Posted on 08/13/2007 1:55:09 AM PDT by neverdem
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
People in their late adolescence believe in marxism because when one is just starting out and has nothing, it is a very attractive idea that we should all share what we all have. Adults who pander to this idea, such as the professors who teach these late adolescents, are largely people who recognize their innate inability to do anything of real value for the marketplace of goods and services and retain the adolescent idea of forcing their betters to share with them.
Quite different from the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” policy which served the US well until the Socialists were given free reign.
Good article. I always get hung up on logic when I try to follow a leftists argument. I don’t understand how they can, as individuals, not think through the consequences of what they propose.
I think that it’s propaganda that is to blame for this — it is how they avoid cognitive dissonance. They pretend to themselves that “a few eggs need to get broken to make an omelet” but they also tell themselves that it is better not to talk about the broken eggs since that isn’t good propaganda. So they never have to really face up to the fact that it’s all broken eggs and no omelet. They avoid thinking because of the desire to be a good propagandist.
Bump for later
Bump.
The craving that "Everything must be different!" begins in personal psychology, and then becomes articulated in political beliefs. That's why the same people can turn into anarchists or Nazis, Communists, or today, Post-Modernists, Deconstructionists, Radical Feminists, Socialists, Hillary followers, Islamo-fascists, you name it. It is why the ACLU chooses the worst criminals to defend; they secretly adore criminals, who are the ultimate rebels against society.
"Everything must be different!" implies that changing society - a whole people and culture - for the better is , as a long-ago professor characterized his extraordinarily neat chalkboard lettering, "a mere act of will." And since the existing society and culture is the product of many prior generations, that conceit is arrogant in the extreme. It is easy to criticize - but then,There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities - all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affection of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves in their own weakness. The rôle is easy; there is none easier, save only the rôle of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.That is a perfect put-down of the mindset of the leftist - and it is also a perfect put-down of the arrogant "objective journalist." Mark Steyn's characterization of the phenomenon is perfect - malignant narcissism.It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds . . . Theodore Roosevelt
It’s been my belief that Reagan understood leftists perfectly, knowing that they would never be persuaded by reason, facts or logic. Thus he spoke to them in the only language they might understand - threats of violence, violence and death.
That simple language brought down the soviets and stopped the march of communism in Central America. And Reagan speaking this language to leftists is a primary reason why leftists hate the man. They don’t want to see another like him.
“...a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself never tries to perform.”
This is called “critical theory” which is right out of the Marx handbook and the strategy Dems have been relentlessly using since Bush got elected. It’s purely criticism without offering any solutions. The theory goes that if people hear the criticism enough they’ll eventually be swayed.
Excellent post. Really good discussion here.
I would take a bit of exception the the claim that “everything must be different” is the core of Leftism. IMHO “Everything must be different” is simply a tactic that is necessary in order for the Leftists to assume power - They need to totally overthrow the existing order in order to rebuild the world in THEIR image.
I see the core of Leftism as a desperate childish search for two things: 1) Perfection and 2) Gratification of ego. The Leftists see perfection as absolute equality of condition for all people everywhere, and for the Left EQUALITY is a substitute for morality. For them there is no right or wrong, there is only equality and inequality, and all evaluations for them are made with that simple idea in mind.
Society self-selects itself: those who accept God’s timeless values and those who reject them. For the latter group, when values are not an option the only thing that remains is what appears to be right and what feels right. So, for example, the Ten Commandments are replaced by ‘social justice’, a capricious and arbitrary standard of judgment.
Either reality constrains and informs the way we process information, or we decide early in our youth that we can fashion our own reality, and everyone can have their own reality, and from all these realities (including the concrete on) we are free to pick and choose facts and features from which to sustain the reality we want.
Thus those who reject principle use ‘reality’ as just one of the sources from which to draw ideas, thoughts, feelings and concepts as to what is right and what is wrong, what is important and what is not, what is truth and what is not truth today.
>>That’s why the same people can turn into anarchists or Nazis, Communists, or today, Post-Modernists, Deconstructionists, Radical Feminists, Socialists, Hillary followers, Islamo-fascists, you name it. It is why the ACLU chooses the worst criminals to defend; they secretly adore criminals, who are the ultimate rebels against society.
Spot on, and the first part of that was recognized by Hayek more than half a century ago. See the Hayek quote on my FR home page. It’s the third one, two paragraphs.
bump
A few days ago I was talking with my sister, three years younger than me, and she said that she might vote Rat in the next election. The discussion heated up to the point where she said that the DC public schools had no books and dilapidated buildings and that I should be willing and glad to forfeit "some" of my paycheck to fix the "problem."
It's easy to believe in Marxist bovine excrement when you have not experienced the joys of tax withholding (forfeiture of income to the government), paying taxes by credit card, and groveling before the bureaucracy to beg for student financial aid to continue in school so the debt collectors don't come calling.
I briefly considered Marxism as a first-year college student, but due to life circumstances, have experienced all of the aforementioned joys...which quickly turned me around.
The worst thing any parent can do is to send their child to a four-year college, in a humanities program. Tell them to get a job and go to community college, instead.
Truth in Advertising:
+ My dad grew up under Ceausescu in Communist Romania.
+ I am an undergraduate student with a graduation date in late 2008 or 2009.
Easy, there is no such concept as "consequences" to a leftist. Anything negative that happens due to poor choices (you can't discriminate between good and bad choices) must be due to some innate discrimination on the part of society.
That's because the ideas of the left CANNOT COMPETE with the proven existing ideas.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." - Ronald Reagan
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