Liberalism And The Worship of the Goddess Fortuna

[PoliticalChic]

Fortuna.....the Roman goddess of chance, luck and fate

The Harvest Fortune




1. I always look for connections in every new learning, and a passage in Michael Ennis' novel, "The Malice of Fortune" struck me as acutely similar to, and an explanation for, contemporary American history.


In this passage, he writes of a time in Italy's history, when....well, here:

"As the Renaissance reached new heights of splendor and innovation—Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli now shared the stage—Italy foundered in a morass of political treachery and chaos.
Amidst this endemic turmoil, the Italian people despaired of finding a remedy in God and the Church, and instead regarded themselves as subject to the goddess Fortune (a revival of the ancient Roman cult of Fortuna), personified in both literature and daily discourse as the capricious and ill-intentioned governess of all human affairs. Even the most enlightened intellects of the age were not immune to this belief in the tyranny of Fortune.

... Niccolò Machiavelli examined ancient and modern history, bent on deriving fundamental principles of human behavior, in the hope that this new science would allow Italy’s hapless leaders to anticipate crises and prepare for Fortune’s onslaughts …" Bookshout


"....a morass of political treachery and chaos. Amidst this endemic turmoil,....hapless leaders to anticipate crises and prepare for Fortune’s onslaughts …"



2. The belief that not tradition, nor experience, nor prayers could stand against the travails of just plain bad luck informed the outlook of Americans, as well, when Franklin Roosevelt took office. Capitalism, the most successful and dynamic societal advance in mankind's history, seemed to have ceased to be an anodyne. Not responsibility, not hard work, not virtue....but what Ennis called "the goddess Fortune"....just plain dumb luck.... controlled lives.

And the antidote, in much of western civilization, became big, totalitarian government and the promise to control fate and luck through government.



3. Franklin Roosevelt rode that horse to four terms as President. Government, he proclaimed, could insure against the vagaries of life. Hence, the creation of Social Security, the Constitution be damned.

But....Liberal Big Government is 'the god that failed.' No one considered that life expectancy would increase?

No one considered that the balance of workers and retirees might change?

No one calculated the long-term costs?



Liberalism....where feeling passes for knowing.

 

[Grandma]

Yeah, that was incoherent.

 

[DGS49]

Interesting perspective.

Putting it another way, today's Leftists absolutely REFUSE to attribute the wretched state of various Things and People to poor decision-making, a lack of diligence, a lack of talent, and a culture that exalts Victimhood. It is all just Fate.

Consider the "poor Black family." They are not poor because mamma dropped out of school at 15 to have the first of her bastard children, or because the sperm donor was a chronic wastrel who has neither the means nor the desire to support his offspring, or because Leftist public policies make it tolerable for the Head-of-Household to do nothing gainful.

No, they are wretched because of racism, bigotry, and "white privilege," all of which can be assuaged or eliminated through more and bigger government initiatives.

Possibly.

As Ben Shapiro often describes it, if there are two people in a room and one of them has $10 and the other has only $2, that sad state of affairs MUST BE THE RESULT of some unfair situation or transaction. It is not possible (and not even worth considering) that the person with $10 engaged in some productive, valuable behavior that the other person did not. The very existence of the INEQUALITY in that room is proof-positive of some form of oppression by the wealthier chap.

 

[ZZ PUPPS]

Yeah, that was incoherent.

For you, anything beyond "Bush did it" is incomprehensible. She is laying out an argument that socialistic policies often fail due to their design being workable only at that precise moment. As demographics change (workers/retirees), the socialistic endeavor collapses or becomes politically unpalatable for those later forced to support it.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Yeah, that was incoherent.

For you, anything beyond "Bush did it" is incomprehensible. She is laying out an argument that socialistic policies often fail due to their design being workable only at that precise moment. As demographics change (workers/retirees), the socialistic endeavor collapses or becomes politically unpalatable for those later forced to support it.

Thanks very much for this post, PUPPS....

I try not to dumb down my perspectives, and they are not for those irked by the import....read: Liberals.....but, just as often, they are over the heads of those who lack the intellect or education that you and poster #3 have.

Thanks again.
Hope you like the rest of the thread, ...I'm gonna bring it right up to the current candidate.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Yeah, that was incoherent.

So sad.

My condolences.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Interesting perspective.

Putting it another way, today's Leftists absolutely REFUSE to attribute the wretched state of various Things and People to poor decision-making, a lack of diligence, a lack of talent, and a culture that exalts Victimhood. It is all just Fate.

Consider the "poor Black family." They are not poor because mamma dropped out of school at 15 to have the first of her bastard children, or because the sperm donor was a chronic wastrel who has neither the means nor the desire to support his offspring, or because Leftist public policies make it tolerable for the Head-of-Household to do nothing gainful.

No, they are wretched because of racism, bigotry, and "white privilege," all of which can be assuaged or eliminated through more and bigger government initiatives.

Possibly.

As Ben Shapiro often describes it, if there are two people in a room and one of them has $10 and the other has only $2, that sad state of affairs MUST BE THE RESULT of some unfair situation or transaction. It is not possible (and not even worth considering) that the person with $10 engaged in some productive, valuable behavior that the other person did not. The very existence of the INEQUALITY in that room is proof-positive of some form of oppression by the wealthier chap.

"...they are wretched because of racism, bigotry, and "white privilege," ....

Excellent, D.


Liberals....trained to accept the most obvious of fabrications.


And....I love Ben Shapiro's works....I have one sitting on my nightstand now.

 

[PoliticalChic]

4. Continuing with the consubstantial basis of the Roman belief in the work of the goddess Fortuna, and enforced big government as the only remedy.....


"The year 1502 represented the historic moment when the intellect of man began to strike back against Fortune’s malice and might. This insurrection of human will and reason, which would alter the subsequent course of civilization, did not find its spark in the familiar capitals of the Renaissance but rather in..." Ennis

......well....in our time.....in Leftism: communism, socialism, Fascism....and Liberalism.





5. Let's take a closer look at how the talisman, known as Social Security, was to work:
The Social Security plan was that workers would pay for retirees, and, based on actuarial tables, those who died earlier than expected would add to the fund. Never mind that there is no such authorization in the Constitution....and FDR felt no need to offer an amendment.
That's what dictators do. His administration despised the Constitution. After all....why let a crisis go to waste.
The Founders 'worshipped,' not the goddess Fortuna, but the messages of the Bible...


Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest. Proverbs 6:6-8



FDR did the same with private home ownership.....resulting in the mortgage meltdown that Democrats blame on Bush.



"The question here is not whether or not the intention of the SSA is beneficent, but whether or not its inception was properly vetted. The concept of a marketplace of ideas is based on the assumption that information is not buried or distorted, and all aspects of same are given access prior to acceptance of the plan."
Beck and Balfe, “Broke.”
Debate is the bane of Liberal existence; silencing any opposition is the mode.


" The CBO puts the 75-year imbalance in Social Security at 1.2% of GDP—about $200 billion in 2014, and rising steadily as GDP increases. If we do nothing, the Social Security actuaries estimated last year, all Social Security reserves will be exhausted by 2033, after which revenues could cover only three-quarters of currently scheduled benefits." The Hard Numbers on Social Security


a. Social Security Liability, 2016 ....$15,402,000,000,000 (into the future)
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

 

[ZZ PUPPS]

Also note that the Trust Funds hold no cash - just federal debt instruments. IOUs from a government already 20 trillion in the hole...

 

[PoliticalChic]

Also note that the Trust Funds hold no cash - just federal debt instruments. IOUs from a government already 20 trillion in the hole...

P-O-N-Z-I

 

[PoliticalChic]

'History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.' Attributed to Mark Twain



6. ".... until Rodrigo Borgia purchased the papacy in 1492. Assuming the name Pope Alexander VI, and declaring his intention to restore and expand the Church’s worldly domains with deeds worthy of Alexander the Great, the Borgia pope filled his war chest by peddling Church offices and indulgences with unprecedented industry." Ennis



"...the Borgia pope filled his war chest by peddling Church offices and indulgences with unprecedented industry."
Like the name Quasimodo.....it rings a bell, huh?



While Franklin Roosevelt thirsted less after personal treasure, he did yearn for the sorts of political power of his erstwhile friends, Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler. And he defeated the 'enemy' that stood in his way: the United States Constitution.

..."the Borgia pope filled his war chest by peddling Church offices and indulgences with unprecedented industry"...

"The Borgias were a powerful family in Renaissance Italy. Despite the fact that they produced two Popes, their name has become associated with all kinds of dark deeds." In a nutshell: the Borgias

Know of a couple whose "name has become associated with all kinds of dark deeds" ?



We have our very own Borgias, the crime family known as the Clintons, who have done virtually the very same things.
"It should come as no surprise that the Associated Press reports that "More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money - either personally or through companies or groups - to the Clinton Foundation"..." Hillary Sold Access to the Secretary of State | RedState



Soooo....November 8th...gonna vote Borgia....er, Democrat?

 

[PoliticalChic]

7. How about more proof that Liberalism, the Democrat attraction, is based on worship of the goddess Fortuna...luck.
For Liberals and Progressives, life is still determined by luck and nothing else. You're a success...luck, so the title of Ennis' book, "The Malice of Fortune" is eminently appropriate.

Obama shortened it to 'You didn't build that' in speaking of a successful business. For Liberals, step on a crack, and you could wind up in poverty!



NPR-Liberal radio amplifies that theme in their show 'America's Poverty Myth.' It is only big government that stands between you and poverty. For the Left...your efforts are meaningless....that's why they must dictate every aspect of your life.



The claim is made that virtue actually works counter to solving the problem of poverty.
That's right....NPR and Liberalism, Inc., actually strive for an America in which no one tries to be ethical and disciplined.


The refer to a study by Carol Stack, in her book "All Our Kin."..."This landmark study debunked the misconception that poor families were unstable and disorganized...."
"...traces the networks of kinship that poor people rely on to survive, by sharing funds and childcare, and basic goods...but those networks also impede upward mobility because good fortune is expected to be shared. Your choice, then, is to severe those bonds or to distribute the fruits of your lucky break...until it's too small to make a difference."
Busted: America's Poverty Myths | WNYC



Did you catch the switch?
If you make it, according to our Liberal NPR, it's all based on luck, on good fortune, and a lucky break.....the malice of fortune.
Not the virtues and hard work, that represent the traditional recipe for success.
After all....'you didn't build this.'

And...inadvertently, it seems to admit that socialism, collectivism, cannot cure poverty....it can only share it.



The truth is actually found in this quote, attributed to a number of Americans:
"I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

 

[PoliticalChic]

8. Perhaps you feel that everything we get, or fail to achieve is due to the goddess of fortune. You feel incompetent to control your own life: you vote Democrat.


It seems to be the ethos of our time, at least for secularists.

But, as long ago as the 19th century, the poet Thomas Hardy captured the view in "Hap," meaning chance or happenstance.


This is the poem:

If but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh: “Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!”

Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I
Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.

But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
—Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan. . . .
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.



Hardy was agnostic, so, like so many persuaded by the Left the their lives are no more meaningful than so many grains of sand.

Fitting, as Hardy was not religious. Would have been an FDR/Obama/Hillary voter, it seems.