House of Eratosthenes

Bill Maher’s use of the word “liberal” in this clip — which is an unorthodox use, although it should not be — further stimulated some thoughts I’ve been having about the proper role of government over the last few months. Although the original ignition point came when I saw the very first blows being traded between establishment Republicans and the Tea Party types, in what is surely a ramp-up to the 2016 elections.

Continuing this thinking a bit further, I took to the Hello Kitty of Blogging and pointed out…

“Get (and keep) religion out of government.” Sounds good, but I have a question: How come it continues to be necessary for someone to say so? What is this force that blends religion together with government?

My observation is that religion, practiced the way it should be practiced, really hasn’t got anything to do with government, practiced the way IT should be practiced. The two are literally about two different worlds. This imbroglio about same-sex marriage is a perfect example of what I’m noticing: What happened, that we now need to be concerned with how government defines marriage? Something. It didn’t start out that way. And the things that happened, were not good things.

And my conclusion is: Government, practiced the way it should NOT be practiced, is exactly the same as religion, practiced the way IT should not be practiced. Bad religion and bad government share the same goal, differing only in tactics, and this is what blends them together: To socially elevate a targeted class, clique or individual, above everyone else.

Is it fair to shoehorn these two visions into the terms “left wing” and “right wing,” at least in the United States? Having read all of the opinions available to me about it, including the Wikipedia entry, I’ve come to the conclusion: Yeah, sure, whatever. There is no contradictory definition that’s actually stuck.

The terms left-wing and right-wing are widely used in the United States but, as on the global level, there is no firm consensus about their meaning. The only aspect that is generally agreed upon is that they are the defining opposites of the United States political spectrum. Left and right in the U.S. are generally associated with liberal and conservative respectively, although the meanings of the two sets of terms do not entirely coincide. Depending on the political affiliation of the individual using them, these terms can be spoken with varying implications.
:
In general, the term left-wing is understood to imply a commitment to egalitarianism, support for social policies that favor the working class, and multiculturalism…
:
In general, right-wing implies a commitment to conservative Christian values, support for a free-market system, and traditional family values…

This is mostly, consistent with the understanding that “left wing” involves an elevation of selected persons and classes, whereas “right wing” does not — if anything, it involves an elevation of certain actions and a derogation of certain other actions.

The hitch in the giddyup is this business about the left-wing and “a commitment to egalitarianism.” It isn’t hard to resolve this, though: It is a promise on which they haven’t been delivering. In fact, you’ll find when left-wingers accuse right-wingers of this non-egalitarian vision, the inequality, the discrimination, the “ism” — if you take the time to really look into it, you’ll find the right-winger is being accused of “discrimination” because he isn’t discriminating the way the left-winger wants him to discriminate.

So when all’s said & done, the distinction holds. Left-wing policies, in achievement as well as in intent, foment inequality, castes, and special privileges. To the extent “right wing” means anything at all in the US of A in Anno Domini Twenty Fifteen, it is a mild to severe reactionary refusal to recognize these castes. No thank you, I don’t think I want Kathleen Sebelius making my health care decisions for me. No, I don’t want to buy carbon offset vouchers and send my money into some black hole to be managed by perfect strangers when I light my house. No, actually, I have listened to the “experts” on “global warming” and I’ve concluded they’re full of crap; no, I think I’d prefer not to forget about all the failed predictions they’ve made.

There are two visions for government here and they’re both quite old. In fact, one of the things that has impressed me the most about history of civilizations, especially recent, industrial-age history, is that governments tend to do this shift over time from the one, to the other. Ours is no different. They start off providing the minimal essentials of civilization, the laws against murder, theft and harm, the redress of grievances, etc. Then they do this shift: There seems to be a lot of power lying around, unused, how can I/we use this to elevate my/our standing in the community?

Then there follows a lust for power. It starts off as a quest for greater influence; anybody participating in a decision making process within a group, particularly a group that involves multiple competing interests, is going to want greater influence. It’s only natural. But influence is not power. I might even go so far as to argue they have an oppositional relationship with each other: Influence has to do with the actions of people who still have choices they can make. Power has to do with the actions of people who have been “liberated” from their choices. If I have power over you, that must mean I can make you do things even if you don’t want to do them. If my power doesn’t extend into the realm of making you do things you otherwise wouldn’t do, “power” isn’t really the right word.

The point is, we have this tipping-point, within each participant, where they stop trying to acquire influence and start trying to acquire power. President Obama is past that, it seems to me; His influence is clearly on the wane, and it doesn’t seem to bother Him even a tiny bit, but He sure seems to like acting out this little routine He’s got going where He “decides” on this, that, or some other thing…and that’s it. Whatever anybody else has to say about it, is reduced to a nullity. It’s been an impressive experience watching Him go through this transformation, but it isn’t just Him doing it. And when enough of the influencers give up on acquiring influence, and shift to the acquisition of power, it has an effect on the government as a whole. This endeavor to acquire more power, for those in a position of acquiring it, becomes a newer, displacing purpose.

So when left-wingers explain they are for progress and going “forward,” and their opponents the right-wingers are about resisting this “progress,” interpreting it this way you can see they’re quite correct. These civilizations are rather like harvested fruit — starting out delicious and beautiful, ending up colorless, decayed, foul, unfit for anything but compost. It is a depressing thought to entertain that perhaps this transition is unavoidable, the only question outstanding being how soon. The left wants it to happen faster, the right wants it to happen more slowly, or not at all.

Now that we have these intra-factional shouting matches about Establishment vs. Tea Party, I’m seeing this proven again and again, with increasing frequency and intensity. The “right wing” within the Republican party is seeing the decay happening, looking for ways to forestall it, hopefully get back to the point where we could decide things for ourselves — and get back to operating our businesses, building our services and products, helping others, doing the things that made the country great in the first place. The “moderates,” on the other hand, are losing the characteristics that had distinguished them from the “left wing,” to the point it’s hard to tell those two apart. They’re both hung up on this idea that so-and-so is uniquely-qualified to rise above the rest of the country, and lead it into…well…there’s the part that furrows the brow with concern, and maybe a bit of distress. They won’t say what. They want to monologue away endlessly about the who, but not the what, the why, or how it’s all gonna work. Certainly, not about any benchmarks or milestones by which the Grand Master Plan can be subsequently evaluated, with its planners, architects and overseers held accountable for the results.

The hitch in the giddyup is this business about the left-wing and “a commitment to egalitarianism.” It isn’t hard to resolve this, though: It is a promise on which they haven’t been delivering.

I don’t think it’s so much that they haven’t been delivering; it’s that those three things are incompatible. I can only think of a single policy, for instance, that would “favor the working class” without actively disfavoring the bourgeoisie — lower taxes. And we know the Left would never, ever agree to that, as Pharaoh Choomenkamen has explicitly declared.

Multiculturalism and egalitariansim could work, if “multiculturalism” really meant what it said — if, that is, if white Christians got the same respect and toleration non-whites non-Christians get. In practice, of course, “multiculturalism” just means anti-white racism.

At bottom, this is why I’m a conservative. I don’t have to conveniently forget one half of my core beliefs when discussing the other half.
- Severian | 01/10/2015 @ 11:11

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Memo For File CXCIISaturday, January 10th, 2015

Memo For File CXCII
Saturday, January 10th, 2015