Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The Arrogant Misery of Leftists
“Jim” (not his real name) is one of my closest friends. We practiced medicine together for a while, and then I helped him through retirement. I still see him frequently, including, for example, at holiday parties. He is very intelligent, and a nice, well-meaning person. He is also progressive, which I find fascinating. He hates Trump nearly as much as Gary. He voted for Hillary but wanted Bernie. I read about social democracy in places like Venezuela, and wonder why Jim would want that for anybody. For an intelligent, well-meaning person, that really is fascinating.
At a recent Christmas party, Jim said something that caught my ear. Being a polite, nice person, he does not discuss religion or politics directly (…although he makes a lot of oblique references and snide comments; in a polite, nice way…). But he went on at some length that night, making snide comments about the wealth of a mutual friend. We live in Hilton Head. There are a lot of wealthy people here. Jim himself lives in a $3 million oceanfront house which he owns free and clear, and he travels the world. His wife recently took her BMW into the dealership to get it cleaned, and then drove home in a brand-new BMW. She liked it. Why not?
So it struck me as odd that Jim would criticize anyone for being wealthy. But the other guy is wealthier than Jim. Jim wasn’t being vicious, just snide. And they’re close friends – in fact, Jim just got back from spending last week on this guy’s yacht in the Caribbean. Jim may not approve of Caribbean yachts, but he’s not turning down that invitation. He’s not stupid. But he does this a lot – I realized that we had had this conversation, about various other wealthy people, many times. And I started to notice a pattern in his other topics of conversation over time:
Jim lives his life by Judeo-Christian principles but rolls his eyes at Christians. He considers Islam to be a beautiful culture, but Judaism and Christianity to be primitive superstitions which lead to bigotry and violence. Don’t get me wrong – he loves living in a Judeo-Christian society, and he lives his life in a Judeo-Christian way – he just scoffs at actual believers of Judaism and Christianity. Those people are, well, you know…
Again, his criticisms are rarely direct. He won’t say exactly what it is that he disapproves of. It’s just a snide comment and a roll of the eyes.
Jim’s life has been a long, steady, dedicated, and focused effort to gain wealth. He was born into an upper-middle-class family and has gone up from there. He is a good physician but has made several shrewd business moves over the years. He’s taken calculated risks at the right time, was clever with taxes and investments, and has done very well for himself and his family. So, good for him. But as I mentioned, he habitually denigrates those with more wealth than himself. Why? I used to think it was simply an effort to establish his credibility as a proponent of the less fortunate. But now, I’m not so sure. I haven’t quite figured this out yet, but I think his arrogance requires him to continually express his displeasure with those people. You know – those people. He’s above all that. Are you?
His life was saved last year by an extremely high-tech medical gizmo. When he told me about this remarkable, life-saving procedure, he shook his head at how much money the company that developed it was probably scamming from Medicare. Probably. Because, you know, those people…
He admires socialism in other countries, but he very much enjoys the benefits of living in a capitalist society.
He rolls his eyes at redneck gun nuts, but if anything bad ever happened, I suspect that I would find Jim and his wife on my front porch because they know that this is one of the best-armed houses in Hilton Head. He scoffs at those who think they need guns to protect themselves, while he lives in a gated community. With armed guards at the gate.
He shakes his head at the Puritans who think that marriage is the bedrock of society, but he is very upset that his beautiful daughter has been living out of wedlock with her boyfriend (and their child) for the past 10 years. Maybe her daughter listens to him more than he thought.
And so on and so on. And so on.
All those things have something in common, I think. Maybe a few things in common. I used to think it was simple hypocrisy. But now I think there’s more to it than that.
First, arrogance. Those people over there are misguided. Jim is wise and sensible. On the other hand, I am constantly learning from other people. Even from people that Jim would not approve of. I may not really approve of them either, but I think you can learn something from nearly anybody. By looking down his nose at Christians, Jim scoffs even at the wisdom of the ages, seemingly without wondering whether there’s something in those ancient books that could challenge his wisdom. That’s high-level, effortless, unconscious arrogance. Even a lack of interest in the world we live in. What an awful way to live your life.
Next, jealousy. Rather than enjoying his own good fortune, he resents those who have done better. Thus, nothing is ever good enough. There’s always someone better off. What an awful way to live your life.
And then, misery. Everything is a negative. Even a technological marvel that saves his life – he finds something to criticize. Rather than seeking joy, he seeks misery. And he finds it. What an awful way to live your life.
I’m not sure that Jim is a hypocrite, because I think he is too self-centered for hypocrisy. His concerns matter and the concerns of others don’t. At least, not in the same way. He’s not being hypocritical, just self-centered. It’s ok for big government to cause Venezuelans to survive by eating rats, but Jim complained about “greedy politicians” when some new local regulation raised the prices at the Whole Foods he shops at last year.
Jim cares about his well-being, and his security, and his image. He also cares about other people, I think. But in a very different way. A way that I just can’t wrap my mind around.
Again, Jim really is a good person. I like him a lot. That’s what makes all this so hard for me to understand.
But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Jim is just a stereotypical liberal, with the casual arrogance of the well-off, the hypocrisy required of those with nonsensical personal philosophies, and whose financial success leads him to constant, reflexive virtue signaling. And maybe my friendship with Jim is leading me to try to see things that just aren’t there. The simplest solution is usually right.
Maybe I’m confused not by Jim, but by leftism. I just don’t understand. How such nice, intelligent people like Jim could share even parts of the politics of Hugo Chavez, Joseph Stalin, Chairman Mao – heck, even Nancy Pelosi – I search and search for understanding. I listen to Jim. I read liberal columnists. I watch CNN (well, in airports…).
I just can’t figure it out.
The history of the Democrat party in the United States is horrifying (Jim is a 70ish-year-old white man whose family has been in South Carolina for generations – surely he knows the history of the Democrat party. The party that he continues to vote for.) The history of progressivism/leftism around the world for the past 150 years is even more horrifying. And even if you ignore the history, what do you get out of leftism right now, at this moment? Arrogance, jealousy, and misery. Even in otherwise successful, happy people, like Jim.
How on earth does any thinking, feeling human decide, “You know, I want to be a progressive Democrat.” How on earth?
The more I listen to Jim, the more confused I get.
Can anyone out there help me understand?
Published in General
Bryan, I admire you even though I often disagree with you.
The Lord loves you. You are doing a good job.
May the Lord bless you and let you know you are loved this day and every day.
People like Jim see their personal beliefs and lifestyle as separate from their politics. By separating them, he doesn’t have to deal with the unbelievable cognitive dissonance that would otherwise arise. There’s life, making lots of money, indirectly bragging about it, and there’s condemning the greedy (those people who make more than you do).
Makes sense to me–in a sick kind of way.
I find this fairly frequently with people who are smart, were good at the thing they did and didn’t read deeply about other matters, or pay particular attention outside of their profession but had a slight liberal, Democrat bias or just were open to what the mainstream media has been pushing for almost half a century. They absorbed the drift from liberal to radical left by osmosis. They probably do have Sowell’s unrestrained view of the world and find it easy to believe that experts, like him, can exercise the kind of control on political/economic/cultural matters he believes he could exercise in his chosen profession.
I hope that Jim does not read this, for the sake of your ongoing friendship😂😂. Many thanks for this insightful, wonderful post.
Sorry. he may be your friend, but he’s all A##….
I’d like to drop him in Caracas for a year.
Great post. Thank you for asking.
I know it’s a cheap trick to go all Freudian, since there’s no way of disproving what I’m about to say. But, this is what I finally believe, after years of observing people like Jim: they are UNCONSCIOUSLY out to protect whatever protects, maintains, or improves the security of the place they and their loved ones have in the upper middle or upper class.
People who take Jim’s political positions are never honest about why, when conscious of why. They are usually not, or not entirely, conscious of why.
Yes, I’m actually saying that what they don’t allow themselves to know is that their real goal is to kick away the ladder that would enable the best and brightest from the lower middle or working class to climb up and, inadvertently, knock them, or their children, from comfortable perches.
I hope you have shared these observations with Jim and asked him to help you understand his behavior. You describe him as a good friend but it doesn’t sound like you have confronted him with his hypocrisy and condescension.
I’ve recently felt the rath of a liberal friend who could not understand my views on Trump, global warming, immigration, and Kavanaugh. We were able to face off honestly and get past his anger. While we did not agree, we heard each other’s views. I agreed to watch the Dr Ford testimony in its entirety. He acknowledged that his views were primarily based on emotional reactions and that he really didn’t have as good a grasp of the issues as I do. We’re still good friends.
It’s the “I’m not like these other rich people” mindset. It’s actually nowhere near as bad in Jim as when some of the mega-rich people in Silicon Valley take up this ethos, and decide to put that mindset into hyperdrive. They don’t simply decry the economic conditions that made them rich — they use large parts of their wealth to attempt to game the system so that people in the future won’t have the same options, while at the same time making sure they have the tax accountants and lawyers on retainer to guarantee they retain a far larger part of their wealth, either for personal use, or to be placed into tax-deductible foundations they control.
(This also includes gaming the system worldwide to benefit their own corporations, as Google and Apple’s interactions with China have shown. Like the celebrities of the past who wouldn’t do commercials in the United States because it would hurt their above-mere-avarice image among the public — but were fine doing them for million-dollar paychecks over in Japan — the tech giants’ morality takes a sharp dive once past the 12-mile limit, where being evil to make money is OK, as long as people in the U.S. supposedly can’t see you doing it.)
People who have it great don’t have their “friends” writing posts asking why they are such a royal prig. My guess is that Jim is deeply dissatisfied with life. That’s why he runs other people down instead of building them up.
Matthew 6 – God will reward you, he sees you in secret. If you want your praise on earth you can go after it, but Christ says “…they have already received their reward…”
I’m going through perhaps the worst year of my life. There have been a few times this year when I thought “What the hell did I do to deserve this?” Nothing. I have to remember that this life is tough, and without meaningful material reward. That people make their own choices and those choices have an effect on me, and that just is what it is.
Remember, we are supposed to rejoice in our sufferings. Because suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Hope not in the things seen, but hope in the things unseen.
Buck up, little trooper.
Jim is my friend. I am his friend. I am not his “friend.” Please don’t question the sincerity of my friendship.
I am not asking why he is a royal prig. I am searching for understanding. He is a good person, we have a lot in common, and I don’t understand his politics. That’s a reasonable question, I think. Not an accusation.
I think you may be right about that. Jealousy will do that to you. Lack of gratitude poisons everything else.
That is true, in this realm.
“Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.”
Poor Jim. He is the victim of pride and envy. Despite all his accomplishments and wealth, Jim is not a good person, and he knows he isn’t a good person. And he is too proud to say, or even think, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He has bought into the Leftist idea that man can be perfected, he knows he has fallen short, and he’s too proud and too arrogant to admit it and ask for forgiveness. Instead he denigrates both those above him and below him, which allows him to feel temporarily better. All his striving has brought him only misery, because what he hungers for is spiritual sustenance, and he can neither ask for it nor accept it.
As long as you keep it in the hypothetical, socialism can sound good. But if you it becomes your reality . . .
I think jealousy is one of the biggest reasons people are drawn to socialism.
It also pains me, Bryan. I am very sorry despite your prayer you don’t feel close to God. Some really good advice and encouragement has been given but I don’t know you well enough to know if it was relevant or to offer you any other practical advice. I’ve tried to glean something from your social media presence. Truthfully, from a few things I saw you post, I doubt I’d say anything you don’t already know. All I can say right now is please don’t stop praying.
This is probably true. It’s like @vancerichards said above, jealousy is one of the biggest reasons people are drawn to socialism.
Not only is socialism (and every iteration or version of Leftism) based in class envy and resentment, but making a show of adherence to it makes its adherents kid themselves that it means “I’m a good person and you’re not.”
Well, and pride; hardly anyone wants to join a socialist society and do ‘bottom’ work, rather they want to be wise and honored leaders in glorious future.
I have no illusions about my place in a socialist society. It would be pretty much what my place is in this one, except hungrier, poorer, and with fewer choices at the grocery store. I might even have a hard time finding toilet paper.
I’m not really sure that’s true.
As Jonah Goldberg has mentioned several times, most of us are raised in family structures that are indistinguishable from pure Marxism “From each according to his ability – to each according to his need”. Marxism/communism/socialism is actually preferable to capitalism in family/small group structures (unless you think that five year olds should be paying room and board to their parents).
The problem is, it doesn’t scale. But it’s understandable why otherwise good people might be wonder why we can’t all be “family of man” and treat strangers the same way we treat our families.
I thought about charging the kids, but the only thing they’d have to pay me with was their allowance, and that seemed counterproductive.
They do operate under the misconception that they can mold human nature to their will.
Actually, they do a pretty good job of it. It’s why most millennials favor socialism.
Yes, they’ve changed minds, but they can’t change human nature, even though they think they can socially-engineer it away. It’s why, even in their classless Utopia, people will still want to elbow their way to the top and not be a prole.
That is so true. :-)
Mao’s Great Leap Forward: Backyard Furnaces in China, 1958 to 1962:
I’ve read about this before. The Chinese produced a lot of crappy pig iron.
I’m not quite sure why people think they’ll flourish better under socialism than under the essentially meritocratic free market. Or maybe I’ve answered my own question.
I’ve heard it said that a conclusion is wherever you are when you get tired of thinking. Apt description. I have thought and wondered about this question for most of my adult life. How is it possible that otherwise intelligent and decent people are leftists? Well, for what it’s worth here is my conclusion and why I no longer think about it: Leftism is a religion. Like most religions most of the time, it gets compartmentalized in the mind. It becomes immune to recognizing its own contradictions. It becomes immune to facts, to reasoning, to experience. It just is, and there is no explaining it. And having reached that conclusion, I stopped thinking about it.
What the Left envisions is the standard of living that exists in the Nordic countries: Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden.
I read an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal some years ago about the Denmark economic system (I have tried, but I cannot find it now). It was an interview with a Denmark minister of finance, and it predictably listed Denmark’s many economic successes. However, at the end, the minister said, paraphrasing, “Keep in mind that this would never work in the United States. Denmark has a highly controlled immigration policy, the reason being that a citizen has to be a taxpayer for a long time in order for the system to work. We assume people will be dependent on welfare programs during childhood and old age and that in between those times, they will be paying into the tax system.”
I’ve been wondering why the U.S. Left is so illogical in wanting open unlimited immigration. Surely their calculators produce the same results mine does: the United States will probably go broke in X years at these rates of spending. That said, Bernie Sanders’s position, to his credit as a truthful person, unlike Hillary Clinton, on immigration was very close to Trump’s. Which does not surprise me because the Democratic Party and the trade unions that have supported them historically have always been anti-immigration–not anti-immigrant, but rather anti-immigration. Sanders and Trump are being far more realistic in terms of the arithmetic involved, but, like the Republicans, the Democrats are fractured in two distinct parts right now, and neither is listening to the other.
I think the socialists in the American Democratic Party are envisioning some Utopian society like those they think exist in the Nordic countries, where everyone has a money tree in the backyard and everyone grows up to be a highly paid professional. Here’s an excerpt from a great article in Forbes that addresses this misconception:
I believe Leftism to be a mental disorder and there is no treatment for it. The more it fails, the more its acolytes invest in it.
Be prepared to lose a friend. Even thinking about him is injurious.
Indeed, religion has a similar top-down structure.