The following is an excerpt from Daren Jonescu’s article Infantilizing Leftist Morality, published at Americanthinker.com 7/19/12:
Progressivism, in the Marxist and post-Marxist forms that have been swallowing the world for a century, is, in its methodology, nothing but the moral infantilization of mankind. It seeks the establishment of a population dominated by the childish fear of facing the world alone. Its pretty slogans are all variations on this theme. From ‘Workers of the world unite’ to ‘It takes a village,’ the message is always the same: you can’t face this ‘dog-eat-dog’ world without the safety of the herd, which means without material security provided by political force. An all-powerful mother government must always be there to protect you from the ever-present monster, which is just life itself. And such security is not ‘charity’; it is your right. You are entitled to it, as any child is entitled to his parents’ protection.
This is a magnificently true statement.
In a nutshell, the reason the entitlement state expands—even in the originally individualist America— is fear.
Many people are afraid. On the surface, it’s fear of not having health insurance, or of not having the ability to pay their rent or mortgage. In the deeper sense, it’s fear of having to face life alone.
The hard truth is that we do face life alone. We are born alone, and we die alone. Metaphysically, we are individuals. None of this means we don’t form relationships—even highly successful and satisfying relationships. But this only intensifies the reality that eventually and ultimately, we are alone. There are no guarantees; only the illusion of them.
This is simply too much for some to face, which is why the mythology of collectivist socialism continues in our otherwise sophisticated and scientific age.
Government authorities in our nanny state speak directly to this fear. This message works nearly all of the time with about fifty percent of the population, based on the outcome of elections. During especially frightening times, it works with closer to 55 or 60 percent.
The way these authorities speak to the fear is to say, ‘Don’t worry. You’ll be taken care of. You’ll never have to face the world alone.’ Or, another popular slogan: ‘Help (or perhaps ‘change’) is on the way.’
What they don’t tell you is that this government guarantee of protection will only happen—assuming it does—through the efforts of others who also might be afraid as well. Others who—even if they’re not afraid—are in the same position of having to face life that you are.
There are those who work, even if they’re afraid. They work because they (rationally) fear having nothing. However, because they work, they also pay taxes. The harder and more effectively they work, the higher rate of taxation they pay. For this reason, they will have substantial amounts—20 percent, 30 percent, or (the way things are going) even 50 percent—of what they earn taken from them. They might still be afraid, which is why they continue working. And they must continue working, so that those who are also afraid— and who don’t produce as much, or possibly don’t work at all—can be reassured.
They call this “morality” and “social justice.”
This is the great lie of socialism, including the disguised socialism of America’s entitlement/transfer-of-wealth society. Those who work are told, ‘You must put money into retirement and insurance programs. It’s for your own good.’
Yet if they already have the money to provide for these benefits, purchased in a marketplace, then why must government force them to pay? What the government does not tell them is they want their money to form a big ‘pot.’ The pot will be drawn from by everybody—not just those who paid into it, but also those who do not pay into it. Medicare and Social Security were created as ‘investment programs,’ paid for by those who work and who will eventually benefit from it. But people will obtain those benefits whether they work or not.
And this is even more true when it comes to unemployment benefits, food stamps, and the like. And then there’s corporate welfare. Corporations that politicians deem ‘too big to fail’ get the benefits, while other corporations do not. And those who work pay for it all. A successful corporation, making billions a year, will pay for the failures of a less successful corporation (perhaps its own competitor) out of its taxes. They call this good economics, and ‘justice.’
Concluded in tomorrow’s column.
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