Thanks for writing this column, John. I appreciate the troubles you've had in that it has helped to shape the writer and thinker that you are. My struggles with liberalism have been many and varied over the years, from right out of high school losing out on opportunities due to affirmative action, to being pressured to move on because I was not diverse enough to meet my decades long employer's later DEI "goals." Where I struggle with TDS is when I find myself losing respect for people I know that that I'd always believed were emotionally mature, intelligent and ethical. Then I see them having meltdowns, tantrums and rage fits because Trump is our president. I feel confused by the hysteria, and I wonder what the heck is motivating it. Is it hatred of men, or just white men? Hatred of Christians, straight men, successful people, or men who don't apologize for being men? And I see people I thought were believers rejecting Biblical truth and very specific prohibitions against sin and heresy, instead jumping into philosophies that deny the very existence of God and His son. I'm sure you know the laundry list. It makes me question their moral compass, ability to reason logically, and their reckless lawlessness. Why should the essential function of ICE, tasked with cleaning up the huge mess of millions of aliens invading illegally, make them shriek with rage? I pray often about this, but I know that God is all about people choosing to be faithful or not, so that we self-select for the afterlife in heaven. I have shed former friends because I don't want to hear their rants, and I think they may become demon possessed.
I have never forgotten that piece although I didn’t realize I have been reading NR for that long. In particular, to John’s point, Sobran says that conservatives find happiness in every day life. At dinner with family or friends, perhaps, or when someone says something funny.
Liberals, on the other hand, seek happiness in trying to change the world, in trying to make it perfect. As Sobran said, the liberal malcontent seeks to achieve those “ideals" that “are nothing more than fantasies--a world of perpetual peace, brotherhood, justice, or any other will-o'-the-wisp that has lured men toward the Gulag.” But, because those ideals are fantasies that cannot be reached by us mere mortals, the liberal is destined to a life of misery, fighting to achieve the unachievable.
Just to paraphrase some of your last paragraph from the end:
They’re RELIGIOUS, first, and foremost. They put it ahead of COUNTRY, their families, their friends, and their profession. To them, Thanksgiving is an opportunity to push RELIGION. A job is an opportunity to push RELIGION. Church, if they go, is an opportunity to push RELIGION. They believe that RELIGION is de facto good, they’re good because they’re part of it, and that it comes before everything else.
You can substitute Judaism, Christianity, Islam and just about all the rest for RELIGION, and particularly Communism.
Folks, we have to quit Believing-In things & people blindly. Only what can be substantiated completely should believed [Believed-That, not In]. We must not let emotions control us completely or we destroy ourselves!
Thanks for writing this column, John. I appreciate the troubles you've had in that it has helped to shape the writer and thinker that you are. My struggles with liberalism have been many and varied over the years, from right out of high school losing out on opportunities due to affirmative action, to being pressured to move on because I was not diverse enough to meet my decades long employer's later DEI "goals." Where I struggle with TDS is when I find myself losing respect for people I know that that I'd always believed were emotionally mature, intelligent and ethical. Then I see them having meltdowns, tantrums and rage fits because Trump is our president. I feel confused by the hysteria, and I wonder what the heck is motivating it. Is it hatred of men, or just white men? Hatred of Christians, straight men, successful people, or men who don't apologize for being men? And I see people I thought were believers rejecting Biblical truth and very specific prohibitions against sin and heresy, instead jumping into philosophies that deny the very existence of God and His son. I'm sure you know the laundry list. It makes me question their moral compass, ability to reason logically, and their reckless lawlessness. Why should the essential function of ICE, tasked with cleaning up the huge mess of millions of aliens invading illegally, make them shriek with rage? I pray often about this, but I know that God is all about people choosing to be faithful or not, so that we self-select for the afterlife in heaven. I have shed former friends because I don't want to hear their rants, and I think they may become demon possessed.
Anyone who enjoyed this article as I did should read Joe Sobran’s Pensees which he wrote for National Review in 1985.
https://www.wildwestcycle.com/f_pensees.htm
I have never forgotten that piece although I didn’t realize I have been reading NR for that long. In particular, to John’s point, Sobran says that conservatives find happiness in every day life. At dinner with family or friends, perhaps, or when someone says something funny.
Liberals, on the other hand, seek happiness in trying to change the world, in trying to make it perfect. As Sobran said, the liberal malcontent seeks to achieve those “ideals" that “are nothing more than fantasies--a world of perpetual peace, brotherhood, justice, or any other will-o'-the-wisp that has lured men toward the Gulag.” But, because those ideals are fantasies that cannot be reached by us mere mortals, the liberal is destined to a life of misery, fighting to achieve the unachievable.
Just to paraphrase some of your last paragraph from the end:
They’re RELIGIOUS, first, and foremost. They put it ahead of COUNTRY, their families, their friends, and their profession. To them, Thanksgiving is an opportunity to push RELIGION. A job is an opportunity to push RELIGION. Church, if they go, is an opportunity to push RELIGION. They believe that RELIGION is de facto good, they’re good because they’re part of it, and that it comes before everything else.
You can substitute Judaism, Christianity, Islam and just about all the rest for RELIGION, and particularly Communism.
Folks, we have to quit Believing-In things & people blindly. Only what can be substantiated completely should believed [Believed-That, not In]. We must not let emotions control us completely or we destroy ourselves!
I like your 'handle', Pseudonym. That's very Clever... :)