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Quote of the Day: Leftists are Prisoners of Their Own Ideas
Men are qualified for civil liberty, in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters. –Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke foretold the disaster that would become the radical political Left in the United States. The Left is disdainful of the morality to which many of us subscribe. They are weak and greedy and are therefore doomed to failure, because they don’t value the most honorable aspects of human nature: generosity, trust, respect and many other attributes that those on the Right have come to appreciate and venerate.
Our country has been based, however, on minimally limiting the controls and supporting the freedom of its citizens. But since the Left is demanding, compulsive and uncompromising in its expectations, they will do whatever they can to accomplish their agendas. To do so, they don’t realize that they have become prisoners of their own ideology. They have tossed the foundations of this country in the dustbin. They have created false narratives to substantiate their goals. They don’t care whether they alienate others; they are quite happy to try to force others to comply with their schemes.
But the day will come when they will want to put their final plans in place—until they realize that they have trapped themselves within their own ideological prisons. They have created barriers between themselves and the rest of society, and they will come to realize that there is almost no one who will release them or rescue them, because they have trapped themselves. They will have underrated the American spirit to resist them, and we will watch them protest and refuse to accept the reality they have created; they will be crushed under the weight of their own ignorance.
And we will work to restore the foundations of, and faith in, this country, in spite of their ignorant and selfish ambitions.
[photo by Hasan Almasi from unsplash.com]
Published in Culture
Great quote and great post.
I believe this to be true, although up until recently, I had significant doubts. Their revolution satisfies no one, not the 80% of America that don’t want it nor themselves. They just become unhappier and unhappier the more their appetites are fed, because at its core is nothing but hatred for humans and longing for something their revolution does not deliver: meaning. I believe we have now identified the predominant acolytes of this revolution as overeducated, wealthy, mentally ill white women. I cannot believe this group constitutes an invincible army.
Thanks, GC! I think your comment is spot on! How long will they be able to go on an empty gas tank? There are so many cracks in their activities. I wasn’t feeling optimistic before, but lately I’ve noticed how they are struggling. My hope is that they burn themselves out sooner rather than later.
Susan, good post.
I don’t see much identification of the appetites which Burke says it is necessary to place in chains, moral or legal. You did mention greed. What are the others, in your view?
Must we be prisoners of their ideas, too? : (
May it start today.
I would look to the Christian tradition: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride, for starters. I think that each of them could be applied to the Leftist movements. What do you think?
I guess that’s rhetorical, Drew, but I say No!
Well, they already dedicate a whole month to pride.
That’s a good list, though I think that it does raise some additional questions. Does the problem of “lust” apply to premarital sex, or adultery, or homosexuality? Does “gluttony” include drug and alcohol abuse? I think that the answer to these questions is “yes,” but others seem to disagree.
My own view is that we should focus on the sort of life that we think that people ought to live, setting up a practical ideal. It seems pretty straightforward:
I suspect that a narrow majority of conservatives will agree with this (maybe 55%), and that a minority of Leftists will agree (maybe 25-30%).
The other challenge, though, is how to implement these ideas, even if we had agreement on their desirability. These values would have to be taught. This means that we need to teach our kids what to think, not just how to think. Also, there would have to be some sanction for violation, either socially or legally (or both). My impression is that only about 25-30% of conservatives would agree with these ideas about implementation.
I like your list, Jerry. I also agree with your descriptions of the “sins.” Finally I think that more conservatives than you think would agree with you, and maybe even more Lefties, but that’s hard to say.
But you might get pushback on implementation. Formal sanctions for “violations” might be a step too far, at least for me. I think we do need to teach our children what to think, but then those darn kids grow up and they pretty much get to decide how to live their lives. And we can only hope for the best.
Yeah, for some reason, many people aren’t willing to enforce rules of behavior, even when they agree on the rules. I’m not even talking about legal enforcement. This seems to apply even to social enforcement. It seems unlikely that we’ll get high levels of compliance with such rules, when there are no consequences for breaking the rules.
On your last sentence, the conclusion that “we can only hope for the best” follows from the unwillingness to apply any sanction for misbehavior, I think.
As I get older and crankier, I’m more willing to apply sanctions for bad behavior. It does seem that I am in a small minority in this regard. What do you think is the source of the reluctance of others?
Recognition that we are a country founded on liberty? And that free will implies freedom to make bad choices?
I think it depends on who’s applying the sanctions. (Originally you did include legal sanctions.) And what the sanctions actually are. Without that information, it’s pretty hard to take a position. Do you have some sanctions in mind?
Well, in early America, there were plenty of laws against the sort of misbehavior that I listed. There were laws against adultery, and fornication, and homosexuality, and illegitimacy. I also know of laws about habitual drunkenness, though I’m not sure whether they stretched back to the founding period.
Drew, I think that the question gets back to Susan’s quote from Burke. Liberty only works with strong individual morality and self-control. I think that this was recognized by the Founders, specifically Adams, with his quote about our system of government requiring “a moral and religious people.”
Thomas Jefferson actually worked on a legal code for Virginia, shortly after independence, that would have continued the criminal prohibition on homosexuality, and would have made it punishable by castration (for a man — for a woman, the punishment would be boring a hole through the nose).
This proposal did not pass, however. Not because it was too harsh, but because it was considered too lenient. The statute adopted by Virginia in 1792 imposed the death penalty. Technically, the prohibited conduct was called “the detestable and abominable vice of Buggery.” The sentence was reduced shortly thereafter, in 1800, to imprisonment of 1-10 years for free persons, though it retained the death penalty for slaves. (Here is an interesting article on the issue.)
My home state of Arizona still has a criminal statute prohibiting adultery. Until 2001, Arizona had statutes prohibiting sodomy and cohabitation.
They may be prisoners but they’re willing prisoners and this makes them even more idiotic…and dangerous.
But do they know they’re prisoners? I doubt it. Theirs is a mental and emotional trap, not a physical one. They are certainly willing to be whatever they think they are–heroes, saviors to mankind, rescuers. the elites–but “prisoners”–I don’t think so.
An apt metaphor @ronin. I can only pray you’re wrong.
Me too.
Not so long ago, and not-so-very-far-away, it was standard practice for college freshman composition students to read portions of the works of great writers and great minds, both to give them examples of excellent writing, and to open their own minds to challenging thoughts. One of the selections which frequently appeared on the syllabus was Edmund Burke’s Letter to a Member of the National Assembly. Mr. She’s standard exercise, after his student had read this or selected writings of a similar kind, was to tell his students to take out a piece of paper and write the word “Freedom” at the top on one side. And then to turn it over and write the word “Responsibility” at the top on the other side. Then he’d instruct them to hand in “freedom” without “responsibility.” And then the class would talk about how the two are opposite sides of the same coin, are inextricably linked and how you can’t have one without the other.
I don’t think that sort of thing happens in college classrooms anymore. Pity.
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Outstanding and clarifying post, @susanquinn Aptly stated.
I’m not arguing against the content of the original post. But the subject line sort of implies that we (the right) aren’t prisoners of our own ideas.
I can be pretty certain in my beliefs. Yet, I always remember that I can be wrong, and approach them with some humility.
Precisely, @alsparks. We on the Right can be prisoners of our ideas, but I know more of us who are willing to consider other points of view. Humility is not part of the vocabulary of the Left. Thanks.
Thanks so much,@jennastocker. High praise from you.
Andrew Klavan suggested in one of his books that the reason many liberals go insane is because once they become vested in their ideas, they cannot admit they were wrong, even though deep down inside they know they are. Instead of admitting one’s mistake (which takes guts), they double down on how right they are and come up with something even loonier. Eventually, they spiral down into the most insane of ideas, my favorite example being the hormonal teenage boy who gains access to the girls’ shower just by saying he identifies as a girl.
I just wish I knew what was at the root of their even becoming invested in these ideas. Is it the attractiveness of the ideal? It just baffles me. I think Klavan is right, but I still don’t understand their resistance to admitting their mistakes. I do it all the time!
I make so many mistakes, I’m too numb to feel ashamed . . .
I believe many of the footsoldier lefties get enamored with crazy ideas because they want to fit in, to belong to something. It’s easier to sit around and nod heads in agreement with like-minded people than to engage in honest debate, where one has the possibility of losing.
I can also couple this with @drbastiat‘s post about smartphones. Young people these days tend to be less social in person, hence less face-to-face period. Even carrying on in an online debate is too close to being a face-to-face encounter, so it’s easier to call someone a ____phobe and log off.