Dependency, dangerous for individuals and nations.

 DEPENDENCY IS OPPOSITE OF FREEDOM

IT IS ALWAYS BEST TO BE ABLE TO CHART YOUR OWN COURSE

The last few years have illustrated the dangers of dependency, particularly in matters of foreign affairs. We have seen the United States become dependent on foreign manufactured goods, to the point that many basic necessities and even drugs were all coming from foreign sources. If you recall, Trump placed tariffs on Steel and Aluminum imports in an attempt to preserve a secure domestic industry that is required for national defense. While there are reforming companies that reshape steel and aluminum products, the Chinese have become the major producer in the world. I am sure it is same for foundries.

We have again seen outrage about western Europe becoming more and more dependent on U.S. financing of NATO. Most western Europeans have let the United States take the lead in financing and with it the decision making. They have gotten into the habit of lock stepping with every decision out of Washington, even when it is dangerous to their own self-interest.

One example is exchanging dependence on Russian energy for dependence on U.S. energy with disastrous results, especially when their supplies come at odds with other interest groups in the U.S.. Prudence would have insisted on self-reliance and diverse sources for their best self interest. They had the benefit of economical Russian energy and with a strong domestic supply, they would have had the best of both worlds. Then the lock step agreement on NATO expansion. They could have insisted on more restraint. Then the lock step endorsement on sanctions, sanctions that are deindustrializing western Europe.

Eastern Europe is not much better. Having gained independence from the Soviet Union, not by armed revolution, but by diplomacy and consent from the Soviet Union, they then ran in lock step to become dependent on decisions made in Brussels. They, in effect, exchanged one master for another. Instead of charting a future determined by their citizens for their best interest, they now must conform to the desires of the elite in Brussels, who while talking nice, just exchange threats of violence with threats of sanctions, social upheaval, and other more subtle threats. They have now lost much of their former industries to EU rules, lost their national identity and culture to woke insistence and have been subjected to unrestrained immigration. They are dependents and still do not have the freedom they sought. 

The modern age is characterized by conformity in the name of diversity, conformity that is insisted on by elite privileged authoritarians both at home and abroad. A conformity that is not in the best interest of individuals, society or independent nations. So far this conformity is enforced by sanctions, shunning, insistence on taking a side, do not doubt that it will eventually come to the use of violence if necessary.