“Liberals” are loath to face realities like these:
Handouts to the homeless encourage homelessness.
Disability benefits yield more “disabled” persons.
Softer punishments mean more crime.
Higher tax rates stunt economic growth …. the list is almost endless.
The “liberal” program is the triumph of hope over common sense. It is and always has been a recipe for social and economic disaster.
Yes, it is. But the real part of science is the never-ending search for truth about the “natural” world. Scientific “knowledge” is always provisional.
The flower children — young and old — who display “science is real” posters have it exactly backwards. They believe that science consists of provisional knowledge, and when that “knowledge” matches their prejudices the search for truth is at an end.
Provisional knowledge is valuable in some instances — building bridges and airplanes, for example. But bridges and airplanes are (or should be) built by allowing for error, and a lot of it.
The fate of most human endeavors is that they reach a peak of attainment, which is then followed by a decline due to excess on the one hand and neglect on the other hand. “Classical” music is a favorite example of mine. The form peaked around the turn of the 20th century, then went over the top into — variously — cacophony, atonality, and arrythmic confusion. The best of contemporary “classical” music is merely derivative of the form as it was at its peak.
So it is with myriad endeavors, the most important of which is the endeavor of rational inquiry. In the West, rational inquiry seems to have peaked in the early 1960s. I needn’t remind you of the subsequent descent: mobs, riots, the din of “entertainment”, quasi-religious movements from hippiedom to “climate change”, and on and on into the night.
It all makes me glad that I came of age in the 1950s, when civilized discourse was still possible and scientists were dedicated to the pursuit of truth, not the projection of their hopes, fears, and feelings.
Alger Hiss
The Rosenbergs
Anita Hill
Tawana Brawley
Christine Blasey Ford
Jussie Smollett
And many more … all leftists or tools of the left.
Nothing tops strident, anti-male rhetoric for sheer sexism. A woman who believes that men are unnecessary is the intellectual equivalent of the arch-environmentalist who would eradicate mankind (himself excluded no doubt) to “save” the planet. Get a real job.
It seeks to “liberate” mankind by obliterating the very rules of behavior than enable mutually beneficial coexistence based on trust, respect, and forbearance.
Libertarianism is therefore akin to leftism, but naively so. Leftists stand ready to pick up the pieces after they have destroyed the social and economic fabric of civilization. Libertarians will simply wander around in a daze, wondering what happened to the bulwarks of their comfortable existence — until they are liquidated by leftists.
Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of science and disciplines that pretend to be scientific (e.g., economics) will appreciate the shallowness and inaccuracy of humans’ “knowledge” of nature and human nature — from the farthest galaxies to our own psyches. Anyone, that is, but a pretentious “scientist” or an over-educated ignoramus.
When your opponent aims to win, at all costs (especially yours), the rules go by the boards. If you obey them, he will not. And if he wins, you can be sure that he will discard them (in your case, at least). The only way to preserve the rules of fair play (constitutionalism, due process, etc.) is to win. And then, by all means, enforce the rules, especially those that punish treachery.
The envious whiner, know-nothing academic, mindless mediacrat, and pandering politician mistake ambition, accomplishment, and reward for “greed”. Unless, of course, it’s the ambition, accomplishment, and reward of the envious whiner, know-nothing academic, mindless mediacrat, and pandering politician.
Informed consistency is the angel of productive minds.
“Democratic socialism” means rule by the mob (demos) for the purpose of expropriating the wealth and earnings of others. “Social justice” — the excuse for “democratic socialism” — is a slippery slogan that appeals to the envious and ignorant. It enables the power-mad to do great harm to the social and economic fabric of the nation.
The harm to the social fabric has been done, and probably can’t be undone. The economic fabric has suffered great but not irreversible harm, which can still be undone — but not if the central government succumbs to the siren call of “social justice” and the superficial appeal of “democratic socialism”.
There are three types of rule:
1. Social norms that arise from and serve voluntary, beneficial social and economic intercourse. (The Golden Rule is a general statement of such a norm.)
2. State-enforced rules that apply social norms (e.g., the prohibition of murder, theft, battery, etc.)
3. State-enforced rules that are contrived to serve particular interests, including but far from limited to the power-lust of state actors. Such rules go far beyond the scope of social norms, and often contravene and subvert them. (These rules are contrived in accordance with meta-rules that govern the operations of the state.)
A short list:
Long commercial breaks.
Too many players on a team, especially pitchers.
Too many pitching changes.
Small playing fields.
Butterfly-net gloves.
Loud music (sic) and exploding scoreboards.
Too many young kids in the stands.
Roaming concessionaires clogging aisles and blocking views.
Hairy players.
Interviews with players (especially hairy ones).
Interviews with managers and coaches.
More than one announcer in the booth.
Night games.
Small strike zones.
While awaiting the return of my wife to our car in a grocery-store parking lot, I observed a few of the myriad instances of the thoughtlessness that is endemic in the public behavior of Americans. In particular, I noted the abject failure of drivers (usually women) to park parallel to the side-lines of a space and approximately midway between them. That behavior reminded me of other types of behavior that cause confusion and chaos on America’s highways and by-ways.
It seems to me that the problem would soon be cured by the swift and certain administration of justice; for example:
Failure to park as described above, even in a private parking lot: punishable by a fine of $1,000 for each violation.
Failure to move one’s automobile forward within a centisecond after a light turns green: punishable by a fine of $1,000 for each violation. If the driver of an automobile fails to move his car forward within the prescribed length of time, said driver is responsible for any damage to the rear of said automobile.
Failure to move forward into an intersection, without impeding oncoming traffic, when a light is green, and then completing one’s left turn when oncoming traffic has cleared: punishable by a fine of $1,000 for each violation.
Driving in a passing lane when one is not passing: punishable by 1 day in jail. The sentence rises by 1 day in jail for each successive violation. The guilty driver has no legal recourse if his automobile is rear-ended by another vehicle.
Passing on the right, except when the passing lane is blocked by a non-passing vehicle: punishable by 1 week in jail. The sentence rises by 1 week for each successive violation.
Running a red light: punishable by a year in jail. The sentence rises by a year for each successive violation.
In no instance will a guilty party be allowed bail, time off for good behavior, or parole.
So-called intellectuals tend to inhabit the left end of the political spectrum. Inasmuch as the spectrum is really a circle, it means that they are at the ultra-statist pole, in proximity to their arch-enemies of the extreme right. All that separates these supposed extremes are differences about the uses to which the state’s power should be put. They are united in their fervent belief that it should be used to force their aims on the populace.
Why do so-called intellectuals adhere to statism? Because they believe (often without justification) that they are smarter than the rest of us. That belief breeds arrogance. Arrogance begets the belief that the details of social and economic intercourse can and should be centrally directed, according to master plans that so-called intellectuals concoct. They concoct those plans in the badly mistaken belief that such produce better outcomes than those tested in the acid of voluntary social and economic intercourse.
“Intellectuals” aren’t smart enough to make the rest of us better off. They are only “smart” enough — and arrogant enough — to make the rest of us worse off.
My new wife and I ventured into the cathedral on a Sunday evening in June 1964. There was no queue and no entrance fee, just an old crone sitting by the poor box to acknowledge our donation. The stunning beauty of the interior was heightened by a choir singing vespers. Our everlasting memories of Notre Dame are indelibly beautiful and haunting.
Conservatives (or some of them) correctly invoke Hitler when referring to leftists because leftism is fascism.
Leftists wrongly invoke Hitler when referring to conservatives because they (leftists) are deluded about the nature of conservatism. Further, they (leftists), in a bizarre twist of reality, identify resistance to their fascistic program as fascistic. Leftism, in sum, is delusional cynicism.
Economists put a lot of stock in the concept of time-preference. Certainly, time-preference has a lot to do with the setting of interest rates. But, as any respectable economist should admit, there no “interest rate” but a plethora of them, including many, many of them that aren’t captured by market activity.
In any event, time-preference is evanescent. It can even reverse itself over time. The time-preference for death is low, or even negative, when one is young. But it can be infinitely positive when one is suffering — at any age. In general, however, it is safe to say that it rises with age, perhaps sharply toward the end of one’s life.
Roughly in chronological order.
Protective tariffs and regulations
Welfare
Municipal transit authorities
Crop subsidies
Social Security
Medicare
Medicaid
Affirmative action
Disability and veterans’ preferences
Student loan subsidies
Subsidies for sports facilities, industrial relocation, housing developments
Low-income mortgage subsidies
Earned-income tax credit
Prescription drug coverage (Medicare Part D)
Obamacare (i.e., Medicare/Medicaid expansion)
Bank bailouts
There’s a lot more, but you get the idea.
Conservatism, properly understood, is the polar opposite of extremism. Conservatism is the practice of observing and defending those time-tested social norms that bind people through mutual trust, respect, and forbearance. Extremism is the destruction of those norms by using the vast power of the state and the academic-media-information technology complex.
Politics and Prosperity 