I am a Boomer who was passionately committed to the quest for social justice that became the chief focus of much of the Folk Music of the 1960s. The Kingston Trio’s “500 Miles” clearly suggested that The American Dream of Liberty and Equality for all had somehow failed to materialize. I fully agreed. But what has led me to my “conservatism” is the realization that the seemingly noble sentiments that emerged from that era have morphed into a ludicrously simplistic definition of “social justice” whose adherents believe they have the right to impose it by force even though it is at odds with the fundamental realities of the Human Condition! Quite simply, the Cultural Revolution we are still experiencing is and always was but a tidal wave of Sentiment utterly devoid of Rational Efficacy. As I have pointed out repeatedly throughout these blogs, the Left loves to deride Reason as a Western, Patriarchal obsession of no redeeming value. John Ralston Saul spends an entire chapter in “Voltaire’s Bastards” disparaging the heartlessness of Reason. But are Reason and Compassion really incompatible or is the very idea absurd?
I adore and respect women and absolutely defend their right to live their lives as they see fit, free of those stereotypical restrictions to which they were submitted in the past. But that freedom does not mean they will make the same choices as men and the notion that they ought to occupy every socioeconomic niche with statistical parity is absurd. Men and women are demonstrably different both biologically and temperamentally and any definition of social justice which ignores that fact is bound to be oppressive! As I have mentioned in previous blogs, Google spent millions of dollars a few years ago in a futile effort to lure more women into its technology department. It turns out the majority of their intended benefactors were simply not interested. The supposed inequities within Google’s workforce were not the product of Patriarchal Oppression but of the simple facts of Human Diversity.
The irony of the above must be apparent, as the Left pretends to be a champion of Diversity while actually ignoring the multitude of Diverse human qualities responsible for much of what it proclaims to be a matter of “oppression.” Men and Women don’t occupy every socioeconomic niche equally because they are not the same! Moreover Culture is as potent as Biology in yielding existential Diversity, the rage and resentment evident in much Rap for example, clearly playing a role in the inordinate amount of Black, inner-city crime. In the same way, many of Canada’s Indigenous continue to live in abject poverty as a result of the very passivity inherent in their Culture which the Left ironically loves to celebrate as “holistic.”
These observations are rooted in a rational appraisal of the Human Condition rather than any racist/sexist biases whatsoever. The notion that “conservatives” are heartless, judgmental jerks is utterly absurd. I am as much committed to the Ideal of Justice and Compassion for all as I was in the 60s. But the Left’s elimination of volition and personal responsibility from the socioeconomic dynamic, its insistence that all disparities in that realm are a matter of “oppression,” leaves us no closer to a truly just society than that lamented by the Kingston Trio 60 years ago. Indeed it has bequeathed us a world not dissimilar to that of Orwell’s 1984, an oppressive cultural regime in which our “intellectual elites” feel entitled to impose upon us their superficial definition of social justice even though it flagrantly ignores the demonstrable, substantial Diversity of our species.
We will never get back to the “Garden” and the query “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?” supposes a Utopia which has never existed. Ironically, the Left’s determination to reinstate that fictitious realm entails celebrating the least accomplished among us, both morally and intellectually, while demonizing all those who have achieved as “oppressors.” It is a ludicrous narrative which leaves us far more than 500 miles away from Home! It is a political perspective totally out of touch with the Diverse Realities of the Human Condition.