Liberalism and the role of achievement
Article by Greg P. Richards in "The American Thinker":
There are two Americas: Enterprise America and Welfare America.
There are two Americas: Enterprise America and Welfare America.
Conservatives believe that Enterprise America is America. Enterprise America is in the active voice. It is built by achievement. Enterprise America is constitutional America. The Constitution was designed to safeguard an enterprise society. It assumes individual achievement and responsibility.
Liberals believe that Welfare America is America. Welfare America is in the passive voice. Welfare America is dependent on government and therefore is dependent on liberals, who are the cadre of government. Welfare America is the source of liberals’ power and wealth. Their interest is in expanding Welfare America in order to expand their power and wealth. Welfare America is built by dependence. Welfare America has been promoted over the last two generations by Great Society programs. Its key results have been the breakup of the family and denial of the role of achievement in building America.
If liberalism is a world without achievement, and yet our society depends on achievement for its success, what would be the prediction of the results of the universal application of the liberal model?
That everywhere liberalism gets in charge, our society fails.
And that is what we see – public schools, universities, the written press, cities.
What is the liberal substitute for achievement? Taking offense. And then requiring the offending party to subordinate truth to the power of Welfare America. This is political correctness.
Liberals take the success of America as a given. They are uninterested, incurious, as to how it was achieved because they don’t believe it was achieved. They see those holding leadership positions as due to power relationships rather than due to achievement.
The reason enterprise works is that the people who can achieve things become the people who get into leadership positions. In power societies, the people who get into leadership positions are those who are the most ruthless… which has nothing to do with achievement, particularly in the form of producing competitive goods and services to benefit society.
What liberals see around them, what we all see around us, did not just happen by itself. It is the result of enterprise, of achievement. America is an achievement society -- the achievements of the common man. In an achievement society, you admire the achievements of your fellow man. You struggle not to covet them. And you strive to create your own achievements. Achievement comes at all levels. It is an achievement to be a good stocking clerk in the supermarket, so that the merchandise looks sharp.
Using privilege rather than achievement to account for power and position lets liberals hate the country. There is no building things. There is simply Gramsci’s march through the institutions. Not building institutions but marching through the institutions built by the achievements of other people, people who are now offstage.
Why the hatred? Because America is successful without them. They cannot stand success of the common man being accomplished without their guidance. In terms of serving their fellow man in a commercial sense, they have nothing to offer. They maintain the power they have by making people dependent on government.
Seeing a world without achievement, liberals have no respect for achievement. They do not see society organized around achievement or the results of it. What then is the organizing principle?
Power.
Rather than being a new idea, organizing around power is the oldest form of society. As the Renaissance developed, Western society became organized around truth. In more primitive societies, truth is subordinated to power. But Western society became organized around truth in the form of science. That is why the West left the rest behind.
Now liberalism is attempting to restore society to a pre-truth organization. This is the meaning of political correctness. Political correctness is the subordination of truth to power.
Since liberals see society as organized around levels of power, and since they see power as a result of privilege – the passive voice – liberals are always in a state of rage toward the current order. Liberals are continually making hostile charges and name-calling their opposition.
In some cases, they can’t help themselves. The charge of “racism” is the Tourette’s syndrome of liberalism.
Liberalism has contempt for the rules of society (not for themselves; they do not expect to live with the consequences of their policies) because they see them as restrictions imposed by privilege. They are effectively attempting to return society to a state of nature. Thomas Hobbes, the 17th-century political philosopher, defined what life in a state of nature is like…
But there is a countervailing force: Donald Trump. Trump is a classic expression of achievement, of Enterprise America. That is why he is so hated by liberals. Liberals thought that America was “already gone.” With Trump getting to the helm at almost the last minute, not already gone. Trump is upstreaming as much of Welfare America into Enterprise America as he can. And liberals are reacting like vampires hit with holy water.
Will America remain an achievement society? This is the great battle in which we are engaged. Fortunately, we have one of history’s great generals in Donald Trump leading us in this existential struggle.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/liberalism_and_the_role_of_achievement.html
Liberals believe that Welfare America is America. Welfare America is in the passive voice. Welfare America is dependent on government and therefore is dependent on liberals, who are the cadre of government. Welfare America is the source of liberals’ power and wealth. Their interest is in expanding Welfare America in order to expand their power and wealth. Welfare America is built by dependence. Welfare America has been promoted over the last two generations by Great Society programs. Its key results have been the breakup of the family and denial of the role of achievement in building America.
If liberalism is a world without achievement, and yet our society depends on achievement for its success, what would be the prediction of the results of the universal application of the liberal model?
That everywhere liberalism gets in charge, our society fails.
And that is what we see – public schools, universities, the written press, cities.
What is the liberal substitute for achievement? Taking offense. And then requiring the offending party to subordinate truth to the power of Welfare America. This is political correctness.
Liberals take the success of America as a given. They are uninterested, incurious, as to how it was achieved because they don’t believe it was achieved. They see those holding leadership positions as due to power relationships rather than due to achievement.
The reason enterprise works is that the people who can achieve things become the people who get into leadership positions. In power societies, the people who get into leadership positions are those who are the most ruthless… which has nothing to do with achievement, particularly in the form of producing competitive goods and services to benefit society.
What liberals see around them, what we all see around us, did not just happen by itself. It is the result of enterprise, of achievement. America is an achievement society -- the achievements of the common man. In an achievement society, you admire the achievements of your fellow man. You struggle not to covet them. And you strive to create your own achievements. Achievement comes at all levels. It is an achievement to be a good stocking clerk in the supermarket, so that the merchandise looks sharp.
Using privilege rather than achievement to account for power and position lets liberals hate the country. There is no building things. There is simply Gramsci’s march through the institutions. Not building institutions but marching through the institutions built by the achievements of other people, people who are now offstage.
Why the hatred? Because America is successful without them. They cannot stand success of the common man being accomplished without their guidance. In terms of serving their fellow man in a commercial sense, they have nothing to offer. They maintain the power they have by making people dependent on government.
Seeing a world without achievement, liberals have no respect for achievement. They do not see society organized around achievement or the results of it. What then is the organizing principle?
Power.
Rather than being a new idea, organizing around power is the oldest form of society. As the Renaissance developed, Western society became organized around truth. In more primitive societies, truth is subordinated to power. But Western society became organized around truth in the form of science. That is why the West left the rest behind.
Now liberalism is attempting to restore society to a pre-truth organization. This is the meaning of political correctness. Political correctness is the subordination of truth to power.
Since liberals see society as organized around levels of power, and since they see power as a result of privilege – the passive voice – liberals are always in a state of rage toward the current order. Liberals are continually making hostile charges and name-calling their opposition.
In some cases, they can’t help themselves. The charge of “racism” is the Tourette’s syndrome of liberalism.
Liberalism has contempt for the rules of society (not for themselves; they do not expect to live with the consequences of their policies) because they see them as restrictions imposed by privilege. They are effectively attempting to return society to a state of nature. Thomas Hobbes, the 17th-century political philosopher, defined what life in a state of nature is like…
“…nasty, brutish and short.”Think Chicago. Liberals have reduced Chicago to a state-of-nature. And are working toward that with the rest of our major cities. The big West Coast cities are on the way.
But there is a countervailing force: Donald Trump. Trump is a classic expression of achievement, of Enterprise America. That is why he is so hated by liberals. Liberals thought that America was “already gone.” With Trump getting to the helm at almost the last minute, not already gone. Trump is upstreaming as much of Welfare America into Enterprise America as he can. And liberals are reacting like vampires hit with holy water.
Will America remain an achievement society? This is the great battle in which we are engaged. Fortunately, we have one of history’s great generals in Donald Trump leading us in this existential struggle.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/liberalism_and_the_role_of_achievement.html
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