HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Aug 15, 2003 I have just had the pleasure of reading Dennis Prager’s essay called "What Makes a Liberal?" For those of you who may not have read this interesting essay I will paraphrase Mr. Prager’s primary argument: Liberals are dangerously child- like people who are pathologically incapable of making any kind of moral distinctions, discerning the difference between right and wrong and are hopelessly mired in feelings and compassion. I think that about covers it. Oh yes, and they operate under the naïve assumption that people are basically “good”. Apparently, believing that people are basically “good”, having compassion and admitting to the presence of emotions are bad things now. Obviously, having a mind that is nimble enough to actually see a situation from more than one point of view is no longer to be tolerated. Forgiveness, tolerance and social responsibility are all dangerously outmoded forms of thought that need to be banished from our new uber- patriotic, moralistic society because there is no place for such nonsense anymore. God Bless America, George Bush and Fox News and anyone who says anything different had either shut the hell up or leave the country! Is that about right? No, more precisely, is that about THE RIGHT? Well, thanks for the clarifications Mr. Prager because your essay has made it clear what the real festering danger is here in America, a willing decent into a soulless, heartless landscape where the only moral foundation is based upon the prudent acquisition of and perpetuation of wealth and security. There is no place for free (contrarian) thought, no value placed upon romantic or emotional expression or nuance and an obsessive need for the bland, black and white ordered reality that was best epitomized by 1950’s era Donna Reed shows. There is another festering reality that Mr. Prager revealed in his essay, however this reality would only be discerned by having the ability to read more than just the words on the page, a subtle little trick that I picked up in all that messy liberal education that I endured. Mr. Prager revealed the underlying FEAR that is driving the minds and souls of conservative America. Fear of feeling the real human impact of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians killed or mutilated because of our efforts to unseat a single ruthless dictator. Tell me, are these dead Iraqi’s enjoying the fruits of democracy and freedom now? Well I suppose it is the price THEY HAD TO PAY for having freedom BOMBED upon them, and they should be grateful in heaven. Fear that all of those unemployed, uneducated and lazy people who are continually slipping through the wider and wider cracks in our society will someday soon, get too hungry to just accept their lot in life and get tired of watching multi- millionaire politician-businessmen run up a huge national debt while simultaneously profiting on that same debt by massively investing in T-Bills and the defense contractors that are rebuilding countries that we went in and tore apart. Fear that all of the personal freedoms and privacy that we are gleefully handing over to the Department of Homeland Security might someday come in handy when we fall under that same department’s scrutiny. Fear that all this moral posturing and maturity is actually a thinly veiled mask for a festering racial purity movement that has been building in this country since it’s birth. So bask away in your smug little bubble of supposed moral superiority. Nod sagaciously as you belittle any form of alternative thought, label it dangerous and un-American because it dares to exercise the freedoms outlined in a constitution that is supposed to apply to all Americans. But remember, someday you might slip and fall through one of those cracks yourself; you might one day wake up and find out that you just aren’t moral enough for the prevailing powers and then you will be suspect and denigrated as well, you will be excluded and labeled dangerously un-American. But then, it will be too late because you will have already relinquished your freedoms, and your privacy and forgotten how to access your soul. Perhaps it is naïve to assume that people are inherently “good”. If so, the opposite must be true that people are inherently “evil”. All people, both Liberal and the moralistic conservative RIGHT. With this type of attitude, can paranoia be far behind? ------------ Email Scott Jones: rosenquill@rocketmail.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
