Rationalizations don’t have to make sense

President Obama often said that he was confident in the success of his leftist policies because modern progressives “…are on the right side of history”. I always thought that was just a clever way to acknowledge the obvious flaws in his thinking, while convincing people to do as he says anyway: “Yeah, I know this goes against your ethics, patriotism, experience, religion, and logic. But all those things are temporary. Once we change all those things to something else, then believe me, you’ll wish you had just agreed with us initially.”

I think that President Obama is remarkably ignorant of history, but he seems at least to have gained an understanding of history on the level of comedian Norm MacDonald, who observed, “It says here in this history book that luckily, the good guys have won every single time. What are the odds?” Obama knew that once the left controlled education and entertainment and the media, that they could make anything sound rational. Absolutely anything. Even sex change operations for confused children. Or whatever.

The left uses this technique a lot when trying to get people to agree to things that don’t make any sense.
- “We want you to drive electric cars. You don’t want them, but the weather will be better 500 years from now. Probably."
- “Give us half your money. You could make better use of it yourself right now, of course. But someday there will be no racism. Maybe."
- “You should stop eating chicken & beef, and start eating bugs. That might make you sick, but it might make the planet healthier someday. Perhaps."

As you may have noticed, the immediate harm is rationalized by possible benefits at some undefined point in the future. They just provide something for their believers to believe in. It doesn’t even have to make sense. In fact, it probably doesn’t make sense.

Which, I suppose, makes sense. We’re all prone to doing whatever we want, and then rationalizing it with theoretical justifications that are comforting to us, even if they don't make any sense.

I don’t drink too much bourbon. I just treat my hypertension with over the counter drugs. Like, for example, bourbon. Which makes sense. Well, it makes enough sense to allow me to keep drinking, which is what I want to do anyway. So I cast no stones here. I’m just acknowledging the reality of our willingness to ignore reality. This is not a shocking revelation. This is just human nature.

When Republican leaders attempt to refute progressive insanity by pointing out its conflict with reality, I don’t think this really helps. I think it might help more if they instead pointed out that Democrats are simply trying to gain control by taking advantage of tendencies that we all have – the tendency to rationalize self-destructive behavior. Like opening our borders. Or abandoning fossil fuels. Or drinking too much bourbon.

I look at the violent, poverty-stricken, miserable societies in the Muslim world, and I think, “Those people are un-governable.” What a horrifying thought. What an awful, depressing, painful thought. So I have a drink of bourbon, to dull the pain. And I feel better.

And it occurs to me that perhaps the rest of us are un-governable as well.

Now that is a painful thought.

I need some bourbon. I'll feel better. It'll help. Really.