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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The test before us

David Warren, Perrywinkle:
I'm not saying the generation of wealth should be the sole purpose of human existence. I am saying it is one of the purposes, and further, that by politicizing economic activity we actually mire ourselves much deeper in materialism than we would ever do by just going out and earning a living.

The Texas model works, and the California model fails. Quite apart from whether anyone in the States should vote for Rick Perry, they must choose between these models.
America has been playing footsie with leftism and socialism for a good century; the time to choose, once and for all, between the ever-promised leftist Utopia and our own natural tradition, is now upon us. It is not enough to vote Obama and a few Democrats out of office next year; if the nation does not decisively, once-and-for-all, reject the leftist Obamanation, then the leftist puppet-masters of the "liberals" and "progressives" will try again in just a few years.

To "compromise" with that which is wrong is simply choose to become oneself wrong ... and to set the stage for the next "compromise".

[Mind you, neither Mr Warren nor I are saying "vote for Perry"]

6 comments:

Dr. Michael Bauman said...

I agree with you, except that leftism will never be rejected in a once-for-all fashion. Ideas don't die just because they have been roundly, soundly, and repeatedly refuted. The dragons we slay never stay dead. We have to kill them over and over again.

Ilíon said...

Certainly, leftism will probably never die; there will probably always be people willing to deceive themselves, and seek to deceive others, in that direction.

Yet, Baalism is dead; why may we not hope that leftism will die?

For America to decisively reject leftism, it isn't necessary that leftism itself totally dies. But, it is necessary that Americans understand the *reason* to reject leftism, and reject it on those grounds, rather than (as most of us do) merely objecting to the consequences when they happen to personally impact us.

Dr. Michael Bauman said...

You're right, Ilion. Baalism itself is dead, and we can hope for more. But Baalism comes in many forms, even though it bears a different name today. In that sense, I suppose that reincarnated Baalism surrounds us on all sides. We are suckers for false gods.

And I agree with you that reason is the death of leftism, and that is a hopeful fact. But, to me at least, the problem is that while human beings are capable of reason, they are rarely ever reasonable -- even the elites. Here I think of Harvard (and all its kin).

Dr. Michael Bauman said...

At any rate, I wrote to say that I support your goals and your means, even though I find myself a little less optimistic regarding the overall outcome.

Ilíon said...

I'm not at all optimistic about America's future ... because I'm not at all optimistic about the moral and spiritual health of most Americans.

Leftism puts forth the promise that everyone can live off the efforts of someone else. Such a society cannot work, but it is a perennial temptation of humans to live at someone else's expense.

Dr. Michael Bauman said...

If your last comment had a "like" button, I'd hit several times.