One of the least known but most influential characters of early American history is the industrialist Samuel Slater.  One of my significant resources in documenting Slater's life and work came from author George S. White, who, in 1836, published his book, Memoir of Samuel Slater: The Father of American Manufactures.  I found White's book a fascinating account of early industrial America.

In the introduction to Slater's memoir, while singing the praises of the industrious Slater – he's known today as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution," – Mr. White also speaks against the "Occupy" fools of the early 19th century:

We envy not those self-styled patriots, whose thirst for office and distinction allows them to deceive and cajole their fellow citizens, by prejudicing them against the talented and enterprising part of society[ – t]hus teaching them discontent, and prejudicing them against the necessary arrangements to promote the general welfare, making them the tools of their sordid selfish policy[.]

Likewise, and no doubt aware of the "bickering caudillos" (military dictators) who plagued 19th-century South America, White contrasts life in the United States with that of South America:

A state of society, not founded the principles of honest industry, must be degraded and low; and like the inhabitants of South America must be wretched miserable.  Mankind must be usefully and hono[]rably employed, in order to be virtuous and happy. In proof of this position, compare the condition of South America with the United States, and more especially with that part of the United States manufacturing establishments have come into being and risen eminence. ... South America, particularly that part in the neighbo[]rhood of the La Plata, in the hands of New Englanders, would at once become the paradise of world, did they retain their moral and intellectual habits[.] ...

[In South America, t]he finest fields in the world for agriculture are suffered to remain barren and desolate, or to be traveled by wandering herds. Indolence ... enfeeble[s] the hands and put[s] out the eyes of the inhabitants. Roaming in poverty, filth, and pollution, they are totally blind to their advantages and privileges: they are tossed about by wind of prejudice and passion. Trained to view labour as a degradation, while trampling the most prolific fields and possessing everything requisite, and of the first qualities, for food and clothing, they would be obliged to go naked and starve, were it not for the industry of other nations.  As it now is, robbers and assassins fill their streets, and thousands are disappearing by the only species of industry for which they have an adaptation, that of destroying each other.

Sounds like much of South America today – or, if you prefer, and as President Trump allegedly put it, an "s-hole" (or "s-house").  In other words, what makes a society a literal you-know-what-hole hasn't changed much in nearly two centuries.  If you want to find these holes of the world, you need look no farther than where godlessness or leftism – often found together – dominate.

Of course, the world's holes are often riddled with poverty.  According to Business Insider – and as I alluded to years ago – most of the world's poorest nations are "under authoritarian regimes where corruption is rampant."  Few things are more synonymous with modern leftism than corruption and authoritarianism.

Note as well how many of the poorest and most authoritarian nations are run by Islamists.  The godless false religion of Islam is an enforced religion with a violent founder, a violent founding, and a violent past and present.  Islam is generally repressive to women and to those of other faiths.  Islam is typically financially devastating and technologically backward and thus has produced many of the world's holes.

Naturally, the world's holes are filled with filth.  Along with garbage, human waste, and nasty water, and no matter what list you use, the world's dirtiest cities are typically also filled with some form of leftism and spiritual darkness.  The same goes for the world's most dangerous countries.  Note again that those plagued by Islam dominate the list.

Often accompanying danger and filth is death.  Unsurprisingly, the nations with the lowest life expectancy are the same ones showing up on the other s-hole lists.

Two hole-producing products of leftist ideology that, in spite of numerous and horrific failures, still plague the world today are socialism and communism.  No matter the specifics of the "ism" or the frequency or the scale of the devastation, modern leftists continue to seek to put so much power in the hands of so few.

If you think I'm being unfair to the rest of the world, fret not.  Tragically amazing – given our vast amount of rich natural and human resources – the United States has more than its fair share of s-holes.  Almost always, these are municipalities where democrats have ruled for decades and where godlessness – typically accompanied by a good dose of hedonism – and leftism – usually called "liberalism" in America – dominate the landscape.

It's not the skin color of the people, but rather rotten political and religious ideologies that produce toilet-like living conditions.  Also, the vast majority of people living in the holes of the world are there through little to no fault of their own (except for those who continue to elect Democrats) and, in most cases, need the help of others to escape or improve their conditions.  The United States can't import all of those suffering in the world's holes, but we can certainly play a role in exporting what they really need.

The surest way to keep people from living in an s-hole is to provide them with liberty, but not liberty alone.  As the great Edmund Burke put it when observing the French revolution, "[t]he effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they please: [w]e ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations."

Liberty should always be accompanied by the "moral chains" provided by Christianity.  Otherwise, you end up with Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, and Baltimore.

Trevor Grant Thomas: At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of The Miracle and Magnificence of America.
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com