Democrat, Liberal & Socialist Demagoguery is Alive and Well
If you were to abolish the class warfare rhetoric ... discard the psuedo-techno mumbo-jumbo nonsense ... and destroy the rampant falsehoods and myths perpetuated by the "Defenders of Equality," what would you have left on the Left?
Absolutely nothing! The Liberal philosophy is devoid of intellectual merit and without any moral defense. It must resort to the type of emotion-driven rhetoric that inspires people to act irrationally -- to instill in them a sense of injustice to motivate them to action. In short, to incite a revolution, which is the ultimate goal of the Liberal or Socialist.
Because it is only through revolution that radical changes are possible (although, the Democratic Socialists in America have done a pretty good job chipping away piece-by-piece as legislators ignore Liberty while concentrating their efforts on appeasing special interest; and as the average American is AWOL on his responsibility to respect, honor, and preserve his heritage - a heritage bought not with his own blood, but with the blood of his ancestors. Americans have a sacred duty to be ever watchful and diligent, lest Liberty be lost).
Adolf Hitler understood quite well the value of propaganda and the importance of appealing to man's emotions in order to inspire action. Hitler demonized those he wished to eliminate. And he realized that he had to have the support of the people in order to proceed with eliminating those he despised. He did so not by making intellectual arguments or reasoning with the German people. He did so by making the objects of his personal disdain the object of the people's collective disdain.
This, he accomplished, by making Jews the enemies of the German people -- by charging Jews with undermining the German culture -- its morality, commerce, religion, family, freedom, etc. And even though all of the charges were baseless, persistent and repetitive propaganda convinced otherwise rational and decent German people to despise the Jews ... and eventually to share the same disdain for them that Hitler did.
It was quite a remarkable feat for Hitler to transfer his hate to the population with little or no resistance. But it demonstrates the power of a persistent message, regardless of the truthfulness of its content. It also demonstrates the power of emotion as a motivating force. Rational Germans came to embrace Hitler's disdain for the Jews because they had been constantly reminded of the injustice they and their nation had suffered at the hands of the Jew.
The German people eventually became so angry and enraged that they were incited to express their anger at the culprits of the injustices. It did not matter that the injustices that inspired their anger were non-existent since persistent propaganda convinced them otherwise.
To the reader:
Stop some time and listen to the propaganda propagated by the Democrats, Liberals & Socialists of America. Observe the deficiency of a rational basis for their appeals. Also observe the abundance of emotionalism in their appeals - particularly to resentment and envy. You will see that their efforts to affect change are rooted in the same type of emotional manipulation that inspired the German people to despise the Jews.
Liberals and Socialists are destroyers. The history of the 20th century has show that any time they impose their "enlightened ideas" on society, death and destruction have followed. The very nature of Liberals and Socialists is to be unjustifiably confident - to believe the illusion that one is wise beyond one's years ... and wise beyond all the men and women that have governed up until one's existence.
The Liberal feels as if the past has nothing to offer, including all the lessons learned from the centuries of trials and errors in the art of governance. The Liberal feels he has no need to bother with the lessons of past experience because the Liberal is quite competent and will surely get it right the first time. It takes great arrogance and pomposity to be a Liberal. And not everyone is inclined to be so self-deluded and myopic.
In closing, I would like to extensively quote Edmund Burke, who eloquently summarized the mentality of those that have little respect for the past and place all of society's hopes and dreams at the mercy of social engineers with fresh and new (and of course progressive) ideas in the art of governing.
All quotes are from the Reflections on the Revolution in France:
"People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 37)
"The science of constructing a commonwealth, or denovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori ... it is with infinite caution that any man ought to venture upon pulling down an edifice..." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 65)
"The nature of man is intricate; the objects of society are of the greatest possible complexity: and therefore no simple disposition or direction of power can be suitable either to man's nature, or to the quality of this affairs." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 66)
"...people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his nature." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 69)
"We have made no discoveries, and we think that no discoveries are to be made, in morality; nor many in the great principles of government, nor in the ideas of liberty, which were understood long before we were born; ... we still feel within us, and we cherish and cultivate, those inbred sentiments which are the faithful guardians, the active monitors of our duty, the true supporters of all liberal and manly morals." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 90)
"...individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages. Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, skeptical, puzzled, and unresolved." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 91)
"With them [liberals] it is a sufficient motive to destroy an old scheme of things, because it is an old one; ... duration is no object of those who think little or nothing has been done before their time, and who place all their hopes in discovery." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 92)
"...unmindful of what they have received from their ancestors, or of what is due to their posterity, should act as if they were the entire masters; ... teaching ... successors as little to respect their contrivances, as they had themselves respected the institutions of their forefathers." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 99)
"...the evils of inconstancy and versatility [are] ten thousand times worse than those of obstinacy and the blindest prejudice...man should never dream of beginning its reformation by its subversion." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 100)
"It is better to cherish virtue and humanity, by leaving much to free will, even with some loss to the object, than to attempt to make men mere machines and instruments of a political benevolence. The world on the whole will gain by a liberty, without which virtue cannot exist." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 108)
"We do not draw the moral lessons we might from history. On the contrary, without care it may be used to vitiate our minds and to destroy our happiness. In history a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 145)
"Wise men will apply their remedies to vices, not to names; to the causes of evil which are permanent, not to the occasional organs by which they act, and the transitory modes in which they appear. Otherwise you will be wise historically, a fool in practice." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 145)
"A man full of warm, speculative benevolence may wish his society otherwise constituted than he finds it; but a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 161)
"Those whose principle it is to despise the ancient, permanent sense of mankind, and to set up a scheme of society on new principles, must naturally expect that such of us, who think better of the judgment of the human race than of theirs, should consider both them and their devices, as men and schemes upon their trial." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 168)
"The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more than equal to the task. Rage and phrensy will pull down more in half an hour, than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years. The errors and defects of old establishments are visible and palpable. It calls for little ability to point them out. At once to preserve and to reform is quite another thing." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 172)
"Political arrangement, as it is a work for social ends, is to be only wrought by social means. There mind must conspire with mind. Time is required to produce that union of minds which alone can produce all the good we aim at. Our patience will achieve more than our force. By a slow but well-sustained progress the effect of each step is watched; the good or ill success of the first gives light to us in the second; and so, from light to light, we are conducted with safety through the whole series. We see that the parts of the system do not clash. The evils latent in the most promising contrivances are provided for as they arise. One advantage is as little as possible sacrificed to another. We compensate, we reconcile, we balance. We are enabled to unite into a consistent whole the various anomalies and contending principles that are found in the minds and affairs of men. From hence arises, not an excellence in simplicity, but one far superior, an excellence in composition. Where the great interests of mankind are concerned through a long succession of generations, that succession ought to be admitted into some share in the councils which are so deeply to affect them. If justice requires this, the work itself requires the aid of more minds than one age can furnish." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 173-174)
"...those who are habitually employed in finding and displaying faults are unqualified for the work of reformation, because their minds are not only unfurnished with patterns of the fair and good, but by habit they come to take no delight in the contemplation of those things. By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 174)
"Men who undertake ... to regenerate constitutions ought to show uncommon powers. Some very unusual appearances of wisdom ought to display themselves on the face of the designs of those who appeal to no practice, and who copy after no model." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 175)
"I would not exclude alteration neither, but even when I changed, it should be to preserve. I should be led to my remedy by a great grievance. In what I did, I should follow the example of our ancestors. I would make the reparation as nearly as possible in the style of the building. Let us imitate their caution if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests. Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left." (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke, pg. 252) |
