Brushfire of Freedom
The Conservative Cowboy
We as a Nation have come into some hard times with the economy falling faster and faster. The cause of this decline has many facets but the one item that I want to focus on is the simple fact that Americans have been living beyond their means for quite some time now. With the huge increase in the stock market the last couple of years people have been spending money that they didn’t have banking on the fact that their home and stocks would continue to increase. We need to take a step back and learn something from a dying icon that used to epitomize the American mentality.
No I am not talking about Hollywood actors, the professional politicians, or the professional athletes that we have idolized in the past couple of decades; I am talking about the Cowboy. The Cowboy way is what we have come to call the mentality of the strong people that survived in the isolated and desolate West. Yes we had miners and railroad tycoons, but the Cowboy became an icon of what it was like to be an American. This ideology spread across the US and the world as a way to define Americans, and did not apply only to the men that made a living on the back of a horse but to the entire Nation. The work ethic was something that was prized by the “knights in leather armor.” This quote is one given to us by the late Chris Ledoux in one of his songs that defines the Cowboy way of life. Working for short pay was the accepted practice by the ranches in the western states. You worked as a ranch hand, and had your room and board covered by the ranch owner. At the end of the month the costs of your room and board would be taken out of your pay and you would be given the rest of the money to do as you please. This made it impossible for anyone to live outside their means, an idea that we need to take with us if we are to pull ourselves out of this slump. It is simple, don’t spend more money than you make.
When Americans started to move out west they found that survival was the most important aspect, and the only way to do that was through hard work. We as Americans would like to forget this time in history because of its darker aspects, the near extermination of the American Indians and the great Bison; the lawlessness that ran rampant in a world where the fastest gun in town made the rules. Within this dark past we can find a reason to praise the strong people that made a living in the West.
You do not have to wear boots and a hat in order to sympathize with the icon that is the Cowboy. His traits are not unlike the traits that makes anyone successful. The honesty that comes with a handshake and a promise, the pride that comes with a successful day of hard work (with a shovel or a pen), the gratification to celebrate the fruits of that labor, and the humility to your fellow man and your Creator. This ideology is on its death bed right now and we need to take the steps to bring these thoughts back into the minds of Americans. I try to live my life based on this code, and what I see is a populous looking for the easy way out. Fail is not a word that enters my vocabulary, because if I fail there is no one there to help me get back on my feet, and I want to keep it that way. There was only one option if our ancestors failed in the brutal West and that was death. Our nation today has more government handouts providing reasons not to assert ourselves, and that is causing this nation to become a bunch of lazy whiners looking for the easy way out and the Government’s handouts. Where is the American pride that used to run rampant in this country? The American pride that would push us to look for a way to better any situation with sweat and hard work, or to look at that situation and make the most of what is given. The pride that drives us to get back up after we fall, and look for ways not to fall again. We have bred a generation to look for someone, or something else to solve their problems, an unwillingness to take responsibility for the mistakes of the individual. Blame is something that we can only put on ourselves.
Entitlement is a relativity new term that has spread through our generation like a wildfire; I don’t understand why anyone believes they are entitled to anything but Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Notice in Thomas Jefferson’s words the pursuit of happiness, not the guarantee. Opportunity to be great not entitled to be great. The Cowboy was bred with the ideas set forth by our forefathers, the very ideals on which this country was founded. This Nation is the land of opportunity; an opportunity that rewards hard work with success. We need to Cowboy up, dust ourselves off and learn from our previous mistakes. Work hard to bring our country back to the successes of the past. We are the most powerful nation in the world and we need to start acting like it.
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