Shame
In order to feel justified within this new philosophy, they not only had to continue in the bad behavior that shamed them in the first place, they had to condemn any good behavior that held the mirror up to their secret self-disgust. This always involved them in blatant self-contradiction. The person who believed there was no truth would accuse others of lying. The person who said all sexual behavior should be accepted would declare chastity unacceptable. The person who believed tolerance was the highest value would find those who disagreed intolerable.
Ultimately their stratagems of self-deception destroyed their integrity, and their hidden shame festered and ate away… well, everything; the whole joy of living.
When I see, in the United States of America, a man rousted from his home at midnight and dragged to a police station over a YouTube video, when I see brutal, primitive, violent Islamism on the march and the values of free men and women in retreat, when I see so-called journalists doing everything they can to suppress, deny, and explain away rather than spread the news, my first reaction isn’t outrage at our foolish failure of a president, nor is it hatred for the cancerous religion currently doing murder to people of every competing belief system everywhere around the world. My first reaction is genuine sadness over the many, many Democrats of good will who are going to betray every value they profess to hold dear and double down on their error this election day because they simply can’t bear to acknowledge the fact that they were wrong.
Over and over in my mind, I keep hearing the famous words of Oliver Cromwell: “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken!”
Wow!.. Well Mr. Klavan, personally, I think this is your best commentary yet!
Conrad, I’ll raise you one — I think this is one of the most poignant and telling brief commentaries I’ve ever seen. It’s as though the essence of the philosophical writings of Dennis Prager and Thomas Sowell has been distilled into one condensed argument. This one’s a keeper; well done, Mr. Klavan.
Agreed. It’s not uncommon for me to read something and think ‘this is a very insightful piece.’ It’s much rarer to read something and think ‘this may change the way I interpret the world around me.’ This piece falls into the latter category.
Well done.
While leftism is especially lethal to Jews, particularly due to the amount of Jews, in comparison to the rest of the population – there is little margin for error ! – it is especially dangerous during these treacherous times.
Therefore, while it is difficult to state as much, in the most brutal way possible, desperate times call for desperate measure.
And, these are desperate times!
http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/08/leftism-lethal-to-jews-their-overall-health-others-too-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
The truth shall set us all free – regardless of ones political or religious persuasion!
Leftism is really an outlet for the suicidal self-loathing of secular Jews, the ones who don’t believe in God. Mr. K in his riveting truth-telling didn’t mention Jews specifically, but they were — and still are — a major part of the O coalition. The suicide coalition, that is.
I’m tempted to send this piece to some friends who voted for O — most of them Jewish — but it would only make them shun me.
Phantomorphan,
Shunning is a small price to pay, at least if it makes them squirm in the process. Besides, there is NO time to lose!
Let them twist in the wind….
I don’t think that this is any less true of the Christian Left than the Jewish Left. They are actually doing this out of a sincere belief that they are being selfless and looking out for their neighbor before themselves.
The simple reason that one finds it more among Jews is that they are the least religious population in the US, a fact that results from being a minority religion (Arabs here in Israel are also becoming less religious, as Jews here become more so) as well as relentless pressure to “reform” (in Europe) and to “assimilate” (in the US).
For one thousand five hundred years Christians pressured Jews by every possible means, down to torture and death, to abandon their religion. Congragulations! You’ve succeeeded! (What, you thought we would take up yours? Honestly?)
Well said. You are mentioning the missing piece of the puzzle. Since much of Christianity was spread by the sword or intense social pressure it created a mass movement of people that had their roots destroyed but were looking to get out of what they were now trapped into. The Leftist philosophies gave hope and direction to those people and they cling to it (for often very ugly reasons such as status).
Jews may be immersed in Leftist culture but it is a European philosophy and product.
An interesting thought experiment would be what Islam will become considering so much of it was spread by the sword. There must be a heavy concentration of phony believers. What kind of secular ideas could come from it?
Are you out of your mind or are a majority of Jews like you ? If the latter, then good luck to you and them.
There is very little animosity towards Jews in Christianism, especially when compared to Jewish hatred of Christ. Jesus btw was a Jew as were early Christians.
You would not be converting to “our” religion but to your own. If you really want to understand the real world, ask yourself why you don’t and why your ancestors chose not to.
Take the risk. Send it!
Thank you for the pleasant Grey-Line tour of the path to Hell.
Here, here! Such a short commentary that captures the soul of the leftist. Would they would turn from their error.
I agree. I wish more people had the values and courage shown by Mr. Klavan. However, my first reaction is not sadness; my first reaction is to want to kick the hell out of the entire Islamo-fascist movement. We have fought all the containment wars we need to. It doesn’t work. We haven’t had a resounding and decisive victory since WWII, but that was a generation that didn’t question the military. They depended on them to achieve victory at all costs; they cheered when a Nazi officer was clubbed to death for leading a unit of 14 year old boys in combat and they wouldn’t have punished a military policeman at Gitmo for letting his dog bark too close to an enemy prisoner, intimidating him. They didn’t worry more about appeasing our enemies rather than killing them. Until we regrow our backbone we are in danger of losing our culture, our religion, and our country. Until we get the closeted Muslim out of the White House and get a repairman back in the Oval Office, we’re in trouble.
We’re not worthy, we’re not worthy, we’re not worthy. Thank you so much for this gift.
The only honest lefties I can remember who openly admitted their innate cowardice were those journalists at that Philadelphia newspaper (can’t remember the name)who admitted that they were hypocritically avoiding the Mohammed cartoon story because they were in terror for their lives if they published anything about it. The rest of them pretend that they admire the muslim point of view whereas much less conservative elements in Christianity they openly mock and attack. If only there were a way to ship the lefties to Cairo and solve the problem from both sides at once.
Regards,
John
The BBC also admitted that they did adversarial stories on Christians and not Moslems, because Christians were unlikely to murder them.
Well Harry, honesty is busting out all over the MSM. I have to confess that these honest hypocrites only disgust me at 95% of capacity. I barely feel nauseous.
But as I said above, if only our friends in the press could debate doctrine with their friends in Tehran and Cairo face to face. I think it would sharpen the contrast between the two religious communities in the minds of the fourth estate.
Regards,
John
Also when reporting in Lebabnon and the fight etween Israel and the terrorists.
Lately I’ve taken to calling (out loud, mind you) leftists on their hypocrisy. It’s really a wonderful way to start a meaningful and intelligent conversation where all involved benefit intellectually and gain a higher understanding of the subject at hand. Wait, what?
– still pressing forward with the blaming the trailer. Perhaps if the lie is repeated ten thousand times…
Shame leads to self-hatred, self-hatred leads to self-destruction. Shame is punishment for the primal sin; salvation is available.
This is the cycle of addiction. Regretfully a 12 step program will not help the left.
They are focused on one thing, the high of believing their own lies.
Excellent insight. Thanks for adding this morsel of wisdom to Klavan’s masterpiece.
Awesome! Thank you for being in my world.
This is sort of an extrapolation of your terrific discussion of your conversion to Christianity with Peter Robinson in an episode of Uncommon Knowledge.
http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uncommon-knowledge/26761
In your case the shame came first. In mine, seeing as I was fairly morally upright, the shame came later (post-conversion). But you’re so right- I had a chance to befriend some homosexuals and really get to know what lay beneath the surface. And it was an unbearable sense of…shame.
You are so right Wemedge.
I recommend the interview to everyone. Another good one on uncommon knowledge is with Thomas Sowell. Well worth the time.
It is not surprising that many of the best thinkers among conservatives are converts from the left.
On the one hand, Lefties want a world without shame.
On the other, they would love to impose a Progressive Analogue to Shari’ah because they’re in love with the idea of financial penalties, slavery, and death to their own enemies, and a government philosophy that demands absolute fealty.
If it wasn’t for Old Man Allah and Pervy Marauder Muhammad, they’d be perfect kindred spirits.
No, they don’t want a world without shame.
They want a world in which they can shame- or force- everyone else into being “enlightened”. With themselves defining what that word means.
Progressivism. Islam. The Holy Inquisition.
Three peas in a pod.
BTW, the brutality of the Inquisition was mostly due to its Spanish branch, which learned its methods from being on the receiving end of such from Muslim religious authorities when the Iberian Peninsula was under Muslim rule prior to the late 15th Century. So those two are interconnected.
What’s the “progressives’” excuse for dreaming of being able to use the same measures against those they define as “unbelievers”?
clear ether
eon
Because even they know that their policies are designed as basically a Pyramid Scheme where only those at the very top get anything, and the only way to get people to go along with it is to threaten to kill people (and even have to cull the herd so that people will keep taking the threats seriously).
“…When EVERYTHING belongs to EVERYBODY. SomeONE needs to care for it.”
H.Beam Piper
The Liberal philosophy in a nutshell.
Quietly brilliant.
As to Tip #2- really starting to like you now!
Listening to the ranting Left- I monitor the enemy daily-
while reading your words of wisdom is a rather unique experience
yes..it is a “unique experience” to read what you loony tooners have to say, as your world crumbles around you. what a pathetic bunch you all are. I admit, it used to be quite funny, but now its just sad. you are all very sad. Obama 2013!
LOL. That the best you have, fascist?
And I can’t wait to see your face when your nazi hero gets kicked out of office.
Excellent, gray. You wait until 2013 to vote for your hero, and I’ll vote in 2012 for the turnaround specialist.
Andrew. Oh please bring back these style commentaries.
This is why you write so well, you read people so well.
Thanks.
How can the Dems live with themselves. Everything they fight for is the complete opposite in Muslim countries. War on women, war on other religions, war on gays, to name a few. They truly need to wake up.
And everything that conservatives love. I think you make a good point, conservative Christians and Muslims are very similar. The problem is that we liberals understand the political realities of the world we live in. The Middle East is not going to disappear depending on our approval or disapproval of the more conservative parts of Islam. You have a very simplified view of the world, which is naive and childish.
“…we liberals understand the political realities of the world we live in:
Fine, you can have “the world” you have created. Go ahead. Please do.
Some people want no part of you self created nightmare world.
“… political realities…” = my lies are ok.
Thanks for the succinct demonstration.
Oh yes, Brian N… Conservative Christians and Muslims are soooo much alike!
1)Conservative Christians call routinely for the deaths of those they disagree with.
2)Conservative Christians burn down public buildings, every time someone insults Christ. (I wish that pesky Jesus would just stop injecting himself into the public conversation…)
3)The world is the sad loser due to Christians suicide bombing the Maplethorpe exibition. Priceless art senselessly destroyed, innocent lives taken, mass destruction everywhere!
4)Conservative Christians deform, beat or honor kill all females who upset their male followers some how.
5)Conservative Christians call for the circumcision of women. Sew ‘em up boys! Only way to keep the vile creatures with no intelligence in line!
6)Conservative Christians raid towns and cities, looking to make women sex-slaves.
Yah… you are so right Brian. The similarities are endless. We are such rubes! Good thing you are there to straighten things out!
Brian, I am impressed with your complete rejection of reality! My God, oops, goodness, oops. Wait, lets try Gia, Engles, Lennin, Mao, Dalmer, Ward Churchil, or anyone else you idolize. Didthat work better for you?
Anyway I am impressed that you could write a post that included not one mote of reality in your post. Huzzah!
” The problem is that we liberals understand the political realities of the world we live in.” No, you don’t. your hero Obama proves that every day.
“You have a very simplified view of the world, which is naive and childish.” Yeah, right. “The world will love and respect us now that GWB is gone!” was such a thoughtful analysis.
Grow up. Liberalism is a philosophy of juveniles wishful thinking – as you so amply demonstrate.
Thank you. I read this before bed and it MIGHT help me sleep better tonight. Lately, that is not a given. The world BURNS and the press SPINS and the average American is dyspeptic from it all. It’s like a bad dream we can’t wake up from and we can only hope (and campaign and get out the vote) so that it doesn’t turn into an eight-year nightmare.
Yeah imo it’s NOT acting upon one’s, ‘Moments of realization’.
Whether it’s Reuters, Ap, Huffington etc., KNOWING this silly YouTube video, released 2 + months ago IS NOT thee reason for these disgusting murders, protests
OR
The ‘man’ whose responsible for multiple children from multiple women and NOT getting a vasectomy, let alone engaging in protected sex
OR
The Illiberal voter who STILL doubles down on this unaccomplished AA recipient, this economically void grifter even when ALL signs point to his ineptitude.
The aforementioned types HAVE to endure at some time those moments of realization whereas their ahem, ‘news providing’ or shortcomings as a man and father or their holding a conman at the highest of heights is wrong and stupid.
Though for many, humility isn’t in their psyche. To actually stop and think, ‘Wow am I a total buffoon for believing this news/ engaging in such reckless and selfish behavior/ truly believing this proven to be fraud is a good leader’..
Sadly, blaming ‘others’ or ‘them’ for whom our cowardly CiC does, and OFTEN has proven to be his and many of his mindless dhimmis ONLY hand.
And that hand stinks. Has proven time and time again it stinks. Oy..
I agree this is one of Andrew’s finest pieces, to the point and piercing to the bone. Yoda says, “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” Evil’s greatest fear is that it will never get it right.
“DO SOME ‘MAKE UP’ CIVICS STUDIES…OR BE ENSLAVED”
You spend days in study of gossip and beer,
Your “civics”? Just the 10 O’clock lies,
But your “news” is corrupted; your lives reek of waste–
There are those who won’t rest till you die.
You have had so much for so long now,
You just deem it all as your due.
For as heirs of the world’s greatest riches,
Kings and Pharaohs had nothing on you.
All around us, your enemies gather.
Who respect not your life nor our law.
Should we fail in this fight for your freedom,
You and yours live your last days in thrall*.
More than “arms”, liberty calls for effort,
Searching answers to our problems today.
Though there’s no end of “prime time” deceivers,
Whose fine words cannot hide feet of clay.
Information, not rumors, are crucial.
Honest data is your greatest need.
Seek out facts and find truthful teachers,
Who have not sold their own souls for greed.
Patriots died for your right to think and to choose,
And their spirits today watch and weep.
You’ve a whole lot of data to search and to sift,
But your heart’s fondest joy’s just to sleep.
Don’t give in to the coy voice of seduction
“We will handle it all, don’t you fret.
“Let’s just keep going “FORWARD”—to hell with the facts,
“That cliff that we see’s not here yet!”
*Thrall = a state of servitude or submission
NO RIGHTS RESERVED – COPY; CHANGE; ADD TO; ETC. FREELY. We just ‘gotta get this message out.
Good writing! These ever-Moving-Forward lemmings or Progressives, only ever really “progress” from the responsibility to become factually, objectively right, to the opinion that they have a subjective right to remain irresponsibly wrong!
Libs are idolaters who pretend to believe in group rights, never in individual responsibilities!
And their real problem is that liberals hate personal responsibility, so they avoid it by selling endless group-rights victimology scenarios instead. That way the cowards can pretend to be champions without risking accusing any real individual human criminals of their crimes!
So, yes – never having any facts which would ever agree with their perpetual irrationality, the left must always resort to the slanderous evasions known collectively as the critical thinking logical fallacies (the deflective ad-hominem personal attacks, the distractive strawman red-herrings, and of course the immoral relativist’s favorite, the tu quoque – i.e: “islam – or crime in general – isn’t evil because we all do it too! Whee!”).
Isn’t it funny that people who actually have facts, rarely (if ever) seem to feel the need to indulge in fallacies?
Professing and believing are so very often two such different things.
…and walking the walk is something yet again.
Guilt is appropriate and may work on a few, with luck on the Jewish vote in FL.
More pressing, IMO, is the need to manipulate Zombie’s HoneyBs and point them in the right direction, probably using a 2×4. Meanwhile, if you see a Republican drone, smug in his overstuffed chair at the club, kick him hard and often.
There are no liberals of good will. They refuse to investigate if the charge that they give aid and comfort to America’s enemies is true or not. They refuse to investigate if increasing socialism leads to national bankruptcy. They refuse to investigate if their social policies gravely harm the poor, minorities, women, children, the elderly. They refuse to investigate if their energy policies force the elderly to freeze or overheat.
The most charitable interpretation of Liberals is that they are a collective Typhoid Mary. No matter what harm they cause they keep causing harm. Mary thought she was just cooking. Her victims still died.
It is the failure to understand that no amount of harm to the rest of us will cause Liberals to reevaluate their plans that allows otherwise respectable people to accept Liberals as good Americans. They will not stop until you and I are in a gulag. We can no longer afford for everyone in Mayberry to learn this lesson by personal experience. The basis of Liberalism is envy, dishonesty, and violence. When you give them the benefit of the doubt others are harmed. You can believe in the Easter Bunny for all I care, but you must stop believing in the benign explanation for Liberalism.
Excellent, excellent writing, indeed.
The act of voting against Baraq al-Honolulu (or wherever, etc.) is the act of a free man or woman. People make mistakes, and a free adult, teen, or kid will admit it, learn from it, and go on. Mr. Klavan here is talking about those who are not free but enslaved, just like those enslaved to fear or lust or sloth.
We Americans used to be a free people, but, over time, we’ve fallen from our high status–though we were poorer materially, we were richer spiritually in the sense of truly understanding and appreciating freedom.
What we see happening here has happened before. The Ancient Israelites wanted to leave Moses and go back to the idols of Egypt, after all, and that is just one example. They saw what the Lord had done for them, all the miracles, parting of the Red Sea, etc., but wanted to return, and it wasn’t because the desert looked empty–the Lord of Hosts who got them out of Egypt could obviously get them across the empty desert–rather they wanted to return because the desert REPRESENTED FREEDOM. And it was Freedom they were scared of.
More like our own situation, perhaps, the Ancient Greeks lost their city state democracies and the Roman Republic lost its existence because, finally, their people became like what our people are becoming. We are “living history” not in the sense of dressing up in antique clothes but in the sense of experiencing what the ancients I mentioned above experienced.
We are seeing it. We had better recognize it and fight against it or we’ll all be offering incense to a golden calf soon.
We need to catch some of the fire Mr. Klavan shows here and work to get out the conservative vote. Most of all, Mr. Romney needs to catch this fire, too.
An Préachán
Mr. Romney needs to catch this fire, too.
Sure, but gimmeabreak. If he hasn’t caught it yet, what are the odds?
Many are trying to push Romney up the hill and over the top into the WH. The candidate and his inner circle manifestly aren’t up to the struggle. Wait until you see our October ads, they say, kicking the can yet again. Plod, plod, plod. Today’s world moves at a quicker pace. The need for daily broadsides is here today, right now.
Others, unfunded and disorganized, have to pick up the sticks and fight like guerrillas. If it’s doable, it will be done — but GOP central/RNC ain’t up to the job. This article, earnest and excellent though it is, won’t get the job done either.
You make a good point and I would take it further. The Children of Isreal were slaves – but they were COMFORTABLE in their slavery. That’s why God had them wandering for forty years. He had to let that generation die out. Same can be saif of the Greeks and Romans – their wealth made them weak and unable to fend for themselves and they would rather die (and did) than face a future where they would have to relearn how to fend for themselves.
I see the parallel here and greatly fear we will have to go through a second dark age to relearn the lessons our Founders knew after 1500 years of darkness.
What a profound and moving meditation for the New Year.
Regrettably, I can’t cut people such as Klavan describes any slack on the grounds that they are people of good will. Time and again their policies have killed, maimed, led to disasters. Time and again they are not held to account for the results of their policies. Time and again they excuse themselves and their failures on the grounds that they meant well. They entreat us to excuse them and accept their feeble excuses as a substitute for meaningful success. Intentions are not enough. The generation that gives prizes to people simply for showing up doesn’t know how to enforce standards, so they decide that standards are prejudicial, mean, judgmental, and insensitive and eliminate them to avoid discomfort. These people don’t deserve mercy. They need to be held accountable for their actions. They must be shamed. They must suffer. It’s the only way they can return to the company of decent men.
Hopefully, you will not be carted off by the brownshirts for your video, Andrew. After all, poking at people with the truth is offensive to the death worshipers. One cannot rationalize with the cults of death. Btw, talking about Demoncrats here and their RINO enablers. Wouldn’t want to offend the wrong people. I use the term loosely, of course.
Well said. Too bad none of these jerks is reading PJM or reading much of anything except the dem daily talking points. Since we are living in an alternative reality from these people, most of them do not think they are wrong and certainly never feel shame. To them their alternate reality requires that the group go along to get along which means to get their retirements and their benefits this is what the group has to do. End of story. Look at the pathetic Chicago teachers. Rahm Emanual spent most of life creating this class of hard ball union activist who are idiots and who really could care less about the students. How poetic that he now needs to fight those who he has always coddled and relied on for support. To them the ends justify the means. No shame, no excuses, no sence of right or wrong, just get what is yours and society be dammed. This is what we are up against. Be very afraid.
Yes, a great post, although I thought Andrew was leading up to a joke, and so had to read it over again once I realized it was meant seriously.
I’ve heard it expressed recently as: the West is a ‘shame’ culture; most others are ‘honor’ cultures. The Judeo-Christian origins of the West are clearly seen in this division.
“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or rocket launchers or antipathy to people who aren’t like them …..”
Dude, awesome. Why isn’t everyone in the MSM talking like this?
People make mistakes. That you made a mistake isn’t important, what is important is what you do after you made the mistake.
As far I am concerned ther a no Democrats of goodwill!They have chosen to side with the party of the KKK,the party of Ted Kennedy,the man of Chappaquiddick,”the conscience of the Senate”.What a conscience!They elected Obama,the pathological liar who for 20 years heard nothing,the same Obama who wrote 36 lies in his book.The same Obama who just brought shame to the nation.The Democrats can fool themselves,lie to each others,but the facts are here.
Overseas,The US is seen as a spent force,bankrupt intellectualloy and financially.The US president has no credibility.The country is starting to be a joke.If reelected,Obama will be a lame duck President.He is a dead horse.They must be laughing their heads off in the chancelleries.The country is more and more looking like a third world one, a mountain of debts,a judiciary that rewrite the statute,voter intimidation as well as fraud.Some Chinese believe that the US will be a “failed state”.
Good article. Thankfully, I’ve know just a few of the kind of people you describe: people who believe that voting Democrat ascribes to them some kind of moral superiority unobtainable in any other way. The simple fact is your average dem does not deal broadly with reality and probably never will. Most of the ones I’ve known were one-shot wonders: people able to do one thing well and the rest of their mental life was an idea or notion picked-up here or there and regurgitated with no real clue as to whether what they were saying was particularly accurate. Interestingly, they tend to respect opinions forcefully delivered—something the dems figured out some time ago. If Romney beats up on O in the debates he might break up the mental ice of enough people in the swings states to make a big difference. The dems I know are overly impressed by O’s bombastic delivery style; more so than they are by the substance of what he says. If Romney can rattle O—as the dems are trying to rattle him—he will prevail.
Many of us have asked the same question for several years now: are there ANY democrats left that are still Patriots and have not forsaken what they supposedly hold dear? Are there ANY democrats left that still love their country and what we stand for? I suppose we’ll all find out on election day. Of course, Mr. Klavan, you put it much more eloquently than most…and for that, I thank you.
Yes and no. Think on the last 4 years how many democrats have either jumped ship to become republicans or (if they just can’t bring themselves to join the enemy) have outright retired.
Both of your points are valid, but in reference to the latter…did they retire for reasons of principled beliefs, or did they retire because they felt they could not win in today’s environment as a democrat and were unwilling to switch parties? I would use Zell Miller as an example.
Remember, only about half of the “taxpayers” actually pay taxes. The Dems have spent decades getting the laws in place to purchase their votes with your money.
Very true, and sadly, not many are likely to vote against their “free” (to them) goodies. They are willing to ignore the glaring dangers to their freedoms and independence for the pittance they receive. Maybe we can reach some of them, enough of them to make a difference. Maybe.
I too have noticed how what the left accuses the rest of us of doing is usually the very thing they themselves are most guilty of.
My shortcoming was in not ever considering WHY they were that way – and this article explains it nicely.
Still, there IS hope. Keep in mind that there were a good many voters who supported Jimmah Cahter back in 1976 – but who by 1980 had completely changed their minds.
This may well be a similar election.
Marxists, Leftists, and Progressives are trying to hide the fact that despite trying to hide behind other names, they are all really Communists.
To the Communist True Believer, Communism is a religion, and therefore truth can never be allowed to dispute Divinely Inspired Doctrine.
Yes indeedy they pretend to claim to champion group rights in order to avoid individual responsibilities. They proclaim “Property is theft!” to hide their real motive: “You owe me because you earned stuff I didn’t bother to! Whee!”
Excellent, Andrew! Well worth passing along to others which I will. However, there is grist for another take on Democrat loyalty and it is simply thus. Many will handsomely profit financially in the environment championed by Democrats. Just look at the multi-millionaire looters in the current administration. They have no core-values but only pure greed. Most of them likely agree that their constituents are little more than self-loathing, but highly profitable, saps. This is what makes the true-believer even more pitiful. Their snake-oil selling leaders, to whom they pledge their love and devotion, actually look upon them in contempt. And they are too dumb to realize it.
Great article.
Maybe it’s just wishful thinking but I believe there are many Democrats that are horrified by Obama’s presidency but won’t admit it. I don’t think he is liked or respected by most in his own party.
When they get in that voting booth on Nov 6th they will do the right thing
for America.
I can only hope.
“Maybe it’s just wishful thinking but I believe there are many Democrats that are horrified by Obama’s presidency but won’t admit it. I don’t think he is liked or respected by most in his own party.”
I think you’re right: many in his own party do not appreciate Obama. Unfortunately, it’s probably because they think he hasn’t done enough to advance the Leftist cause. He hasn’t actually abolished coal mining or nationalized all the financial institutions or created a full cradle-to-grave welfare system.
However, I think they will admit he’s pushed things in the right direction and will vote for him again as preferable to Mitt Romney who might actually slow the slide off the financial cliff.
I think you’re writing about moderate Democrats who still have some vestige of decency, not the Hard Left types I mean. I truly hope you’re right that there are still some moderates who can see that decency means supporting Romney this time around. I’m just not counting on that outweighing all the True Believers among the Democrats and those who vote for them.
Nationalizing finance is the only thing he and his ilk might ever do with which I might agree. Selling money instantly devalues the money, the goods and labor it represents. Interest IS inflation. Interest is charged in advance, no matter what happens, while honest investment involves waiting for dividends to pay off after the fact of real life human economic activity.
Interest is oppressive, investment humane.
If banks were forced to invest in stead of carte blanche fleecing victims, we might achieve fairness. Taking advantage of victims by selling money to people who need it isn’t at all the same as investing in their futures or even only charging interest for other’s frivilous wants.
I wish I had your optimism, but here’s why I don’t:
The other barrier to these folks casting a vote for Romney/Ryan or other Republicans is an inordinate fear and loathing of Republicans because of the decades-long narrative they have been subjected to. In addition, they just don’t find what they consider Republicans and “conservatives” to be compatible people they’re comfortable with. It’s a destructive snobbery that transcends a common sense, rational approach to what competent governance is supposed to be about. They also think that they’re still voting for the same Democratic party that has existed in decades past.
That’s why the Left always accuses us of doing the things they are already doing. They won’t ever imagine that what they are doing is wrong and despicable in our eyes, and therefore, we would not even contemplate it.
How many times have you heard that line of BS, “Well. Everybody does it”? And how many times did you say, “Speak for your slimy self”?
Maybe you should have.
Money do bad things to people. Today people talk to you as a best friend, and tomorrow – if they do such things…((
Craven, cowardly,untruthful,narcissistic, self-absorbed, hedonistic and ultimately delusional; the modern liberal. And this is an incomplete list.
A major psychosis the Liberals have is the ability to absolve themselves of their own insanity by projecting it onto everybody else. (i.e.: Debbie BLABBERMOUTH Schulz).
They have this practice down so perfectly, it’s like a religion in itself.
There’s only a micron of difference between a Liberal American and a radical muslim.
The left also has a wonderful ability to project their fantasy world into future reality and maintaining that belief no matter what happens in the real world.
Basically, if you asked your average leftist what would happen if militant Islam got their way, they would see a world for them of virtually no changes in either geopolitical situations (other than it has to be better than under the current Judeo-Christian system operating in the West), and — more importantly — they could not imagine a change for the worse to their own personal lifestyles. Social mores? No change. Pushing the envelope lifestyle positions? No change. Alcohol or recreation drug use? No change.
Things might be different for the yahoo fundies in flyover country if the U.S. entered into a de facto enforcement of Sharia Law, but to the left, their current lives would just keep on keepin’ on, since they could not possibly envision the day when it’s not just some low-budget movie and its creator who are being harassed via Mulism world riots, but mainstream Hollywood movies depicting what liberals believe are acceptable lifestyles that run afoul of the same Islamic protestors.
“My first reaction is genuine sadness over the many, many Democrats of good will who are going to betray every value they profess to hold dear and double down on their error this election day because they simply can’t bear to acknowledge the fact that they were wrong.”
That is the heart of it. If it wasn’t for America’s stubbornness, Obama would be polling at about 25% today. It’s even worse in the mainstream media. They just can’t admit that all the sucking up they did in 2008, all the pandering and water carrying they did for Obama, was ALL WRONG. By any measure, by any metric, Obama has been a failure. But the mainstream media has so much invested in Obama, that they would look like total idiots if they turned on Obama now. Forget about the welfare of the nation, forget about the fact that this guy is an empty suit and doesn’t know what he’s doing, the mainstream media will support Obama until their dying breath simply because they don’t want to admit that they were wrong in 2008.
And, let’s be honest here, folks. If Obama was white, do you think he would be as protected by the mainstream media? Jimmy Carter wasn’t black and he was as liberal as they came. There reached a tipping point late in the election when even the mainstream media couldn’t stand Carter anymore. But the mainstream media isn’t about to admit that the first black president of the United States was a stunning failure. They will NOT admit that his foreign policy right now is in tatters in the Middle East and is only going to get worse. And when the Islamists take over in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama’s foreign policy failure will be complete, and we will have spent all of that precious blood and treasure for nothing, absolutely nothing.
Any rational human being can see that Obama has failed and that he doesn’t know how to get the country out of this financial mess (assuming he really wants to, but that’s another story). So why, oh why, would anybody even consider voting for him again? Stubbornness, sheer stubbornness. The first step to salvation is admitting that you have a problem. Obama is our problem. If most of America cannot see that, then we really are lost.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald named as source of leak.
http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2012/09/14/u-s-attorney-patrick-fitzgerald-named-as-source-of-leak/
“Golden,” the whitewashing of a Department of Justice crime spree
http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2012/09/16/golden-the-whitewashing-of-a-department-of-justice-crime-spree/
…the many, many Democrats of good will who are going to betray every value they profess to hold dear and double down on their error this election day because they simply can’t bear to acknowledge the fact that they were wrong.
There is also the pressure of the style statement among people who profess to be members of the smart set.
In Silicon Valley, for example, being for this miserable president and against “retrograde” republicans is de rigueur.
Obama could blow up DC tomorrow and still get their vote November 6.
These voters’ loyalty is to the perception of themselves (their place in the herd), not to the truth.
G. K. Chesterton referred to this as the “degrading slavery of being a child of one’s age.” Slaves. Every one of them wearing their chains and their foolishness gladly.
The article gives a good idea what the author means, though it scratches only the surface of the problem, and it is indeed a huge one. Here we are talking about a powerful psychological state, or emotion, that powerful that shame is classified as a deep primitive emotion. To my astonishment, the author could have been a bit more inquisitive, because when mentioning shame, you need to mentioned in the same breath the concept of honor, and even briefly explain how they interrelate. Further, the concept of guilt is missing too. For instance the difference between guilt and shame are substantial, even though they go hand in hand, on a different level. Guilt deals with behavior, shame deals with the self.
Entire cultures are based on guilt or shame. Very generally Western societies are guilt based (which has to be punished) while Eastern and all socialist-communist societies and certainly Arab-Islamic societies are based on shame/honor. Avoiding shame preserves honor. Shame societies are mostly concerned in covering their weaknesses, for this reason it is so important to them not to lose the honor, and are very concerned what the others think of them. So, ready to commit any brutal act, and claiming it was necessary. (These societies, or groups are in constant denial). Left leaning persons are bound together by a collective, right leaning person are bound together by individual personas. The Left has changed partly (and tries to change) the core values and believes of a whole society. There are powerful psychological antidotes against the Left, though they are difficult to apply within a society: mainly humiliation and exclusion! It best works with enemies, although I’m painfully aware the Left is an enemy of America and anything which is based on individual responsibility!
The Left is united in envy, hatred and above all rage. As you can note, it is always against someone. They can abuse everyone and everything, but cannot take it when they get it back, as the Commies or the Arabs. America be careful of wrongful cultural infiltration!
I disagree with the premise of your argument wholeheartedly…. that suppressed shame is at the root of the individual’s rejection of political reality. Shame is a learned emotion built on a properly formed, i.e. Judeo-Christian oriented, conscience. Thanks to the Gramscian long march through the Institutions, such consciences are much less of a threat to the enemies of freedom than they were even 20 years ago. IMHO, stupid progressivism at the OWS rally, the lunch table and in the conference room is simply the fruit of the new culture. Foolishness is now serious business, and where it’s not serious business, it’s serious religion. By way of example, I give you “Go green! – Diversity is our strength!”
Living here in the San Francisco, in the belly of the liberal beast, I’ll say this for Obama: he has certainly quieted things down.
In my office, I no longer hear the wailing about the shame of Guantanamo, or the disappearance of civil rights becaue of the Patriot Act, or the high price of oil, or the coercion of the press, or the wisdom of military surges, or the bombing of countries who haven’t attacked us, or the burning of embassies in the Middle East, or the killings of wedding parties by drone strikes, or the billions used to bail out banks, or the high unemployment rate.
I would like to believe that they are quiet out of shame, but sadly, I don’t. They are so convinced of their moral superiority that they can’t admit to even the tiniest bit of hypocrisy.
The thesis is interesting but it’s reversed.
People do not invent new philophies to justify bad behavior.
Very few people with habitually bad behavior have any regrets at all. They don’t need to invent excuses because their “philosophies” and behavior are inextricably linked from the start. For most, the bad behavior results from their world view rather than vice versa.
“If, for instance, they had backed down when they should have stood up, they declared nothing was worth fighting for.”
“The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States [and not against their enemies]…”
“If they lied when they should’ve spoken true, they declared truth was an illusion.”
“You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident… I tell you Winston that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else; not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes and in any case soon perishes; only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth.” George Orwell – 1984
“If they succumbed to desire when they should have resisted, they decided continence was a game for puritans and fools.”
“There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality.” Karl Marx
Oops. The pacifism quote is from an essay by George Orwell.
Bravo! Long ago I came to the belief that leftism is the result of various kinds of mental disorders.
I have a sibling with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. This sibliing is also, surprise surprise, a hardcore leftist. Everything that’s wrong with her life (and there are A LOT of things wrong) is the fault of republicans, particularly Ronald Reagan. (I suspect borderline’s, histrionic’s, anti-social’s etc, are similar).
She does not engage in any self analysis for she is perfect and has the answer for every issue. Anyone who disagrees is crazy. Not stupid, not ingorant — crazy.
Klavan has succinctly nailed it.
Klavan, you are one funny man. I’d buy you lunch just to hear you philosophize.
I remember watching this video some time back, and it was still enjoyable the second time. It’s like watching ‘A Christmas Story’ every year. You’ve heard the lines before, and you still belly laugh.
I don’t know what to say about the left that hasn’t been said already. They are incorrigible, unedifying, parasitical, most are traitorous, and everything they touch turns to crap or hell on earth. Like a plague of locust.
But like the locusts, apparently there’s a heck of lot more of them propping up President Fork Tongue than there are of me.
I thought the American public naive for electing Barack Obama in 2008. I’ll know the country completely stupid if they make the same glaring mistake twice.
Great commentary, Andrew. I share in your grief, in fact.
And yet… and yet… I had a vague feeling that this time the usual knee-jerk reaction seemed slightly less automatic than in the past. May be the first cracks start to appear in the media wall of selfdeception.
placing a bet is one thing, goin all in is make or break,and thats the problem with the people but more so with the media
Years ago, in a conversation with a prominent sociologist, I asked him why some members of the Charles Manson gang could not pass their parole hearings. They certainly knew, after several failed attempts, what attitude they should have and what they needed to say. They would simply not recant. His reply was that the enormity of their crime could not be faced and admitted, to themselves or anyone else. It had to be justified, and so they did, time after time, at their parole hearings.
Good article….I am equally positive there are a LOT of Obama supporters from 2008 who wish they had done more investigation….I have always been amazed at the rabidness of the Dem voter…it is almost like they are all on crack…I agree with most of the comments already made, no need to repeat them…
My grandfather Bentley told me when I was 14 or 15 that I would run into a lot of things in my life that I had no control over. But, he said, I would have absolute and complete control over how I reacted to them. And that would determine what sort of a man I became. Getting angry might not be, but staying angry was always a choice. My actions were ALWAYS my choice. And the consequences my responsibility.(Later I learned that he kept Marcus Aurelius and Seneca at his bedside.)
I believe he was correct. As such, I refuse to cede any moral superiority/equivalence to individuals, groups or societies that habitually choose to be offended and violent. The responsibility is theirs alone. They choose outrage in order justify violence. They use violence and the threat of violence to exercise power. And as such, they are the essence of savagery. That the potential for savagery resides in all humans is another discussion. But I would argue that the recognition of that potential and it’s voluntary rejection is the primary distinction of the civilized society as opposed to the barbarous.
Historically, the barbarians are always at the gates. When they cannot be recognized as barbarians and confronted as barbarians, they win.
Savagery in destruction of life and liberty is barbaric – that would be subjugating strife. Savagery in defense of life and liberty is just – that would be liberating strife.
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
The only thing I dispute here is the assertion that there are Democrats of good will. Where do you find this person today?
My mom, for one. How’s about we stop this lazy demonizing of “democrats” and stick with criticizing ideas and individuals.
Thank you for that very appropriate warning. It is so easy to devolve into name-calling and personal attacks (especially when it is SO easy with some leftists). Way more so than work to formulate coherent arguments and attempt to show them a better way. And yes I am guilty of such. But I’ve finally come to realize that the best way to convince someone to join your side is not to insult him (Flies, honey, etc.). There are honorable, but deluded Democrats. Romney needs them. The country needs them. Our hero, Ronald Reagan was once one.
I am reminded of Aesop’s story about the fox who lost its tail.
Over the years, starting at Hopkins I have seen many liberals who if they saw something need done, but with some potential for pain, would try to get others to do it.
The key is that if you can’t or won’t do the right thing you try to get others to agree. Seems they don’t have enough integrity to just go on their own, always needing moral support.
Brian, if you liberals have such a wonderful grasp of political realities, then howcomes you’ve messed up so badly in the Middle-East?
I believe the problem is a psychological one. All liberals believe education is the answer to all problems in life. That’s why violent rapists and murderers sit in our prison using our tax dollars and why we try to help these violent societies. We should get out of those countries and let them settle their own differences just like they would do to us if the roles were reversed. Let’s stop following the God of education. It can’t cure everything! More knowledge of our ways and the jewels of democracy won’t change them any more than educating a violent rapist who has animal cravings to kill will change him. That’s why capital punishment is being fought, not because it works or doesn’t work, but because the thought of being able to proselytize and convert even one soul over to being a free thinking democratic person has become of more value than millions of other lives or dollars that might be spared in the process, when they should put these out of society so they can’t kill again.
They have no shame and no real belief in education, either.
No problem was ever solved by ignoring it, yet their position has always seemed to be:
“There’s No Money In Solutions!”
I’ve noticed that the American educational system was hijacked by such as the irrational subjectivist (leftist) JOHN DEWEY, whose main thesis (as contested by his opponent, Lord Bertrand Russell,) was essentially that:
“Since there’s always a diverse multiplicity of causes and effects, we can never really know anything for sure, so, since all facts are really only opinions anyway, my subjective, fact-free opinions are the diversely opposite equals to your silly objective ‘facts!’ Whee!”
“So, obviously we all need a bigger group to protect us from ourselves and from other dangerous groups! Only groups should have rights, and all merely fallible and so potentially dangerous individual human citizens should at most be assigned some temporary, revokable privileges!”
Emocrats are knee-jerk Conformists who believe in us-versus-them voting-might-makes-right.
They live in the darkness because they hate the light and they hate the light because it reveals their sin. They would understand salvation if they stood in the light for a little while longer but their fear is powerful and won’t let them.
Well said Andrew.
Yes, the best of those I know are the one’s who understand their faults and failings, address them directly, ar e honest about them, and can admit they had been wrong.
The rest…?
Feh.
Of course they won’t admit they were wrong. That would require them to admit responsibility for their iniquity, and make amends to the best of their ability, if they were to have any chance of escaping hellfire.
In far too many cases, the only action they could take that would even begin to do so would be to repay the lives of the unborn children whose murder they openly celebrated, assisted and carried out (just for example) with their own.
Shame? They have no shame.
Well said, and a legitimate concern, but it gives too much credit to the typical Obama voter. These narcissists think they are the brightest bulbs in the room. They pride themselves on having shed their racist tendencies while they, with malice aforethought, practice “racism” against conservatives; those dumb, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, obstructionist bigots who’re “too stupid” to understand the “enlightened nuances of their “superior” anti-Capitalist, anti-American, anti-religious, anti-industrialization, pro-muslim, pro-globalist, virulently environmentist, world view.” And a vote for Obama reinforces this self delusional notion that they, and only they, have conquered the race issue.
Obama is not a “failed president,” he’s struggling mightily to overcome the monumental fiscal and foreign policy “disasters” created by George W. Bush, famous for lowering taxes on his rich friends, rewarding his evil buddies in the oil industry and, of course, the four word catch phrase, “Bush lied, people died.”
The Dems have been hammering at this theme since Bush was nominated in 1999 and all through his presidency steeping Obama’s supporters in this crap for over a decade. Most will go to the polls and pull the ‘D’ lever to avoid voting for what they’ve been indoctrinated to reflexively hate; a Republican, any Republican who will “take us back to the policies responsible” for the “disaster” that was the Bush years, the latter a blatant lie that leaves most thoughtful, regular, working Americans who lived through those years, scratching their heads, either confused or wondering how this escaped their attention.
Mention the Democrat initiative responsible for the CRA, William Jefferson Clinton’s strengthening of same and it’s role as the root cause of the so called “real estate bubble” that led to the current economic malaise and their eyes glaze over. It doesn’t register, nor fit their stock narrative, as is true with pretty much all of their assertions denying culpability. They must maintain the appearance of being blameless for all the negative consequences that result from their feckless, socialist, progressive, policy initiatives. Suppression or twisting of the facts is the name of the game. Joseph Goebbels would be proud at how the Democrats have perfected the art of establishing their lies as accepted “truths,” a process used most effectively when he was the head of Adolph Hitler’s Propaganda Ministry during WWII.
The so called “Libs,” those that have been indoctrinated by the intellectual elitists who dominate the faculties of America’s most prestigious universities and colleges have convinced those that now dominate the modern democratic party that “the end justifies the means.”
There may be a few among these that will hold their nose as they pull the lever to reelect Obama but most will do so proudly, convinced that all of the problems Obama “inherited” from the Bush 43 “disaster” will ultimately be solved if “The One” is given another four years.
Those who consider themselves Democrats of the old school may be an entirely different story. Many of these were likely swayed by their conviction that Obama best reflected their version of American democracy, a notion reinforced by the media hype surrounding his candidacy, its historical significance, the many, inspiring “promises” he made and the utter blackout concerning his very questionable background, the latter a fact that caused most who were paying close attention, likely all but a rare few politically affiliated with the republican party, hold their nose and vote for McCain.
McCain, remember, is the man who asserted at one of his campaign rallies that Americans had nothing to fear from Barack Hussein Obama, essentially giving many of those republicans, not sufficiently enthused with the thought of this elder, bi-partisan, “able to reach across the aisle,” liberal, that the younger, more virile, “very cool,” interracial unknown with the silver tongue might be the wisest choice, not to mention its historical significance. Hopefully, this trend will be reversed this November.
I was with you all the way – up until the time you quoted Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell. Really?
Remember, as Protector, Cromwell was as willing to behead his own “allies” on the Parliamentarian side for trying to rule by decree (the Long Parliament and Pride’s Purge) as he was Irish peasants, or Charles I. Whatever else he may have been, he was an equal-opportunity bastard.
Of course, if your country, or civilization, have reached the point where you need a Cromwell, you are in extremely deep schiesse.
cheers
eon
I’m sure there are a multitude of reasons why people devote themselves to leftism in it’s various forms. Certainly, shame for moral failings, or imagined moral failings, is one of them. But I would suggest the following needs to be considered, too:
I think it’s important to remember that “the left” is made up of two distinct types of people. The ideologues–True Believers, and the “useful idiots” (for want of a better term).
The True Believers oppose capitalism because competition and property rights are at its heart. They oppose competition because of their own feelings of inadequacy. They don’t want to compete for the things they feel desperate to have–status and comfort, because they have little faith in their ability to succeed. By committing to the Marxist view of life, society and economies, they feel they can have all these things on the cheap, simply by associating with the ’right’ people, going to the ’right’ schools and mouthing the accepted memes of the cult. They oppose property because their inability to compete means that any possessions they ever have must, of necessity, be confiscated from others.
Their distain for all other rights, particularly free speech (of other people, of course), and their easy use of bully tactics, is an expression of their need to control their economic and social environment–something they, again, feel powerless to achieve through their own talents and efforts.
The useful idiots, on the other hand, are generally Christian in their upbringing, but are weak in their faith. In their own way, they feel inadequate as well, but rather, inadequate as Christians. Feeling unable to live up to the standards of virtue defined in scripture, they seek a sense of their own virtue and righteousness through sympathy and support for socialist “charity”. That is, all forms of government welfare, the cost of which they feel insulated from, since the money required will be extracted from “the evil rich”. Thus, ‘salvation‘, and self-righteousness, attained on the cheap.
You forgot the third type. The arrogant elitists, who are utterly convinced that they are smarter, more moral, more intuitive, more “feeling”, and just undeniably better than everybody else, and are therefore “fit to rule”, and in fact are the only ones around who should have power.
Their argument with the rest of us isn’t that they feel inferior. It’s that in their not-so-humble opinion, we are too stupid to see how awesomely perfect they are, and give them the absolute power they deserve.
They are the leaders of the progressive movement. Just as those like them have been the leaders of every other totalitarian movement in human history.
Like their godfather, Plato, they don’t have “low self-esteem”. They just have utter and complete contempt for everybody else.
Or as it was summed up by a T-shirt worn by a guy I used to know with an over-inflated opinion of his brilliance, their motto is
They couldn’t do business without the other two types, though. Leaders need followers, even if all they’re good for is playing Red Army Sheep. (In WW2, the Red Army used to drive herds of sheep through German mine fields, for the obvious reason plus instant mutton.)
Then of course there is the fourth type, who show up in every totalitarian movement. The ones who don’t care about philosophies, exegesis, or a future Utopia. The ones like Che Guevara, Reynhardt Heydrich, and Pol Pot and his ilk.
The ones who just want to kill, destroy, and watch the world burn.
The leaders find them useful as well. Not only are they effective instruments of terror, but they can always be used as “sacrificial lambs” to curry favor with the populace. Let them loose, have them kill anybody you even think might be a leader of resistance to you- and then try them for crimes against the people and execute them for their “excesses”. Thereby gaining the goodwill of those you wish to rule with an iron fist. (Both Sun-Tzu and Machiavelli recommended this procedure.)
The real danger is that, sooner or later, the “born rulers” inevitably get bored with having absolute power. At that point, they tend to start acting like the killers. Several Roman emperors fell into this category, Tiberius and Caligula being the most obvious examples.
As the old song goes, “You know that kicks just keep gettin’ harder to find”. And when it’s someone with a lot of political power who is getting bored, especially someone who is convinced of their own innate perfection, their search for “kicks” can be deadly- to everyone else.
clear ether
eon
eon–
Yes, I’m well aware of your type 3, but I think it very plausible that the arrogance of type 3 may simply be the outward appearance, the bluster, of someone who thinks they have a right to be looked up to and applauded for everything they say (‘do’ is intentionally omitted) while all their failures (when they dare to act) should be excused or ignored. This is self-esteem without substance. That’s why so many in academia are lazy and mediocre. They gravitate to education, as it’s the ideal milieu for this type.
You’re probably correct about your type 4. However, they aren’t so much liberals or leftists as they are psycho/sociopaths or anarchists. In civilized society they would be in prisons for the criminally insane.
Very good commentary on society and people in general. Whenever we attempt to “justify” our sin(s), we fall into the trap that he describes. In short, sin unconfessed AND unrepented begets more sin and ultimately brings one to the point of “calling evil good and good evil.” There’s an old saying, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay.” This is what is happening with so many. May God have mercy on them.
My daughter, a lifelong Democrat, likes Media Matters and Fact Check
websites.
I, a lifelong Republican, like them as well.
What a sanctuary.
There is no mention in these websites of trillion dollar a year deficits
by our federal government, billion dollar deficits at state government
levels, and million dollar deficits at local government levels.
There is no mention of the twice the normal percentage rate of unemployment.
There is no mention of the constant barrage of new regulations by the
federal government that either require employers to act or to prohibit
them from acting.
There is no mention of forcing employees and employers to contract for
health insurance.
There is no mention of the doubling of gas prices at the pump in four years.
There is no mention of the federal government failing to produce a
budget for the past three years.
There is no mention of income tax rate increases, income tax reform.
There is no mention of impending bankruptcy of social security and
medicare, or of entitlement reform.
There is no mention of the impact of shutting down the federal forests
in Oregon.
Well, that’s not quite correct. These issues are mentioned. Something to
the effect that both Republicans and Democrats lie about them.
That’s why I like Media Matters, Fact Check, and Huffington Post.
They are a respite, a sanctuary.
Deficits, unemployment, gas prices? Hey, the only problem there is
somebody is lying.
What’s that other website? Oh ya, I think it’s called “Move on, nothing
to see here.”
Heh
Klavan, this post was hit out of the park! What great insight into the twisted thinking of those who will not see. I have long thought the same but never could put it this well. That it must be due to forcing oneself to live with the cognitive dissonance of being made in the image of God, yet choosing to live as if they were aminals, adults yet living as children, that makes leftists so maddeningly inconsistent, so very angry, so violently defensive. They shut down critical thinking lest the truth seep in. They accept and live with blatant logical and moral inconsistencies. No wonder conservatives are happier and healthier. One can only keep this beachball (the truth) submerged for so long.
Shame is only fear of the pain of public exposure; they only feel they have to avoid being proven wrong, not that they have to try to prove themselves right. This is why they are all about using the evasion tactics collectively known as the critical thinking logical fallacies all the time – you know, the deflective ad-hominem personal attacks, the distractive strawman red-herrings, and of course the immoral relativist’s favorite, the argumentum tu quoque – i.e:
“islam – or crime in general – isn’t evil because we all do it too! Whee!”
Isn’t it funny that people who actually have facts, rarely (if ever) seem to feel the need to indulge in fallacies?
Emocrats don’t use the higher, cognitive brain functions – they only emote. Too much reacting, not enough problem solving; the fruits of always buying into and re-selling pre-packaged victimology scenarios all the time; they find it much easier to blame others and do nothing, than to help them selves by accepting personal self-reliant responsibility.
These ever-Moving-Forward lemmings or Progressives, only ever really “progress” from the responsibility to become factually, objectively right, to the opinion that they have a subjective right to remain irresponsibly wrong!
Libs are idolaters who pretend to believe in group rights, never in individual responsibilities!
And their real problem is that they hate personal responsibility, so they avoid it by selling endless group-rights victimology scenarios instead. That way the cowards can pretend to be champions without accusing any individual criminals of their crimes!
And this is why they now pretend it should be “illegal” to accuse any criminals (say, the moslems) of their crimes, if doing so might “hurt the criminal’s feelings,” and so “make” them commit even more crimes!
This commentary, Mr. Klavin, should be directed at the media who have helped to hide the real Obama and have written his resume for three years. If we could get the media to feel any “shame” maybe they would be convicted in their conscience to change and tell the truth.
This is the kind of ‘light’ that exposes the underlying darkness and evil manifesting the motivations of useful idiots that were once called journalists.
Thank you Mr. Klavan
Re: “Shame:” Both liberals and muslims are simply masochists. They like slanderously inflicting pain on themselves, to “pre-emptively” prevent their “enemies” from ever successfully attacking them first, same as Muhammad did. They fear that fear causes pain, and that by causing pain, they can avoid the fear of it. (‘You need to give your head a shake!’ = ‘Fear the pain? Then pain the fear!’) But without being able to fear pain, one can never hope to think one’s way past the mistakes that cause the pain in the first place; thus, liberals and muslims are literally ‘psychopathics’ (“thought-killers”) who fear the pain of thinking in themselves and in all others, too, and so seek to end all painful thinking forever! Hence: “Submit – don’t think, just obey – or die!”
Similarly, why do racist liberals pretend swarthy violence is always the White man’s fault? Same “reason!”
Simply to maintain the illusion of control: if we caused the violence, we can always change ourselves to control it.
It’s a form of masochistic slander, attacking one’s self in order to pretend to pre-emptively prevent the “inevitable” attacks of others.
They also pretend the masochistic “contract” they’ve made with only them SELVES, somehow also always includes their victims: “Since I agreed to attack and inflict pain on my self as much as (and because) I attack you, then you’ve somehow thereby also agreed to let me attack you, too!” (After all, I already “pay” for my crimes against you, BY committing them)!
Evil parents inflict this on their children: “Since I do some good things for you, I’m also allowed to do some bad things TO you!” As if the mutually-agreed on, contractual consideration actually existed – when in fact of course it doesn’t. This is akin to a kidnapper justifying torturing their victim, by post-facto rationalizing: “Well, I had to pay to feed them, too!”
This explains that “stoic,” pained expression on so many dirty cops’ faces, as the shame of their crimes are exposed in public. “I decided to ‘wear it’ (the pain of the shame) in advance, knowing I’d feel bad for having committed my crimes, but hey, that’s just how the ends justifying the means works out in real life! Whee!” It’s what’s been historically known as false, Satanic “Pride.”
And the reason they will also often prefer to pretend to be externally directed is simply an other form of victim-blaming slander: They hold that only everyone else has the responsibility to be right, giving them (as pretended infantile delinquents) the right to be irresponsible. And they’ll rarely if ever give it up, because it’s a generalized, circular tautology at heart:
“Since you think you’re better than me, then it’s all YOUR fault! And, since it’s all your fault, then none if it’s MY fault, so I’m really still better than you! Whee!”
They also pretend the ends justify the means, when in reality, in fact the means really only define the end results: If and when you choose to lie, murder and rob others “to get ahead,” then, in the end, you’re not a “great success” – you’re still really only a lying, murdering thief!
Progressives only ever manage to “progress” from fear to greed, and liberals never liberate anybody else – they only ever endlessly take liberties!
Both liberals and their moslem brethren believe that Giving Up is a holy virtue, and so Submit to their own fears of pains, rather than investigate the mistakes and problems which cause those pains in the first place. So, having no hope for the future, they “seize the day” and party for today while maybe (hopefully have someone else) pay for it all tomorrow, if tomorrow ever comes!
Contrast that with conservatives, who DO have hope in faith in the future, and so will work today to pay for tomorrow!
And here I thought that liberals made the choice to politically exploit others for whatever they need to buy whatever they want, while preserving their self esteem with the liberal deceit that using a voting booth to profitably confiscate the paychecks of others is actually “philanthropy.”
Came across this commentary from politichickstv and I totally agree and I am thankful for the article with all of the information.
Excellent commentary except for the last quotation. Cromwell was a totalitarian bully himself, and was unable to grasp that he was in GREAT error. He caused nothing but disruption and despair in his wake…a vile little man. Other than that, you were spot on. Sad indeed. Also, there was hardly ANY press coverage of Pope Benedict’s incredible visit to Lebanon last week, and that 350,000 attended his last talk, which was so full of wisdom for ALL of us to heed, on the sanctity of ALL life.
Terrorists hold life cheap…even their own!
I have decided this election year to keep anything political off of my Facebook page, but articles like this make me want to change my mind. It is so insightful and important. I know many of my conservative friends would like it. But I want to stick to the decision that I made at the beginning of the campaign and not share it (although it doesn’t seem to stop others).
Thank God for Andrew Klavan, he is gift!
Cowardice loves company.
…and victimology is slander.