Stink? Yup, but socialists try to blame mass murder on others.
April 15, 2016 at 9:34 pm
Delilah T.
I’ll put this where it hits people between the eyes.
“To wit, the story here (about leaks of the Panama Papers) isn’t about tax evaders and offshore accounts, deplorable as they may be. It’s about public polices and incentives that make a career in politics an expedient route to personal enrichment.” Bret Stephens, “ ‘C’ is for Corruption,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2016.
Anyone who thinks politicians are not in it for the money has got rocks in his/her/its head. It’s never about anything else.
April 16, 2016 at 12:26 am
Old Codger
With a confiscatory tax system, it’s o wonder people try to hide their money. If I had anything of that sort to hide I’d damned well be hiding it, too! The problem isn’t the people trying to actually KEEP their money, it is the system which takes so much of it away!
April 16, 2016 at 12:58 am
B Woodman
St Ronaldus, “The problem is not that people are under taxed, it’s that government over spends.”
I beg to differ slightly Delilah T., it is also about power over others. With Hillary Clinton the intoxication of having power over the masses seems to be a greater motivator than her insatiable greed. At least Bill was motivated by the same thing most males are motivated by, but Hillary apparantly hungers for the power of life and death over us all.
April 16, 2016 at 1:16 pm
RegT
Total agreement here, Dread. Also, Obama (incensed that Israel wouldn’t bow to him), Reid, McCain, even McConnell and Ryan – power to direct Congress along the path of “Progressivism” as chosen by the DeepState elites whose “club” they wish to join – or at least worship at the feet of, hoping for some table scraps and recognition for their lapdog loyalty, since they are all of them too minor to actually sit at that table. Filthier, more detestable scum would be difficult to find at a national convention of NAMBLA.
Not really. We know better. It’s more accurately, “We have met the enemy, and they think we’re shit.”
I don’t see many people on the “non-progressive” side who think they’re perfect. Most know they’re human, and accept that they’re flawed.
The more religious ones don’t think they’re superior because they’re pretty sure God wouldn’t like it. “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”– Proverbs 16:18.
Progressives hate civilization in general, and Western Civilization in particular, mostly because they’re not ruling it and they resent everyone else not recognizing their “special wonderfulness” and falling on their faces worshiping them.
They define themselves as the only good thing civilization ever produced- precisely because they dream of destroying it.
Sorry to state, but the “everyone is alike” paradigm falls down badly when you’re talking about ideological fanatics.
And leaders. George Bernard Shaw once asked Henry Morton Stanley (of “…and Livingston” fame), if he (Stanley) were incapacitated, how many of his men would be able to take over and command the party?
“Five percent” Stanley replied.
“Is that an exact figure or an estimate?” Shaw asked.
“Exact” Stanley stated firmly.
Colin Wilson noted (in The History of Murder) that in any population, the percentage of people capable of leading, commanding, efficiently and well is invariably about Stanley’s figure- five percent, one in twenty. And that in circumstances that do not permit a constructive use of their ability, that five percent become destructive; criminals, or worse.
I would go further and say that those who assume their are “superior” and thus “fit to rule” are probably really part of the other ninety-five percent. Which would explain the progressive tendency to “conform” and demand everyone else do so, with themselves defining what is to be conformed to.
The ones who are able leaders are also the ones more likely to say “to hell with the rest of you”, and go off on their own. The “rugged individualists”- like Stanley.
You find damned few of them in the ranks of the “enlightened elite”. In fact, the “elite'” regard them as dangerous- because they don’t follow orders from a self-styled “superior one”. Actually, they are more likely to tell said “morally evolved” type to go soak his (or her) head, and/or just F.O.A.D.
Sound like anybody you know?
This is probably why Socialism, Fascism, “Utopianism”, etc., invariably ends in bloodshed. When somebody has no idea how to actually lead, they tend to default to brutality- “Do as I say or I will kill you”.
Except for the ones who kill just for the hell of it. Another typical attribute of those who haven’t got a clue how to lead properly and well.
I don’t insist upon it, but that’s where the evidence points. If you want to choose good leaders, you might want to look among people who don’t particularly need to be “led”.
And who aren’t too keen on being “leaders”themselves, either.
clear ether
eon
April 16, 2016 at 2:32 am
H_B
You really should think about penning some philosophy posts like this and submitting them to HotGas.
April 16, 2016 at 6:42 am
GWB
Why? I’ve stopped visiting there (after the FB fiasco, second time around).
He should post them on his own blog, and let the others link to him.
I think you are confusing the new ‘hotgas.net’ with the old and tired ‘hot.air.com’ I’d agree with H_B That Eon would be an excellent fit over there and would almost immediately be invited to become a contributor.
You are on to them eon. You have well defined the situation. I think it to be the true human condition; the one that keeps us from becoming gods.
April 16, 2016 at 9:13 am
Kafiroon
Absolutely eon! Very good!
April 16, 2016 at 10:16 am
Brasspounder
Well said. If you don’t already have your own blog, you need to create one.
April 15, 2016 at 9:25 pm
WayneM
Each time socialism creeps in, the well-meaning do-gooders think their version of socialism will be “better” and their “dear leader” will treat the proletariat with respect and dignity… and each time they’re wrong…
April 16, 2016 at 12:30 am
Old Codger
Michael Savage says that liberalism is a mental disorder. The fact that they keep trying socialism even though it has NEVER worked (and cannot in the real world) is evidence of said disorder. Einstein is alleged to have said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”.
The prosecution rests.
April 16, 2016 at 9:14 am
KNO3
Well, socialism works to enrich the upper echelon politicians and give them power trips. It’s not for the 99 percent.
April 15, 2016 at 9:28 pm
Delilah T.
Some day, socialism shall wisp away into the fog of reality. I say we give them their own planet. If they remodel it, they can keep it. They can also leave the rest of us alone.
April 16, 2016 at 12:31 am
Old Codger
Sorry, Delilah, but there will always be pie-in-the-sky eyed loonies who will keep trying it.
April 16, 2016 at 6:20 am
Bill G
Alas, they cannot leave us alone.
They ‘know’ ‘The Right Way’ and thus have to force others to conform to their utopian pipe-dreams.
When those dreams turn into abattoirs it’s the fault of others who refused to see the beauty of their ideals.
April 15, 2016 at 9:41 pm
rickn8or
WayneM, socialism has always failed before because “They didn’t have the right people in charge!”
The Late Ted Kennedy summed up the Socialist’s thoughts and hubris in one sentence, when someone pointed out that Socialist Medicine has never worked, no matter where it was tried nor in what form:
“They didn’t have ME to run it for them!
April 16, 2016 at 6:45 am
GWB
Dang, then he went and died, leaving our socialist medicine without his leadership. Guess we’ll have to throw it on the rubbish heap with the rest of the socialist crap, then.
April 15, 2016 at 10:25 pm
JohninMd.(Help!?!!)
The battle will NEVER be over. We will always be fighting Socialism, because it’s a part of the dark side of human nature. It’s why we NEVER TRUST the people in power, and ALWAYS watch them like Hawks….
April 15, 2016 at 10:37 pm
interventor
National Socialist German Workers Party — NSDAP to be correct.
April 15, 2016 at 11:52 pm
eon
Founded in December 1918 as simply the German Workers’ Party. The “National Socialist” part was added in early 1920 by the then-new Party secretary. One Adolf Hitler.
Similarly, the Fascist Front in Italy was started in 1919 by a disaffected Communist newspaper editor. Named Benito Mussolini.
About the only thing they didn’t like about Communism per se was the idea of taking orders from Moscow. That meant kowtowing to Slavs, which neither Il Duce or Herr Schickelgruber held in very high esteem.
And of course, they both hated Jews. Just as Stalin did. Much like modern-day “progressives” hate Israel.
There’s very little that’s “coincidental” about all this. All of it was largely based on the German/European “Romantic Movement” of the 19th Century; primitivist, mystical, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and hostile to modern civilization. People forget that Marx and Engels were German, not Russian. Houston Stewart Chamberlain was British. And Madame Blavatsky was almost certainly not Russian.
(She claimed to be a Russian noblewoman, but she spoke Great Russian very poorly, and almost no French, at a time when French was the language of the Russian court. She was only fluent in Hungarian, and spoke everything with a pronounced Budapest accent.)
Rousseau’s “Noble Savage” stalks through the subconscious of all of the above.
With a blood-covered flint knife in his hand.
clear ether
eon
April 16, 2016 at 12:34 am
LifeofTheMind
To be fair Mussolini, whatever his many other sins, was not personally Antisemitic. His mistress was Jewish and he expressed privately his distaste for Hitler. The Totalitarian logic of Fascism would have over time created a society hostile to Jews even without the pressure from the Nazis, and Mussolini himself said that in his last phase with the “Social Republic” under German occupation he was nothing more than a puppet. Vittorio de Sica’s 1970 film “Garden of the Finzi-Continis” portrays the fate of the Jewish bourgeoisie in Italy.
April 16, 2016 at 1:39 pm
interventor
Jews weren’t sent to the camps until the Germans took over.
April 16, 2016 at 6:48 am
GWB
primitivist, mystical, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and hostile to modern civilization
Gee, why does that sound so darn familiar?
April 16, 2016 at 10:19 am
Brasspounder
Allahu Akbar.
Properly answered by Deus Vult.
April 16, 2016 at 11:45 am
Old Codger
Deus Vult is essentially the same meaning as “Insh’allah”. In English we say “God willing”. It all means the same.
April 16, 2016 at 4:04 pm
B Woodman
And when was the last time you heard a Christian shouting “Deus Vult” as they either blew themselves up, or cut off heads, or threatened anyone with ‘submit to my theocracy, pay a tax, or die’??
No, they are not the same in any concrete, real world, concept or application.
April 16, 2016 at 10:51 am
eon
The German Romantics had an obsession with anything “Eastern” and “mystical” that any modern-day progressive would adore. Especially Persian poetry. (Which I consider some of the worst in the Universe.)
As Dusty A. Sklar said in her often-overlooked book, Gods And Beasts; The Nazis and the Occult
The Germans also made important contributions to understanding the real nature of Islamic literature and thought. Persian love poems, called ghazals, had the greatest effect on German poets. The most brilliant of the Persian poems were Sufi. In the Sufi tradition, the poems were interpreted as allegorical and mystical revelations of the divine. German poet-scholars made use of them to such an extent that Heinrich Heine admonished: “These poor poets eat too freely of the fruit they steal from the garden groves of Shiraz, and then they vomit ghazals.”
BTW, the entire book is very much worth reading to see the parallels. Not to mention showing that those who equate Nazism with Christianity don’t know what they’re talking about.
clear ether
eon
April 16, 2016 at 1:27 pm
RegT
And Hitler said, “We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalist economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions.” Adolf Hitler, May 1, 1927
Sounds a bit like Occupy Wall Street, MoveOn.org, Bernie’s Children, etc., doesn’t it? I have a notion that Cloward and Piven knew this quote verbatim.
April 15, 2016 at 10:38 pm
Spin Drift
There is nothing worse than some determined individual doing to you what is good for you whether you want it or not with enthusiasm and vigor. Permanent parents of the nanny state eventually conflate what’s good for you with what is better for them. At that point the method and vigor go all out of proportion until the subject says enough.
I think the Trump Cruz ground swell is this reaction. Bernie is the nannies going all in to maintain the status quo ante bellum. And there will be war. Maybe the ballot box but my money is on the cartridge box before its all over.
Spin
Molon Labe
Winter is coming
Keep your powder dry
April 15, 2016 at 10:42 pm
kafiroon
Agreed. These idiots will Not quit until they are no longer.
April 15, 2016 at 11:24 pm
KenH
Get OVER yourself Jannie
Your beknighted RATS have been the NAZIs for a very long time now
Worth a listen. Of course the interview is with a dude from something called the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center, so that should be a clue. But what is absolutely stunning is the level of cluelessness as to how an unfettered capitalist system works. The money quote, as it were: “Bernie’s 52% tax rate would fall on those who can most easily afford it.”
Meet you new overlords y’all…of course the little mensch is only there to make the beast look positively moderate by comparison, but make no mistake…that bitch is authoritarian communist through and through.
April 16, 2016 at 6:51 am
GWB
Actually, I don’t think Hillary is a communist. I doubt she has much of a fiscal or economic policy at all (other than how to skim more for her off the top). I think he is simply totalitarian. Whatever is required to make certain she is in charge will be the policy. (Redistributive policies are simply one way to make sure the hoi polloi put her in charge.)
I think she’s more opportunistic than she is ideological.
April 16, 2016 at 7:14 am
eon
And once she has the “opportunity” to get control of the “football”, she might just use same to get back at everybody she hates. Which is a very, very long list.
It’s not wise to put temptation in the way of Lady MacBeth.
Communism is for her not ideology but methodology. And all of our psycho-analysis can be summed up succinctly with the old saw about the root of evil, abridged to include its synonomous product:
Follow the love of money/power; always follow love of the money/power.
Throw in some serious psychopathy and self-worship, and you got yourself a hillzabeast. But I repeat myself.
April 16, 2016 at 12:45 am
Old Codger
In my mind, the biggest fault of socialism is the undeniable fact that the universe runs on the principle of “What’s in it for me?”. Nobody no THING does anything unless they derive some benefit from doing it. Planets orbit stars because they have no choice. Critters do what they do because they get something out of doing what they do. Anybody think beavers particularly LIKE building – and maintaining – dams? Nope. They do it because it affords them safety from predators and soaking in water makes the wood easier to chew and digest.
People are no different. None of us does anything unless there is some benefit from doing it – even if the “benefit is merely getting to continue breathing for a while longer. Lawyers refer to this principle as “cui bono”.
April 16, 2016 at 1:00 am
B Woodman
Unfortunately, political papers make poor fertilizer. Unlike the other stuff.
April 16, 2016 at 6:23 am
Bill G
Excellent kindling, though, if separated and crumpled individually.
Socialism is basically the philosophy of losers who can’t achieve anything for themselves, and want to suck dry the success of others. They expect to be on the “High Needs, low abilities” side of the redistribution equation. Or, they think they will be the ones in charge of redistribution.
Don’t forget the achievers, most of whom achieved through luck or inheritance, and feel like they owe it to the little people to make the world a better place to asuage their guilt for being “haves” in a world mostly populated by “have nots.” They don’t want to give up what they have, but they want others to do so.
April 16, 2016 at 1:35 pm
RegT
Jeff, I sincerely doubt that they experience any guilt. Not the true leaders. In their arrogant assumption of superiority of mind and purpose, _they_ experience neither doubt nor guilt, nor question their “right” to lead.
April 16, 2016 at 5:47 am
Karmi
Ego and hatred .. without those two the Democratic party would collapse. How outta control is one’s ego when they apparently believe that they are more powerful than ‘Mother Nature’?! That without them and their ego to save and protect ‘Mother Nature’ that poor and weak ‘Mother Nature’ would be destroyed by evil humans.
April 16, 2016 at 6:28 am
Bill G
The dreamers don’t stay in control for long. The dream starts to fade and someone takes over, turns it into a nightmare, and the dreamers are among the first to go to the wall since they complain the most about what’s happened to their dream and don’t understand the way the progression always works. History repeats itself and they die without understanding.
April 16, 2016 at 1:59 pm
interventor
A revolution eats it’s children.
April 16, 2016 at 7:09 am
NotYetInACamp
Excellent variety of perspectives given here.
I often remember conversations that trigger people into action against me.
At Epicure while leisurely eating lunch and explaining some of the fallacies of Progressiveness to a longtime family friend and later classmate in law school who was the daughter of a big time Progressive, and big Time Democrat Party member (JFK had sent him on a good successful economic mission), I triggered a Really big Time Progressive sitting close at the next table. My triggering topic was on the value of personal and local control of people and society. Long story short. He advocated that the centralization of power was of paramount importance. That the concentration of power in the federal government was to control all of the wayward locals who needed to be corrected. Yes, he was a socialist and a Democrat. He emphasized that I was of the past and would be washed away in history. The federal government with its central control over all state decisions, regulations, laws, and policies would completely negate and overcome my argument that local control was more efficient and responsive to the people and their needs and wants. The federal control would do as he said and sweep away the local wrong decisions. he even stood up, as I then did, and strongly asserted his positions. I watched as behind him and employee got the manager and he and several employees watched to see if this older gentleman and I would come to blows as this socialist progressive, and proudly asserted as a Progressive, would come to blows. I have never thrown a first punch and kept my discussion to words, which so infuriated him that after aggressively insulting the alleged evil of my positions he left all hot and bothered.
The key thought is that they have been massing the central control grid they have in place now. Control means have been placed across society even to the new cars now record in their computers every act that the car does, and every place it does it. If you took a new Corvette C-7 and drove at 150 mph, that is recorded and where. Communication with the central grid is mandated in laws slipped in to be applied later. The new DNA information chip that doctors must be able to read before they can help you with a prescription is mandated for the future. The mandated control extends everywhere to be implemented over time.
They may be shoveling piles and piles of it. But, it is more like a resin for which they will apply the applicators to solidify the chains around all they believe that they need to control and at what levels of control.
As said before above, they believe that they know best. They will not leave any important decisions to the people who do not think as they do.
Why in the world would they ever let anyone who opposes them have a vote that has power?
They are the anointed ones. They know best. Last century those who know best like they do took actions for that alleged good that resulted in over 200,000,000 deaths of human beings. Look at North Africa, The Middle East, Europe, and the United States now. The Progressives and ‘know it all best people’ have been hard at work in this century already.
How many times in history has the war that we are doomed to now fight again, already been fought? You would think that we freedom thinking people would eventually put something in place to keep these arrogant sobs from ever regaining any power or influence. I agree with the idea that liberalism, socialism, progressiveism, etc. is a mental disorder. That is the only thing that makes sense, of it’s immortal cyclical reemergence. It’s like shingles in older people, in that it just pops up periodically, and wreaks havoc until dealth with.
Remember the Franklin quote when asked “What have you given us?” “A Republic, madam, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT.” He didn’t say it in caps, but that, I think, is what he meant. Why they wrote the Constitution, why they worded it as they did. And WTP allowed their incredible vision to corrupt, as it surely will.
April 16, 2016 at 1:54 pm
RegT
Dread, read Sultan Knish today:(http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2016/04/in-city-of-decadents.html) He claims – with great validity, I believe – that every civilization goes through three stages. America is at the last, “decadent” stage, where morals, purpose, and motivation have fled. Or, more accurately, have been driven off, repudiated by a large enough portion of the society that it is doomed to fail. That it is a cycle unavoidable to the human condition.
Just as the socialists keep failing, even this great, unique social experiment called “America” is doomed to fail. True conservatives tend to be laissez faire – and it is accompanied by a lack of attention or discernment about what the “progressives” are willing to do to take control. The Left will (does) use every trick, every deceit, every lie to insinuate itself into positions of power in government, in education, in the many bureaucracies that end up controlling us, corrupting the minds of our oncoming generations, taking away the power of voting our way out of their grip on our lives. Elections are now simply entertainment of the masses, with no ability to halt the encroachment of the Deep State into every facet of our lives.
Our only response will most likely be as Churchill said it:
“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.”
“There may be even a worse fate. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.”
Winston Churchill
April 16, 2016 at 12:03 pm
Old Codger
“You would think that we freedom thinking people would eventually put something in place to keep these arrogant sobs from ever regaining any power or influence.”
Dread, read Federalist Papers #51. Madison there says that the goal of the new constitution was essentially what you wrote. Unfortunately, it is impossible to do what you suggest. Remember, no matter how hard you work to make things foolproof, the universe can always produce a “better” fool. Remember also that any system devised by men amounts merely to words on paper. Words on paper – be they statutes, rules, contracts, constitutions or whatever – have never and will never control the actions of men. Nobody – I say again NOBODY – complies with words on paper unless it is convenient – or at least not excessively INconvenient. The only difference between “criminals” and so-called “honest people” is the threshold for inconvenience.
April 16, 2016 at 5:08 pm
Pamela
The Smell of Socialism in the Morning
As a child I heard the elders speaking of the Burning Times. When the people in power had overthrown the rule of law in order to makes things better and make things equal. Because they knew what was best.
They spoke of the smell on the wind. Of things burning like cord wood.
Of the ovens burning night and day to power their high living places.
The elders spoke of books burning. They spoke of the ancestors burning. They spoke of a once great Nation burning. Because some needed to make things better. To make things equal. To rule over all even in death.
Because they knew better what was good for us.
*Excerpt from the Chronicles of the History of Old America”
April 16, 2016 at 6:35 pm
NotYetInACamp
I love the smell of socialism burning in the morning.
59 Comments
Stink? Yup, but socialists try to blame mass murder on others.
I’ll put this where it hits people between the eyes.
“To wit, the story here (about leaks of the Panama Papers) isn’t about tax evaders and offshore accounts, deplorable as they may be. It’s about public polices and incentives that make a career in politics an expedient route to personal enrichment.” Bret Stephens, “ ‘C’ is for Corruption,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2016.
Anyone who thinks politicians are not in it for the money has got rocks in his/her/its head. It’s never about anything else.
With a confiscatory tax system, it’s o wonder people try to hide their money. If I had anything of that sort to hide I’d damned well be hiding it, too! The problem isn’t the people trying to actually KEEP their money, it is the system which takes so much of it away!
St Ronaldus, “The problem is not that people are under taxed, it’s that government over spends.”
I beg to differ slightly Delilah T., it is also about power over others. With Hillary Clinton the intoxication of having power over the masses seems to be a greater motivator than her insatiable greed. At least Bill was motivated by the same thing most males are motivated by, but Hillary apparantly hungers for the power of life and death over us all.
Total agreement here, Dread. Also, Obama (incensed that Israel wouldn’t bow to him), Reid, McCain, even McConnell and Ryan – power to direct Congress along the path of “Progressivism” as chosen by the DeepState elites whose “club” they wish to join – or at least worship at the feet of, hoping for some table scraps and recognition for their lapdog loyalty, since they are all of them too minor to actually sit at that table. Filthier, more detestable scum would be difficult to find at a national convention of NAMBLA.
“We have Met the enemy and it is us”
Pogo
Not really. We know better. It’s more accurately, “We have met the enemy, and they think we’re shit.”
I don’t see many people on the “non-progressive” side who think they’re perfect. Most know they’re human, and accept that they’re flawed.
The more religious ones don’t think they’re superior because they’re pretty sure God wouldn’t like it. “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”– Proverbs 16:18.
Progressives hate civilization in general, and Western Civilization in particular, mostly because they’re not ruling it and they resent everyone else not recognizing their “special wonderfulness” and falling on their faces worshiping them.
They define themselves as the only good thing civilization ever produced- precisely because they dream of destroying it.
Sorry to state, but the “everyone is alike” paradigm falls down badly when you’re talking about ideological fanatics.
And leaders. George Bernard Shaw once asked Henry Morton Stanley (of “…and Livingston” fame), if he (Stanley) were incapacitated, how many of his men would be able to take over and command the party?
“Five percent” Stanley replied.
“Is that an exact figure or an estimate?” Shaw asked.
“Exact” Stanley stated firmly.
Colin Wilson noted (in The History of Murder) that in any population, the percentage of people capable of leading, commanding, efficiently and well is invariably about Stanley’s figure- five percent, one in twenty. And that in circumstances that do not permit a constructive use of their ability, that five percent become destructive; criminals, or worse.
I would go further and say that those who assume their are “superior” and thus “fit to rule” are probably really part of the other ninety-five percent. Which would explain the progressive tendency to “conform” and demand everyone else do so, with themselves defining what is to be conformed to.
The ones who are able leaders are also the ones more likely to say “to hell with the rest of you”, and go off on their own. The “rugged individualists”- like Stanley.
You find damned few of them in the ranks of the “enlightened elite”. In fact, the “elite'” regard them as dangerous- because they don’t follow orders from a self-styled “superior one”. Actually, they are more likely to tell said “morally evolved” type to go soak his (or her) head, and/or just F.O.A.D.
Sound like anybody you know?
This is probably why Socialism, Fascism, “Utopianism”, etc., invariably ends in bloodshed. When somebody has no idea how to actually lead, they tend to default to brutality- “Do as I say or I will kill you”.
Except for the ones who kill just for the hell of it. Another typical attribute of those who haven’t got a clue how to lead properly and well.
I don’t insist upon it, but that’s where the evidence points. If you want to choose good leaders, you might want to look among people who don’t particularly need to be “led”.
And who aren’t too keen on being “leaders”themselves, either.
clear ether
eon
You really should think about penning some philosophy posts like this and submitting them to HotGas.
Why? I’ve stopped visiting there (after the FB fiasco, second time around).
He should post them on his own blog, and let the others link to him.
I think you are confusing the new ‘hotgas.net’ with the old and tired ‘hot.air.com’ I’d agree with H_B That Eon would be an excellent fit over there and would almost immediately be invited to become a contributor.
You are on to them eon. You have well defined the situation. I think it to be the true human condition; the one that keeps us from becoming gods.
Absolutely eon! Very good!
Well said. If you don’t already have your own blog, you need to create one.
Each time socialism creeps in, the well-meaning do-gooders think their version of socialism will be “better” and their “dear leader” will treat the proletariat with respect and dignity… and each time they’re wrong…
Michael Savage says that liberalism is a mental disorder. The fact that they keep trying socialism even though it has NEVER worked (and cannot in the real world) is evidence of said disorder. Einstein is alleged to have said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”.
The prosecution rests.
Well, socialism works to enrich the upper echelon politicians and give them power trips. It’s not for the 99 percent.
Some day, socialism shall wisp away into the fog of reality. I say we give them their own planet. If they remodel it, they can keep it. They can also leave the rest of us alone.
Sorry, Delilah, but there will always be pie-in-the-sky eyed loonies who will keep trying it.
Alas, they cannot leave us alone.
They ‘know’ ‘The Right Way’ and thus have to force others to conform to their utopian pipe-dreams.
When those dreams turn into abattoirs it’s the fault of others who refused to see the beauty of their ideals.
WayneM, socialism has always failed before because “They didn’t have the right people in charge!”
They never have the right people in charge.
The Late Ted Kennedy summed up the Socialist’s thoughts and hubris in one sentence, when someone pointed out that Socialist Medicine has never worked, no matter where it was tried nor in what form:
“They didn’t have ME to run it for them!
Dang, then he went and died, leaving our socialist medicine without his leadership. Guess we’ll have to throw it on the rubbish heap with the rest of the socialist crap, then.
The battle will NEVER be over. We will always be fighting Socialism, because it’s a part of the dark side of human nature. It’s why we NEVER TRUST the people in power, and ALWAYS watch them like Hawks….
National Socialist German Workers Party — NSDAP to be correct.
Founded in December 1918 as simply the German Workers’ Party. The “National Socialist” part was added in early 1920 by the then-new Party secretary. One Adolf Hitler.
Similarly, the Fascist Front in Italy was started in 1919 by a disaffected Communist newspaper editor. Named Benito Mussolini.
About the only thing they didn’t like about Communism per se was the idea of taking orders from Moscow. That meant kowtowing to Slavs, which neither Il Duce or Herr Schickelgruber held in very high esteem.
And of course, they both hated Jews. Just as Stalin did. Much like modern-day “progressives” hate Israel.
There’s very little that’s “coincidental” about all this. All of it was largely based on the German/European “Romantic Movement” of the 19th Century; primitivist, mystical, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and hostile to modern civilization. People forget that Marx and Engels were German, not Russian. Houston Stewart Chamberlain was British. And Madame Blavatsky was almost certainly not Russian.
(She claimed to be a Russian noblewoman, but she spoke Great Russian very poorly, and almost no French, at a time when French was the language of the Russian court. She was only fluent in Hungarian, and spoke everything with a pronounced Budapest accent.)
Rousseau’s “Noble Savage” stalks through the subconscious of all of the above.
With a blood-covered flint knife in his hand.
clear ether
eon
To be fair Mussolini, whatever his many other sins, was not personally Antisemitic. His mistress was Jewish and he expressed privately his distaste for Hitler. The Totalitarian logic of Fascism would have over time created a society hostile to Jews even without the pressure from the Nazis, and Mussolini himself said that in his last phase with the “Social Republic” under German occupation he was nothing more than a puppet. Vittorio de Sica’s 1970 film “Garden of the Finzi-Continis” portrays the fate of the Jewish bourgeoisie in Italy.
Jews weren’t sent to the camps until the Germans took over.
Gee, why does that sound so darn familiar?
Allahu Akbar.
Properly answered by Deus Vult.
Deus Vult is essentially the same meaning as “Insh’allah”. In English we say “God willing”. It all means the same.
And when was the last time you heard a Christian shouting “Deus Vult” as they either blew themselves up, or cut off heads, or threatened anyone with ‘submit to my theocracy, pay a tax, or die’??
No, they are not the same in any concrete, real world, concept or application.
The German Romantics had an obsession with anything “Eastern” and “mystical” that any modern-day progressive would adore. Especially Persian poetry. (Which I consider some of the worst in the Universe.)
As Dusty A. Sklar said in her often-overlooked book, Gods And Beasts; The Nazis and the Occult
BTW, the entire book is very much worth reading to see the parallels. Not to mention showing that those who equate Nazism with Christianity don’t know what they’re talking about.
clear ether
eon
And Hitler said, “We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalist economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions.” Adolf Hitler, May 1, 1927
Sounds a bit like Occupy Wall Street, MoveOn.org, Bernie’s Children, etc., doesn’t it? I have a notion that Cloward and Piven knew this quote verbatim.
There is nothing worse than some determined individual doing to you what is good for you whether you want it or not with enthusiasm and vigor. Permanent parents of the nanny state eventually conflate what’s good for you with what is better for them. At that point the method and vigor go all out of proportion until the subject says enough.
I think the Trump Cruz ground swell is this reaction. Bernie is the nannies going all in to maintain the status quo ante bellum. And there will be war. Maybe the ballot box but my money is on the cartridge box before its all over.
Spin
Molon Labe
Winter is coming
Keep your powder dry
Agreed. These idiots will Not quit until they are no longer.
Get OVER yourself Jannie
Your beknighted RATS have been the NAZIs for a very long time now
They’re not preaching to empty pews…NPR did a story today dissecting the tax policies of the four front runners:
http://www.npr.org/2016/04/15/474411569/platform-check-breaking-down-the-presidential-candidates-tax-plans
Worth a listen. Of course the interview is with a dude from something called the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center, so that should be a clue. But what is absolutely stunning is the level of cluelessness as to how an unfettered capitalist system works. The money quote, as it were: “Bernie’s 52% tax rate would fall on those who can most easily afford it.”
Meet you new overlords y’all…of course the little mensch is only there to make the beast look positively moderate by comparison, but make no mistake…that bitch is authoritarian communist through and through.
Actually, I don’t think Hillary is a communist. I doubt she has much of a fiscal or economic policy at all (other than how to skim more for her off the top). I think he is simply totalitarian. Whatever is required to make certain she is in charge will be the policy. (Redistributive policies are simply one way to make sure the hoi polloi put her in charge.)
I think she’s more opportunistic than she is ideological.
And once she has the “opportunity” to get control of the “football”, she might just use same to get back at everybody she hates. Which is a very, very long list.
It’s not wise to put temptation in the way of Lady MacBeth.
clear ether
eon
Communism is for her not ideology but methodology. And all of our psycho-analysis can be summed up succinctly with the old saw about the root of evil, abridged to include its synonomous product:
Follow the love of money/power; always follow love of the money/power.
Throw in some serious psychopathy and self-worship, and you got yourself a hillzabeast. But I repeat myself.
In my mind, the biggest fault of socialism is the undeniable fact that the universe runs on the principle of “What’s in it for me?”. Nobody no THING does anything unless they derive some benefit from doing it. Planets orbit stars because they have no choice. Critters do what they do because they get something out of doing what they do. Anybody think beavers particularly LIKE building – and maintaining – dams? Nope. They do it because it affords them safety from predators and soaking in water makes the wood easier to chew and digest.
People are no different. None of us does anything unless there is some benefit from doing it – even if the “benefit is merely getting to continue breathing for a while longer. Lawyers refer to this principle as “cui bono”.
Unfortunately, political papers make poor fertilizer. Unlike the other stuff.
Excellent kindling, though, if separated and crumpled individually.
Every. Single. Post. Is. Perfection. Of. Understanding. From one different status or another. Every single one has a solid nail of truth.
Ladies and gentlemen, you rock and I am proud to be of this group.
Chris Muir, you are a genius.
Socialism is basically the philosophy of losers who can’t achieve anything for themselves, and want to suck dry the success of others. They expect to be on the “High Needs, low abilities” side of the redistribution equation. Or, they think they will be the ones in charge of redistribution.
Don’t forget the achievers, most of whom achieved through luck or inheritance, and feel like they owe it to the little people to make the world a better place to asuage their guilt for being “haves” in a world mostly populated by “have nots.” They don’t want to give up what they have, but they want others to do so.
Jeff, I sincerely doubt that they experience any guilt. Not the true leaders. In their arrogant assumption of superiority of mind and purpose, _they_ experience neither doubt nor guilt, nor question their “right” to lead.
Ego and hatred .. without those two the Democratic party would collapse. How outta control is one’s ego when they apparently believe that they are more powerful than ‘Mother Nature’?! That without them and their ego to save and protect ‘Mother Nature’ that poor and weak ‘Mother Nature’ would be destroyed by evil humans.
The dreamers don’t stay in control for long. The dream starts to fade and someone takes over, turns it into a nightmare, and the dreamers are among the first to go to the wall since they complain the most about what’s happened to their dream and don’t understand the way the progression always works. History repeats itself and they die without understanding.
A revolution eats it’s children.
Excellent variety of perspectives given here.
I often remember conversations that trigger people into action against me.
At Epicure while leisurely eating lunch and explaining some of the fallacies of Progressiveness to a longtime family friend and later classmate in law school who was the daughter of a big time Progressive, and big Time Democrat Party member (JFK had sent him on a good successful economic mission), I triggered a Really big Time Progressive sitting close at the next table. My triggering topic was on the value of personal and local control of people and society. Long story short. He advocated that the centralization of power was of paramount importance. That the concentration of power in the federal government was to control all of the wayward locals who needed to be corrected. Yes, he was a socialist and a Democrat. He emphasized that I was of the past and would be washed away in history. The federal government with its central control over all state decisions, regulations, laws, and policies would completely negate and overcome my argument that local control was more efficient and responsive to the people and their needs and wants. The federal control would do as he said and sweep away the local wrong decisions. he even stood up, as I then did, and strongly asserted his positions. I watched as behind him and employee got the manager and he and several employees watched to see if this older gentleman and I would come to blows as this socialist progressive, and proudly asserted as a Progressive, would come to blows. I have never thrown a first punch and kept my discussion to words, which so infuriated him that after aggressively insulting the alleged evil of my positions he left all hot and bothered.
The key thought is that they have been massing the central control grid they have in place now. Control means have been placed across society even to the new cars now record in their computers every act that the car does, and every place it does it. If you took a new Corvette C-7 and drove at 150 mph, that is recorded and where. Communication with the central grid is mandated in laws slipped in to be applied later. The new DNA information chip that doctors must be able to read before they can help you with a prescription is mandated for the future. The mandated control extends everywhere to be implemented over time.
They may be shoveling piles and piles of it. But, it is more like a resin for which they will apply the applicators to solidify the chains around all they believe that they need to control and at what levels of control.
As said before above, they believe that they know best. They will not leave any important decisions to the people who do not think as they do.
Why in the world would they ever let anyone who opposes them have a vote that has power?
They are the anointed ones. They know best. Last century those who know best like they do took actions for that alleged good that resulted in over 200,000,000 deaths of human beings. Look at North Africa, The Middle East, Europe, and the United States now. The Progressives and ‘know it all best people’ have been hard at work in this century already.
Fundamental transformation anybody?
How many times in history has the war that we are doomed to now fight again, already been fought? You would think that we freedom thinking people would eventually put something in place to keep these arrogant sobs from ever regaining any power or influence. I agree with the idea that liberalism, socialism, progressiveism, etc. is a mental disorder. That is the only thing that makes sense, of it’s immortal cyclical reemergence. It’s like shingles in older people, in that it just pops up periodically, and wreaks havoc until dealth with.
Remember the Franklin quote when asked “What have you given us?” “A Republic, madam, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT.” He didn’t say it in caps, but that, I think, is what he meant. Why they wrote the Constitution, why they worded it as they did. And WTP allowed their incredible vision to corrupt, as it surely will.
Dread, read Sultan Knish today:(http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2016/04/in-city-of-decadents.html) He claims – with great validity, I believe – that every civilization goes through three stages. America is at the last, “decadent” stage, where morals, purpose, and motivation have fled. Or, more accurately, have been driven off, repudiated by a large enough portion of the society that it is doomed to fail. That it is a cycle unavoidable to the human condition.
Just as the socialists keep failing, even this great, unique social experiment called “America” is doomed to fail. True conservatives tend to be laissez faire – and it is accompanied by a lack of attention or discernment about what the “progressives” are willing to do to take control. The Left will (does) use every trick, every deceit, every lie to insinuate itself into positions of power in government, in education, in the many bureaucracies that end up controlling us, corrupting the minds of our oncoming generations, taking away the power of voting our way out of their grip on our lives. Elections are now simply entertainment of the masses, with no ability to halt the encroachment of the Deep State into every facet of our lives.
Our only response will most likely be as Churchill said it:
“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.”
“There may be even a worse fate. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.”
Winston Churchill
“You would think that we freedom thinking people would eventually put something in place to keep these arrogant sobs from ever regaining any power or influence.”
Dread, read Federalist Papers #51. Madison there says that the goal of the new constitution was essentially what you wrote. Unfortunately, it is impossible to do what you suggest. Remember, no matter how hard you work to make things foolproof, the universe can always produce a “better” fool. Remember also that any system devised by men amounts merely to words on paper. Words on paper – be they statutes, rules, contracts, constitutions or whatever – have never and will never control the actions of men. Nobody – I say again NOBODY – complies with words on paper unless it is convenient – or at least not excessively INconvenient. The only difference between “criminals” and so-called “honest people” is the threshold for inconvenience.
The Smell of Socialism in the Morning
As a child I heard the elders speaking of the Burning Times. When the people in power had overthrown the rule of law in order to makes things better and make things equal. Because they knew what was best.
They spoke of the smell on the wind. Of things burning like cord wood.
Of the ovens burning night and day to power their high living places.
The elders spoke of books burning. They spoke of the ancestors burning. They spoke of a once great Nation burning. Because some needed to make things better. To make things equal. To rule over all even in death.
Because they knew better what was good for us.
*Excerpt from the Chronicles of the History of Old America”
I love the smell of socialism burning in the morning.