House of Eratosthenes

…[H]ow is it that anyone can look at the results of communism and socialism and not see them for the nightmares they are and always have been? After all, the evidence is in plain sight.

For all its claims to idealism, communism has invariably resulted in blood-thirsty regimes, whether in the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Cuba or East Germany. For the glories of socialism, you need only look to the riots now taking place in Greece. Tourists who have for years been attracted by the ruins of ancient Athens will now have even more reason to visit, although they will have to watch out for Molotov cocktails and tear gas.

Even here in America, which has generally been heading in the wrong direction ever since FDR adopted Norman Thomas’s socialist platform as his own, we have seen the pathetic results in our own streets. We see young dunderheads demonstrating for the end of capitalism, the destruction of corporations, and the forgiving of student loans, while simultaneously demanding high-paying jobs, free health insurance and the latest products devised by the brain of corporate billionaire Steve Jobs.

His problem, of course, is that he’s thinking too logically. The reference works to consult here can come from Dante, Milton, Pope Gregory I, some old Shazam! comic books…The Seven Deadly Sins. Pride, envy, greed, wrath, selfishness, sloth, injustice. It’s not any organized process of rational thought, it’s just plain sin.

Sin against proper thinking as well as sin against God and man. Liberals do a bang-up job going through the motions of thinking logically: “We tried tax cuts under Reagan and Bush, and they didn’t work!” “We tried [unregulated] capitalism, and it hasn’t worked!” “We TOLD you there were no weapons of mass destruction!” But seriously: When was the last time a liberal had his mind all made up about something, and some evidence came rolling in to give that liberal and his idea a good stiff whack in the nose, and the liberal changed his mind? With sufficient certainty and respect to this new evidence, that he’d take the time and trouble to alert other liberals to it as they entered into their rote monologues, if for no other reason than to save them from making asses out of themselves. Have you ever seen a liberal do that? No, you haven’t and you’re not going to. It isn’t in ’em.

Just ask them sometime. Have you ever been sure of something and then been forced to change your mind because of new evidence. Some might pretend to be former Republicans, and use your query as a launching pad into one of their favorite monologues, so you may have to refine the question — has new evidence ever persuaded you toward a less progressive thought than what you held previously? Over your entire lifetime? This one’s going to be a cul de sac. They’ll change the subject, or some Cheesecake Nazi will change the subject for them, or they’ll accuse you of being a bad person and pull a switcheroo, start waxing lyrically about how they’re better than you are. But you won’t get an answer.

See, this is why good people like Prelutsky end up frustrated. Liberals do not examine evidence, think on what it all means, and reach conclusions like normal people do. They reach the conclusions first. They do their thinking in terms of stories, and they write the stories backwards. The “dunderheads demonstrating for the end of capitalism” are a perfect example — they wrote the final line of their narrative first. Classic Robin Hood stuff, really; the ancient evil regime shall be overthrown, the treasury with all its vast riches will be busted wide open with the treasure spilled out in the streets for the desperate peasants to gather up. Then they’ll storm down the stairs of the dungeon, break down the heavy doors, shatter our chains with their swords and set us free.

But on the way, they’re asked what their protest is all about. Uh, derp derp derp — they have no answer. A few of them have muttered something about how now that they’ve assembled, they need to meet and figure out what the plan is…which makes everyone else go, uh, what?? And then you know what happened next. Someone came up with the idea that the tent cities were emblematic of this model society, this new world they were trying to build, and everyone else was going to see that some other way was possible. Obviously, not too much reasoned, rational thought going into that one. As the autumn gets nippier and wetter and sloppier, we in our comfy apartments and houses are supposed to settle in with our hot toddies and rum, turn on the six o’clock news, and see that camping is possible. That’ll bring capitalism to an end for sure…not exactly the best-thought-out of battle plans. And that’s before the vandalism, robberies and rapes started.

See, they think in narratives and that’s where they get into trouble. All these evil bad people are running things, this “ninety-nine percent” is being oppressed, we’re gonna overthrow this terrible system and put something in that’s equitable. Every time they have to fill in some more plot points beyond just those vitals, it’s like watching a Tyrannosaurus Rex doing push-ups, in that they lack the equipment needed just to get started. I remember awhile ago my son and I rode the light rail, and we ran into a genuine communist. Wanted to tell us all about Michael Moore speaking at some event in San Francisco…we both listened patiently, and I made a point not to ask any questions that wouldn’t be asked by someone truly sympathetic. So I had to ask a question when he got to the part about turning out all those horrible people running things now including President Obama. This was spring of ’09, when His Holy Eminence was still muttering platitudes with every speech about “hope” and “change” and “reversing the failed policies of the last eight years.” I was being sincere, I really thought this Michael Moore thing was a bleed-over from the elections of the previous autumn. And it wasn’t. So your movement doesn’t like Obama? I thought He was the agent of change you were talking about, didn’t you just have your revolution six months ago?

The commie had no idea what to say. I wasn’t being an antagonist who had figured him out; I was being a friendly, or acting like one anyhow, and I’d completely derailed his train of thought by asking a question about time. Our new young friend had become disciplined to think only in terms of snapshots. Narratives, dreams, and the passion of the here-and-now. Nothing else.

So, no. They don’t care how the Soviet Union turned out. That isn’t how they think. They pretend it is, but it isn’t.

Unrelated:

Now and then, Gun Grabber Feinstein actually does something rational…

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/11/29/should-military-be-allowed-detain-americans-indefinitely#ixzz1f8dLZGVG
- cylarz | 11/30/2011 @ 00:20

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“The Missing Links”Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

“The Missing Links”
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011