Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
So I'm a happy paying lurker here at Ricochet. I'm an under-employed freelance Content Strategist and today is my 41st Birthday. I'm no expert, don't have the chops to compete with the rest of this august congress of readers and posters, nor do I seek to compete else-wise. This struck me as interesting
So I saw this link from Hotair about "Occupy Harvard," and clicked it for a laugh. I mean "Occupy Harvard?" What could better typify Limo Liberal, Trustifarian, Punk? Instead, I found the piece to be a bit of a revelation. His conceit is a hypothetical speech a Harvard student should give his wealthy left-wing parents on Thanksgiving break. Lee's message is "You are phony liberals without the real class grit to understand." Or something.
However, I think he hits a nice collection of nerves with this longish quote:
"The man making $60,000 a year who can’t afford health benefits for his family looks at you, the liberal elite—sorry, guys, but let’s call a spade a spade—and sees that the fix is always in. You went to the same private schools. You graduated from the same handful of Ivy League universities. You live in the same exclusive urban neighborhoods, and you summer in the same exclusive enclaves...
The man you think is a “sucker” because he votes for Republican candidates who don’t seem to give a hoot about him will vote for them every time. He looks at you, the crowd of The-Fix-Is-Always-In, and he casts his lot with the crowd of wealth and initiative.You see, Mom and Dad, they don’t lie about his prospects. They tell him that he has to sink or swim. They don’t disrespect his willpower by promising that government will make life easier for him. They tell him that they respect his individuality...
What you tell him is that he should put his life in your hands. Yet you scorn his religion. You mock his faith in the sacredness of conception. You deride his belief in family. You tell him that his love for hunting makes him a murderer, and that his terror at being economically displaced makes him a xenophobe and a racist..."
Now this guy, Lee Siegel is not on our side. However, he is clear eyed enough to see the contempt the Progressive elite has for Americans, and that its a big problem. The comments are pretty telling, as none of the readers even bothered to absorb the major cultural criticsm of the piece.
Just thought I'd run it up the Ricochet flagpole and see what y'all thought...
-John
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Comments :
Nov '10
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Thanks for the jump. I saw this as well and I think the essay would have been better received had it not been posted on The Daily Beast. I agree that Lee is far more articulate than the responses he received. That said, there were a few hopefuls seeds that appear to have germinated among the retorts.
Lee is applying a rather broad stroke, perhaps for effect. However, he is most vivid in his depiction of the liberal hypocrisy. I found it particularly refreshing and it brightened my outlook on the future. Now if we can just return to some predictable stability in both the fiscal and monetary policies and I might smile again.
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Happy birthday, Jon!
Dec '10
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Wow, John! I'm a Hot Air reader too, but I missed this one. I was busy clinging to my faith and family this weekend. Thanks for a great post.
Lurk no more. Ricochet isn't about competition, it's about conversation. If you think it's interesting, chances are someone here will too.
And happy birthday!
P.S. I'm convinced anyone clear-eyed enough to criticize the Left is a future conservative. You can't stop kidding yourself and stay on the Left.
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
John, great post. (Post more often!)
Glad to read this today. I rarely use Facebook as a forum for political debate, but yesterday an old classmate of mine (from the Ivy League, incidentally) posted a link to an article in Rolling Stone Magazine about "how the GOP became the party of the rich" and she included her own condescending remark "Most of the people reading this are NOT rich enough to have the Republicans fighting for them. Just saying."
I took the bait and debated for a while, but debate with someone who thinks like the folks at Occupy Harvard is fruitless and futile.
Jul '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Diane Ellis, Ed.: John, great post. (Post more often!)
Glad to read this today. I rarely use Facebook as a forum for political debate, but yesterday an old classmate of mine (from the Ivy League, incidentally) posted a link to an article in Rolling Stone Magazine about "how the GOP became the party of the rich" and she included her own condescending remark "Most of the people reading this are NOT rich enough to have the Republicans fighting for them. Just saying."
I took the bait and debated for a while, but debate with someone who thinks like the folks at Occupy Harvard is fruitless and futile. · Nov 21 at 8:14am
Every once in a while I try to engage someone like that and I always regret it, if for no other reason than for the lost time. May we both obtain the strength to resist the temptation next time ;)
-E
Oct '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Happy Birthday! That's a heck of an eye-opener - and from a source I certainly wouldn't have bothered to read. Thanks!
May '10
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Well, he has done a good job of understanding half of the liberal hour glass. I wonder if he could go on to critique the other half as well.
Apr '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
I saw that article too. I'm glad you posted on the forum about it. I think it is healthy sign to see that some liberals can see the problems and incongruities of their positions. I have a lot of liberal friends...in fact I think all my good friends are on the other side as it were. They are very unaware of how smug they can sound when discussing the other guys and their clear lack of self interest in their Republican voting... now they are my friends and I know them to be anything, but self centered and self righteous, but it's a kind of myopia... I think conservatives have these kinds of problems too by the way...
This article serves as a good reminder to try to step back and understand why people feel what they feel. In political debates we often get stuck fighting over which facts are most relevant, statistics, theories, etc. We can never really convince any one because we never really bother to understand why they feel what they feel and think what they think, and address their underlying concerns.
Jan '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Probably not a racist. But I'd say that anyone who clamors for protectionism [because they don't like the outcomes of competition and have mistakenly believed that the income-earning opportunity that they once had was really their job] and blames the foreigner for their ills is a xenophobe.
Aug '10
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Except for the winner-take-all* part, I thought this whole passage was spot-on:
Thanks for posting this, John.
_______________________________________
* The trope of life as winner-take-all is too zero-sum to be useful. There is no one winner, who gets everything, while everyone else is a loser and gets nothing.
Aug '10
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
LowcountryJoe
Probably not a racist. But I'd say that anyone who clamors for protectionism [because they don't like the outcomes of competition and have mistakenly believed that the income-earning opportunity that they once had was really their job] and blames the foreigner for their ills is a xenophobe. · Nov 21 at 10:04am
I wouldn't be so harsh, Joe. We all fear competition to some extent. It's natural -- even beneficial, since it spurs us to do better.
Different ways of addressing common human fears can have good or bad outcomes, sure, but to call someone a xenophobe (a foreign-fearer) for fearing competition that just happens to be foreign seems a bit much.
Jan '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
I think like a capitalist. Therefore, those that do not appreciate markets, no matter their birthplace, are foreign to me. Heck, maybe I'm the xenophobe.
Apr '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Happy birthday, John! Thanks for the article.
Jan '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
LowcountryJoe
Probably not a racist. But I'd say that anyone who clamors for protectionism [because they don't like the outcomes of competition and have mistakenly believed that the income-earning opportunity that they once had was really their job] and blames the foreigner for their ills is a xenophobe. · Nov 21 at 10:04am
I wouldn't be so harsh, Joe. We all fear competition to some extent. It's natural -- even beneficial, since it spurs us to do better.
Or spurs many us to whine and snivel to legislators so that 'we' can postpone improvement.
Apr '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
I wouldn't be so harsh, Joe. We all fear competition to some extent. It's natural -- even beneficial, since it spurs us to do better.
Different ways of addressing common human fears can have good or bad outcomes, sure, but to call someone a xenophobe (a foreign-fearer) for fearing competition that just happens to be foreign seems a bit much. ·
I think it's a matter of degree. A fear of heights isn't a phobia if one only becomes aware of it in moments of actual danger. If I'm in an industry that is struggling due to competition, such as Solar Panel production, it makes sense to worry about China almost as much as I worry about falling subsidies. There are a lot of jobs where foreigners represent a significant factor in employment uncertainty.
There are a lot of crazy bigots out there, and if you're not in solar and you view foreigners as more threatening than tech and fellow Americans, you're probably suffering from a phobia. If you have a named foreigner concern (China/ Israel/ Japan/ Africa/ Philippines), you're even more likely to have a problem, but not certain.
Aug '10
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
LowcountryJoe
Or spurs many of us to whine and snivel to legislators so that 'we' can postpone improvement.
Well, yeah. But then the problem isn't the fear, but how we chose to act on it.
James Of England
...if you're not in solar and you view foreigners as more threatening than tech and fellow Americans, you're probably suffering from a phobia.
I dunno... Being wrong isn't the same thing as having a phobia, and I'm reluctant to medicalize the opinion of folks whom I think are wrong on foreign trade.
There's already too much medicalizing of differences in opinion in this world. Even if someone is genuinely phobic, how often is it helpful to point that out?
Sometimes it's helpful -- even necessary -- to call a person phobic -- if he really is phobic. Other times, calling someone phobic just encourages the person to feel persecuted, put-upon, and unwilling to listen. It can easily be unkind to no good purpose.
Apr '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
James Of England
...if you're not in solar and you view foreigners as more threatening than tech and fellow Americans, you're probably suffering from a phobia.
I dunno... Being wrong isn't the same thing as having a phobia, and I'm reluctant to medicalize the opinion of folks whom I think are wrong on foreign trade.
There's already too much medicalizing of differences in opinion in this world. Even if someone is genuinely phobic, how often is it helpful to point that out?
Sometimes it's helpful -- even necessary -- to call a person phobic -- if he really is phobic. Other times, calling someone phobic just encourages the person to feel persecuted, put-upon, and unwilling to listen. It can easily be unkind to no good purpose. ·
Sure. When I'm making campaign calls, or chatting socially, I don't call people stupid, either, although some people are.
Also, sure, some people who are irrationally afraid of things are not phobic. There's an excellent article on the psychology of these things here.
Aug '10
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
James Of England
There's an excellent article on the psychology of these things here.
Yes, it is a good article, isn't it?
Jun '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
Hey'all! Thanks for the responses and resistance to call me out for my shameless Birthday ploy...a couple of thoughts:
Siegel, being a lefty, doesn't quite bring himself to see eye-to-eye with his "60k guy" construction. There remains a slight tone of condescension in his description. Really, its hard to be a big state paternalist without regarding the "struggling middle class" as a wounded under-informed plebeian. This tone extends to his view of the right: that it is at its core a kinder gentler social darwinism: a relic of imperialist/capitalist thinking.
My two cents:
When the left abandoned classical liberalism, they lost the ability to fully understand it. They can only interpret the world along class lines, making them the ones who stereotype groups in ways racist, classist, ageist, sexist, etc... My view has always been that the center-right coalition finds its only, and best, common ground in the principles of classical liberalism. Its there where a libertarian, squishy RINO, and cave-person conservative can all agree. The thing is, the left still has many who believe THEY are the liberals...those poor victims of false consciousness...;)
Feb '11
Re: Beast Lee Siegel tells Occupy Harvard to 'come to Jesus'
LowcountryJoe
Probably not a racist. But I'd say that anyone who clamors for protectionism [because they don't like the outcomes of competition and have mistakenly believed that the income-earning opportunity that they once had was really their job] and blames the foreigner for their ills is a xenophobe.
OMFG.
Here I was, scrolling through the comments after finishing my shift at a job in no way threatened by foreigners, conscious that I wasn't even born in the US- and I see this.
Excuse me, but citizens of the United States have every right to expect that the government that taxes us should favor our income opportunities over that of billions of foreigners. Failing that, the government that asserts itself over this portion of North America has no right to exist upon the fruits of our labor that it extracts from us in the form of onerous taxation.
I'll quote a snippet from the Constitution:
"promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity"
Ourselves and our posterity it says, not everyone on the planet even if it impoverishes vast swarms in the United States.