A while back, I was told that my world-view, while sincere, is close-minded and lacks objectivity. Perhaps, there’s some truth to this, but I ask myself on a daily basis, “What if I’m wrong?” I strive to be intellectually honest enough, that if I’m proven wrong, I move to where the truth is. My beliefs regarding social, political and economic issues have been formed by a study of history and hard-won experience.
I think that the philosophical differences are not so much Left vs. Right, but Utopian vs. Realist. The Utopian bases their world-view on the way they think things should be. The Realist, on the way things actually are. Dull perhaps, but prudent.
The Utopian thinks that everyone should share everything, and will work just as hard to feed the collective as they will to feed themselves, so Socialism is the way to go. The reality is, that people are foremost individuals, and will put their self-interest first. This is why no less than a hundred million people were killed in the name of Socialism in the Twentieth Century, alone. It has to be enforced at gunpoint, because it’s contrary to human nature.
The Utopian thinks that men and women are interchangeable, gender is a social construct, and that men should like act like women. The reality is that men and women are profoundly different and that men have an aggressive streak that can’t be eliminated, only suppressed. It used to be that this natural aggression in boys was channeled in positive directions, through mentoring and instruction from men, usually their fathers. Such boys would grow up to be protectors, warriors, leaders and builders. Today, the leavening influence of strong, positive male role models is all but gone. Masculinity is considered to be toxic. Social engineering and drug therapy have given rise to the “beta male”. Men who are weak, self-loathing and fearful. They don’t want to be women, but they don’t know how to be men.
The Utopian thinks that through taxes, regulations and the curtailment of human progress, we can “save the planet”. The reality is that the planet doesn’t need saving. The climate is always changing. There have been ice ages, heat waves, floods, droughts and all the rest, long before internal combustion engines and incandescent light bulbs even existed. CO2 is not a pollutant. The climate is going to do what is does, regardless of the activity of we puny humans, so taxing the United States out of existence would accomplish nothing positive.
The Realist knows that you have to take the world on its terms. It was here first. I’m all for trying to improve and make the world a better place, but the Utopian’s ant colony Elysium is an absurd pipedream. I’ll take this world, dangers, inequities, unpleasantness and all, because it is real, and I’m up for the challenge. How about you?
4 replies on “Keeping It Real”
You call them Utopians, I call them Deceived. Potato, potatto.
Indeed, they are deceived. But, since we’re all the hero of our own story, they don’t realize that they are deceived. Look at AOC or even Crazy Bernie; they actually believe the bilge they spew. Hard to fight that kind of fanaticism.
The deceived never know they’re deceived until something or someone discovers the specific needed whack to give them upside the head.
That’s a good way of thinking about it: utopianist vs. realist.