Well, commenter “Jon” responded to me with defensive condescension and pointed me to the first in a string of Mr Cropper video lectures about the famous Mill essay "On Liberty".
Because he left a phony email address, I could not inform "Jon" that the video series to which he sent me actually reinforces what real conservatives ought rightly fear about those who have long hidden behind JS Mill's "open mind" apologetic to shield them in their attacks on Western civilization.
Better even is what I discovered in the first four minutes of part 13. (Mr Cropper really gets cranked when discussing consequences between 4 and 7 minutes).
Partial transcript from first 4 minutes in the next 8 paragraphs:
Mr Cropper is demonstrating the kind of thinking that leads to my complete overview of why Western Civ is being destroyed from within. He is one step removed from asking this question,"It is desirable, in short, that in things that do not primarily concern others, individuality should assert itself. If it were felt that free development of individuality is one of the leading essentials of well-being, there would be no danger that liberty would be undervalued." -- J.S. Mill.
If we could get to people that understand that individual freedoms are important for all of us to have the nice things we have -- like enough food to eat, houses to live in, freedom from war and poverty and whatever. If people understood that individuality as such, the freedom of the individual, is essential to bringing us the good life, then everybody would understand why we have to leave the individual free.
That is a lovely thought, and it's tempting, but it's not true. Today you can tell them that. You can say "Now look. We need the individual to act as he pleases as long as he doesn't hurt others." [And gives a list.]
And there is a group that responds: "To Hell with all that. I want trees and..." [gives a list of primitive, pristine land, untouched by humanity "forest primeval" sort of wishes.] "To Hell with mankind's good. To Hell the well-being" as John Stuart Mill says. "I want Nature to be better off."
There are even some crackpot idiots who rather not see us go to the Moon and other planets. Here are these balls of rock and dust floating through space. They hate mankind so much, they don't even want us to go there and disturb the rocks and dust. It is a sick, sick person who prefers mankind just disappear or reduce their numbers, or something, just so rocks and trees and fish can live. To remove this drive to go to Mars and the Moon is just -- is diabolical.
I wish he [Mill] were right about this. If we understood that it's freedom that leads to our well-being, we would all be in favor of freedom. As a matter of fact, if you think that freedom leads to our well-being, there are these people who will say
"OK. Freedom is obviously a bad thing then. We need to have state controls on stuff. We need to stop the building of new power plants; we need to stop new highways; and stop new housing; we need population controls on people; and the number of new babies being born; and reduce the population."You cannot get passed them. It's called environmentalism. It's a new cult, a new religion. They don't even profess to be scientific; at least the communists were scientific about their nonsense, or claims to be. These people just claim morality is all they're after. And that humans are immoral; destroying trees is immoral. So you can't convince them Freedom is good -- it leads to SUVs. That's why they're pissed.
“If our “leaders” are so humanitarian, how is it that we never hear them direct a harsh word at the Malthusian, Utilitarian and Green nutcases?”for which the plausible answers are not comforting for individuals and any desire they have for their own life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
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I've always been of the opinion that those who profess to hate mankind the most, and specifically white man and his superior culture, and if their feelings run so deep that they are prepared to sabotage the very society that has nurtured and keeps them alive, then they all have the option of rejecting that same society by the taking of their own life.
ReplyDeleteI could care less for the stupid!
Nem -- the source and abetting of all the intellectual claptrap is coming mostly from white men. They bestow attention on only those minorities who push the anti-human agenda. I argued years ago (before I understood why those in power turned a deaf ear) that affirmative action hires would ultimately hurt the very people it pretended to help by destroying meritocracy and it's ability to come to the aid of all of society. This is the point MrCropper makes repeatedly.
ReplyDeleteI understand your feelings about the stupid. It will be a waste of your time in a very large number of cases.
But I do care about the misled because much of the stupidity we witness is because they have been conditioned under cover the topic of my next post.
Good luck with the misled, and I do appreciate where you are coming from, but don't you believe that the misled have been compromised to the point where Conservatives - the very people who are capable of saving them from themselves and willing to do so - are now considered to be their enemy?
ReplyDeleteAnd I put that to you in a general sense as I do realize that some who have been misled are able to be saved. One Soul saved is a gain, as they say.
But trying to get some to think outside the square they now inhabit and sincerely believe to be true is akin to tearing down a brick wall with bare hands, it can be done, but it is a very painful process.
Sometimes it takes but a single fresh perspective with just the right contrast to turn a mind.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, that translated post at Gates of Vienna indicates. A light went on in the head of a life-long communist. He's still suffering from cognitive dissonance, and hadn't yet gotten the whole picture -- much like those guys who died in the gulags moaning "if only Stalin knew." He even asked the Baron to remove the translation (probably as part of his apologizing to keep his job). But it certainly showed that some useful idiots may actually see what's in store for them before the guillotine falls. (Apologized? A man forced against his will is of the same opinion still.)
Oh there's no doubt that many many misled will never become that conservative who was liberal until he was mugged. Luckily I'm a patient man even after all the frustrations. If God exists, I suspect he'll grant me some credit for trying.
Yes, I like that attitude toward the bleeding heart lefty, and when given the opportunity to engage with socialists, I do likewise.
ReplyDeleteAs you realize, it's not always successful and not always easy to maintain one's temper when they tend to obfuscate the facts, and it is so very frustrating when the outcome of their
logic is outlined, but then rejected by them as a mistake by previous socialists who 'just got it wrong'.
(growl)