Posted by
Virginia Daddy on Monday, November 23, 2009 2:21:45 PM
Why should conservatives really care about what goes on in the world? We believe in personal responsibility and strong personal freedoms. Often, this belief is born out of the idea that there is something greater than us, and if we put our noses down, work hard, and don't get too distracted by the world around us we will thrive. This has proven true for millenia, as those who work hard and produce the most are typically successful. When those who focus on the task at hand succeed, they must necessarilly not concern themselves with other issues. This narrow thrust of energy is put to good use and will usually work out well.
But why should we care about the world around us, if keeping focused on the task ahead is what brings us success? Isn't the world around us a distraction? Yes, it is, but it is made up of people who wish to see this narrow focus erased because the narrow focus in energy also creates a narrow focus of wealth. To these people, this concentration of wealth is atrocious. Most of these people are not bad or evil, and are arguably quite compassionate. But they are lost in their compassion, trying to change people who cannot be changed or to change truths of the world that just "are."
Their compassion is misplaced, and they focus their energy in their compassion. Their focus is on derailing the focus of those who produce, and they explicitly seek to redistribute the wealth produced. This redistribution is seen in many ways, and is usually justified with some descriptor like "justice" or "fairness." Another word often used to justification is "equal". The redistribution of wealth must-- to them-- ensure, justice, fairness, and equality. Wealth, as used here, does not necessarily mean monetary wealth. Other forms of wealth include various rights, so various protections are built to ensure certain people are not deprived of anything they are due. All of this is done so that certain people feel good about standing up for those who have not focused their energies as those who have and who have produced great amounts of wealth and privelege.
These compassionate feel they are expanding people's rights and making their lives better. This is true whether the compassionate is a member of the group they are trying to protect, or an outsider to that group. They also sincerely feel they make things better for all when they expand these rights. When one troubled group gets some priveleges, it benefits all of society, they say.
However, in their focused compassion, they ignore some other truths. These other truths include the inevitability that when you expand one right, you limit another. So, when one group gets a protection, another is limited to act as they see fit. Another truth is related to this, but when one group gets a protection, another group feels it needs a protection, too. So, more groups are created and the groups not protected have their rights further limited. When more groups are created for protection, there is less ability to maximize communication between them because a wall is immediately and necessarily erected between them. Neither group is willing to forego their protections. A third truth stems from the second-- the assumption in creating these protected groups is that the protections will make the group better able to achieve their goals. However, the assumption ignores the unfortunate human trait that has shown over and over again that people generally will not act on their own when someone else does. So, these protected groups grow to be comfortable in their protection and come to expect it. They will then not do anything to focus their energies to get to a point where they don't need it.
These compassionate folks who strive for justice and equality actually do more to damage freedom than those who focus on production. Certainly, the productive must be aware of kindness and compassion in their own dealings, however, it is arguable that even a cut-throat system may be more equal than the one designed by the compassionate. Under a cut-throat system, the determined can rise the ranks and unlimitedly succeed. Under the system being designed by the compassionate, you can only succeed to a point where they allow. At some point, they will say "You've succeeded too much, now give everything above that point so we may give it to these protected groups." Unlimited success is no longer attainable and no longer desirable. If people are taken care of and told not to strive to get everything they can in life, they won't.
But there is another consequence that comes from this compassion, and this is the worst part of it-- the compassionate know best, and someone must call the shots. These people become the leaders of the society, and are often exempt from the cut-throat world. After all, the protected groups need a leader, and the producers need someone to keep them from producing too much. What they've created is a class above the rest, and they can then enforce their will on everyone else. This is not just or fair, and it is not equal. It become manipulation, and goes outside of those terms. It becomes manipulation because this new ruling class is not bound by anything or anyone. There are no threats because they keep feeding the needs of those protected classes, and they intimidate the producers.
But what is justice or fairness, or even equality? These terms used to mean what is right, and not what is compassionate. Compassion does not equal right, no matter how good it feels. While they are difficult to pin down, they all have one thing in common-- treating everyone with the same dignity and respect due everyone else. Everyone must get the same opportunities and have the same chance to succeed as everyone else. This, in fact, is one aspect of the definition the compassionate use as to why they put their focus where they do. They argue some inevitably do not have the same opportunities. However, the argument falls short because too many people through time have risen out of pvoerty and overcome great obstacles. On the other side, too many people have fallen from grace for any number of reasons.
Playing fields do not need to be tampered with by the compassionate. But this is the job of conservatives, who press on regardless. We must continue to press on, but we must also be sure to explain why we do what we do. We must explain that it works, and has for centuries, and it will continue to work. We must not get dragged into the mud created by the compassionate, rather, we are to fix the mess they have created.
It will work.