Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Jazz Shaw has some thoughts on it over at HotAir. Included is this chestnut I recall from many decades past:
[Leftists] will frequently make the case that one of the defining characteristics of all strains of conservatism is “a deep, abiding fear that somebody, somewhere may be having a good time.”
Mmmm, hmmm. That one has aged rather poorly. It was certainly showing some haggard lines and other signs of wear & tear by the time President Barack “can’t turn our thermostats to 72 degrees” Obama was sworn in to office.
In fact, I would say over the decades, it has flipped around to something resembling the following: The defining characteristic of all strains of liberalism is that somewhere, the wrong people might be having a good time. Boy Scouts, stay-at-home Moms, gun owners, whites, males, straights, Jesus-worshipers, oil company executives, health care company executives, bank executives. These people are not feeling enough pain.
Jazz continues:
[T]imes have changed since I was a young man. Back then, men in their early twenties frequently were already busy with a job, mowing the lawn and working on getting a wife if they had not done so already. Going to college was more the exception than the rule, and young men graduating high school frequently went straight into the job market. We married younger, started families sooner, and generally expected to be somewhat “established” in life by the time we reached our early thirties.
Society has undergone a dramatic shift. Life in general is more expensive, particularly since we all have to have so many things which our parents never thought of. You’ve got to have a cell phone, a laptop, a high speed internet connection and 327 channels of cable television. (312 of which you will never watch.) It takes longer to save up the money to position yourself for marriage and two incomes are often required to maintain a modern lifestyle, so children are often put off until later in life.
How does this all translate into happiness, and its role in distinguishing conservatives from liberals?
It’s rather lost on me, since I don’t necessarily buy into the notion that the purpose of life is to be happy. I have often said here & there (too lazy, once again, to go digging into the archives) that conservatism in our modern, contemporary age could be best characterized as the possession, ownership and use of a long-term memory. The readiness, willingness and ability to say “We’ve tried that before; so unless there’s some meaningful difference between this time & last time, kindly keep it out of my way.” Liberalism is more like a circular trip on an amusement park silly-go-’round. History always began yesterday morning. So we haven’t tried this before. And if we did, and it failed, it must have been because…of something. Didn’t spend enough money on it. Wrong people were in charge. This time, it’s sure to work.
But happiness itself? It seems to me that both sides are in favor of happiness. They just define it differently. With conservatism it has more to do with a sustainable society. If I’m in a lousy rotten mood with a dour expression on my face, but my kid is assured of having all the options I’ve had plus something, then I’m “happy.” That remains the case even if he is going to spend a lifetime in a lousy rotten mood. If he’s on track to do more with his life than I ever could’ve with mine, then I’m “happy”; if his ever achieving as much as I did, starts to slip into the ether of lost dreams, then that makes me unhappy. The XBox 360 or whatever doesn’t figure into it.
With liberalism, “happiness” seems to have something to do with your state of mind when you’re inclined to re-elect and re-elect your (democrat) representative generation after generation after generation, until he’s in his nineties. Which usually translates to you enjoying access to something of value that you did not earn.
Even if that situation — as we have been reminded this past week with the “looming government shutdown — is demonstrably unsustainable. If Rome is burning or the barbarians are at the gate, but you’re still getting your lucre, then you’re “happy.”
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When has liberalism ever been about “happiness?” Even Sixties flower-power goofs were more rigidly orthodox than the “square” society they were supposedly rebelling against.
Leftists are like the brahmins in Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals, masochistically getting off by constantly imposing ever-stricter rules on themselves (and, of course, on us).
- Severian | 04/11/2011 @ 14:02Somebody, somewhere might be enjoying a full on Coca Cola, sugar, caffeine and all, along with a pack of Hostess Sno Balls … God forbid it’s a kid at school.
- philmon | 04/13/2011 @ 18:28