Carter's Nobel is no prize - Ex-president tends to be a pawn of tyrants

Toronto Sun ^ | 10/12/2002 | Peter Worthington

[Reo]

Some years ago my wife got really tired of listening to my liberal relatives tells us what a great ex-president Jimmy Carter had become. We finally observed that we were the only ones in the family who had the presence of mind to see his great potential as an ex-pres, and did everything we could to help him achieve that title at his first opportunity. Shut 'em up once and for all.

[Rocko]

Bump.

[Paul Atreides]

I honestly believed that they would give the thing to Bubba. That would have been the ultimate slap in the face, to the current administration.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Carter is not a tool of Tyrants. Carter is an imbecile. That is the end of the matter.

[hinckley buzzard]

Actually, Chamberlain was touted by some for the 1938 Nobel. Others were not beguiled:

"Surprising as it is in view of the world-wide attacks being directed his way, the suggestion is being made that Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has the inside track for the Nobel peace prize."

"The Nobel committee, of course, is a free agent and can do as it pleases, but we can think of no act by which it can make itself more ridiculous than by misdirecting the peace award in the diection of Mr. Chamberlain."
(Editorial excerpt, The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, Tuesday, October 11, 1938).

Mark Twain said, "History doesn't exactly repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes."

[wardaddy]

Carter like most liberals has something in his genetic map or his upbringing that gives him the usual messianic thirst to feel good about himself by doing nice things...no matter how naive. This phenomena infects the entire western world and has created a pathological weakness unprecedented amongst powerful societies from an historical perspective.

[TopQuark]

gives him the usual messianic thirst to feel good about himself by doing nice things...no matter how naive. This phenomena infects the entire western world and has created a pathological weakness unprecedented amongst powerful societies from an historical perspective. Your observation, not surprisingly, is very insightful, but I am not sure I agree with it entirely.

I do not think that there is much new in the messianic longing. Tikkun olam --- to repair the world --- has been for ages one of the main obligations of a Jew. A Christian, too, is not to wait for the Messiah idly.

What I consider to be new is the Marxist version of messianic thirst. Nowhere (to the best of my knowledge) does it say that repairing of the world is to be done in terms of groups of people. The Jew is supposed to "remember the widow and orphan in his midst because he himself was a slave in the land of Egypt"; it is to an individual widow and an individual orphan that the obligation lies. He is supposed also to undo an injustice occurring in the world, but that usually mean to stand up to the King if need be in behalf of the wronged man. It is in the late XX centuries, however, that in the temples of Reform Judaism Tikkun Olam acquired a Marxist twist of a sudden: one has to stand up on behalf of women, black, Hispanics, and now Palestinians --- all viewed in terms of groups, as Marx bequeathed. Just like many others, some Christians, too, have inadvertently "married" messianic tradition with Marxism, and they too view both history and future in terms of the social groups. It is them, I believe, Carter exemplifies. There is nothing wrong (or new) in being messianic, it is the false messiah being prayed to that is the problem.

False G-d. Is it not the truly paramount achievement of socialism --- to replace G-d in heaven with man-god? Now that I think of it in these terms, there is nothing new about the Carter phenomenon: there is something new about America, which elects people like that as presidents.

[Brian Allen]

<< A Canadian hits the bullseye.

Carter ..... more than any other U.S. president ... contributed to war, insecurity, danger and tyranny.

Under Carter's flaccid foreign policy that stressed human rights, the Soviet Union rampaged through Africa, in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, using Cuban troops as a proxy. >>

And, least we forget, staged them through the Canada of the execrably evil Pierre Trudeau, whose gummint; in return for Castro's granting Canadians the "right" to "purchase" the Cuban property of Americans for pennies on the Dollar -- and notwithstanding they were en-route to kill Americans and America's allies; provided them R&R and aircraft refuelling and provisioning.

[wardaddy]

I'm a Goy (as you know) product of a degree in political theory. My mentor at Ole Miss was Dr. Erwin Neumaier...a conservative (or liberal in a classical sense). We were imprinted by his relentless but now appreciated view that western political philosophy can be categorized into theocentric, anthropocentric, and messianic. The view of messianic I was taught was centered around the creation of a "new man" devoid of the self centered trappings of the "old man" hence Marxism at it's core. You are correct that the "tikkun olam" of christianity is basically what we call the Golden Rule along with some of Christ's more altruistic lessons. The problem is that today, many Christians like Carter have neglected the harder less benign lessons of Judeo-Christianity in favor of the creed of doing good or being "nice" not in order to be G-dlike but to either feel good about oneself or to use this emotion as a political tool.

That's where my problem with do-goodery lies. If it usurps strength of faith and resolution and to a degree the protection of the religion then what good is it? It's cloaked altruism which is at it's core self satisfying. Much like you described...the false G-d: "man's need".

Needless to say, I'm theocentric. I assume you are as well.

Thanks for your thought provoking reply. I had to kick around some dormant grey matter on that one.

In conclusion, this "new man" is a golden calf. My belief is that we are best off to accept the nature of man and submit to G-d's will. Easier said than done...I might add.

Regards

[TopQuark]

Thank you, WarDaddy; I always enjoy reading your posts and learn from them as well.

at Ole Miss was Dr. Erwin Neumaier...a conservative (or liberal in a classical sense).

Are there any works by him that you would recommend, especially on the categorization you mentioned?

[wardaddy]

Erwin despised publishing. He was there to teach and the LA college tolerated him. He would have been the chair of Poli/Sci had he been willing to publish no doubt.

He was very very defined in his approach. He touched on Zeno and the other pre-Socratic guys but really keyed on Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.....then he would move onto Hegel, Hobbes, and all the "Enlightenment Guys" and then onto the later day folks from Marx, Camus, even Erich Fromm.
You get the picture. Oddly, he always treated Shakespeare as noteworthy in this field as well. In latter 500 or 600 level courses, it got very technical. I chose that major towards attending law school and even did nicely on the LSAT but opted for a life of adventure instead. No regrets.

There was always an unsubstantiated rumour that Erwin was indeed a child of Nazi Germany sent off to the "Forest Schools" as a boy. If true, he obviously wholeheartedly rejected that brainwashing experience. He caused a stir on campus a few years ago by openly criticizing Clinton's pathological dishonesty and took heat for it. I think he retired recently in his mid 70s.

Oddly, in 1990 while in Kingston Jamaica on business I ran into his daughter at a party at the US Ambassador's residence. She was in the foreign service and stationed there. When I heard that Southern drawl and she gave her last name, I knew instantly who she must be.

He was a good man....a bit on the esoteric side but a rare classical thinker for his field....besides he taught us all those great German words to describe philosophical ideas for which their is no real English equivalent...lol

[Oztrich Boy]

Hah! Attempted murder? Now honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel prize for attempted peace? .... uh Never mind.

[TopQuark]

Interesting character and a good teacher...

You are very true to life, WarDaddy, in whatever way you live it at any given moment: when you were a pilgrim, you were one to the fullest; and, when it came to education, you've got a rigorous and broad one as well.

Regards, TQ.

[wardaddy]

Thanks very much and warm regards to you as well.

[Canadian Outrage]

Thank you Paul, we Conservatives have a very uphill battle. However, with the likes of first, Pierre Trudeau with his protege Chretien, this Country has not been tyranntless for 25 years. Fortunately, Chretien is blowing himself up but the damage may never be undone. Not unlike America, what's good is deemed evil and what's evil is deemed good. President Bush needs all the prayers he can get. We Conservatives in the West are a strong bunch however, and it just may be, time permitting, that we separate from the rest of this Country which is a different as night from day.

[Paul_B]

> President Bush needs all the prayers he can get

Thanks, CO. I vacationed recently with online friends in Toronto, and I was struck with the warmth everyone had for the US. I expected quite the opposite. They showed me the city and a real appreciation for the people of Canada was birthed in me. So the prayers will be bidirectional. And I think my conservatism is having some effect.

[Lightnin]

Who was it that described the likes of "Jimmah" as a "useful idiot?"