I have been trying to understand the fundamental reason for leftists thought … I am trying to reconcile two perspectives on this issue;
1. Leftism is a desire to simply gain the immediate dopamine hit of being ‘virtuous’ – and that requires not looking in to the problem more deeply.
If someone doesn’t have money – fix the issue buy giving them some – with no thought to the consequences.
If there is a crime problem within a certain group – stop prosecuting the crimes – again with no thought to the consequences.
2. Leftism is simply the inability to think beyond first order solutions to n-th order problems.
Is the issue an inability to think beyond first order solutions, or is it simply they do not want to see past the ‘feel good’ solution, as the ‘feel good’ solution is the whole point – the dopamine hit?
Is the addiction to the ‘virtue dopamine hit’ why the left are so viscerally opposed to hearing alternate viewpoints?
Is the phenomenon of people getting more conservative as they get older because they simply understand the depths of the issues more (they understand 1st order solutions do not work) and can therefore not get the ‘virtue hit’?
And finally to the point of the post … is the inability to think past 1st order solutions the reason they are addicted to the dopamine hit, or is the dopamine hit the reason they do not want to look past the 1st order solution?
7 replies on “Chicken or Egg?”
I suggest the primary reason that leftism is what it is, is that reality is not only optional for them, they believe they create reality by redefining words and changing the names of things to what they are not. Reality is supposed to obey their every whim no matter how contradictory there whim is of the last moment. It is to become what they want simply because they want it. If that doesn’t happen, they will punish you for failing to create their whims.
Now you would be quite correct thinking that this position is intellectually pathological and totally disconnected from what is. However, their motivation is a complete and fundamental rejection/hatred of being required to be human. Which means the responsibility for discovering and understanding what is, being responsible for the consequences of their actions, and being responsible for their own existence. They hate those responsibilities so much that they work to destroy any product of the human mind. Even those products that result in sustaining the lives of others and themselves.
Superficially, they appear to want to live at your expense. This is a misunderstanding of their actions. They really want you to die is as agonizing way possible. Their joy is your suffering. They do not mean well no matter what words they utter to the contrary.
Contrarily, I suggest that your stated reason is actually a side effect of their true motivation, which is to force the fallacious notion that equal outcome is paramount and that equal opportunity is anathema to the human condition.
Their fallacious notion is the result of their holding reality to be optional. There can be no equality of outcome without totalitarian force being applied to each individual. The reason is that individuals are not and cannot be “equal” in all respects. When “equality” in all things is enforced, the outcome is zero. They thereby achieve their final goal. The collapse of civilization and consequent extinction of human life.
Wow, Lionel. Well said. You got through the superficialities to the truth
Thanks for noticing.
Ah … you’ve managed to hit upon the duality of leftism. As Islam is both “peaceful” and violent, leftism exists simultaneously as a destructive ideology that is both “virtuous” and thoughtless. This is why those who ascribe to the cult of leftism are willingly in league with those who ascribe to Islam. The intriguing detail, which is too often ignored, is that the latter will exterminate the former when their usefulness is spent.
I think that a good part of the reason that leftists do what they do is virtue signaling. I think in many cases, they believe that people of other races need their help. In their hearts, they are think other races are inferior (Joe Biden: “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids”).
They see their political enemies are evil because their enemies are not willing to “help” these races. Leftists think that they are superior people (more intelligent, kinder).
I think that leftists do not examine the results of their “help”, they just want to feel good about themselves (they don’t need to look past the 1st order solution).
Thomas Sowell covers this ground in several books. The “Vision of the Anointed” is my favorite.