Fear, moral relativism and cognitive dissonance of the Left.
YEAH, FEAR. The Left is BASICALLY AFRAID that Bush and the religious right are coming to take them to a country where you have to be a Christian, and where AshKKKroft is Torquemada. It's an irrational fear, but IT FEELS VERY real to the Left. Anything - REPEAT ANYTHING - that they can twist into that worldview - THEY DO! "Blood for Oil" BusHitler! JINSA! YUP: the Left believes SIMULTANEOUSLY that Bush is controlled by Jerry Falwell, Ariel Sharon and the House of Saud. (Imagine how smart that dumbsmirkingchimp must REALLY be if he can keep those three happy simultaneously!)
The act of Congress signed into law to give the Schindlers one last avenue to save their daughter's life, was IN FACT A BIPARTISAN BILL, but that did not stop the Left - or the MSM they dominate - from coloring it as another invasion of privacy by the religious right-wing of the GOP - WHICH THE LEFT BELIEVES IS EVERY BIT AS DANGEROUS AS ALQAEDA!
And the BOTTOMLINE - the ROOT CAUSE of their irrational Bush hysteria is that the Left blames 9/11 - (that shattering horrific day that the WORLD CHANGED for EVERYONE, even the Left) - on "religious fundamentalism" in general, and they lump all devout believers together: To the Left, a Christian fundamentalist is as dangerous as a Jewish settler or an Islamic suicide bomber. They are morally equivalent to the Leftist.
It is precisely this MORAL EQUIVALENCE based in FEAR and tempered by YEARS of inculcation in post-modernist MORAL RELATIVISM that's made the Left's utterly irrational fear of Bush -- aka BDS / Bush Derangement Syndrome - so RAMPANT and VIRULENT.
The act of Congress signed into law to give the Schindlers one last avenue to save their daughter's life, was IN FACT A BIPARTISAN BILL, but that did not stop the Left - or the MSM they dominate - from coloring it as another invasion of privacy by the religious right-wing of the GOP - WHICH THE LEFT BELIEVES IS EVERY BIT AS DANGEROUS AS ALQAEDA!
And the BOTTOMLINE - the ROOT CAUSE of their irrational Bush hysteria is that the Left blames 9/11 - (that shattering horrific day that the WORLD CHANGED for EVERYONE, even the Left) - on "religious fundamentalism" in general, and they lump all devout believers together: To the Left, a Christian fundamentalist is as dangerous as a Jewish settler or an Islamic suicide bomber. They are morally equivalent to the Leftist.
It is precisely this MORAL EQUIVALENCE based in FEAR and tempered by YEARS of inculcation in post-modernist MORAL RELATIVISM that's made the Left's utterly irrational fear of Bush -- aka BDS / Bush Derangement Syndrome - so RAMPANT and VIRULENT.
And they see the Schiavo Law as an attempt by the dangerous religious Right - led by Bush - to hijack the nation!
In fact, the Left takes their "faithophobia" even further: The Left believes that whatever Bush does MUST be evil precisely because he's a "BELIEVER" - and believers are fundamentalists, and fundamentalists are fanatics, and fanatics are terrorists (according to their twisted logic/illogic/analogic).
The brightest RED-LINE for the Left is "abortion rights" (not euthanasia) because it's so fundamental to their 1960's Marcussian COUNTER-CULTURE ETHOS, (a basically anti-Western/anti-traditionalism worldview - the worldwiew of Ward Churchill and Noam Chomsky and Susan Sontag). Everything and anything that threatens to rollback the Left's morally relativist/amoral worldview they call ANTI-PROGRESSIVE, BOURGOIS - EVEN HITLERIAN! To the Left, PROTECTING THE RIGHT PRIVACY is the absolute key to preventing the religious fanatics from unraveling their COUNTER CULTURE. And to the "sophisticated" Left their RIGHT TO promiscuity, adultery, sodomy, (and yes "orgies") are important parts of the PRIVACY mix.
Total PRIVACY - ESPECIALLY in the bedroom - (whether it's the bed you make love in or the bed you die in) - is PARAMOUNT to them. Privacy is PARAMOUNT to them because it's inextricably tied to the bedrock of their creed: moral relativism. To the morally relativistic Left, whatever two people agree to do between themselves - IN PRIVATE - is okay. Whether it's sado-masochistic sex, or EUTHANASIA. The Left admonishes everyone else who has the audacity to make ANY moral judgments: "WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE!" To the Left-wing moral relativists there can be no true MORAL judgments of what goes on in ANY bedroom - or across cultural boundaries or national borders.
What worsens their FEELING that their COUNTER CULTURE/"PROGESSIVE VISION" is under attack by "FUNDAMENTALISTS" is the FACT that there's really been a total collapse of their underlying Marxist economic meme: the USSR and its satellites have fallen; India and China have abandoned command economies and each adopted free markets and all are THRIVING as a result. Further discrediting Marx is the FACT that the few remaining ruling adherents to Marxism are obvious two-bit thugs who have ruined their countries: Castro, Chavez, Mugabe. Kim Jong Il and Assad.
The brightest RED-LINE for the Left is "abortion rights" (not euthanasia) because it's so fundamental to their 1960's Marcussian COUNTER-CULTURE ETHOS, (a basically anti-Western/anti-traditionalism worldview - the worldwiew of Ward Churchill and Noam Chomsky and Susan Sontag). Everything and anything that threatens to rollback the Left's morally relativist/amoral worldview they call ANTI-PROGRESSIVE, BOURGOIS - EVEN HITLERIAN! To the Left, PROTECTING THE RIGHT PRIVACY is the absolute key to preventing the religious fanatics from unraveling their COUNTER CULTURE. And to the "sophisticated" Left their RIGHT TO promiscuity, adultery, sodomy, (and yes "orgies") are important parts of the PRIVACY mix.
Total PRIVACY - ESPECIALLY in the bedroom - (whether it's the bed you make love in or the bed you die in) - is PARAMOUNT to them. Privacy is PARAMOUNT to them because it's inextricably tied to the bedrock of their creed: moral relativism. To the morally relativistic Left, whatever two people agree to do between themselves - IN PRIVATE - is okay. Whether it's sado-masochistic sex, or EUTHANASIA. The Left admonishes everyone else who has the audacity to make ANY moral judgments: "WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE!" To the Left-wing moral relativists there can be no true MORAL judgments of what goes on in ANY bedroom - or across cultural boundaries or national borders.
What worsens their FEELING that their COUNTER CULTURE/"PROGESSIVE VISION" is under attack by "FUNDAMENTALISTS" is the FACT that there's really been a total collapse of their underlying Marxist economic meme: the USSR and its satellites have fallen; India and China have abandoned command economies and each adopted free markets and all are THRIVING as a result. Further discrediting Marx is the FACT that the few remaining ruling adherents to Marxism are obvious two-bit thugs who have ruined their countries: Castro, Chavez, Mugabe. Kim Jong Il and Assad.
IT IS OBVIOUS: Marx & Engels and Keynes & Galbraith were DEAD WRONG, and Hayek and Friedman were RIGHT ON, and this fact bugs the living snot out of the Left! It is the root cause of their cognitive dissonance.
As a result - even as democracy experiences a new birth ALL OVER THE WORLD, (largely because of the USA and Bush) - the Left seems unhappy: rooting for the insurgents and whispering their secret hopes to each other that "of course Lebanon and Iraq will fail."
Those of us who are traditionalists, and who believe in Natural Law and the Sanctity of Life - of each and every life - and in the inalienability of the Human Soul have values which extend beyond failed ideologies or partisan politics. And we believe that everyone EVERYWHERE deserves freedom and democracy - and can achieve it!
As a result - even as democracy experiences a new birth ALL OVER THE WORLD, (largely because of the USA and Bush) - the Left seems unhappy: rooting for the insurgents and whispering their secret hopes to each other that "of course Lebanon and Iraq will fail."
Those of us who are traditionalists, and who believe in Natural Law and the Sanctity of Life - of each and every life - and in the inalienability of the Human Soul have values which extend beyond failed ideologies or partisan politics. And we believe that everyone EVERYWHERE deserves freedom and democracy - and can achieve it!
And most us also supported the Schindlers and suspect that while Greer's decision to believe the Schiavo's hearsay evidence (that Terri would have wanted to die rather than live on as she is living) was probably legal - (according to Florida statute) - it was morally WRONG.
The concept of Human Soul and Natural Law and Sanctity of Life are COMPLETELY alien to the Left. To the Left, consciousness is merely concomitant with nerve cell activity. The Left are MATERIALISTS, after all. And that's why to the Left, Terri is - at this point in her life - merely something to be disposed of.
Well, the Left is wrong AGAIN!
What's sweeping the world today is not MATERIALISM but the indominatable HUMAN SPIRIT. People everywhere just wanna be FREE.
The world is positively flooding with democracy and freedom - and soon the free world will swell with renewed and redoubled prosperity, spurred-on by free unfettered Human creativity - the kind of creativity and prosperity that ONLY freedom foments!
And though there are still some tyrants around - and a few judges - who may try to hold back the flood waters a while... they really have no more than a finger in the dam.
And the dam will burst. And the water will wash over us. And clean us. And sustain us. And make our land fertile and green. And make us all free. YES: one day SOON, we will all be FREE.
Even Terri.
The real measure of this argument is in the juxtaposition caused by anti-war CO-s. They break the law, go to Canada based on their conscience.
ReplyDeleteYou said:
ReplyDeleteTo the Left, a Christian fundamentalist is as dangerous as a Jewish settler or an Islamic suicide bomber. They are morally equivalent to the Leftist.
I normally find that you have badly misrepresented the left's point of view, but this time you are correct. Fundamentalists are generally all the same, regardless of their religion. Part of the reason for this is that most fundamentalists ignore the teachings of their religion and just use the religion as a means of identifying who the bad guys are and who the good guys are. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all teach kindness, so nobody can use any of those religions as a reason for killing people (with a possible exception for people that have been proven guilty of a crime). The fact that many fundamentalists do strongly implies that they are ignoring their religion's teachings.
The reason fundamentalists are so dangerous is that they blindly follow anyone that identifies as a leader and uses the right words to tell them what to do. Most of them don't understand the religions they think they are following and don't think about their actions. People that bomb abortion clinics are not doing Christ's work. People that fly planes into buildings are not following the teachings of Islam. But they certainly think they are.
People with strong faith in their religion are not necessarily fundamentalists. Being devout does not by itself make someone dangerous. The problem is when they start believing in the institutions instead of the teachings of the religion.
James
You said:
ReplyDeleteTo the Left, a Christian fundamentalist is as dangerous as a Jewish settler or an Islamic suicide bomber. They are morally equivalent to the Leftist.
I normally find that you have badly misrepresented the left's point of view, but this time you are correct. Fundamentalists are generally all the same, regardless of their religion. Part of the reason for this is that most fundamentalists ignore the teachings of their religion and just use the religion as a means of identifying who the bad guys are and who the good guys are. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all teach kindness, so nobody can use any of those religions as a reason for killing people (with a possible exception for people that have been proven guilty of a crime). The fact that many fundamentalists do strongly implies that they are ignoring their religion's teachings.
The reason fundamentalists are so dangerous is that they blindly follow anyone that identifies as a leader and uses the right words to tell them what to do. Most of them don't understand the religions they think they are following and don't think about their actions. People that bomb abortion clinics are not doing Christ's work. People that fly planes into buildings are not following the teachings of Islam. But they certainly think they are.
People with strong faith in their religion are not necessarily fundamentalists. Being devout does not by itself make someone dangerous. The problem is when they start believing in the institutions instead of the teachings of the religion.
James
I know that this my sound cynical, but i believe most of them don't really know most of the details of the case and they are basing their judgment based on the headlines they get from the news and what i call the Kerry factor or what otehr referr to as Bush Hate. Their reasoning is more like "Terri is braindead and her husband says it's her wish to die, but the religious right and both Bush brothers are trying to stop them to earn political brownie points. i therefore support taking the tube away from Terri, just to show those religious zealots that they can't win everything!"
ReplyDeleteThat's my lil theory.
On a side note, this case is not really about euthnasia. Most people got it wrong.