HOSTAGES


[Cartoons by Lisa Benson ]

UPDATE: Jennifer Rubin in Commentary:

Democrats Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen tryto sound the warning on ObamaCare:

Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November. In the wake of the stinging loss in Massachusetts, there was a moment when the president and Democratic leadership seemed to realize the reality of the health-care situation. Yet like some seductive siren of Greek mythology, the lure of health-care reform has arisen again.

Quite simply, Obama has lost, they observe, the public-opinion battle: “If it fails, as appears possible, Democrats will face the brunt of the electorate’s reaction. If it passes, however, Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing, praying or pretending will not change these outcomes.”

The polls are wrong or the voters are dolts or they will learn to love it. We’ve heard some variation of each of these excuses over the past year. Perhaps Obama and the Democrats are in denial. But I think it’s more properly seen as contempt.

So, is it denial--or is it contempt? My own opinion is that it is the typical sort of psychological denial and delusion seen in the "do-gooder" contingent who see themselves as vastly superior to all of us mere mortals; and who think they can run our lives better than we can....

UPDATE II: Rich Lowry on Obama's latest "new" idea on health reform, which is identical to every other statist idea to control the market: price controls!

The worst fears of the American public would then be confirmed. Government cost-control — even in the form of harmless-sounding “premium caps” — leads inexorably to waiting lists and inferior care.

The president and his allies are not principally on a mission to improve Americans’ health care — they are on an ideological mission to expand the power of government over Americans’ lives. This latest presidential power grab confirms that fact.

So, if you want rationing and poor quality in your health care, then Obamacare is just the thing for you.

UPDATE III: The final push is on...watch for all the martyr videos to come....[From Michael Ramirez (via Rick Steroni)]:


- Diagnosed by Dr. Sanity @ 9:53 PM |

 
THE [IN]COMPLEAT ANGLER
Apparently there is no end in sight to all the ways this Administration intends to control American lives: now it is focusing on fishermen:

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

That's a disappointment, but not really a surprise for fishing industry insiders who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force. These angling advocates have come to suspect that public input into the process was a charade from the beginning.

"When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big game hunts in North America (spring bear), the results of their agenda had severe economic impacts on small family businesses and the tourism economy of communities across northern and central Ontario," said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano.

"Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard working American families and small businesses are being ignored.

Read it all. The sign in the photo says just about everything you need to know about this Administration's priorities.


O! the gallant fisher's life,
It is the best of any:
'Tis full of pleasure, void of strife,
And 'tis beloved by many.
Other joys
Are but toys;
Only this,
Lawful is;
For our skill
Breeds no ill,
But content and pleasure.
- The Compleat Angler (ch. XVI)- Izaak Walton (1593 - 1683)

Walton could never have possibly anticipated the intrusive political busybodies and do-gooders of our day and age....
- Diagnosed by Dr. Sanity @ 8:10 PM |

 
ARE THE DEMOCRATS 'TRUE BELIEVERS' ?
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. ELiot(The Cocktail Party)


Eric Hoffer in his book The True Believer makes an irrefutable point in saying that an essential aspect of any mass movement (e.g., Islamism, fascism, communism, socialism etc. etc.) is that it spreads by encouraging utopian fantasies and promises of future societal bliss. In order to succeed, all such movements must have followers who are "true believers" through and through; and, as the annointed ones, they are eager and willing to sacrifice themselves (and often many others) for the sake of their cause.

As people become unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives, they become succeptible to anyone or any group who makes vague promises of the "hope and change" kind.

From a psychological perspective, all such movements are particularly attractive to any individuals who happen to have significant defects in their own sense of self to begin with. Belonging to a "glorious cause" (and such causes are certainly not exclusive to one side of the political spectrum or the other)and immersing one's defective self in the "collective", offers an opportunity to create a "new" self; one that is usually quite imaginary, but gives you much more of a sense of your own importance.

Of course, not all members of such movements are "true believers"--only those who persistently refuse to face reality --and to consider all the unpleasant truths about both the movement and themselves.

It is even true that many mass movements offer the potential for individual healing and are even productive from a social standpoint. Most people have some cracks in their individual identity, and the need to belong--to a greater or lesser degree-- to something beyond our narrow selves is quite healthy (see my series on Narcissism and Society for a more in-depth discussion of this). But when true believers slip into what I have termed "narcissistic awe" or narcissistic idealism"; they begin to believe they that they know better how to run your life than you do; and when the cracks in the self can only be filled by exerting power over others, then they become absorbed in what T.S. Eliot calls "the endless struggle to think well of themselves."

They may not mean to do harm, but they do. The history of the last century is littered with millions of dead people who were the objects of the true believers' good intentions.

In 2003, on the 20th anniversary of the death of Hoffer, Thomas Sowell noted that:

Among Hoffer's insights about mass movements was that they are an outlet for people whose individual significance is meager in the eyes of the world and -- more important -- in their own eyes. He pointed out that the leaders of the Nazi movement were men whose artistic and intellectual aspirations were wholly frustrated.

Hoffer said: "The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause."

People who are fulfilled in their own lives and careers are not the ones attracted to mass movements: "A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding," Hoffer said. "When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business."

What Hoffer was describing was the political busybody, the zealot for a cause -- the "true believer," who filled the ranks of ideological movements that created the totalitarian tyrannies of the 20th century.

And, Sowell noticed back in 2008 that many of the followers of Barack Obama were 'true believers' who had attached themselves to the ultimate "political busybody" who was going to--by force of his incredible personality--heal the planet; bring hope to the hopeless; and change to the world, leading us into a glorious future.

And, speaking of political busybodies; you should ask yourself, are the Democrats "true believers" in Obama and Obamacare? Are they willing to fall on the sword that Obama and Pelosi and Reid are so cleverly holding out to them? Do they really believe that Obama is the new messiah? Are they willing to sacrifice themselves in order to pass a wildly unpopular bill that will forever alter the relationship between Americans and their government (and not in a very good way)?

Mark Steyn thinks that they are:

So there was President Obama, giving his bazillionth speech on health care, droning yet again that "now is the hour when we must seize the moment," the same moment he's been seizing every day of the week for the past year, only this time his genius photo-op guys thought it would look good to have him surrounded by men in white coats.

Why is he doing this? Why let "health" "care" "reform" stagger on like the rotting husk in a low-grade creature feature who refuses to stay dead no matter how many stakes you pound through his chest?

Because it's worth it. Big time. I've been saying in this space for two years that the governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture. It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in fundamental ways that make limited government all but impossible. In most of the rest of the Western world, there are still nominally "conservative" parties, and they even win elections occasionally, but not to any great effect (Let's not forget that Jacques Chirac was, in French terms, a "conservative").

The result is a kind of two-party one-party state: Right-of-center parties will once in a while be in office, but never in power, merely presiding over vast left-wing bureaucracies that cruise on regardless.

Republicans seem to have difficulty grasping this basic dynamic. Less than three months ago, they were stunned at the way the Democrats managed to get 60 senators to vote for the health bill. Then Scott Brown took them back down to 59, and Republicans were again stunned to find the Dems talking about ramming this thing into law through the parliamentary device of "reconciliation." And, when polls showed an ever larger number of Americans ever more opposed to Obamacare (by margins approaching three-to-one), Republicans were further stunned to discover that, in order to advance "reconciliation," Democrat reconsiglieres had apparently been offering (illegally) various cosy Big Government sinecures to swing-state congressmen in order to induce them to climb into the cockpit for the kamikaze raid to push the bill through.

True Believers? You better believe that many of them are, baby.

Obama understands the necessary psychological dynamic very well--in fact, he's counting on it. Why else does he continue to offer himself up in these ridiculous photo-ops and repetitive speeches--none of which actually say anything of significance or clarify anything about the 2000+ page monstronsity in question.

Hoffer wrote in The True Believer that

The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.

Now, there are situations where the 'singlehanded defiance of the world' is not at all a bad thing. But you need to be careful about that defiance; and make sure that when you take such an uncompromising stand that you are consistent with reality.

The problem is that a true believer is completely uninterested in, and indifferent to, reality.

As Steyn says, "...government health care is not about health care, it's about government. Once you look at it that way, what the Dems are doing makes perfect sense. For them."

And, it will definitely make them feel important in the grandiose style that is characteristic of political busybodies. Unfortunately for the rest of us, what they are doing is utter nonsense--and not a little fanatical.
- Diagnosed by Dr. Sanity @ 8:08 PM |

 
FULL SPEED AHEAD !
Charles Krauthammer on Obamacare:

So the yearlong production, set to close after Massachusetts’ devastatingly negative January 19 review, saw the curtain raised one last time. Obamacare lives.

After 34 speeches, three sharp electoral rebukes (Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts), and a seven-hour seminar, the president announced Wednesday his determination to make one last push to pass his health-care reform.

The final act was carefully choreographed. The rollout began a week earlier with a couple of shows of bipartisanship: a February 25 Blair House “summit” with Republicans, followed five days later with a few concessions tossed the Republicans’ way.

Show is the operative noun. Among the few Republican suggestions President Obama pretended to incorporate was tort reform. What did he suggest to address the plague of defensive medicine that a Massachusetts Medical Society study showed leads to about 25 percent of doctor referrals, tests, and procedures being done for no medical reason? A few ridiculously insignificant demonstration projects amounting to one-half of one-hundredth of 1 percent of the cost of Obama’s health-care bill.

As for the Blair House seminar, its theatrical quality was obvious even before it began. The Democrats had already decided to go for a purely partisan bill. Obama signaled precisely that intent at the end of the summit show — then dramatically spelled it out just six days later in his 35th health-care speech: He is going for the party-line vote.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not tragedy--it is farce. It is a pie-in-the-face to the American electorate who have been attempting to communicate to a deaf Democratic leadership and a President who has already exceeded (far exceeded) whatever mandate he thought he was given.

This doubling down, full-speed-ahead hysteria on health care is symptomatic of an Administration in complete denial and in the throes of ideological rapture. They believe that the foundation of their leftist utopia dystopia is at stake--and they are likely correct; because if they pass the monstrosity of Obamacare, then these "visionaries" will have steered the ship of the American state into unavoidable economic disaster in the grand tradition of all the other leftist/socialist/communist/Marxist utopias of history.

You thought it has been bad the last several years? The shipwreck of the American economy is looming; and when we hit the rocks, Obama and the 'progressive' left will have achieved that age-old utopian dream: we will all be equal...equally poor and miserable, that is.

My own view is that if there is to be a shipwreck, I'd like to see the clueless Democrats who support this 2000+ page insanity go down with their ship--and its Captain.



[Political Cartoons by Chuck Asay]
- Diagnosed by Dr. Sanity @ 6:38 AM |

 
AMATEUR HOUR
The Obama "smart diplomacy" juggernaut forges full-speed ahead:

One wonders: does the Obama administration deliberately try to screw up our foreign policy, or is it just a matter of ignorance and incompetence? This is painful reading: "Argentina celebrates diplomatic coup as Hillary Clinton calls for talks over Falklands." ...So much for the idea that foreign relations would be conducted better by women.

Maybe a "wise Latina" would do better? Oh, wait...she's busy doing a supreme social justice gig.

It is simply beyond my comprehension why, in the name of "diversity" and social egalitarianism, we as a society have come to the point where we think thiskind of tawdry identity politics should trump competence. Everywhere you go these days, you are confronted by aggressive incompetence--in grocery store checkout lines; dealing with "customer service" for any business you care to name...the list goes on and on. There have been times (and the instances seem to be increasing lately) where I think I would almost sell my soul to be able to deal with reasonably competent people as I go about my daily activities.

So, it is painful, indeed, to see such incompetence and rampant idiocy on the national and international stage formulating (Obama) and executing (Clinton) our foreign policy.

I am frequently reminded that it is hopelessly naive these days to expect the electorate to vote for a person based on what that person actually stands for or has accomplished; instead, these days most people respond to the looks of a candidate; or the carefully constructing image; or the negative campaign ads that slice and dice the other guy. Voters appear to be primarily influenced by botoxed faces and Hollywood-packaged good-looks rather than the content of any candidate's character or the scope of his or her experience. The less they know of that character, the better!

Do you imagine that a Golda Meir or a Margaret Thatcher would have a chance to become the first woman president of the US. Not these days, for sure.

Real personal integrity and character comes from having a consistent set of values and exhibiting behavior driven by those values. Today's classic narcissistically-driven politicians like Hillary and her famous husband; as well as the deeply flawed Obamessiah, can only flutter in the political winds, and zelig-like easily take on whatever characteristics their public care to project onto them.

It is easy to be tough and ruthless with political adversaries in the US political battlefield. The kind of threat political adversaries pose is hardly life-threatening (though in other, less civilized nations it may well be). Political bullies feel perfectly safe in viciously attacking and denigrating those who oppose them. And, you can see that Obama has no compunction about bullying and denigrating his opponents and making them into scapegoats for his own failures and incompetence. And, when it happens occasionally that a political adversary unexpectedly shoots back and won't go away, the bully easily falls back on the "victim" role and whines about "vast right-wing conspiracies", blames others, or sheds a few tears on cue and such.

These are not the kind of people who can face real threats in the real world very effectively because they are not the kind of people who can effectively deal with threats they do not perceive as personal--why should they care much about any other kind, unless the polls indicate they should?.

In short, they did not get where they are today by being a people of integrity, honesty and courage--they got there by--in Hill's case-- riding on the coattails of her charismatic husband; and by shrewdly altering her opinions to accommodate the prevailing political winds. In Obama's case, by shrewdly manipulating his race and gift for empty rhetoric.

And, oh yes, by ruthlessly destroying whoever got in their way. In that alone, they show extreme competence. When it comes to running a country (vs ruining one, it's Amateur Hour.
- Diagnosed by Dr. Sanity @ 7:22 AM |

 
DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS ? OR, WHOSE MOVE IS IT ?
Headline: "US TELLS SYRIA TO STOP ARMING HEZBOLLAH IMMEDIATELY".

Yeah, right. Or else we'll say bad things about them or something. Or maybe we'll propose the dreaded....sanctions.

Meanwhile:

After scorning the Obama administration’s appeals to move away from Iran, Syrian President Bashir Assad late last week disregarded another appeal from Washington by holding talks with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah....

The next day, Assad welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for talks, and ridiculed U.S. attempts to split the decades-old Damascus-Tehran alliance, instead taking steps to strengthen it. He then invited Nasrallah to join him and Ahmadinejad, again directly defying U.S. appeals.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said the three leaders discussed the latest developments in the region and “Israeli threats against Lebanon and Syria.”

I think this is very astute:

Abd al-Malik Rigi is the captured Baluch leader who leads the Jundullah terrorist organization which has been conducting terrorist operations in Iran. Iranian television has now broadcast his forced confession (in English) in which he implicates the CIA. This isn't getting a lot of play in the U.S. media, but it is worth taking note of. The nature of forced confessions — especially Iranian ones — is that they are as likely to be fiction as fact. However, the fact that Rigi is fingering the CIA in great detail likely foreshadows an increase in Iranian action against U.S. personnel and interests.

The dubbed English video of his confession is here.

This is another move in the chess game that Iran is playing with the Obama Administration (and, to be fair, it is just an extension of the same game they have been playing for a few decades and through several administrations). But, in the Obama Administration, they have finally struck paydirt.

For many on the political left, this rather awkward political situation is not the result of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah acting on their own [delusional] ideology or fanatical interests; rather it is largely the outcome of the deliberate and belligerant policies of the evil Bush Administration.

One can only stand in wonder and awe at the incredible amount of self-delusion necessary to believe such nonsense. Who in their right mind could possibly imagine that these dysfunctional leaders in the Middle East are the "victims" of U.S. policy?

Oh wait.

I forgot there is an entire contingent of useful idiots marching and chanting the slogans of the political left, who are not only ready and willing to believe it; they desperately hope it is actually true.

But you have to be in complete denial, with your head safely tucked where the sun don't shine, if you harbor any doubts that the events we are witnessing in the Middle East are not moves in the global war that Islam has launched against the civilized world. We can close our eyes and pretend that it isn't happening at all; Or that everything is America's or Israel's fault; we can insist that Iraq and Afghanistan existed in an alternate universe and are somehow not battles in this war; but no matter how much denial is engaged in, the reality will still be out there.

Wretchard once commented:

...there is a strange tendency, especially among those who would otherwise claim that America is everywhere declining, to ascribe to it an indirect omnipotence. Everything is America's fault. Is the climate changing? Are people in Gaza starving? Is there no help for those being killed in Darfur? Are the Ayatollahs beating up on student demonstrators? Look no further for the cause. It's all America's fault. It's always America's fault.

An unbreakable chain of causality is constructed from Washington politics to the smallest butterfly fluttering in the Amazon. It is the reverse Butterfly Effect; and the logical consequence is that if America does nothing -- if preferably it stops breathing -- then all the evils of the world will return to the lockbox whence they came. John Howard, speaking in Washington, likened this attitude to that of a frightened child. "And it's a war that confronts us all. Those who imagine that somehow or other you can escape it by rolling yourself into a little ball and going over in the corner and hoping that you're not going to be noticed are doomed to be very, very uncomfortably disappointed."

I wonder when we will cease this bizarre tendency to infantalize the enemy in this global war, and recognize that we are dealing with adults whose own set of perverted values--diametrically opposed to ours--have brought them to the place they are in? When will we stop pretending that they do not have free will and are only the poor, helpless victims of American, or Israeli, or Western evil? When will we begin to believe that they actually mean what they have said repeatedly about forcing us to submit to their will or destroying us? When, in short, will we finally admit once and for all that they are fully capable of detailed thought, planning and action--particularly brutal and barbaric action by any civilized standard--to achieve their oft-repeated goals?

Two chess quotes come to mind. The first is from Bobby Fischer: "Chess is life"; and the second is from Max Euwe:

"Do not ever underestimate your opponent, particularly when he is much weaker than you are. You are setting yourself up for a fall if you do this."

We are surely setting ourselves up for a fall in this Game. It's our move; our King is castled and we seem to be aimlessly moving around a few pawns so as not to risk any pieces or inflame our opponent.

Let us consider the positioning of the pieces on the Middle East chessboard and the most recent moves in the Game.

Iran has escalated its rhetoric against the US and Israel and is in full speed ahead mode in its quest for nuclear weapons. And if you think it is for peaceful purposes, then the Obama Administration has a foreign diplomacy spot open for you. I actually believe it is likely it already has such a weapon (bought on the open market) and is waiting for precisely the right opportunity to initiate its "nuclear option."

Obama's attempts to "engage" them and his so-called "smart" diplomacy has actually enabled them to move faster without having to worry about things like "consequences". Other notable side-effects of the Obama diplomacy is that we have angered our closest allies and distanced ourselves from them--at the peril of our own national interest; while simultaneously made many countries who would like to do us harm if they could, smile in anticipation.

Our "Queen" is being regularly mocked by the opposition King and Bishop.

And we might do well to remember that the the word "checkmate" orginates from the Farsi language spoken in Iran and Afghanistan. The original phrase is SHAH-K-MATE which means "The King is Dead".

We are playing against an opponent who is clever, deceitful, and in deadly earnest. It is not we who are controlling that opponent's moves on the board except insofar as he must respond to our moves just as we should be responding to his. All to often we have not countered his aggressive moves simply because there is a large number of people [supposedly] on our side who don't seem to understand that we are playing a very real "game" for very high stakes.

I will end with another chess quote from a grand master, Savielly Tartakower: "No game was ever won by resigning." Unfortunately, under the Beacon of Hope and Change, America has become resigned. Time is nearly up....



[Political Cartoons by Lisa Benson]
- Diagnosed by Dr. Sanity @ 6:27 AM |

 
THE LEFT'S DEEP, DARK SECRET AND WHAT THEY ARE DESPERATE TO HIDE FROM THEMSELVES
This analysis from Andy McCarthy seems exactly right to me:

...I think our side is analyzing this all wrong: Today's Democrats are controlled by the radical Left, and it is more important to them to execute the permanent transformation of American society than it is to win the upcoming election cycles. They have already factored in losing in November — even losing big. For them, winning big now outweighs that. I think they're right....

The Democratic leadership has already internalized the inevitablility of taking its political lumps. That makes reconciliation truly scary. Since the Dems know they will have to ram this monstrosity through, they figure it might as well be as monstrous as they can get wavering Democrats to go along with. Clipping the leadership's statist ambitions in order to peel off a few Republicans is not going to work. I'm glad Republicans have held firm, but let's not be under any illusions about what that means. In the Democrat leadership, we are not dealing with conventional politicians for whom the goal of being reelected is paramount and will rein in their radicalism. They want socialized medicine and all it entails about government control even more than they want to win elections. After all, if the party of government transforms the relationship between the citizen and the state, its power over our lives will be vast even in those cycles when it is not in the majority. This is about power, and there is more to power than winning elections, especially if you've calculated that your opposition does not have the gumption to dismantle your ballooning welfare state.

Consequently, the next six weeks, like the next ten months, are going to be worse than we think.

It has been desperation time for the political left ever since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 90's. In their hearts, they know that the tide of history for them has ebbed and that soon, if they do not ram their ideology down our throats and assume total control, they will finally expose their deep, dark secret.

Have you ever wondered why it is that the political left, whose policies always--ALWAYS--end up enabling and exposing the worse aspects of human nature, are the same people who are always coming up with these fantastic utopian schemes that promise a veritable paradise of human love, compassion, kindness and brotherhood, "hope and change"; and instead deliver a toxic brew of hate, envy, and discord?

How can they be so completely clueless about something as obvious as the reality of human nature?

Perhaps, the best answer to that question is that, when it comes to themselves, the left is constitutionally unable to understand or accept the dark side of their own natures with any degree of clarity, let alone honesty.

The squalid utopian fantasies of socialism, communism--or any variant of Marxism for that matter--appeals primarily to people who refuse to acknowledge their own human imperfections, and hence their own capacity for evil. They don't want to admit it, but those who are drawn to the leftist view of the world, tend to see themselves as superior; above all the other boring, ordinary human beings around them; more virtuous, more compassionate, smarter; and of course, much better qualified to decide what's best for lesser beings like you and me.

It is extremely ironic, considering the left's rhetoric to the contrary, to realize that it is conservatism and its underlying priniciples that fundamentally embrace the awful truth about human nature; and understand that it is closer to your average selfish, lazy, superstitious, and money-grubbing con artist than to the utopian "ideal man"--so prominently promoted in the rantings of communists, socialist, or any collectivist or totalitarian. And, as a consequence of understanding that reality, conservatism and its economic policies (i.e., capitalism) are able to harness even the most negative aspects of human nature to bring positive good both to the individual and to the larger society as well.

Conservatism and capitalism are both ideas that have worked amazingly well for one reason: they do not pretend that human nature is something it is not. Leftism of any stripe fails miserably and catastrophically because they routinely pretend that human nature can be changed and perfected.

God help us from their ministrations, as the moldering bodies of the millions upon millions they have destroyed with their perfectionistic techniques.

In essence, the left's denial and its psychological attraction to all these dysfunctional utopian systems inevitably leads to envy and a host of other negative and sadistic human traits; and, along the way, it promotes a cult of victimhood and identity politics with all the associated social and political conflicts those emotions generate. Envy, in particular, is the lovely human emotion that drives all these leftist systems; and it exists in pure, unadulterated and vicious form in those systems. Just listen for a while to the speeches of President Perfect and you will appreciate how subtly he stokes this envy for political gain, and how he is always identifying the "greedy" corporations and those who work for them.

And, as I noted in the post linked earlier,

...in answer to the unspoken question, yes; capitalism also thrives on envy--and even greed.

But, capitalism within a democratic and politically free system of government offers a healthy channel for the redirection of negative emotions like envy and greed into something positive for both the individual and the larger society.

Something, I might add, that Marxism, socialism and all its malignant variants completely fail to do. You cannot escape the reality of this dark side of human nature. You can either channel that dark side and use it constructively to benefit the individual and incidentally the society he lives in; or you can encourage and facilitate it in all its destructive power, and by doing so create the hell on earth we've come to associate with communist and Marxist societies.

After the leftist disasters of the 20th century; after the devastating consequences of forcing people to live in a variety of these "utopian paradises", it is simply amazing that today's left continues to deny the reality of human nature. Yet they do, and that is why they keep coming back to the same old tired ideas and policies and formulas that have repeatedly failed in the real world and which have always--ALWAYS--ended up unleashing all the evil of which human nature is capable.

Ahhh. The power of the unconscious!

On the other hand, the values that have brought enduring light and progress to humanity--Life, Liberty, and the freedom to pursue one's own individual happiness--are not utopian in nature. Far from it. These values, enshrined in the American singularity represent the values that are able to transform flawed, ordinary human beings into luminous souls; because by pursuing their own happiness in a free society under the rule of law, individuals are able to achieve incredible heights.

Leftists in their psychological delusion, always base their policies on ridiculous fantasies about their own nature, i.e., they imagine they are "better" people than the rest of us. In other words, they allow their unconscious self--in which the dark side of human nature is at home--to take control of their actions. Rarely do they ever examine their own motives or the dramatic inconsistencies between what they say and what they do. In essence, they demonstrate repeatedly how truly despicable human nature can be when the dark side of one's self is denied and hidden behind a veil of arrogant, narcissistic superiority.

These do-gooders always end up doing bad, but console themselves by saying, "We meant well." All their so-called "progressive" policies have the same superficial quality: it first and foremost makes the leftist feel good about himself and reinforces their psychological denial about human nature (specifically, their own).

Conservatives, with the tacit acceptance of human foibles and human evil manage, with their better ideas, allow human nature--with all its attendant good and bad qualities--to reach for the stars. Sometimes we fail (we are human, after all), but when we succeed, the whole of humanity moves forward.

Which is why conservatives are the true--and only-- progressives.
- Diagnosed by Dr. Sanity @ 10:06 AM |