JONATHAN HAIDT: Well, if people work hard, they should succeed. If people don't work hard, they should fail. And if anyone bails them out, that is evil. You should not bail people out who have failed, especially if it's because of lack of hard work, something like that. So as the right sees it, government is evil because it keeps punishing success, with redistributive policies, okay, take from the successful and give to the unsuccessful.
I agree with you that he can use some extreme examples, but he need to throw some red meat to the left. What I find most interesting is that this guy is essentially a scientist and believes in analyzing this from an evolutionary psychology perspective. His book is essentially a report of his findings.
One thing to note is that he is a full member of the liberal nomenklatura, and he even worked as a volunteer for John Kerry’s presidential run in 2004. So, when he tells them that the liberal pillars are weaker and narrower that the conservative one’s, it because he’s discovered this the hard way.
The general principle that conservatives espouse here is that we need to have a system that corresponds with the conservative principle of hard work leading to greater success and that people have to suffer some kinds of consequences when they make choices that are bad (free rider, etc..) If we can get the left to accept these fundamental rules to govern human behavior then I think that we can build a future, otherwise we can’t. |
