Opus 2015-241: They Call It Progess(ive)

Some of you may question the ability of Liberals (aka Progressives, Democrats, Rinos, Communists, Educators) to think and their perception of reality.  Mona Charen relates this example of what schools call High Level Thinking.

A group of liberals were visiting Cuba and marveling over their awesome health care system.  Then they discovered that the Communist healthcare system lobotomized mental patients.  For some this cause a problem, “But another pilgrim, Suzanne Ross, was unperturbed:  ‘We have to understand that there are differences between capitalist lobotomies and socialist lobotomies.’” p. 176

It only makes a difference to liberals.  The patients don’t care any more.  I wonder if this means that the left has found a way to perform lobotomies on reporters without it showing physically?

Charen, Mona.  Useful Idiots.  Washington, D.C.:  Regnery, 2004.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-234: Discernment Watch: The Cold War on the Second Amendment, part 1 of 2

Another term that people under 20 don’t seem to understand is “Cold War.”  And again, many over 20 don’t believe it ever happened.

The Cold War was the period when the free western world, led by the US, was in a deep conflict with the Communist world, led by the USSR.  It never broke out into open war between the superpowers, that is why it was called “cold”.  It did result in much fighting behind the scenes and through surrogates so it was called a war.

One reason that many don’t believe in it is because the Progressives who control the media, education and the Democrat Party have made it a practice of deception and distraction.  Mona Charen in her book Useful Idiots addresses this issue.  In her discussion she makes this comment:

“The Democrats in Congress did not believe in fighting, far less winning the Cold War.  Scarred by Vietnam (for all the wrong reasons) and tolerant of Third World flirtations with communism, they believed above all in one thing:  arms control.  It was the sheer ownership of weapons, they argued, that endangered the peace of the world.  Wars, they believed, could not be avoided when nations engaged in ‘arms races.’”  p. 122

What struck me in this is that the logic of the left never changes.  They felt like the reason for war was weapons.  If we want to avoid war then we should disarm because the only reason that Germany invaded France, The Soviet Union invaded Poland, Japan invaded China, the Huns invaded Europe, the Aztec attacked the Maya, etc was that the countries invaded had weapons and these noble nations were afraid.

Once a useful idiot, always a useful idiot, it seems.  They have carried this thinking over into the issue of the Second Amendment.  They believe the answer to crime and violence is to disarm the law abiding citizens.  The problem is not failing schools, belief in entitlements, the war on Christianity, sympathetic judges and pornographic television.  The problem is too many guns.

To be continued....

Charen, Mona.  Useful Idiots.  Washington, D.C.:  Regnery, 2004.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-231: Discernment Watch: Remember the Communist Threat?

People under 20 have never been aware of the Communist threat that seemed to recede when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.  Many people over 20 never really believed there was a threat because they watched people like Dan Rather each night.  Mona Charen, in her book Useful Idiots, shares a quote attributed to John Meynard Keynes in 1934.  Keynes is no bastion of conservative free enterprise but in this case he called a spade a spade (with apologies to shovels).

“Communism is not a reaction against the failure of the nineteenth century to organize optimal economic output.  It is a reaction against its comparative success.  It is a protest against the emptiness of economic welfare, an appeal to the ascetic in us all.” p. 91

Keep in mind the Communism (aks socialism, liberalism, progressivism) is a belief system based on faith and assumptions.  It is like any other religion, based ultimately on faith and assumptions.  The assumption is that the ultimate reason for humanity to exist is to evolve into a Marxist state where everyone lives in equality and justice.  That is fine but because they are fanatics, they believe that it is okay to kill millions in order to achieve this enlightenment.  Don’t believe me?  Then check out how many have been butchered by the Communist states of the world.  Start with the Soviet Union, China and Cambodia.  If that isn’t enough for you don’t waste any more time.  You qualify as a Useful Idiot.

The Communist threat is still alive.  Some would say it is being resurrected but in reality it never went away.  It has festered in our universities and media.  It has hunkered down in Russia.  It has adjusted in China.  It has gone chameleon on us but it has never gone away.  As long as we have self righteous zealots who think they know what is best for us common folks the seeds will be alive among us.  When you don’t have the power to starve peasants and shoot dissidents they get temporary relief by limiting our showers, downsizing our cars and turning out cities into centers of racism.

Charen, Mona.  Useful Idiots.  Washington, D.C.:  Regnery, 2004.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-229: Ideology Trumps Integrity

Some things never change.

I am reading a bestseller from years gone by called Useful Idiots by Mona Charen.  She goes back and brings out the repeated statements by Democrats and media reporters showing how they have consistently been down on America and pro-Soviet.  She traces this bias back to the last time they were called Progressives, in the 1920's.  She points out some of it is pure naivete but other times it is blatant lies to advance the cause of Communism.  She looks back to the early days of the Socialist threat.

“It might be thought that in those early days, particularly since accurate reporting from inside the USSR was hard to come by, liberals and leftists who made excuses for the USSR were simply ill informed.  But in fact the 1930s and early 1940s were characterized by vigorous and spirited debates within left-wing circles about the nature of Communism.  Figures of the anticommunist left ... provided ample published evidence about the arbitrary arrests, disappearance, and persecutions being carried out in Soviet Russia, as well as copious proof that organs like the New York Times were not telling the truth about the famine and others matters.”  p. 90

So in reality it has never been a lack of evidence but a political philosophy that at its heart is anti-American and anti liberty.  As she summarized,

“The evidence, in other words, was there for those with eyes to see.  But in the 1930s and 1940s, no less than in the 1970s and 1980s, many on the liberal Left suspended their skepticism where Communist regimes were concerned.” p. 90

A book that is eleven years old but still has truth that we are refusing to see.  See if your library has a copy.

Charen, Mona.  Useful Idiots.  Washington, D.C.:  Regnery, 2004.

homo unius libri