Saturday, April 30, 2005
Why The Right Is Skeptical Of The Left's "Arguments"
Earlier this year I had posted the following excerpt from "After Socialism" -- an essay found at The Objectivist Center.
I think it bears re-posting because it so clearly shows why so many of us "on the right" are so unconvinced by the cases made so often by the left. We know America has skeletons in its closet, and we know that capitalist society contains things like poverty and "injustice," but we also know the alternatives to free and open capitalist society. The alternatives that the left excuses and even praises are hardly positive replacements to the systems which have produced more progress, diverse expression, and overall human advancement than any prior periods of human history.
The left's polemic style is to dredge up endless lists of "crimes" committed by the capitalist west and America in particular. In the end, their tirades prove nothing beyond their own arrogance, hypocrisy, and inconsistency.
"...The cognitive behavior of Western intellectuals faced with the accomplishments of their own society, on the one hand, and with the socialist ideal and then the socialist reality, on the other, takes one's breath away. In the midst of unparalleled social mobility in the West, they cry "caste." In a society of munificent goods and services, they cry either "poverty" or "consumerism." In a society of ever richer, more varied, more productive, more self-defined, and more satisfying lives, they cry "alienation." In a society that has liberated women, racial minorities, religious minorities, and gays and lesbians to an extent that no one could have dreamed possible just fifty years ago, they cry "oppression." In a society of boundless private charity, they cry "avarice." In a society in which hundreds of millions have been free riders upon the risk, knowledge, and capital of others, they decry the "exploitation" of the free riders. In a society that broke, on behalf of merit, the seemingly eternal chains of station by birth, they cry "injustice." In the names of fantasy worlds and mystical perfections, they have closed themselves to the Western, liberal miracle of individual rights, individual responsibility, merit, and human satisfaction. Like Marx, they put words like "liberty" in quotation marks when these refer to the West..."
...And, they still don't "get" why we don't buy into their phony programs for, "liberation."
I think it bears re-posting because it so clearly shows why so many of us "on the right" are so unconvinced by the cases made so often by the left. We know America has skeletons in its closet, and we know that capitalist society contains things like poverty and "injustice," but we also know the alternatives to free and open capitalist society. The alternatives that the left excuses and even praises are hardly positive replacements to the systems which have produced more progress, diverse expression, and overall human advancement than any prior periods of human history.
The left's polemic style is to dredge up endless lists of "crimes" committed by the capitalist west and America in particular. In the end, their tirades prove nothing beyond their own arrogance, hypocrisy, and inconsistency.
"...The cognitive behavior of Western intellectuals faced with the accomplishments of their own society, on the one hand, and with the socialist ideal and then the socialist reality, on the other, takes one's breath away. In the midst of unparalleled social mobility in the West, they cry "caste." In a society of munificent goods and services, they cry either "poverty" or "consumerism." In a society of ever richer, more varied, more productive, more self-defined, and more satisfying lives, they cry "alienation." In a society that has liberated women, racial minorities, religious minorities, and gays and lesbians to an extent that no one could have dreamed possible just fifty years ago, they cry "oppression." In a society of boundless private charity, they cry "avarice." In a society in which hundreds of millions have been free riders upon the risk, knowledge, and capital of others, they decry the "exploitation" of the free riders. In a society that broke, on behalf of merit, the seemingly eternal chains of station by birth, they cry "injustice." In the names of fantasy worlds and mystical perfections, they have closed themselves to the Western, liberal miracle of individual rights, individual responsibility, merit, and human satisfaction. Like Marx, they put words like "liberty" in quotation marks when these refer to the West..."
...And, they still don't "get" why we don't buy into their phony programs for, "liberation."
Comments:
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What a pithy demolition of leftist cant. Wish I found this. Of course, the Noamsters will bleat: "But we're just trying to make things even better!" By throwing a monkey wrench into the system that improved human political and material life more than any other and advocating ideologies proven to have resulted in poverty and oppression?
Sigh.
As good as your quote is, there is no truth so self-evident or array of facts so unrefutable that leftist denseness can't manage to mock. Ah well, the dogs bark. The caravan travels on...
Sigh.
As good as your quote is, there is no truth so self-evident or array of facts so unrefutable that leftist denseness can't manage to mock. Ah well, the dogs bark. The caravan travels on...
# posted by 
: 8:04 PM
: 8:04 PM
Indeed, you are right.
The dogs barking don't bother me so much...it's those pigs squealing (with occasional footnotes). May the caravan travel in peace, and the food be reasonable tolerable...
C.G.
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The dogs barking don't bother me so much...it's those pigs squealing (with occasional footnotes). May the caravan travel in peace, and the food be reasonable tolerable...
C.G.
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