Posted by
AlongTheWatchtower on Friday, May 28, 2010 1:47:39 PM
Dear Cathy,
You quite rightly asked me why I persist against
folks who don't want to hear "my politics." Fair question...the top ten
pithy-as-I-can reasons follow, with representative examples to prove the general
point. Write for more details!
1) I disagree with the postmodern conclusion that
all viewpoints are equally valid. This is obviously false, but has nevertheless
become a serious infection in the minds of moderns. In other words, history and
human nature do allow some strong and useful
conclusions: some things happened, and others did not and we can know the
difference. Translated into modern politics, people seem to think there is no
such thing as objective truth, only opinion, as if competing claims on the
historical record and Facts of Life were competing pro-football teams, boy
bands, or flavors of ice-cream, where subjective opinion and taste are properly
all that matter. Here lies the basic mistake, though it's understandable people
whose record is so miserable would insist on such a judgment-free doctrine.
Holding that there is usually a knowable truth, and the best methods of
verification of it, are of the highest value, I am impelled to share them so
people don't hurt themselves, or me and mine.
2) I'm trying to save my country from people who
intend, in BO's words, "the fundamental transformation of America," and that's
not a good one. The evidence is overwhelming, and given the historical results
and ruinous philosophy of those promising this "fundamental transformation,"
they must be opposed and their inroads against the People and their Constitution
reversed. I was taught, as a liberal, that this is the role and even
obligation of the citizen--as opposed to a subject--in a representative republic
such as ours--to be involved and do the right thing for the increased benefit of
the most; conservatives and libertarians believe this too.
3) I'm trying to preserve the precious and unique
patrimony gifted us by our Founders and all those fallen in defense of those
values ever since. I believe their insight into human nature the most
profound, and it has proven to work better than any other yet tried, and
crucially, is as valid for this time, and any people, as it was for them
(Progressives have claimed for a century that it is outdated and fit only
for farmers.) It is about honoring them, preserving their liberties for future
generations, and protecting my family and me from the current
and proposed tyrannies--hard and soft--of the control freaks and do-gooders.
Consider: "Speech Codes" on college campuses, "sanctuary cities," "open borders,"and the
Left's assault on Second Amendment rights, or try to explain the commitment
by the Democratic leadership to the fundamental transgression against freedom of
conscience that is the unions' "Card Check" bill. "The Road to Hell is paved
with good intentions." And only some of them have good intentions. The
self-loathing of all Western progressives is a thing long noted by their
opponents. Of course, self-loathing is appropriate, if you believe the Left's
narrative of Western history, but most of it is crap. This is by no means to
say that our ancestors were angels, and often they were cruel and selfish.
Welcome to the human condition, which is always so shocking to the utopians of
the Left, but just the introduction to Man-unkind for conservatives and
believers.
4) In this giant conflict of visions,
progressive/statist vs. conservative/libertarian, the mainstream media is
hopelessly corrupt: they lie and distort and omit and prejudice with abandon
and hold to no principle other than the advancement of progressivism. So if
folks who know the truth don't convince those who are being fooled that they are
being fooled, we're all f*%#ed. I freely admit I was one of the fooled for a
long time, there's no shame in that (the shame is the liars'), but it is
dishonest to refuse to investigate your critics' claims, and to obstinately hold
to dogma in the face of clear contradiction. "Nothing so blinds to reality like
ideology," said Hannah Arendt. As examples of the ideological corruption of
the media, consider their "slobbering love affair" with Obama, their treatment
of Clarence Thomas, correcting the record of what "everybody knows" about GW Bush's "lies and indifference" over the wars and Katrina, or their collaboration in the fiction of man-made global
warming, the greatest scientific hoax of all time.
5) The problem is even worse in the academy. The false and distorted history taught by the Left has made a laughingstock of Harvard's motto. So they must exclude counter-thought, and they do: our universities are in the hands of
people for whom Voltaire's most-famous declaration of the principle of liberty "I may
disagree with you but I'll die for your right to say your mind," is either
forgotten or contemptible. In addition to hiding their own execrable record they have been systematically removing the
Constitution and the Founders' reasonings for it, as well as religion, from the
People's lives and memories for a century--with these rots increasing
exponentially since about 1975--to replace them with the most failed, deadly and
evil system ever. Just read what they write, look who they hire, defend, and
revere, if you doubt this description: Cornel West, Ward Churchill, Billy
Ayers, and those delightful "world historical" mass murderers like Che and
Fidel, Ho and Mao, as long as they claimed to be doing it for "the
workers." That magic word, and all collectivists' crimes are forgiven. But
what does it matter if Cuba has 100% literacy (a lie, surely) when the
people aren't allowed to read anything other than Dear Leader's rubbish? How
can this not be a deal-breaker with Leftists, if they really believe in liberty
and free speech and our Constitution? Clearly, they do not.
6) Because I love history and believe with Santayana that those not
familiar with it will be condemned to relive the worst of it, and have no desire
to suffer while others re-invent these wheels. Burke nailed it with: "The only
thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," so how
can I see this and stay silent and keep my self-respect? Having long been a
full-fledged Leftist myself, reading their top polemicists and liars and
thinking them brilliant and brave, and then having discovered not only how wrong
has been their analysis, and how ruinous their policies, but also how much bad
faith has attended their scheming against the values of liberty, faith, free
inquiry and capitalism, I am outraged and worried whenever any decent person
falls for their sh*t like I did for so long. Consider the example of the New
Deal historians, and how much pure bunk has been taught to elide that collosal
failure of Central Planning. It is one thing to be wrong, as we all are
sometimes. It is stupid not to learn from your mistakes, and dishonest to
deny them in the face of clear proof; but it is truly evil to prevent new
generations from learning from your mistakes, as the Left must do, if any are to vote for them ever again. I'm just trying to help
good folks avoid aiding bad ones, throwing their good money after bad, tho I
recognize their right to be wrong in public, and will defend it to my death.
Will progressives?
7) "By their fruits you shall know them."
Biblical or not, this seems a fair standard of judgment, and so how do Mssrs
Madison, Washington and Jefferson stack up vs. Marx, Engles, and Lenin on the
big scoreboard of History? Everything I've ever learned in my journey to this
point proves, as Hernando de Soto so brilliantly showed in The Mystery of
Capital, that capitalism under representative democracy is the only way to
assure BOTH freedom and prosperity, that
collectivism is evil and in-humane and cannot be made otherwise,
and that Margaret Thatcher was correct when she said, "The Facts of Life are
conservative." Three of those, to which Leftists are deaf dumb and blind, are:
The Perfect is the enemy of the Good; beware of ALL earthly utopians; and if
you want more of something in society, subsidize it--if you want less of
something, tax it. These are all undoubtedly true, rejecting the hateful
caricatures of capitalist and conservative values insisted on by bigoted and
ignorant Lefties. Like I once was.
8) Because as I was raised a classical liberal and
became a progressive, to believe that among Man-unkind's worst sins are those of
reflexive bigotry and prejudice, and yet today the most prejudiced, bigoted
people are the Left, and the Democrats are completely controlled by Leftists and
worse, and they have most of the government and cultural ramparts in their
clutches. This goes far past their basic tribal approach to politics into real group-hatred--just ask anyone who dares criticize them, defend Israel from
genocidal Arab and Persian threats, or publicly praise Jesus, how quickly come
the caricatures, slanders and abuse. This from the same sort who shut up when a Muslim
fanatic blows up Times Square and reflexively accuse Tea Partiers of it!! All while, painfully refusing to name Islamism as the problem (but Americanism, that's the biggest threat to world peace!). My
generic definition of bigotry never fails to irritate and make
defensive progressives, which shows I'm on the right track. It is: "I already
know everything I need to know about you, and it's all bad." This is exactly
the attitude of all progressives and most liberals toward anyone not Left. The
irony is that they know nothing true of their opposing philosophies, as they
hold them in such thoughtless contempt they will not dirty themselves to find
out what they actually believe, preferring the echo chamber of bigotry that is
the modern Western elite. The corollary is that Leftists can do no wrong, and
therefore all the spectacular moral, spiritual, educational and fiscal failures
of their "Great Society" are somehow everyone else's fault. What can you expect
from people who'll argue that the "village idiot" somehow fooled thirty
nations into a war based on a lie?
9) Because PC is Newspeak. Orwell was writing
about Leftists, guys...
10) Because the Founders warned that this
astonishing, unprecedented experiment (which we now know produced the greatest,
freest and most prosperous People and Nation in History), would surely fail
under two conditions: the people lose their moral basis, which was religion,
and when they lost their decency and began voting themselves other people's
money. Paraphrasing Jefferson*: By what right shall anyone take the fruit of
the labor of one to give to another? A most fair question: what is charity,
what is theft? And the assault on decent people of faith--who are by every
measure the most charitable people in our midst--has been constant from people
like me for 200 years, and I am finally, at long last, ashamed of it. And it
won't work and is clearly making things worse.
I could never have come to any of these
conclusions had I not honestly asked myself the loneliest question in the
Universe: "Could I be wrong?" and then honestly sought the answers
wherever they led. Believe me when I tell you my ego took a bruising.
Of course, it deserved it.
As you wellllll know, I could go on and on
from here, but I promised ten, and I'm feeling merciful. Thanks for your
attention.
Matt
* "With all [our] blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and
a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens--a wise and frugal
Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them
otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and
shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum
of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our
felicities." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801 ~ http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff0650.htm