On Feb. 13, CBC Radio posted an article contending that the concept of Freedom is often merely a ploy used by the Far Right to deny equal rights to that by now familiar list of “oppressed minorities” so despised by the White, Patriarchal Hegemony. Elizabeth Anker, Associate Prof. of American Studies at George Washington U. and author of recently published “Ugly Freedoms,” is cited extensively in the article:
Freedom is a “slippery concept,” she says. “On the far right [individual freedom] is often translated into somebody who refuses to be bound by norms of equality, treating all people equally, or norms to remedy inequality, whether that’s trying to remedy racial discrimination or gender discrimination.”
None of those who share my “conservatism” would dispute the theoretical right of every person on the planet to equality of opportunity. Nor would they reject social programs designed to enhance such. But at the same time it is a simple fact that the very nature of Life precludes the realization of such parity. It’s simply not possible without the imposition of some system of global Tyranny capable of arbitrarily appropriating the achievements of the successful in the service of individuals and indeed entire civilizations which have manifestly failed to achieve. The feeble explanation inevitably invoked by academics such as Anker is of course that those who continue to prosper do so as a result of their undeserved “privilege” usually resulting from an abusive exercise of power. Merit is constantly disparaged on the Left because it conflicts with its simplistic definition of social justice. All of History is a victim of this superficial world-view inasmuch as, for example, an honest appraisal of Britain’s prolonged, strife-torn evolution towards the realization of the Democratic principles of the Enlightenment, would suggest that those reaping the rewards of that evolution are not merely the benefactors of some arbitrary “privilege” but of centuries of human effort and achievement. As such an assessment would seem to be an implicit criticism of the idiotic Leftist notion that different human outcomes have nothing to do with “merit,” nothing to do with human intelligence, courage and commitment, we live in a world willing to accept Critical Race Theory which sees racism as the defining factor in America’s cultural history, to the exclusion of a myriad of other factors self-evident to any but the terminally brain-dead.
Leftist ideology is definitively superficial because the Marxist paradigm upon which it is based is definitively superficial, literally excluding the complexities of the Inner Life of Man from its historical narrative. No doubt there are racists, misogynists, etc. on the perimeters of the political Right, but when the vast majority of “conservatives” suggest that Freedom does not necessarily equate to the statistical parity so beloved by the Left, they are not using that concept to disguise some subliminal form of intolerance, but merely commenting on the inarguable facts of Reality itself.
When “progressives” discuss “equality,” they frequently conflate equality of opportunity with equality of results. Were every person on the planet to be granted the same level of social-economic prosperity tomorrow, within five years some would be millionaires while others would be begging for nickels at street corners. It is a fact of Life, a fact of the Human Condition. “Liberals,” “progressives,” call them what you will, are by definition Fascists because their concept of “social justice,” inasmuch as it is refuses to acknowledge the realities of Human Nature, must inevitably involve the arbitrary use of Force. The CBC article suggesting that conservatives’ apparent obsession with Freedom is merely a cover for something sinister is in fact an indictment of the superficiality of its very own vision.
While the urge to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate is a valid political goal born of that capacity for empathy shared by all good people around the world, truly Free societies will never result in the sort of statistical parity so beloved by the Left. It’s a Fact of Life! Deal with it!