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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
Dennis Prager often says, “leftists love humanity, it’s people they dislike.” And the reverse is true for conservatives.
So true. Ingratitude is another prominent feature of leftism.
Roger Simon explains contemporary American misery as follows.
“There is and has been an emptiness in American society and I am going to suggest a cause I never thought I would, not because it is unique to me — it hardly is — but because I have, until relatively recently, been a rather typical agnostic of my generation.
It is the absence of God, augmented by the ongoing secularization of our culture largely perpetrated by that same generation (mine). We now almost have in America what the French call laïcité. It doesn’t work there (they hate each other more than we do) and it won’t here.
And before you go after to me to remind me that church- and synagogue-going people can be just as bad as everybody else, I will say, “Yes, of course,” then continue on to say that the majority of believing religious people, especially in the Judeo-Christian tradition (I don’t know the others well enough to comment), tend not to live lives as dominated by hate.”
That definitely rings true from my experience.
The benefit of a religious society (not necessarily a religious government) is its homogenizing effect. Our Jewish and Christian faiths have shared values (and I hate it when Obama uses the phrase, because he’s a leftist and so obviously doesn’t share Judeo-Christian values). There’s just so much more upon which we can agree when we have a common standard of Good and Truth and Beauty, rather than a subjective one like the Left offers. “My truth.” Ack.
“That’s just not who we are.”
Ack!
Bill the Cat, is that you?
At least in Judaism, anger is the most abhorrent emotion. An angry person is compared to an idol worshiper. Restraint is encouraged through daily prayer and by having to say a blessing before eating or drinking anything. And the Sabbath is a day of rest in every sense of the word. We are lucky to have this lifestyle option. I am mystified why more people don’t take advantage of it.
That’s apparently why I’m on the right rather than the left. To paraphrase Swift(?) , I heartily loathe and detest that beast called humanity, but heartily love the occasional Sara, Steven, Theresa, Robert, and so on.
My last, possibly valid, thought on this: The parents of those two kids who shot up their school years ago had only one comment that I heard. It was that they “loved them as much as we knew how.” To me that’s 90% of the problem. Not the love, but that there was no mention of teaching them discipline, helping them develop a conscience, teaching respect for their fellow man, probably not even good manners. I’ve watched that type for decades and it isn’t turning out well.
The survivors of that are now in their late thirties, and probably having kids of their own. Wonder what they are teaching their kids? Wonder what lessons they think they learned from it?
https://youtu.be/kWPmtmYCEm8?t=170
Jordan Peterson says that peoples’ actual beliefs can be measured by what they do and not what they say. I like that line but it still doesn’t answer why people’s actions are so against their states beliefs. Why the discrepancy?
Multiple reasons. Sometimes it is that they don’t want to state their real beliefs out loud. Sometimes it is that the professed beliefs sound better. Sometimes it is because they profess what they believe people think they should believe.
Chris Hutchinson (View Comment):
“I have a lot more to think about but I’m starting with our overall estimation of mankind.”
As always, Thomas Sowell explains everything. Now with pictures.
I recall a conversation I had with my sister when I was in jr. high or so. I was drinking orange juice and she came up to me and said:
Sister: That’s a terrible brand of orange juice. They treat their workers poorly.
Me: What evidence is there for this? Why is making that accusation?
Sister: Well everyone knows that.
Me: How can you be sure? Can I read a human rights website or something. How can I research this.
Sister: Why do you need to know that. Everyone has heard about it already.
I don’t know my sister very well. I never did and most likely never will. People usually don’t tell you what they are made of on the inside. I doubt many are capable of even understanding what’s in them. But from what little I could tell, fitting in was of preeminent concern to her.
Take global warming for example. For vast majority of humans have no inclinations to read a book about global warming or put in the work to understand the science. I too am among this group. Because of my ignorance, I don’t have strong opinions on global warming. You may have noticed that people who have never read a book about climatology or tried to go through the intellectual rigor of figuring out science stuff tend to have very strong opinions.
So why is there so much emotion and concern about global warming with so little desire to understand the evidence? Because it’s a popular.
When I was in junior high…there weren’t even PCs.
Your #2 reason, above, is my assumption/conclusion around the bulk of folks on the Left, and certainly how I think some of my friends think. Granted, it’s an assumption. But the behavior, if true, is nothing more than the “rich guy” effect, meaning I don’t see any of my friends spending time at the soup kitchen.
Never. Why? They’re living their lives. Let the government take care of that. And they’re willing to pay the taxes to have someone else do that for them. They think of it the same way they think of roads and fire departments.
Which is, to say, incorrectly.
I have a close family member who exhibits this exact behavior. The waitress is a good example – doesn’t make much eye contact, looks at the menu when speaking to them, nods and hands the menu back up without looking them in the face. It’s rather amazing, actually, and this behavior from a person who made only slightly more than what a waitress might bring home, after tax. Rarely heard are please, or thank you, heard from this family member.
Which I find enormously rude and insulting. So I tip like a maniac, to cover for the Democrat’s treatment of what could be considered “the poor”.
One of the reasons why progressivism is so appealing is that it provides a ready group to blame for most things going wrong. Which should be a really loud klaxon for them, in terms of waking up to the reality of their thinking.
I realize I’m doing the same thing, on the opposite side of things. But I’m also not the one advocating for overarching state control of our very lives. I’m advocating for the opposite. The only blame I lay is on those who fail to see how dangerous the eventual build-out of their ideas is to liberty, and their own lives.
Thank you for that, Henry. A Conflict of Visions just got added to my must-read list.
I was watching a Nature-type show last night with my fiancee’s 13-year old daughter (an amazing and great kid). The show took a slight turn around polar bears and ice caps melting, and how it’s threatening their habitat (all solemnly over-spoken by Sir Richard Attenborough, who, admittedly, lends gravitas to every word).
She didn’t say much and I didn’t get into it. But I wanted her to know and consider that the truth of things, to steal from the above, is not popular. And the show was a few years old, but not ten years old, and the data now shows the opposite of these idiotic, popular assumptions about the climate.
I’m also just assuming the global warming/global climate danger cheese is standard curricula at her school. I’d be willing to bet $1,000 of my own hard-earned clams on it.
Skepticism of assumptions should always be the best option.
Excellent! I would only add that, once you are among the “anointed,” you have seized command of the facts, reason, and logic — in other words, you can change the “facts” to suit your vision. This happens time and time again with AGW as the hallmark example. People claim to know the catastrophic threat from man made CO2 emissions based on what? Climate models?? Completely non-predictive climate models?? It simply isn’t reasonable or logical — let alone good scientific practice — to make such assertions.
The constrained vision recognizes the temptation to power, status, and unearned honor as natural to the human condition. The unconstrained vision doesn’t, and that’s how we get arrogant, miserable, and misery inducing leftists.
It’s true. He had to access a mainframe using telephony and Morse code if he wanted to access orange juice-related human rights information.
Yep. And I walked to school uphill both going there and coming back home.
In the SNOW.
Even in the spring and fall…even to summer school.
@arahant ‘s childhood:
It’s a hard life.