Each to His Own,

To each their own.  This saying is the backbone of conservatism in the United States.

What it means is:   me, I'm first, what I want is most important.

It is the backbone of liberty for most.  If I want to drive to Canada, and I can afford it, I can do it.  If I want to buy a RV, that gets 5 miles to the gallon, and drive to Canada, while the nation is starving for oil, so be it:  to each his own.

To most Americans this is the core to freedom.  Doing what I want to do is liberty.

Is it?  When all Americans subscribe to this credo, what about scarce resources?  What happens when the oil runs low?  What happens in a drought?  What happens with a scarcity of food, or health care for example.

At this point, the chorus from the right is "to each his own".  If you teach a person to fish...etc.

Now, narcissism is at an all time high in America.  Profit at all costs.  I am first.  Screw over the poor, they are lazy; all of these and more, are indicative of many America's attitudes.

But is this liberty?  Is it liberty when narcissism is so prevalent that millions do not have health care insurance for example.  The reaction to many to this injustice, is:  Let them go to emergency rooms.  The Republican Party to date has voted over 50 times in the House of Representatives to repeal the ACA.

Individual horror stories are trooped out, decrying rising premium rates, or cancellations in insurance.  Meanwhile millions upon  millions are for the first time in their lives getting affordable health insurance  and health care.

But this is tyranny according to "to each his own".  Libertarians rail against the ACA as socialism, tyranny; etc.  It is nothing of the sort.

The tyranny lies in the narcissism.  The tyranny lies in the widening gap between the haves and the have nots.

Look, there is economic liberty and their is political liberty.   The Constitution of the United States deals mostly with political liberty.  Liberty, according to political scientists, is voting, democracy, representative government, and the lack of a dictator or tyrant.

Liberty is NOT the right to squander resources, selfishness, and narcissism.

And this is the most divisive issue of our times.  Both on the left and on the right, narcissism is becoming a large part of political behavior.  People are increasingly voting their selfish self-interest.

This will increase as the inevitable decline in available natural resources occurs.  Global warming and peak oil are going to lead to less for all of us.  The narcissistic reaction will only makes things worse, widen the gap between the rich and the poor and lead to conflict and probably war.

To each his own will lead us to ruin.