"We have to do something.”

This sentiment pretty much explains every terrible macro event that’s happened in my lifetime.

The government became our National Nanny by selling voters a simple message: “We’ll protect you (and your children). We’ll do something to keep danger from entering your house.”

I’m a participant in a group email chain organized by The Brownstone Institute. Today, one of these writers made this post:

“With regard to the post 9/11 invasion of Afghanistan, I remember saying that we should take more time to think about this than it would take to plan a child’s birthday party. If everyone recalls, the invasion was about one month later. 

“I also recall having this conversation with a lady in my office who was generally quite Democrat-leaning. She said, ‘we have to do something’ and I said, ‘No we don’t.’  She scowled at me and walked off. 

“That’s when I realized the power of the media propaganda. The barrage had quickly turned someone pro-war who would otherwise tend toward anti-war sentiment. And of course I’m always the one going against the grain. Maybe that’s why no one likes me ;)

“20 years later I said something similar about COVID vaccines. I said I had no intention of taking a vaccine that was developed in less time than most people take to plan their weddings.”

***

Eureka! This post encapsulates and explains just about every negative trend that’s happened in my lifetime. In my opinion, almost every really bad thing that’s happened in the world can be traced to “narratives” that insist, “We have to do something.”

Unspoken or never mentioned is what would have happened if leaders did nothing about “threat” A, B, C … and Z.

The three ‘Big Events’ of My Lifetime …

In my adult life, I can easily identify three major events that, in my opinion, changed life in America and the world … for the worse. These events are:

* Two extended wars and occupations after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

* The alleged existential threat of Global Warming (later re-branded “Climate Change.”)

* The alleged emergence of  a “novel” respiratory virus that experts said was very contagious and deadly and thus a huge threat to public health.

Today’s essay examines each of these events from the perspective of what (almost) everyone agreed we had to do - then notes what our leaders actually did do - and then examines how these actions worked out for everyone … compared to an imaginary universe where leaders had chosen to “do nothing.”

Event: Terrorists attack (and kill) thousands of Americans

in New York City and Washington D.C.

Response of leaders (quickly echoed by almost everyone): “We have to do something.”

What was the response?

Answer: America should invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq … start wars that lasted approximately a decade, costing trillions of dollars and resulting in hundreds of thousands or millions of deaths (the vast majority not Americans).

Create an entire new agency of government, The Department of Homeland Security, plus the TSA.

Give even more power and money to the massive network of “intelligence” and “national security” agencies that completely whiffed on uncovering and preventing this evil terrorist attack.

We shouldn’t forget this event either …

Not long after 9-11, another terrorist attack, in hindsight, might have had produced just as much negative “blowback” or unforeseen future consequences. 

These events occurred when someone mailed anthrax spores to a handful of people, which created the momentum to fight the threat of “bio-terrorism attacks,” which ultimately led to gain-of-function research and the Military Industrial Complex merging with the Science Industrial Complex… which probably led to Covid. 

So, as more people should recognize by now, doing something in response to one event can ultimately cause future calamities.

Discussion:

Of my three examples, the response to the 9-11 terrorist attacks is the one event that did deserve a response. No nation can allow mass murderers to get away with such a diabolic and shocking attack without the murderers and plotters receiving justice.

But the response should have been to go after the people responsible - not embark on two simultaneous wars designed to overthrow two governments and then try to “nation-build” two societies.

What would have happened if America’s leaders

didn’t do what they did do?

Perhaps millions of people now dead would be alive. Countless children and grandchildren who were never born would now be alive. America’s government wouldn’t have flushed trillions of dollars down the toilet. 

Thousands of U.S. troops would be alive and wouldn’t have received life-altering injuries. Cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder would be far lower. Suicide rates of service members would no doubt have been much lower. 

The anthrax vaccines, which possibly caused “Gulf War Syndrome,” might not have been given to every U.S. service member.

Today, I don’t think it’s particularly controversial to point out that Iraq or its leader, Saddam Hussein, had nothing to do with 9-11. 

Nor did Iraq pose any “threat” to America’s “national security.” Also, this nation did not possess the capability  to take away the freedom of any American. (The only government that can do that is our own government … which, of course, did just that).

The list of bad results from “doing something” about the 9-11 attacks goes on and on. America didn’t do just one thing; It did 100 significant things after 9-11. 

Except for capturing some of the plotters and eventually killing Osama Bin Laden, I can’t think of any other responses that made the country or world a better place or dispensed justice to villains who committed crimes against humanity.

(A person, a very brave person, could argue “crimes against humanity” were also perpetrated by our own leaders … who did the wrong things so that they could all crow that they “did something” … to “protect the people.” When you drill down to the core issue, “protecting the people” is always the reason we have to “do something.”)

Event: Global Warming is identified as an existential threat to the planet

Unlike 9-11, which really happened, this “event” wasn’t even an “event.”

I still don’t know what person woke up one morning and told the world - or his peers in his secret organization -  that we had to do “something” to fight Global Warming. Whoever said this was simply offering an opinion. 

When this nutcase issued this opinion, the planet was healthy and fine … just like it is 40 years later.

Still, this opinion somehow took … and all the people and important organizations eventually agreed that governments of the world - from national governments to city governments - had to “do something” to keep the planet from dying.

What did “doing something” about Climate Change bequeath to the world?

This new “narrative” birthed a thousand policies, regulations, laws, taxes, new bureaucracies and mandates that also cost the economy trillions of dollars and no doubt killed or harmed countless people (who still don’t understand why or how much they were harmed by this now-binding narrative).

The list of banned products and new “planet-friendly” products could fill up this column. 

We had to have new, more-expensive light bulbs and no company could make or sell the old light bulbs. Gas stoves are being banned. Electric cars and hybrids were said to be a cure that would reduce the world’s “carbon footprint.” 

Anything that allegedly reduced this terrible footprint was mandated and everything that might not reduce it was now on the endangered product list.

The peril of “Climate Change” also ties into Covid as Covid events gave us digital monitoring and surveillance systems that will be used to …. monitor everyone’s “carbon footprint.” 

Digital currency - if implemented - is one offshoot that will effectively eradicate human freedom and liberty as citizens once knew it.

Basically, “doing something” about Climate Change made everything we have to buy far more expensive and dramatically increased the list of activities citizens could no longer engage in and products we can no longer buy. The “save the planet” crusade did nothing to save the planet but it did make Big Brother much bigger.

And mandates to fight Climate Change haven’t ramped up as high as they will in the future.

If Bill Gates gets his way, our grandchildren might be eating bugs for their main source of protein, an enlightened reform that will fight the peril of … cow flatulence.

I’m not the only contrarian who’s noted that most of the proponents leading “the War on Climate Change” all own private jets and multiple mansions, including at least one home overlooking a scenic ocean, homes these leaders must not think will be underwater in a decade. 

For some reason, the world’s leading Climate Change warriors don’t have to reduce their carbon footprint … but their subjects do.

Event: Covid-19

I don’t think I have to opine anymore on what “doing something” to fight this novel virus did to the world. (But, here’s one of my main take-aways …. And here’s another one.)

However, I will say I think the most influential person in modern times was the anonymous Chinese official who notified the World Health Organization that a new virus might be causing “pneumonia-like” illnesses in some people in Wuhan, China.

I’ve often wondered what would have happened if key Chinese officials said and did nothing instead of making that world-changing phone call to the WHO.

What I think would have happened is Covid-19 wouldn’t have happened. 

Even if there was a novel coronavirus and even if it was making some people sick, this virus wasn’t killing many people and nobody would have even noticed anything unusual was happening. A few people might have said, “We had a pretty bad flu season this year,” but that would be about it.

Anyway, thanks a lot, fellow. You should have just kept your mouth shut.

To be fair, perhaps this person didn’t know that when someone important “does something,” the whole damn world can get turned upside down … for no good reason.

***

If I ever run for president, my campaign slogan’s going to be “Elect Bill Rice - He’ll do nothing.” 

I’d then argue that my policy of chilling out in the White House - not proposing any new solutions to protect American citizens - would make the country and world a much better and safer place.

… If my wife votes for me, I might get two votes.

***

(P.S. 9-11, Climate Change and Covid-19 also led to the banning of contrarian, non-authorized speech on many speech platforms. But not Substack … yet. I appreciate readers who are fighting this effort by supporting their favorite contrarian authors with subscriptions or Ko-fi gratuities.)