http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/why_i_dont_give_to_beggars.html
.....”In the days of the Obama Economy, the beggars are everywhere. There are hordes of them following me with their hands out across the concrete steppes of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Maybe I am being selfish by not giving to the grand and omnipresent poor. So I am selfish. Maybe my function in life is not to salve my conscience by donating money to the wind, but it is to write a good book or be there to have a good chat with my friends or family.
I was told to give. The people who are taking are the least likely to give back. The dictates of society are often useful, but not necessarily necessary. I will live my life as I choose, not as I am told.”
.............Philosophical Pragmatism is ideology not mere practicality or trial and error; Social Darwinism has no connection to conservatism and never did; Social Justice has come to mean the opposite of what it was intended to convey and is now an ideological trojan horse used to indoctrinate students; the Catholic Church in fact has a long history of fighting for the dignity of human beings and the defense of civilization not the destruction of science and freedom; on and on it goes.
Conservatives must know this history and be able to communicate it to the public so as to change their perceptions. We must be able to tell stories that emotionally connect so as to tear down the default liberal assumptions of so much of popular culture and political debate. You can’t assume that your ideas and the actual history of issues are known and understood. We must not just attack the left but build on own story and tell our own history.
And a related point, and a cautionary one, is that self-deception is dangerous and damaging. Seems like common sense but it is important. Jonah [Goldberg] argues that the underlying root of the tyranny of cliches is that these are the lies the left tells itself. This has not led to an intellectually robust and dynamic movement but instead to a flabby, and in many aways viciously reactionary and often vulgar, movement that seeks a soft despotism of state involvement in every aspect of people’s lives all in the name of “solving problems” and “helping people” (hello Liberal Fascism).
What the right must do is reach the public with the message that things are not so simple and pretending they are leads to bad policy and bad outcomes. A massive welfare state leads to dependence and dysfunctional families not a utopian community; sometime violence is needed and avoiding it quite often leads to even more violent and widespread suffering; an ideological and rigid belief in diversity as a good in and of itself leads to discrimination, closed minds and mediocrity not social uplift; there is such a thing as too much democracy and unity at the expense of freedom and individuality is dangerous a common tool of tyranny.
The simple message underneath is lazy thought leads to bad things. This is a deeply conservative viewpoint – life isn’t as simple as you think it is and can’t be controlled and planned through willpower and good intentions. In a humorous and engaging way, TOC [The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas ] forces you to unpack and re-think some of the fundamental cliches of our time. And to see the base stealing the left is engaged in every day. Conservatives must challenge and seek to overthrow this default position. But they must also guard against engaging in equally damaging simplification and self-deception........
Really good article, “Why I Don’t Give to Beggars”. It gave me pause. Thanks.
The first commenter on that article has a very interesting story to tell, himself. It’s well worth reading.