Any Leftist, anytime…..

The title of my initial Blog was Mindless by Design. It was intended as a reference to the intellectual vacuity of the political Left. The philosophical assumptions informing the politics of Marx, Lenin, Marcuse, Antifa, B.L.M., Ocasio-Cortez etc.. etc., etc., are extremely contentious at best and in many cases absolutely absurd.

In an article in The Globe a couple of years ago, Canadian journalist Rick Salutin argued that the Indigenous of the Americas were “prescient” in their failure to pursue the kind of “scientific” investigation of the natural universe prescribed by Aristotle. Salutin’s “logic” of course was that having failed to develop any significant degree of technology, they had spared the environment the relentless abuses of which Western European Man [and others] were guilty.

Think of the implications of his statement. The Ancient Greeks saw the application of Man’s intelligence to the pragmatic and moral issues confronting him as an existential given. It seemed irrefutable to them that the pursuit of knowledge both of the Self and of the Natural World was preferable to a passive submission to ignorance. But Salutin implicitly sanctions the latter. Yes I know the Indigenous had their scientific accomplishments, and I am in no way stereotyping all Indians. But it is Historical Fact that in countless aspects of their Culture, Western Europeans 2500 years ago were more enlightened than many of the Americas’ Indigenous today. Paroxysms of Outrage have no effect on Facts. And Salutin’s equation of primitivism to “prescience” is absurd.

At one point in his article he insists that cultures evolve “organically.” It is a statement designed to imply that they in no way reflect the inner life of their populations, that they are in no way the product of the consciously pursued principles and values of a people. Cultures just kind of happen. Profound! Human Intelligence and Volition have simply been removed from the historical narrative. Books given to this end, invariably written by “progressives,” riddle contemporary literature. Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel” ascribes the historical dynamic to the deterministic impact of Geography and Climate acting in consort with Man’s irrepressible Will to Power. Intelligence and Achievement apparently have nothing to do with those civilizations which have prospered. As his title implies, this is also the theme of Daniel Markovits’ “The Meritocracy Trap: How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality.” For this Yale academic, “merit” is a mere pretense meant to rationalize an unfair distribution of advantage, a disparity, once again, that has nothing to do with Achievement, a disparity that, to use Markovits’ term, has been “constructed.”

But is the plight of a Black child born to impoverished parents in inner city America the product of a White conspiracy or of the irrefutable historical failures of African culture? Indeed does the insistence that “merit” has nothing to do with the radically different situations to which children are born around the world not entail the arbitrary dismissal of all of History from the human narrative?

Clearly those born into extreme wealth or abject poverty are in no way responsible for their situations. Most Western Nations have a multitude of programs designed to help the latter, indeed have launched billions of dollars into Third World countries to that very end. This, other than to the Darwinian Fundamentalist who believes the “inferior” ought to be allowed to simply perish, is as it should be.

But ironically, while the callous Darwinian would seem to view the species as just so many animals, “progressives” do the very same! In a 2017 article in The N.Y. Times, Robert Reich insists that the basis of any truly civilized society is the “conviction that all men are morally equal,” not, you understand, entitled to be seen as Equals before the Law, but actually, morally equal. His motivation clearly being “progressive” outrage with the fact of socioeconomic disparity, he cites “The Basis of Human Equality” by Jeremy Waldron which insists that Equality is what’s left over when “merit” is set aside.Yes, if we dismiss Intelligence, Creativity, Imagination, Curiosity and the willingness to apply them diligently to the betterment of the species, then we are all Equal!!!! This is to say that if we eliminate from discussion every attribute that separates us from the rest of biological creation, we’re really all the same: i.e., two arms, two legs, two eyes, etc. Such is the philosophical basis of the Egalitarian Dementia that informs what is ludicrously known as “progressivism.” Seemingly comfortable with the notion that we’re really just animals, The N.Y. Times published another article in 2017 by Nicholas Kristoff entitled “What Monkeys can Teach Us” which pontificated on the issue of socioeconomic inequality by invoking “The Broken Ladder” by Keith Payne whose sophisticated “ethos” would appear to be based on the assumption that Human Consciousness is barely distinguishable from Monkey Consciousness.

Clearly the youthful David Suzuki’s insistence, to which I have already alluded, that Humans are merely maggots, Capitalists 10th level, Regular people 2nd or 3rd level, is perfectly in keeping with the “progressive” vision of the Species.

But it is a vision which is by definition antipathetic to the basic freedoms which Enlightenment Humanists sought to engender in the principles of Democracy. “Progressives” and “Liberals” aren’t Humanists. They see us not as Intelligent Moral Beings entitled to make our own decisions but as mere animals who need to be domesticated. Hence the derision presently implied in the word Populism.

Having concluded, consciously or otherwise, that Beliefs and Values which do not align with theirs are always pretexts for some ugly phobia, “progressives” refuse to discuss the integrity of Beliefs and Values, refuse to discuss what used to be considered the very substance of human affairs. Former “progressive” Dave Rubin says he abandoned the Left when he realized it only valued him because he was gay and had no interest whatsoever in his ideas. Traditional Humanists [i.e., “conservatives”] on the other hand, rather than resorting to the relentless repetition of mindless epithets [racist, sexist, homophobic, etc., etc.] seemed more than willing to engage in rational discussions of the issues that interested him.

Outrageously, hypocritically, “progressives” exempt themselves from the very limitations they ascribe to the rest of the species. Suzuki says people are mere maggots, apparently forgetting that he is one of the “people.” It is the absurd intellectual travesty at the heart of “progressivism,” the criminal self-delusion that informs the double-standards which are its stock and trade.

Apparently disgusted with any abusive exercise of power, the Left abuses its cultural ascendancy on a daily basis [CNN, Google, Twitter, B.L.M., etc.]! Apparently believing that all men are morally equal, it ludicrously denounces those who disagree as intolerant monsters! Apparently concerned with the good of the Collective Whole, it paradoxically has little interest in the rights of the Individual. Apparently rooted in epistemological skepticism [i.e., no one really knows the truth], it nevertheless feels entitled to tell the rest of us exactly what we ought to believe and how we ought to live!

Is it in any way surprising that 20th Century Socialism in Russia and China produced corpses in numbers that made Hitler seem like a novice in the field of human perversity?

No one is whitewashing the history of Western European Man. But the current academic approach to our so-called Patriarchy is that it is evil in its very reliance on Human Intelligence. Indeed as Salutin’s celebration of the Indigenous would imply, the “progressive” prescription for genuine human progress is to cast off the shackles of Rational Consciousness and live our lives simply, empathically. John Ralston Saul spends a good deal of energy deconstructing Western Rationalism, as does much “progressive” literature. But the notion that we can simply cast aside what would seem to be an integral if not the defining aspect of human consciousness is absurd. And the notion that having done so we will all live in blissful harmony is devoid of both historical and scientific evidence. Such is the silliness of the world-view that has come to dominate our Civilization!

[If it seems absurd that our academics should be promoting the theory that we are predatory monsters who are nevertheless inherently empathetic, please direct your questions to them. It is their contradiction, not mine.]

Of course there are millions who would seem to validate the Left’s disdain for the Humanist vision of Man as an Intelligent Moral Being. But there are also millions who seek to bear the burden of consciousness with integrity. The ultimate absurdity of the political Left is that it consistently sacrifices the most accomplished among us, both intellectually and morally, to the least so. To do otherwise, of course, to point out human failure in its many of incarnations, might hurt some feelings. And not hurting feelings is apparently the defining criterion of contemporary Western culture. How such a world-view came to be known as “progressive” is utterly beyond me.