You can call us bastards, but that doesn't make it so.
Just the facts, ma'am, nothing but the facts.
Posted on 03/26/2011 8:02:07 AM PDT by Shout Bits
Last week The House voted to defund NPR by cutting the Gordian ties between Washington and the radio network. A metaphor for everything Washington, nobody knows how much government nectar flows to NPR or in what form – estimates vary from $4MM to $90MM, not to mention its dubious tax exempt status. Sen. Harry Reid offered a typically pathetic defense of NPR by citing critical investigative reporting on dog racing. To be sure, NPR provides a left-leaning window into esoteric topics no other radio station covers, but time has passed NPR by. News sources like 24 hr. cable, blogs, and Sirius have made NPR hopelessly obsolete. Without government funding, NPR’s content could easily find a home on the internet or on Sirius. Why, then, does the left convulse at the thought of NPR’s defunding; why is a world without NPR unthinkable to statists?
The obvious answer to the left’s attachment to NPR is that it is a consistent voice for government. NPR uses government funds to report on opportunities to spend more government money. Statists and dictators have always had government propaganda outlets, and NPR serves this role comparatively benignly. NPR makes for fairly easy training in Becking a story (i.e. Internet searching the names of NPR guests to reveal that they are often radical revolutionaries and communists). Still, there is more to NPR appeal.
George Mason economics professor Daniel Klein published The People’s Romance, a paper on why people are so reluctant to give up even obviously worthless government programs. He presents several theories, including Adam Smith’s idea that people naturally seek to coordinate their sentiments, not just Pareto self-interest. Unlike talk radio and blogs, NPR is a one way flow of left wing sentiment; it coordinates the sentiments of its listeners. NPR is the left’s shaman telling his tribe the stories that define a cultural identity. Klein would argue that this collectivist instinct is part of what keeps government programs alive well past their logical termination.
Since NPR’s message and mission would surely continue without public funding, what difference does it make to the left? A $90MM program’s termination rarely makes the news, or draws the ire of the Senate Majority Leader. Who should care? Klein goes on to observe that capitalist entities are like clubs to which not everyone is invited, while government entities are perceived as The People’s Romance or belonging to the people. Even though capitalism provides more and better services than the government, non-investors feel a greater sense of ownership and kinship toward government programs. Defunding NPR will hurt nobody, but it goes against the sense of community at the heart of NPR’s admirers.
The concept of The People’s Romance sounds like communism because it is exactly that. At its heart, communism and collectivism offer less prosperity in exchange for a sense of safety. Collectivists often refer to the ‘Socialist Family,’ Orwell depicted ‘Big Brother,’ and Social Security is a ‘safety net.’ These terms are comforting, safe, and reliable. Socialism is stagnation, but also a false promise of security. Government waste and corruption is accepted because government poses as a substitute for family and community. These are the feelings that keep even the most obviously worthless government program intact decades after it ceases to serve the people.
People are easily lulled into collectivist delusions like NPR, but they are also resilient; they provide for themselves when there are no handouts. Once NPR is defunded, liberals will begin the painful adjustment of finding their news, entertainment, and tribal identity elsewhere. Eventually, as NPR’s defunding becomes a non-event, people will realize that there is life after government programs. Perhaps NPR will be a baby step toward reducing government’s role in more important areas. On the other hand, if NPR can’t be defunded, there is no hope for entitlement reform, or the elimination of larger, even more worthless departments.
Government programs like NPR are a comforting tonic for the collectivist instinct, and they are hard to abandon. Still, the road to restoring Washington’s financial viability starts with cutting even tiny programs like NPR because that is the way toward a US that is more individualist and self-reliant.
Excellent post. This is a major insight into the statist mind and why NPR is such a touchstone for them. It is astounding that such an insightful analysis of the liberal mind was published through a university. This work goes very nicely with the ideas in Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism".
"Unlike talk radio and blogs, NPR is a one way flow of left wing sentiment; it coordinates the sentiments of its listeners. NPR is the left’s shaman telling his tribe the stories that define a cultural identity." That this leftist cultural validation comes from the government gives the left the comforting stamp of approval that this is the will of we the people. This why it is important what is funded by the government and what is a nonprofit. If it comes form the government, culturally it has our stamp of approval on it. Equally if we do not approve of it, it must be defunded.
How did you come across this paper? It is a real gem though rather obscure.
You can post your ideas anytime as far as I am concerned. You have something to say and you say it well. Vanities are no longer banned here. Several conservative writers have sharpened their teeth here on FR before going out to a wider audience. I cannot stand excerpting. If it can be posted in full I am for it.
I come to FR for news, ideas and discussion that I do not find anywhere else. I am glad to hear what you have to say anytime.
Regards,
Mr. Sol.
You’ve been around long enough to know that the excerpt rule came only after FR was sued about copyright infringement, right? Until that was settled, not particularly in FR’s favor, entire articles were cut and copied and posted here.
If the author of a blog chooses to post his/her entire article, what is the problem? There’s no copyright infringement.
Was that supposed to be funny or humorous? Epic fail.
That is not a problem at all.
So what’s the problem with an excerpt?
You can call us bastards, but that doesn't make it so.
Just the facts, ma'am, nothing but the facts.
Tsk.
I'm very disappointed in you.
You didn't read what Jim said, or you would know the answer.
I resign from being your tutor.
And if that's what you were trying to do that would make it so.
Haven’t ever found it on a radio so I gues it can’t be missed.
since it’s a stinking blog just don’t post any of it.
Do your homework.
OK, I did. The corporation for Public Broadcasting got $422 million for FY 2010. But over $300 million went for public television. Just $94 million was left for public radio. Of this, over $65 M went to the individual stations, although of course a lot of that gets funneled back to NPR.
I object to the government doing anything that its authorizing documents (the US Constitution or State Constitutions) do not allow.
Still, I have learned that an effective article must focus, so this time I only discussed NPR.
Serves the bastiches right.
Nice blog post by Shout Bits. I like his excellent closing summation:
"Still, the road to restoring Washington’s financial viability starts with cutting even tiny programs like NPR because that is the way toward a US that is more individualist and self-reliant." - The Shout
The CFA Society publishes scholarly articles that relate to economics and investments. They compile some really great papers.
I'm going to have to check out The People’s Romance. First I've heard of it.
I know. It's like dealing with a bunch of middle school girls.
Even nicer because it's posted in full and not excerpted for blog hits.
Nobody objects to blogs. It's the pimping that sucks.
Illegal Babies Should be Illegal Citizens
Today I Learned That Unions Are Like the Mafia
News Flash- We can trust Ghaddafi more than Obama: Libyan rebels= Al Qaeda
Was my first post on the matter spot on? ;-)
:-)
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