform product. They also learned to appreciate the advantages of iron for knives, the smooth bore guns for hunting and war, wool blankets, and copper cooking utensils. Old skills were abandoned as these new products from the White Man’s world were found to make life easier, but with all new technologies, there is the hidden cost that is separate from the original price of trade. This is the loss of culture and the skills of that culture that are lost when new technologies are embraced and old skills are abandoned.

In America, during the 19th Century, there was a need for a blacksmith in every village, but now, a few welders will take care of iron that needs repair or the odd part that needs to be built. However, the welder will look at you with a blank stare if you ask him to heat treat, temper, or anneal a piece of iron. Those skills have all but been buried with those iron men of the past.

The Unskilled Educated Demand Wealth

We are currently being entertained by a group of non-skilled people protesting the abuses and corruption of Wall Street. While willfully ignoring the excesses and corruption of the current administration that has been instrumental in not only allowing the corruption, but an active and integral participant in the same corruption.

The participants appear to be those who have no legitimate contribution to make toward creating wealth; indeed, they seem to be among the non-producers or parasites within a society who desperately want their fair share of the wealth, while offering nothing of value for trade.

Complaints of expensive educations wasted gaining degrees in disciplines other than the hard sciences and those that prepare the student for a trade or a means to at least earn a living as a productive citizen; they are unhappy that society doesn’t recognize the value of their non-productive skills and knowledge of the mundane.

Problems arise in periods of forced austerity for these people who are non-producers of wealth or for those who have nothing of value to trade for wealth; for unless the government has excess funds for make work employment, these people have no sources of employment for their non-skills they acquired at great cost.

Like Om’s workers and warriors who succumbed to a life of sloth and leisure, they are only contributing to the disintegration of a culture. They lack either the skills or the work ethic to contribute to society and the formation of wealth; therefore, they feel they are entitled to the wealth of people who have the desire to create wealth, because they exist, they should be treated as important individuals and given their fair share of the wealth according to their need.

Ownership Of The Mob

Socialism or Communism is the most logical vehicle for their grievances against those who produce and create wealth, so the rest of the country should conform to the teachings of Marx so that their needs and infantile reasoning can be placated. Unfortunately, the cold hard standard of living within a Marxist society has even less room for these non-producers. They must rely on the benevolence of a wealthy society to support them in their meaningless and non-productive careers that have meaning and value only to them.

Neither Mayor Bloomberg or President Obama have the leadership skills to deal effectively with this blight on America, but instead they are willing to sit idly by the sidelines hoping against common sense that some political advantage will evolve from the pestilence of the mob and their own personal lack of leadership. As society disintegrates and the mob’s motives and actions become more circumspect, the ownership of the mob has now fallen upon Bloomberg and Obama as a result of their inaction and indirect support. As the violence and damages escalate, so does the liability for Bloomberg and Obama.