Liberalism and EVERY Left-leaning movement (Communism, Socialism, Communalism), hereon called “Leftism,” is a LIE because it is itself based on a lie.
Leftism is purportedly based on the ideal of selfLESSness and it claims to seek to SERVE and HELP others, especially the “poor and downtrodden,” but it is not that at all.
Selflessness requires that we seek no gain and especially no power or control for ourselves, that we, in fact, truly elevate others before and over ourselves. SELFLESSNESS is very hard, Leftism/Liberalism is very easy.
Contemporary American Liberalism/Leftism is a movement that seeks power and control over others. It doesn’t SERVE others, it seeks to MAKE others “good” by its own definition of the term “good.” Liberals feel superior to others, and not merely “morally superior,” but more intelligent, more kind and generally “better people.”
That is why the Left has always attracted the most misanthropic people among us, from Hitler, perhaps whose most disgusting sentiments were uttered on May 1st, 1927 when he said, "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions." - Adolf Hitler
(Speech of May 1, 1927. Quoted by Toland, 1976, p. 306)
Sure, the mass murder and the racial purity of Hitler’s regime were as horrific as the mass murder and class-hatred endorsed by other leading Leftists of his day (Mao and Stalin, for instance), but THESE sentiments alone condemn Hitler as a repugnant monster, the worst kind of misanthrope – the “anti-Capitalist.” The anti-Capitalist stands primarily against the freedom of human action, primarily out of envy and often a feeling of meaningless on his part, but his hatred is fueled by the free action of others and his hatred for other people’s success.
To this day, such are the kinds of people who populate the precincts of the far-Left.
Environmentalism: Covert Misanthropy
Today, there is less tolerance for grandiose ideas like “equality,” as it’s been misused so many times throughout history. Naïve idealism has also run its course. Such people are generally not taken seriously, no matter how much the media may exalt them.
Environmentalism has provided a much needed cover for the seething misanthrope of this age.
Unlike the Conservation movement that has always fought for people to be “good stewards of the earth,” the environmental movement has always provided sanctuary for those who’d seek to rationalize their misanthropy (their hatred for mankind) by claiming that all they sought was to put nature, or the earth above or ahead of man’s selfish wants.
From **** who argued in favor of forcibly reducing human populations to “save the earth” to vile racial bigots and wild conspiracy kooks, like Van Jones, the environmentalist movement has always welcomed the most misanthropic and hate-filled fringe among us.
What the environmentalist movement has done is to allow for a little more honesty from the Left. It’s allowed those so inclined to openly indulge in their misanthropic and anti-human impulses under the “respectable guise” of “loving the earth.” FINALLY the haters are free to espouse their anti-human hatred!
Environmentalism’s Poor Antecedent: Ludditism
Before environmentalism, the prevailing anti-Capitalist and anti-human doctrine was Ludditism – the anti-industrial dogma from which modern-day environmentalism sprang.
The Luddites fought industrialization as “impoverishing and discounting” workers and transforming the bucolic landscape into a forest of smoke stacks.
But the benefits of industrialization in terms of increased comforts and prosperity doomed that movement from gaining much ground except among the most ardent of misanthropic zealots.
Equality Versus Liberty/Freedom
Inequality is the natural state of all mankind. That much is obvious and undeniable. All one needs do is look around and observe that people are naturally born with DIFFERENT and VARYING abilities and qualities, some are far better looking, some as far smarter, others are incredibly clever and some seem to have no discernable marketable skills.
In that regard, EQUALITY is ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE and in all cases, the enemy of individual LIBERTY. Free people are NOT equal.
People born with varying skills and varying will never be equal. The unskilled and less motivated will NEVER produce as much as the highly skilled and motivated individual.
Leftism sees that natural disparity in abilities and production to be a flaw that must be overcome, while FREEDOM-lovers revel in those kinds of differences and disparities between individuals.
ALL of America’s Founders were FREEDOM-lovers. ALL of them were individualists who saw in government a tendency to overreach and ultimately oppress and suppress the governed, which is why they shackled the U.S. government with the chains of the Bill of Rights.
Even in this country’s Declaration of Independence, the term “happiness” is defined as PROPERTY in the Federalist Papers.
The private ownership of property is a prerequisite of individual LIBERTY a/k/a FREEDOM.
Leftists, like Noam Chomsky (pictured above), argue that, “So long as there is the private ownership of property, there will be gross inequities between people and the suffering of the many for the benefit of the few.”
The FIRST part of Chomsky’s statement is true. So long as there is private property, people will remain largely free and unequal, BUT those inequities are based on productivity and value. Those who create the most benefit for others, also reap the most personal benefit for themselves. That’s what motivates producers to produce and gives the less motivated, something to aspire to, which spurns further productivity.
So, those who produce less and accrue less, are not “suffering,” they’re making a conscious, deliberate choice to work/produce less, in effect, trading LESS productivity or work, for MORE time.
So, just as the most productive among us tend to be resource (ie. Money) rich and time poor, the less productive tend to be time rich and resource poor. In the end it all depends upon perspective. In a very real sense, it’s all relative, so Chomsky is wrong about “the many suffering for the benefit of a few.” That doesn’t happen in any free society, where private property rights are honored and the market-based economy is the economy of choice.
Personal Hubris and Liberalism – the Helper is ALWAYS Look DOWN on Those He “HELPS”
One of the attractions Leftism has for control-freaks and others who seek power over their fellow men is its covering their lust for power and control behind the lie of selfless dedication to “serving the people.”
Leftists always present themselves as “helpers,” but the helper is always looking DOWN upon those he/she seeks to help...and THAT is the essence of the hubris of Leftism – the “helper” always looking down on the hapless, helpless “helpees.”
This alone reduces the “selfless” allure of the philosophy of the Left to nothing more than a vile con.
The Anti-Freedom Ethos
Today, as in the past, anti-freedom zealots use the banner of “the public good” and “equality” to trump and undermine freedom, but FREE people are NOT equal and when people ARE equal, they are NEVER free!
America’s Founders enshrined private property rights in America and made individual Liberty, which is incompatible with ANY form of Leftism. “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness/property” clearly meant, you had the right to OWN your own life and make your own way in this world, clearly on your own efforts. That you had the right to INDIVIDUAL liberty – the right to own and exchange property without any outside coercion or interference, AND you had the right to PURSUE your own PROPERTY/happiness, although no one had the right to pursue your own success and your own development, but NOT any guarantee that you will attain or achieve what you want.
There is no debate about any of that, even we’ve veered vary far away from that standard (and to our detriment), THAT remains the essence of Americanism.
Leftism is purportedly based on the ideal of selfLESSness and it claims to seek to SERVE and HELP others, especially the “poor and downtrodden,” but it is not that at all.
Selflessness requires that we seek no gain and especially no power or control for ourselves, that we, in fact, truly elevate others before and over ourselves. SELFLESSNESS is very hard, Leftism/Liberalism is very easy.
Contemporary American Liberalism/Leftism is a movement that seeks power and control over others. It doesn’t SERVE others, it seeks to MAKE others “good” by its own definition of the term “good.” Liberals feel superior to others, and not merely “morally superior,” but more intelligent, more kind and generally “better people.”
That is why the Left has always attracted the most misanthropic people among us, from Hitler, perhaps whose most disgusting sentiments were uttered on May 1st, 1927 when he said, "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions." - Adolf Hitler
(Speech of May 1, 1927. Quoted by Toland, 1976, p. 306)
Sure, the mass murder and the racial purity of Hitler’s regime were as horrific as the mass murder and class-hatred endorsed by other leading Leftists of his day (Mao and Stalin, for instance), but THESE sentiments alone condemn Hitler as a repugnant monster, the worst kind of misanthrope – the “anti-Capitalist.” The anti-Capitalist stands primarily against the freedom of human action, primarily out of envy and often a feeling of meaningless on his part, but his hatred is fueled by the free action of others and his hatred for other people’s success.
To this day, such are the kinds of people who populate the precincts of the far-Left.
Environmentalism: Covert Misanthropy
Today, there is less tolerance for grandiose ideas like “equality,” as it’s been misused so many times throughout history. Naïve idealism has also run its course. Such people are generally not taken seriously, no matter how much the media may exalt them.
Environmentalism has provided a much needed cover for the seething misanthrope of this age.
Unlike the Conservation movement that has always fought for people to be “good stewards of the earth,” the environmental movement has always provided sanctuary for those who’d seek to rationalize their misanthropy (their hatred for mankind) by claiming that all they sought was to put nature, or the earth above or ahead of man’s selfish wants.
From **** who argued in favor of forcibly reducing human populations to “save the earth” to vile racial bigots and wild conspiracy kooks, like Van Jones, the environmentalist movement has always welcomed the most misanthropic and hate-filled fringe among us.
What the environmentalist movement has done is to allow for a little more honesty from the Left. It’s allowed those so inclined to openly indulge in their misanthropic and anti-human impulses under the “respectable guise” of “loving the earth.” FINALLY the haters are free to espouse their anti-human hatred!
Environmentalism’s Poor Antecedent: Ludditism
Before environmentalism, the prevailing anti-Capitalist and anti-human doctrine was Ludditism – the anti-industrial dogma from which modern-day environmentalism sprang.
The Luddites fought industrialization as “impoverishing and discounting” workers and transforming the bucolic landscape into a forest of smoke stacks.
But the benefits of industrialization in terms of increased comforts and prosperity doomed that movement from gaining much ground except among the most ardent of misanthropic zealots.
Equality Versus Liberty/Freedom
Inequality is the natural state of all mankind. That much is obvious and undeniable. All one needs do is look around and observe that people are naturally born with DIFFERENT and VARYING abilities and qualities, some are far better looking, some as far smarter, others are incredibly clever and some seem to have no discernable marketable skills.
In that regard, EQUALITY is ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE and in all cases, the enemy of individual LIBERTY. Free people are NOT equal.
People born with varying skills and varying will never be equal. The unskilled and less motivated will NEVER produce as much as the highly skilled and motivated individual.
Leftism sees that natural disparity in abilities and production to be a flaw that must be overcome, while FREEDOM-lovers revel in those kinds of differences and disparities between individuals.
ALL of America’s Founders were FREEDOM-lovers. ALL of them were individualists who saw in government a tendency to overreach and ultimately oppress and suppress the governed, which is why they shackled the U.S. government with the chains of the Bill of Rights.
Even in this country’s Declaration of Independence, the term “happiness” is defined as PROPERTY in the Federalist Papers.
The private ownership of property is a prerequisite of individual LIBERTY a/k/a FREEDOM.
Leftists, like Noam Chomsky (pictured above), argue that, “So long as there is the private ownership of property, there will be gross inequities between people and the suffering of the many for the benefit of the few.”
The FIRST part of Chomsky’s statement is true. So long as there is private property, people will remain largely free and unequal, BUT those inequities are based on productivity and value. Those who create the most benefit for others, also reap the most personal benefit for themselves. That’s what motivates producers to produce and gives the less motivated, something to aspire to, which spurns further productivity.
So, those who produce less and accrue less, are not “suffering,” they’re making a conscious, deliberate choice to work/produce less, in effect, trading LESS productivity or work, for MORE time.
So, just as the most productive among us tend to be resource (ie. Money) rich and time poor, the less productive tend to be time rich and resource poor. In the end it all depends upon perspective. In a very real sense, it’s all relative, so Chomsky is wrong about “the many suffering for the benefit of a few.” That doesn’t happen in any free society, where private property rights are honored and the market-based economy is the economy of choice.
Personal Hubris and Liberalism – the Helper is ALWAYS Look DOWN on Those He “HELPS”
One of the attractions Leftism has for control-freaks and others who seek power over their fellow men is its covering their lust for power and control behind the lie of selfless dedication to “serving the people.”
Leftists always present themselves as “helpers,” but the helper is always looking DOWN upon those he/she seeks to help...and THAT is the essence of the hubris of Leftism – the “helper” always looking down on the hapless, helpless “helpees.”
This alone reduces the “selfless” allure of the philosophy of the Left to nothing more than a vile con.
The Anti-Freedom Ethos
Today, as in the past, anti-freedom zealots use the banner of “the public good” and “equality” to trump and undermine freedom, but FREE people are NOT equal and when people ARE equal, they are NEVER free!
America’s Founders enshrined private property rights in America and made individual Liberty, which is incompatible with ANY form of Leftism. “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness/property” clearly meant, you had the right to OWN your own life and make your own way in this world, clearly on your own efforts. That you had the right to INDIVIDUAL liberty – the right to own and exchange property without any outside coercion or interference, AND you had the right to PURSUE your own PROPERTY/happiness, although no one had the right to pursue your own success and your own development, but NOT any guarantee that you will attain or achieve what you want.
There is no debate about any of that, even we’ve veered vary far away from that standard (and to our detriment), THAT remains the essence of Americanism.
I don't think I have read a more thorough, spot-on analysis of the politics and real objectives of the Left. A superlative essay!
ReplyDeleteThanks SF.....it's something I've been thinking a lot about lately and the more I thought about why I reviled most Leftists and the entire Leftist/Liberal/socialist ethos - that is rooted in a blatant LIE, the Leftist as "helper," instead of the small-minded control freak he/she really is.
ReplyDeleteI second Skunky's review. Damn good work, JMK! :)
ReplyDeleteTHANKS Seane-Anna!
ReplyDeleteexcellent essay, jmk! what clear and thoughtful writing, and all points well-stated. the people that need to really read this never will. and even if they do read it, they will play dumb and dismissive.
ReplyDeletea few months ago a liberal friend i knew in grade school found me through facebook. initially we were happy to find each other. but eventually our politics came up. i suggested that we leave our politics out of conversations. but he was so filled with such loathing towards the right and resentment of my political choices, he could not let it rest. inevitably our brief reunion of friendship ended.
on reflection i saw, in our phone conversations, he did more talking than i. his arguments were so irrational and nonsensical, there was rarely a need for me to respond. i guess my point is, we all seem to be at a stalemate.
and this essay of yours clearly explains why. well done, jmk.
Maria, it seems we are so divided ideologically oday that we seem teetering on the virge of civil war.
ReplyDeleteShould the left lose Congress in 2010, you can expect a HUGE wave of vile resentment from that side.
You're riht that such people are rarely influenced by the facts, and they are prone to the worst kinds of smears.
The 9-11 Truther movement, like the faux "anti-war" movement is a liberal smear, first and foremost.
Honestly, I can see no good outcome in this. I do pray for one, but I don't expect it.