Sometimes, we say things often enough that they become true by repetition. If we do this long enough, the thing becomes part of our folklore and goes into the books as Homegrown Wisdom, which is passed down to our kids as part of our American heritage.
Seldom do these items become subject to scrutiny and subsequent analysis. This is especially true when the item in question involves religious or patriotic sentiment. I have three in mind which I'd like to share.
"It takes money to make money."
This has been a staple in the economic vocabulary ever since Adam Smith was a toddler. It originally was one of the symbols of capitalism whereby an investment in a company, when intelligently researched and with a measure of luck, would yield a brighter future. Upon further examination, however, we find a different message. If it takes money to make money, what happens when you don't have any? It seems that this is just another way of saying if you're poor, you're going to stay that way. It certainly seems that this has been the case. The guys with the big bucks get bigger bucks. The guys with no bucks end up with - no bucks.To say things like "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" may smack of socialism to our friends on the Right, but "It takes money to make money" is perfectly OK. This is the password to the Holy Grail called The Market.
Another cute one is the Biblical admonition contained in the tenth Commandment: "Thou shalt not covet."
This says that it's wrong to lust after one's neighbor's ox or his/her ass and, by implication, anything else he/she has earned by the sweat of the brow. But if you take this instruction literally, it means the death of the entire advertising industry, among other institutions. If we stopped coveting that 50-inch flat plasma screen or that iPad or that 8-bedroom house or that shiny new car, what would happen to the economy? Capitalism depends on coveting just as much as democracy depends on political contributions. Heavens, if I stopped wanting to keep up with the Joneses (which is OK to say), then the Joneses would (gasp!) have more than I did. The next thing you know, I'd be satisfied with what I had and that would be the end of our consumption-based lifestyles.
Lastly, we have another religious stand-by, "Love thy neighbor."
If we listened to that, the entire military-industrial complex would fold up like a Wal-Mart carton. Loving your neighbor involves listening to his complaints, empathizing with his problems and helping him in his times of need. Ask yourself for each dollar in humanitarian aid, how many are spent on military hardware and you get an idea how ridiculous this is. How can we kick ass if we have to love the ass we kick? Now remember, I'm not talking about self-defense. I'm talking invasions, drone strikes that kill civilians (collateral damage), billions to dictators that torture their own people and stuff like that. The funny thing is that lots of people go into churches every week and say "Amen" to this sentiment and then go out and yell for more weapons or more bombers to kill people who may or may not deserve killing. Finally, if you really want to see how dumb the Love Thy Neighbor philosophy is, take a look at the Congress of the United States.
The moral here is to do one of two things: either junk the hypocrisy and be honest about what we want and how we want to get it, or change the way we do business. Neither one is likely. It's easier to go on spouting platitudes about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness without doing things like improving health care, the legal system or public education, which might just insure we actually get them.