What The Future Holds: The Final Curtain
As much of a cynical SOB as I am, I ain’t got nothing on my role model, John Derbyshire:
Attempts to redeem the intractably irredeemable now seem to consume most of our national energies: rebuilding Haiti, bailing out General Motors, turning Afghanistan into a liberal democracy, Leaving No Child Behind….
The can-do spirit for which the USA was long renowned (and that put men on the moon) slipped its moorings years ago. It is now drifting aimlessly in the open ocean, having thrown overboard the essential insight that the success of can-do depends crucially on having some clue about how to do.
We knew how to get men to the moon, but we have no clue—not the faintest ghost of a shadow of a clue—how to civilize Haiti or make dumb kids smart. Most likely neither thing is possible.
This blithe refusal to entertain the possibility of impossibility in human affairs ascended to conventional wisdom just as US society was decaying down into the condition described by the late Sam Francis as “anarcho-tyranny,” where the state gives up on its primary responsibilities as being too difficult or distasteful and redirects its energies to petty harassment of ordinary law-abiding citizens.
We have 100,000 federal officials telling us what size print we may use on food packaging, but we don’t lock up crazy people anymore, not until they have vented their craziness in some such manner as the January 8th murders.
Even then we can’t cope with them. I just saw a legal expert on TV tell me that legal proceedings against Jared Loughner could drag on for years.
The guy opened fire in front of a street full of witnesses, killing six and wounding another fourteen. In a sane republic under effective governmental and judicial authority he would be tried, convicted, sentenced, and executed—or institutionalized for life—in a week. We do not live in such a republic.
The mix of infinite ambitions for human transformation with corrupt, decadent public institutions is profoundly toxic. Probably it has already killed off any prospect of us enduring as a nation.
I once posed the question: Will the United States Survive Until 2022? I was too optimistic.
The Leftist mindset that reigns in the brains of our public officials, doctors, lawyers. philosophers, commentators, etc., believes there is no such thing as a bad seed, no person who is beyond re-engineering/re-educating. In the Leftist Bible it is stated that human beings are infinitely malleable and, therefore, capable of becoming anything possible. As John writes, they refuse to ‘entertain the possibility of impossibility’ – that some people are beyond human help. In their mind, the pedophile and the serial killer are always a worthy candidate for rehabilitation. This mutant understanding of human nature in the abstract has led to countless assaults, rapes, and murders. It has also caused many who are mentally ill and brain damaged to suffer.
As I have argued many times [most recently here]:
The Leftist has no respect or concern with individual human life. It does not play a part in the sterile laboratories of their minds where they grow the fetid cultures that are their utopian ideas….
They see their fellow humans as mere lumps of protoplasm, with no Heart, no Soul, and, therefore, no Free Will.
The Left fails to see the human in their fellow human beings.
Their ideas are not of this world and that is why they only bring misery when they are applied to this world.
Unless we purge this Leftist mindset from any positions of responsibility and power, John’s question will assuredly be answered in the negative.
The left cares passionately about people in the abstract; but doesn’t give a damn about them in particular.
“The Left fails to see the human in their fellow human beings.”
Actually I believe the problem is the left only sees the human in the humans they can see at one particular moment. They view “humanity” as a collection of interest groups, some of which are more deserving of help, or punishment for past sins, than others. This is why they usually use sad or tragic anecdotes to express the need and rational for their policies. They can only relate humanely to abused individuals it’s the only way to spark what little humaneness they possess. This explains why they can’t see the harm done by leftist policies when applied nationally. They can only grasp that somehow rich, white, capitalist, or imperialist society are to blame when they see neglected or abused or abandoned children. They can grasp the tragedy of a single individual but simply can’t wonder if their efforts in any way cause or even fail to solve the problem. This country has been at war against poverty for 45 years with little to show for it yet this encourages no moment of pause to reconsider the efficacy of that policy regardless of the time and treasure devoted to failure. Good intentions simply cannot lead to failure.
Liberals in some ways are the worst kind of leftists because they believe in their own good intentions yet cannot comprehend that the roads to hell and failure are often paved with good intentions.
Stalin is supposed to have said one death is a tragedy; a million deaths are a statistic. This concept does not only apply to murder. One crack baby or abused or neglected child is also a tragedy a million of them are also a statistic. The problem liberals have is that they cannot imagine that their policies can fail, absent inadequate money thrown at the problem or more likely in their minds sabotage from the usual villains and yes we know who they mean. When the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968 failed to produce the results desired, the obvious conclusion was that more laws were required; hence the anti redlining laws of the 90s thru the irresponsible actions of Fannie and Freddie which led to the economic collapse. Liberals couldn’t accept even the remotest possibility that poor or near poor people don’t own homes because they don’t make enough money, the denial of the American Dream could only be the result of thwarted liberal good intentions by evil racist capitalists. Liberals must always double down on failed policies because to the Liberal mind those good intentioned policies can only fail if sabotaged by villainy. If allowed to they will spend the entire GDP of this country, interfere with every facet of our lives trample any right or Liberty to prove the righteousness of themselves and what they think they stand for.
This is why I make no distinction between Liberals and the Khmer Rouge they are merely two different points on the same arc descending into serfdom and darkness.
Svenster: Spot-on.
Adobe…
-They care about caring, but I don’t think The Left actually, deep down, gives a damn for individuals. They are Narcissists, who suffer from alternating periods of elation and depression and rage [I believe that's the definition of 'manic'].
-I agree that they see people ‘as a collection of interest groups’ – the key word is ‘groups’ which is not a human, but a thing.
-The poor, tragic, misshapened, downtrodden people they bring before the cameras are being used by the Left. After all, their motto is ‘By Any Means Necessary’.
-I heartily agree that there is no distinction between any of the tribes of the Left – they’re thinking all springs from the same mutation of thought.
Svenster: double spot-on.