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.
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.