One of my Left-wing buddies posted this in a recent thread:
"War and violence is fine with wingnuts so long as they don't have to fight it. Killing is fine and justified because you are scared. Hypocrite thy name is right wing conservative apologist for murder and death."
I thought the idea worthy of a deeper analysis....
1. Following WWI, and reaching an apex during the Vietnam War, the Left has generally been hostile to anything having to do with war, often embracing pacifism. The bumper-sticker War is Not the Answer expresses a nearly universal Left-wing view.
a. The Left believes that just about every conflict can be settled through negotiations, that war solves nothing, and that American expenditures on defense are merely a sign of militarism, imperialism, and the insatiable appetite of the military-industrial complex.
b. In fact, violence is deemed immoral, and the use of the military considered nefarious, unless it is used as boy scouts would be.
c. Many Leftists oppose children viewing cartoons, like Bugs Bunny, that depict a stylized violence, not to mention playing with toy guns, war scenarios, or even drawing stick figures portraying violence.
2. A central theme of Leftism is pacifism, largely because no welfare state can afford a strong military. Europeans came to rely on America to fight the worlds evils and even to defend their countries. This means that equality trumps morality.
a. That is why Liberal elites are so confused: they venerate a Cuban tyranny with its egalitarian society over a free, decent, and prosperous America that has greater inequality of material wealth.
b. The Right regards pacifism as an accessory to evil.
3. Everything associated with the military is held in disrepute: nationalism, a strong military, honoring the military, referring to military dead as heroes. And even referring to anything as evil.
a. Since the end of WWII, the Left has opposed fighting almost any evil. Even when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the Left opposed military intervention. What could be more moral than opposing Saddams take-over of a nation, and considering the strategic importance of the area, and even the fact that the UN supported the use of the military still, two-thirds of the House Democrats, and 46 of 56 Democrat Senators voted against the war.
b. Pacifism, the antithesis of nationalism, is a major attraction of both the United Nations and the World Court, both venerated by the Left. These vaunted institutions are opposed to all nationalism, except, of course, Palestinian.
4. The generalization of pacifism leads to the Lefts view of nationalism, and then to contempt for the idea of American exceptionalism, of an America which is prepared to use force to fight what it deems as evil, an affirmation of traditional Judeo-Christian values which include support for the death penalty.
5. What is, then, the tenet that separates the Left from the Right, the Liberal from the conservative? It is simply this: by nature, is man basically good? The Leftist subscribes to the idea that a) man is, by his nature, basically good; b) the Nobel Savage of Rousseau; c) given the correct government and laws, society can establish Utopia here, on this Earth, and now. Based on this doctrine, pacifism is logical. As is nuclear disarmament.
a. A distinguishing characteristic of Liberals and Leftists is an aversion to recognizing or acknowledging evil and its permutations, i.e., communism. On another level, it explains the Lefts dislike for capitalism, a system which produces winners and losers, a painful fact that the Left would rather not see.
b. Pacifism is the proclivity to appease evil and ignore the sad facts of life. It is a form of wishful thinking.
6. The Right understands that mans nature, while not inherently evil, is not good, in the sense of altruistic. Personal aggrandizement is a very strong element in human nature, and, therefore, there must be checks and balances, and these may include force, and, in fact, wars.
a. The written laws and rules are codifications of the unwritten ones worked out over millennia as the result of human interactions and experience.
b. The Bible cites God Himself as declaring that the will of mans heart is evil from his youth (Genesis 8:21).
Largely covered in "Still The Best Hope," Prager
"War and violence is fine with wingnuts so long as they don't have to fight it. Killing is fine and justified because you are scared. Hypocrite thy name is right wing conservative apologist for murder and death."
I thought the idea worthy of a deeper analysis....
1. Following WWI, and reaching an apex during the Vietnam War, the Left has generally been hostile to anything having to do with war, often embracing pacifism. The bumper-sticker War is Not the Answer expresses a nearly universal Left-wing view.
a. The Left believes that just about every conflict can be settled through negotiations, that war solves nothing, and that American expenditures on defense are merely a sign of militarism, imperialism, and the insatiable appetite of the military-industrial complex.
b. In fact, violence is deemed immoral, and the use of the military considered nefarious, unless it is used as boy scouts would be.
c. Many Leftists oppose children viewing cartoons, like Bugs Bunny, that depict a stylized violence, not to mention playing with toy guns, war scenarios, or even drawing stick figures portraying violence.
2. A central theme of Leftism is pacifism, largely because no welfare state can afford a strong military. Europeans came to rely on America to fight the worlds evils and even to defend their countries. This means that equality trumps morality.
a. That is why Liberal elites are so confused: they venerate a Cuban tyranny with its egalitarian society over a free, decent, and prosperous America that has greater inequality of material wealth.
b. The Right regards pacifism as an accessory to evil.
3. Everything associated with the military is held in disrepute: nationalism, a strong military, honoring the military, referring to military dead as heroes. And even referring to anything as evil.
a. Since the end of WWII, the Left has opposed fighting almost any evil. Even when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the Left opposed military intervention. What could be more moral than opposing Saddams take-over of a nation, and considering the strategic importance of the area, and even the fact that the UN supported the use of the military still, two-thirds of the House Democrats, and 46 of 56 Democrat Senators voted against the war.
b. Pacifism, the antithesis of nationalism, is a major attraction of both the United Nations and the World Court, both venerated by the Left. These vaunted institutions are opposed to all nationalism, except, of course, Palestinian.
4. The generalization of pacifism leads to the Lefts view of nationalism, and then to contempt for the idea of American exceptionalism, of an America which is prepared to use force to fight what it deems as evil, an affirmation of traditional Judeo-Christian values which include support for the death penalty.
5. What is, then, the tenet that separates the Left from the Right, the Liberal from the conservative? It is simply this: by nature, is man basically good? The Leftist subscribes to the idea that a) man is, by his nature, basically good; b) the Nobel Savage of Rousseau; c) given the correct government and laws, society can establish Utopia here, on this Earth, and now. Based on this doctrine, pacifism is logical. As is nuclear disarmament.
a. A distinguishing characteristic of Liberals and Leftists is an aversion to recognizing or acknowledging evil and its permutations, i.e., communism. On another level, it explains the Lefts dislike for capitalism, a system which produces winners and losers, a painful fact that the Left would rather not see.
b. Pacifism is the proclivity to appease evil and ignore the sad facts of life. It is a form of wishful thinking.
6. The Right understands that mans nature, while not inherently evil, is not good, in the sense of altruistic. Personal aggrandizement is a very strong element in human nature, and, therefore, there must be checks and balances, and these may include force, and, in fact, wars.
a. The written laws and rules are codifications of the unwritten ones worked out over millennia as the result of human interactions and experience.
b. The Bible cites God Himself as declaring that the will of mans heart is evil from his youth (Genesis 8:21).
Largely covered in "Still The Best Hope," Prager
