Another set of musings by the ever-inciteful Ragnar. You know, he's the Viking leader who keeps kicking my ass in Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword.--Tom
I had another Guiness-fueled profound thought last night while watching my beloved Illini get their asses handed to them by Dookie. So here it is. Robin Hood. When I was a kid I loved Robin Hood. I loved all of it, the Errol Flynn movie, the Disney movie, the books, and the stories. My cousin and I lurked in the Sherwood Forest of my Grandma’s back yard with home-made bows and arrows. Lucky we didn’t put an eye out.
Anyway, here is the profound thought. What is the basis of the Robin Hood story? It is that the government raised taxes on the serfs and villagers and freemen until the economy stifled and eventually the people revolted. Classic civil disobedience.
Think about that. The government raised taxes, and it hurt the economy. Doesn’t that fly in the face of democratic policy? But Ragnar you say, Robin Hood robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. That is classic democratic platform stuff. The evil corporate monarchs robbing from the downtrodden, violating the land, persecuting the poor working man.
Well yes, but that is not really what was happening. Just like today, where the Democrats are funded by the nobility of our country, the movie stars and George Soros’s of the world, so to were the nobles of Robin Hood’s time raising taxes to fund their pet policies. They knew how to spend the peoples’ money much better than the people did. That part hasn’t changed, it is really the working man trying to make the village prosper who is going to get the tax hike. OK maybe not the guy working at the corner deli, but certainly the engineers, doctors, accountants, and people with the audacity to knock out more than a hundred K a year or so. These are the “rich” the democrats are going to tax today. Going back to Robin Hood times, it would be the masons, the brewmasters, the smithies, and the scribes. They were taxed by Good Prince John until they couldn’t afford their apprentices, they had no profit, could not reinvest in the local economy, and so on until things got so bad everyone starved. Those were the people Robin Hood was giving back to. In his own way Robin Hood was cutting taxes.
Robin Hoods’ people didn’t want government funded medical care, or amnesty for the French sneaking into the country illegally, or the government banning their pitchforks. They wanted government out of their lives so that they could pursue happiness – there’s a concept……………………….And Robin Hood did what he could to facilitate that desire, George Bush tax cuts at the point of a sword.
How could this be, this concept that young children are learning from this tale, that taxation leads to poverty and economic stagnation? That getting some of your taxable income back helps you be happy? What? We can’t tell kids this kind of thing anymore. Think of how much public school programming is required to get that idea out of their heads. Memo to the DNC. A revision to the Robin Hood tale is long overdue. Maybe we could rewrite it to say that Prince John reversed the egregious tax cuts of King Richard to ensure everyone pays their fair share. Robin Hood could rob from those businessmen who tried to hide their profit from the government and he could give their money (excuse me the government’s money) back to Prince John because he would know how to better spend it. Yeah this is getting better, and we could add a gay character, Little John or Maid Marian –scratch that - Will Scarlet, and of course we could portray Friar Tuck as a corrupt pedophile and get a good slam in on religion, especially Catholics……OK I think we can salvage this.
Ragnar
I had another Guiness-fueled profound thought last night while watching my beloved Illini get their asses handed to them by Dookie. So here it is. Robin Hood. When I was a kid I loved Robin Hood. I loved all of it, the Errol Flynn movie, the Disney movie, the books, and the stories. My cousin and I lurked in the Sherwood Forest of my Grandma’s back yard with home-made bows and arrows. Lucky we didn’t put an eye out.
Anyway, here is the profound thought. What is the basis of the Robin Hood story? It is that the government raised taxes on the serfs and villagers and freemen until the economy stifled and eventually the people revolted. Classic civil disobedience.
Think about that. The government raised taxes, and it hurt the economy. Doesn’t that fly in the face of democratic policy? But Ragnar you say, Robin Hood robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. That is classic democratic platform stuff. The evil corporate monarchs robbing from the downtrodden, violating the land, persecuting the poor working man.
Well yes, but that is not really what was happening. Just like today, where the Democrats are funded by the nobility of our country, the movie stars and George Soros’s of the world, so to were the nobles of Robin Hood’s time raising taxes to fund their pet policies. They knew how to spend the peoples’ money much better than the people did. That part hasn’t changed, it is really the working man trying to make the village prosper who is going to get the tax hike. OK maybe not the guy working at the corner deli, but certainly the engineers, doctors, accountants, and people with the audacity to knock out more than a hundred K a year or so. These are the “rich” the democrats are going to tax today. Going back to Robin Hood times, it would be the masons, the brewmasters, the smithies, and the scribes. They were taxed by Good Prince John until they couldn’t afford their apprentices, they had no profit, could not reinvest in the local economy, and so on until things got so bad everyone starved. Those were the people Robin Hood was giving back to. In his own way Robin Hood was cutting taxes.
Robin Hoods’ people didn’t want government funded medical care, or amnesty for the French sneaking into the country illegally, or the government banning their pitchforks. They wanted government out of their lives so that they could pursue happiness – there’s a concept……………………….And Robin Hood did what he could to facilitate that desire, George Bush tax cuts at the point of a sword.
How could this be, this concept that young children are learning from this tale, that taxation leads to poverty and economic stagnation? That getting some of your taxable income back helps you be happy? What? We can’t tell kids this kind of thing anymore. Think of how much public school programming is required to get that idea out of their heads. Memo to the DNC. A revision to the Robin Hood tale is long overdue. Maybe we could rewrite it to say that Prince John reversed the egregious tax cuts of King Richard to ensure everyone pays their fair share. Robin Hood could rob from those businessmen who tried to hide their profit from the government and he could give their money (excuse me the government’s money) back to Prince John because he would know how to better spend it. Yeah this is getting better, and we could add a gay character, Little John or Maid Marian –scratch that - Will Scarlet, and of course we could portray Friar Tuck as a corrupt pedophile and get a good slam in on religion, especially Catholics……OK I think we can salvage this.
Ragnar
Labels: outlaws, Ragnar, role of government
Interestingly enough, the offenses that produced Robin Hood set the stage for many of our freedoms.
Out of the excesses of Prince (and later King) John came the Magna Carta, which, among its other innovations, guaranteed trial by a jury of one's peers.
Maybe there's hope for a revolution yet.
Tom