Daniel Hannan on poverty and its alternatives:
“Like slavery and apartheid,” Nelson Mandela told 20,000 people in Trafalgar Square ten years ago, “poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.” They were inspiring words, and the crowd duly went wild. But the old man was talking utter, unadulterated bilge. Poverty is not “man-made”: it is the primordial condition of all living organisms, including humans. It is wealth that is “man-made.”
John Leo on the latest campus fundamentalism:
The National Association of Scholars released a 260-page report on how far the new [definition] of “sustainability” has spread, particularly on campuses. Credentials can be earned in 1,438 distinct college programmes and its message now extends to such unlikely subjects as English composition, mathematics, art history and psychology… Under the argument that true sustainability requires an end to social oppression, the report says, the movement embraces identity politics, calls for the overthrow of patriarchal systems and misogynist bias, the virtual elimination of extraction of energy from fossil fuels, an end to industrial development in the underdeveloped world and a return to subsistence or near subsistence standards of living. The need to overthrow capitalism, though not supported by all, is a common and much discussed theme in the movement.
And Bill Whittle on 16-year-olds and voting:
Teen voters, the younger the better, are exactly what the left is looking for. They know no history; they base all of their decisions on emotion; they have no real world experience in terms of what works and what does not. They haven’t the slightest idea of discipline or delayed gratification. They live in a world of fantasy and wish fulfilment; they make demands that cannot be met but they’re willing to settle for an ice-cream cone. They are utterly dependent on others; they’re desperate to conform to the cultural norm, and in general they are the perfect, pliable, ignorant, utterly emotional, reason-free, easily-manipulated vote farm that the progressives need for their power grab.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments. It’s what these posts are for.
Compulsory voting for teenagers but no voter ID because that’s racist. Got it. Good job Obama’s the most intelligent president ever.
If 16 year-olds are wise enough on aggregate to vote and make changes that affect my life then they are wise enough and old enough to drink, smoke, go to war and stand trials as adults with no favours in the criminal justice system, amongst other responsibilities.
Most 16 year olds don’t have a clue about economics so (for socialists) it makes perfect sense to let them vote.
Most 16 year olds don’t have a clue about economics so (for socialists) it makes perfect sense to let them vote.
Teenagers tend to feel hugely entitled, think that everything is unfair, and are accustomed to being supported by others, often by people they dislike. All of which sounds familiar. What’s striking is the shamelessness of it, the disregard for consequences, most of which seem likely to be terrible, indeed ruinous. It’s an attempt to create, or rather expand, a voting block among which, say, Laurie Penny – who thinks companies needn’t be competitive – would be an intellectual titan.
Most 16 year olds don’t have a clue about economics so (for socialists) it makes perfect sense to let them vote.
Yeah, perfect. My 16 yo is a good lad who works two jobs (a paper round and at the local sports ground on match days) and works hard at school. He has not the faintest idea how an economy works. I want to encourage him to spread his wings, gradually and make choices about the world in an informed way, choices with which I might disagree. He is not ready to smoke, drink, take drugs, shag about, face ISIS with a gun or watch Pulp Fiction.
He should not have the vote.
“True sustainability” requires complete and ruthless social oppression.
Somebody should tell the NAS that Pol Pot got there before them, and it didn’t end well for anyone.
The NAS aren’t in favour of so-called “sustainability,” quite the opposite.
Anytime I hear someone waxing rapturously about how wonderful a return to “sustainability” tis and how much better our world would be without all the nastiness occasioned by capitalism and industrialization, I dismiss them with two words: “central heating.”
The amusing thing is this. Sustainability is largely economic pollution (destroys the fount of wealth that is comparative advantage) and thus inherently unsustainable.
Somebody should tell the NAS that Pol Pot got there before them, and it didn’t end well for anyone.
Just to be clear, the NAS report is not at all supportive of the whole sustainability trend.
Half the people who throw about the word “sustainable” don’t even know what it means.
In an episode of the Bravo TV series “Best New Restaurant” last week, one of the chefs gushed about the “sustainable” ingredients he insists on — fish, meat, etc. He then remarked that his insistence on sustainable seafood meant he wouldn’t use farm-grown fish but would insist on fresh-caught. Doesn’t that seem backwards?
Later he bragged about the “sustainable polenta” he serves. Polenta! I had no idea that that the sustainability of corn is in question. I learn something new from these wankers every week.
My 16 yo is a good lad who works two jobs (a paper round and at the local sports ground on match days)
That does seem to be how many teenagers get their first inkling of economic realism. While at school I spent several evenings a week stacking shelves in an unglamorous supermarket. Within a week or two of starting the job, I became very conscious of how much things cost and what it took to get them. Which, up to that point, and despite the efforts of my parents, had been a little vague.
16 year olds are blithering idiots and I do not want them making my political choices for me.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments. It’s what these posts are for.
Well, since you asked for it and I’ve just about given up, enjoy this reasoning from a educated educator:
https://aphilosopher.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/does-religious-freedom-justify-discrimination/#comment-116358
…16 year olds are blithering idiots and I do not want them making my political choices for me…”
The left would barely exist without hordes of useful idiots, which people under 20 tend to be.
16 year olds were given the vote in the Scottish independence referendum, presumably because the nationalists thought that their high on grievance, low on reality message would resonate with the adolescent psyche.
Surprisingly, YouGov later discovered that the 16-24s voted marginally against creating a socialist banana republic, so therein lies a glimmer of hope.
I became very conscious of how much things cost and what it took to get them. Which, up to that point, and despite the efforts of my parents, had been a little vague.
The message is beginning to get through. I hope he acquires a similar wisdom. Btw a long belated stiff drink making it’s way to you as a toast for Easter.
À votre santé!
The message is beginning to get through.
I wasn’t even sure that paper rounds and Saturday jobs were still in fashion. But it’s surprising how much of an effect they can have in terms of perspective and gratitude. Once you get past all the sighing and tutting, I mean.
À votre santé!
Cheers, big ears.
Once you get past all the sighing and tutting, I mean.
You forgot the eye rolling.
You forgot the eye rolling.
I was quite good at door slamming, I seem to remember. If only I’d had a scarf to toss over one shoulder.
I dismiss them with two words: “central heating.”
I usually retort with “flush toilets & hot water”
wtp
Instead of fantasy, how about a real story?
Back in the late 60s our family doctor was a practicing Roman Catholic. He took care of all our needs, including all my mom’s “women’s reproductive health” cares.
But he did not prescribe birth control – either The Pill or diaphragms. I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that his women patients did not picket his office, denounce him publicly as a misogynist and petition to have his medical license revoked.
Like my mom, they just got their birth control from another doctor.
Who knew that there was less neo-fascist tendencies toward the religious in those days?
btw, wtp, to be clear, I’m with you on the fatigue I’m feeling on this whole “let’s lie about RFRA in the most lurid manner EVAH” crapfest.
It’s as if the phrase “Live and Let Live” is now a marker of a H8r.
The Left’s m.o. is “You will be made to care.”
Ah…Darleen, but by today’s better understanding of stuff your family doctor was imposing his religious values on his patients. What we are doing today is using the courts to stop such providers of services from imposing their religious values on others by forcing them to provide such services as the customer demands, regardless of market choices or options.
You see we must do this because in the past, governments forced providers of services to NOT provide such services to certain kinds of other people, whether they wanted to or not, in the context of the kind of other customers they had. It’s as if your family doctor was just a mutable object to be used according to the governments wishes as opposed to his own. Never mind that both busy body governments are/were effectively run by people belonging to a political party of the same name…begins with a “D”…
wtp, your story would be more pertinent if the current controversy were over businesses refusing to serve gays at all. But that is not the case. These businesses are willing to sell bread and cakes, take photos, etc. What they decline to do is bake gay wedding cakes, photograph gay weddings, etc. It’s very much like a feminist print shop declining to accept a contract to print an anti-feminist magazine.
And speaking of feminists, did you know that there are feminists who refuse to do business with men? Even to speak to men? Would it be reasonable to seek them out and trap them into making such refusals on camera so that they can be charged with a crime?
Under the argument that true sustainability requires an end to social oppression, the report says, the movement embraces identity politics, calls for the overthrow of patriarchal systems and misogynist bias, the virtual elimination of extraction of energy from fossil fuels, an end to industrial development in the underdeveloped world and a return to subsistence of near subsistence standards of living. The need to overthrow capitalism, though not supported by all, is common and much discussed theme in the movement.
Uh, yep. My final years submission at art school had to engage or have a relationship to issues of sustainability and diversity. Straight from the top. It’s fairly shameless stuff.
Just to be perfectly clear here, and perhaps I’m misreading agreement with disagreement…which given how rare I encounter agreement any more is, I believe, understandable…the story above is not mine. I am not worthy of such high-minded sarcasm. The above is the product of a mind sanctioned by one of America’s better (well, supposedly better but I’m not worthy to judge) educational institutions, and employed in educating young minds at a somewhat lesser yet generally well regarded educational institution.
While disagreement with what I quoted above is quite agreeable to me, such disagreement might be better directed at the link provided. Perhaps it’s the simple-minded fool that I am that is curious what would result if these two on-line worlds collided. Apparently as a child I did not get enough opportunity to smash stuff together. I understand such is an obsession with certain physicists as well. But I digress…
Unfortunately, whenever I see the word ‘sustainability’ it is the ‘stain’ part that jumps out at me. Sorry.
The NAS aren’t in favour of so-called “sustainability,”…
My bad. Skim-reading on my iPas in an airport and got hold of the wrong end of the stick.
WAY too many of my Twitterlocutors over the past few days have been delighted to see their enemies get what’s coming to them. “Oh, stop playing the victim,” they giggle. “That’s like the bully getting mad when people fight back.”
Apparently death threats, incitement to arson, hacking into one’s computers, and making sure everyone on the planet HATES a small-town pizzeria is just “market forces” driving bigots out of business.
Because they deserve it, see. The mob’s own ox will NEVER be gored, so it’s OK.
Apparently death threats, incitement to arson, hacking into one’s computers, and making sure everyone on the planet HATES a small-town pizzeria is just “market forces” driving bigots out of business.
I haven’t followed the story closely, but this, by Kevin Williamson, seems apposite:
From what I can make out, no-one had actually been refused service by the pizzeria in question and the drama all started with a highly improbable hypothetical scenario prompted by a journalist fishing for a headline. The thing is, if a situation should arise in which a business owner’s religious observance is at odds with my own values, I can take my custom elsewhere. I generally prefer to shop where people want to take my money. But I’m not so sure what I could do if I were subject to a campaign of harassment and threats by self-righteous little puritans who are tumescent with spite and won’t bugger off.
[ Edited. ]
Mandela’s hagiographers are curiously silent about that Champion of the Poor (TM), gun-runner and blood diamond trader Charles Taylor as his houseguest.
Oh, and Mia Farrow and Naomi Campbell. Make Poverty History (by surrounding yourself with millionaires).
Curiously enough Mandela’s friendship with Qaddafi is also rarely discussed.
Now I will concede that during the anti-apartheid struggle the ANC needed help from all sources available, and it doesn’t tarnish their struggle that they had the USSR, Cuba, the GDR, Libya etc on their side.
But it does somewhat undermine Mandela’s own tenure as President that he continued (with Qaddafi) to praise a butcher who was ultimately responsible for possibly as many black African deaths as P. W. Botha and his crew.
“during the anti-apartheid struggle the ANC needed help from all sources available, and it doesn’t tarnish their struggle that they had the USSR, Cuba, the GDR, Libya etc on their side.”
I beg to differ. The character of an organisation can be understood from the company it keeps. The ANC wanted to free blacks from racial oppression in order to subject all South Africans to the economic and social oppression of communism.
From Hannan:
Why does this matter? Because many anti-poverty activists are unwittingly pushing for precisely the policies that cause a reversion to penury.
From Leo:
Under the argument that true sustainability requires an end to social oppression, the report says, the movement embraces identity politics, calls for the overthrow of patriarchal systems and misogynist bias, the virtual elimination of extraction of energy from fossil fuels, an end to industrial development in the underdeveloped world and a return to subsistence of near subsistence standards of living. The need to overthrow capitalism, though not supported by all, is common and much discussed theme in the movement.
I have to say that is a masterly stroke in terms of composition of the chosen articles; a very fine balance of complementary lines of thought one beside the other.
Bravo, there!
It’s a dark and subtle art.
‘The character of an organisation can be understood from the company it keeps. The ANC wanted to free blacks from racial oppression in order to subject all South Africans to the economic and social oppression of communism’.
The ANC wanted to defeat a racist oligarchy, and they have replaced it with an (imperfect) democracy. It accepted help from all comers, which included financial aid from Sweden.
As for the ‘company it keeps’ argument, maybe the American colonists shouldn’t have aligned with the French and Spanish absolutist monarchies against the more constitutionally-inclined Hanoverian one. Maybe Britain shouldn’t have accepted military aid from the USA in two World Wars, given that its position on race was even more retrograde than ours. Maybe the UK and Uncle Sam shouldn’t have aligned with Stalin to beat Hitler.
Perhaps by your argument we could also call Margaret Thatcher a Communist stooge, because the BMATT based in Zimbabwe during the 1980s trained Mozambican troops to fight RENAMO, despite the character of the FRELIMO regime. And yes, TINA was fully aware of this.
The idea that not forcing people to cater for a gay wedding counts as “state-sanctioned discrimination” strikes me as a very odd one. I mean, there are no laws compelling someone to stay faithful to their spouse, but it would be pretty odd to describe a man cheating on his wife as practising “state-sanctioned adultery”, wouldn’t it?
Baker declines to accept SSM gig over moral objections: BURN THE WITCH!
Band cancels contracted engagements in Indiana over moral objections: GOOD ON YA!
There’s no use explaining the principles of liberty or law: the Left has finally found a Rubicon that their hated enemies are extremely reluctant to cross, so they’ll not give up this splendid cudgel to beat those horrible Christers into submission.
They’re possessed of Selma Envy, the desire to fight for an unambiguosly righteous cause against unambiguously evil people. However, this time the Warriors of Righteousness are wielding the fire hoses and attack dogs, while those they fight find themselves with no legal recourse and no place to hide.
Very few of them will recognize which role they’re playing in this social psychodrama, not even decades into the future.
“Being on the Left means never having to say you’re sorry.” — Dennis Prager
This article from the Federalist might be apropos:
“Blow also echoes Tomasky when he thunders, “Anything that even hints at state-sponsored discrimination—blatant and codified—is not only discordant with current cultural norms but also anathema to universal ideals of fairness and human dignity.” Did you catch that phrase? “State-sponsored discrimination.” Anything that is allowed by the government is therefore sponsored by the government. To not arrest you for doing or saying something is to adopt that action or idea as the official policy of the state.
That which is not forbidden is mandatory. Everything within the state, nothing outside the state.”
http://thefederalist.com/2015/04/02/indiana-shows-the-left-has-no-concept-of-freedom/
Ace smacks down Bill Quick, a conservaitve gay blogger with an especial animus toward religion (which he may have come by honestly) that often blinds him to the larger issues:
Matt Walsh
Rod Dreher
@exjon
@JohnEkdahl
Charles C.W. Cook and Jeff
@DineshDSouza
Gay man attempts to purchase wedding cake for gay wedding in Michigan. It’s funny. Not funny-ha-ha but mostly the other kinds. Though I suppose it is kinda funny-ha-ha, just not the out loud kind.
http://louderwithcrowder.com/hidden-camera-gay-wedding-cake-at-muslim-bakery/
Clarification possibly needed. Not entirely sure if man in video above attempting to purchase cake is actually himself gay or just an actor. Philosophical circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel…
Mr Crowder makes his point quite effectively. The pizzeria saga is a manufactured row that flared up, after quite a lot of contrivance, because some people really wanted to row about something that didn’t actually happen. But they only wanted to have that row with people who don’t have beards and brown skin.
And it seems the protestors’ bizarrely selective, utterly disingenuous outrage has had some unintended consequences.
Given how the USSR treated its minorities (ask an ethnic Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian how they felt about the forced russification programmes, or ask the same of a Tartar, Chechen or any number of non-Russian soviet minorities), one can certainly ask the question about the ANC’s bedfellows of convenience.
Not terribly familiar with the details of the ANC, but if they thought about their bedfellows long enough they understood that they’d be eaten later. If later is perceived to be far enough over the time horizon, like possibly 3 or more generations, it’s a decision many would make. To be clear, not endorsing such.
Crowder’s not gay, as far as I know. The video is a stunt: no gay couple is ordering a cake. He’s doing it to point out that putting Muslims on camera saying no to an SSM cake will result in zero outrage from the mobs.
Thereby removing the theoretical “they’d never do that to Muslims” and providing concrete proof.
As for the crowdfunding for the pizzeria that Dana Loesch and Lawrence Jones launched, it’s nice that the family won’t suffer economically from the lynch mob’s wrath but it’s like scoring a field goal (3 points) in the 4th quarter when you’re down 120-0.
“Woohoo! The momentum has shifted! They’re on the run now!” is what fills my Twitter feed. They hate my guts because I’m telling them that they’re holding a pea-shooter when they think it’s a bazooka.
They don’t want to hear, “Nice shot, kid. Don’t get cocky!” even though all they did was blow up a Tie Fighter while the Death Star looms off the port side.
It’s discouraging to have teammates who overestimate the impact of one kindly act. They seem to think that the Left is demoralized by the fundraising when that’s not at all how malignant narcissists react when their victims have the audacity to fight back.
Narcissists don’t become discouraged; they become enraged. They double down. They strike back twice as hard. They make sure you pay for trying to defend yourself.
Knowing something about how religious persecution can turn out, YES EVEN HERE, I cannot expend precious emotional energy on one sweet gesture when we don’t even know whom they’re going to target next. None of us knew that the Left had decided the Indiana RFRA was going to be the next battleground. None of us knows what they’ve got planned in the future.
So spare me the high-fives: we haven’t earned it. We patched up the wounds on one soldier without drawing a single drop of blood from the Left.
They’re every bit as emboldened and determined and malicious as they were last week. Until you face that, we’ve lost.
But they only wanted to have that row with people who don’t have beards and brown skin.
What a surprise.
One more item, from Jonah Goldberg’s e-mail newsletter:
That’s not at all how malignant narcissists react when their victims have the audacity to fight back. Narcissists don’t become discouraged; they become enraged. They double down.
I’m with dicentra on this. The oversized vanity and pretensions of heroism typical to such people are generally matched by an oversized, apparently insatiable capacity for spite. It’s one area where they can get genuinely imaginative. Remember the (now deleted) video of Occupiers displaying their moral vigour by trapping and taunting a woman in a wheelchair? A woman whose sin was to have attended a conservative conference. The people trapping her smiled in triumph, all while chanting “this is what democracy looks like.” The Occupy pantomime provided many, many examples of creative malice.
[ Edited. ]
This reminds me that on this side of the pond in 2009 BECTU (the film, TV and theatre union) said they’d support any BBC staff refusing to provide their services to Question Time when Nick Griffin was a guest.
https://www.creativetoolkit.org.uk/news/449
The union has also pledged to support any member who decides, as a matter of conscience, not to work on the broadcast because of the involvement of the BNP.
The people trapping her smiled in triumph, all while chanting “this is what democracy looks like.”
Indeed it is; I could totally see those guys voting to have Socrates killed.
It’s a real pity the wheelchair clip has disappeared from YouTube. It vividly captured a recurring dynamic and revealed its essential vileness. The dozen or so Occupiers were evidently pleased to trap a random woman, one who couldn’t fight back, while taunting her and grinning in triumph. When caught on camera and asked through the glass doors why they thought it righteous to prevent a disabled woman from getting home, they began to hide their faces and chanted even louder so as to drown out any further questions. You do have to marvel at a mindset that can construe such behaviour as something heroes do.
The same ‘occupation’ – of a conservative conference at the Washington Convention Centre in November 2011 – offered plenty of scope for those who delight in exerting power over others. Videos of the incident showed conference attendees trying to drive home, only to find Occupiers screaming abuse and refusing to let them leave, even climbing on their vehicles. Behind the mindless chants of “we are the 99%,” the actual, more honest, message was difficult to miss. The occupants of the vehicles, including children, were left in little doubt that the mob surrounding them and hammering on their windscreens could do them harm at the slightest provocation. The object was to frighten while feeling terribly powerful and pretending to be virtuous. Simply owning an expensive car was considered a form of incitement, and the drivers of such vehicles were singled out for particular abuse.
As the people being harassed and intimidated were ordinary members of the public, one might see the ‘occupation’ as both a punishment and a threat – a warning to those who dare to hold insufficiently leftwing views.
Regarding the gay marriage business, I wonder would would happen if I decided to roust some of these SJWs tomorrow morning for a mandatory sunrise Easter worship service at my church. Would they object? Would they invoke their own civil right to not be forced to participate in a commemoration for something in which they do not believe? The answer is obvious.
Yet, for some reason, they cannot grasp the idea that for many religious people, a marriage ceremony and its accouterments are more than a mere civil contract. It is a sacrament designed to commemorate an institution ordained by God. Forcing participation in any form is akin to the Easter morning 5:00AM roust and mandatory singing of Christ The Lord Is Risen Today.
Pretty sure this is at least part of the video of the wheelchair-bound woman trapped by Occupy:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5a7_1320612547
Steve,
Thanks very much for that. I’d forgotten about the signs that say “I am a human being,” and which are immediately used to prevent any further questioning of what it is they’re doing.
See also Idiot Hat Guy, a man who feels entitled to physically harass random Wal-Mart workers, preventing them from getting to work to earn a living or getting home to their children, and who, when questioned on his tactics and presumption, suddenly gets upset and claims he’s the one being victimised. That he’s the one being “violated.”
Again, this isn’t politics; it’s narcissism and psychodrama.
[ Edited. ]
Again, this isn’t politics; it’s narcissism and psychodrama.
And I’m quite certain their Clown Quarter humanities professors were beaming with pride. The “higher education bubble” can’t burst too soon.
The higher education bubble will never burst so long as the educators and those who “borrow” money to purchase such “education” have perpetual access to the wealth created by others. In such an environment, thigher education bubble will only burst after all available wealth has been consumed. You can sit around waiting for the inevitable end of end games or you can try to do something about it.
The full version of Jonah Goldberg’s e-mail newsletter now available online, wherein he reintroduces “megalothymia” into the conversation.