That’s what they say, anyway. Personally, I’ve never even come close to living that way.

I think if I had to identify the one thing that’s predominantly responsible for the success of Western Civilization in general and America in particular–by which I mean leading the world to virtually everything I consider important–it’s a certain sort of willingness to take risks when there are potentially big payoffs at stake. Without a willingness to undertake risk, nothing much ever happens.

So that’s what I thought of when I heard about that fiasco in Washington on Friday and later read Kyle’s take on it. It’s no surprise. Did you really think that any of those people–a single one of them–are the sort who would or could ever make the world a better place because they were willing to take a big risk for a big payoff? Any Da Vincis in there? Magellans? Einsteins? Henry Fords or Rockefellers? Were there even any take-charge civilians there? Any Flight 93 genetic material? Nope. Not a single one. That’s not where you find such people, and the events of Friday showed that fact very clearly, which of course raises the question: what sort of people do you find there? You find thousands upon thousands of people who play it safe every moment of their miserable lives–sitting around waiting for an authority to tell them what to do.

It’s why they’re there, you see. That’s the place where risk-averse, do-nothing parasites go. It’s the sort of place and the sort of people that’s increasingly representative of what much of American culture is coming to represent. Pathetic. Disgusting. And you voters, evidently stupid to the very core, keep putting them there.

Update: Looks like Texas has undertaken to begin manufacturing just the sort of take-no-risks people I’m talking about. Via Beck.