The negative reaction to Joe, here on thhis message board and elsewhere, reminds me why so-called “liberals” could more accurately be called “Welfare State Tories.” You can almost see them peering down at Joe through theur lorgnettes: “Why, those insolent peasants! Why don’t they just obediently pay their taxes, keep silent, and let their betters govern?”
Joe is William Graham Sumner’s Forgotten Man:
The type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. The radical vice of all these schemes, from a sociological point of view, is that C is not allowed a voice in the matter, and his position, character, and interests, as well as the ultimate effects on society through C’s interests, are entirely overlooked.* I call C the Forgotten Man. . . . [Modern-day "liberals"] are always under the dominion of the superstition of government, and forgetting that a government produces nothing at all, they leave out of sight the first fact to be remembered in all social discussion — that the state cannot get a cent for any man without taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has produced and saved it. This latter is the Forgotten Man.”
*Of course, in this case, Joe’s position, character, etc. are not being overlooked, but being attacked, in retaliation for Joe’s temerity in raising an objection to being “C” in Sumner’s forumlation, and in particular for being heretical enough to question the Obamessiah.
