Figures. On Independence Day NY Times Bashes Liberty and Individual Rights
Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, July 4, 2012, 8:13 PM
On Independence Day the New York Times published “the Downside of Liberty” today. If only we were a socialist state.
The New York Times reported:
THIS spring I was on a panel at the Woodstock Writers Festival. An audience member asked a question: Why had the revolution dreamed up in the late 1960s mostly been won on the social and cultural fronts — women’s rights, gay rights, black president, ecology, sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll — but lost in the economic realm, with old-school free-market ideas gaining traction all the time?
There was a long pause. People shrugged and sighed. I had an epiphany, which I offered, bumming out everybody in the room.
What has happened politically, economically, culturally and socially since the sea change of the late ’60s isn’t contradictory or incongruous. It’s all of a piece. For hippies and bohemians as for businesspeople and investors, extreme individualism has been triumphant. Selfishness won.
From the beginning, the American idea embodied a tension between radical individualism and the demands of the commonwealth. The document we’re celebrating today says in its second line that axiomatic human rights include “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” — individualism in a nutshell. But the Declaration’s author was not a greed-is-good guy: “Self-love,” Jefferson wrote to a friend 38 years after the Declaration, “is no part of morality. Indeed it is exactly its counterpart. It is the sole antagonist of virtue leading us constantly by our propensities to self-gratification in violation of our moral duties to others.”
(…)
“Do your own thing” is not so different than “every man for himself.” If it feels good, do it, whether that means smoking weed and watching porn and never wearing a necktie, retiring at 50 with a six-figure public pension and refusing modest gun regulation, or moving your factories overseas and letting commercial banks become financial speculators. The self-absorbed “Me” Decade, having expanded during the ’80s and ’90s from personal life to encompass the political economy, will soon be the “Me” Half-Century.
People on the political right have blamed the late ’60s for what they loathe about contemporary life — anything-goes sexuality, cultural coarseness, multiculturalism. And people on the left buy into that, seeing only the ’60s legacies of freedom that they define as progress. But what the left and right respectively love and hate are mostly flip sides of the same libertarian coin minted around 1967. Thanks to the ’60s, we are all shamelessly selfish.
In that letter from 1814, Jefferson wrote that our tendencies toward selfishness where liberty and our pursuit of happiness lead us require “correctives which are supplied by education” and by “the moralist, the preacher, and legislator.”
On this Independence Day, I’m doing my small preacherly bit.
Can we call them socialists, yet?
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Mad Hatter commented:
“Can we call them socialists, yet?”
You’re way off Jim, they’re Communist.
Taqiyyotomist commented:
Walter Duranty. NYT’s paragon, avatar, and benchmark, all rolled into one.
http://www.ukemonde.com/news/usefulidiot.html
Any who insist that “communism” is dead or lost, is either blind, insane, or Communist themselves, and are engaging in Fabian taqiyya — useful idiots themselves.
snap boy commented:
Would Jefferson say that “our moral duties to others” should be met through individual actions or governmental dictates? Just as the welfare state has weakened an individual’s responsibility for his own economic well-being, so too has it undermined an individual’s feeling of obligation to help those less fortunate; in both cases government has usurped, not merely assisted, the duties of the individual.
Taqiyyotomist commented:
Mad Hatter, they’re a little bit of every evil, totalitarian ideology we’ve seen in the last two or three centuries. Socialism, Marxism, Communism, Fascism, and even bizarre sex-cults and the ever-present Child Sacrifice of Demonism.
“They”, these so-called “Progressives” are a tossed salad of evil.
Taqiyyotomist commented:
Progressives: Killing “Incorrect” People, killing babies, and, ehm, “tossing salads”.
The three holy sacraments of their faith.
Patty commented:
Well, the writer had me a Woodstock. I knew a lot of leftover weed has deaden the brain cells.
This is one BIG waste of my time reading it and the author must feel right at home in The N.Y. slimes.
Americans no matter what the time and what their position is in politics are all after the same thing in life. EXCEPTIONALISM.
That may just be what is lacking with the DOWNERS of the world. I can hardly type for all the fireworks going off. But, I digress, we are left to our own devices.
No person has influenced me more than my God. And then my parents, family and then those who I have met along the way. But this person whom he or she influence is an audience of DEAD HEADS.
Patty commented:
Everyone is a Critic. It comes easy when you have a typical and simpleton attitude filled with Criticism and misplaced opinions of others.
Economan commented:
Then the left gets upset if you call them unpatriotic.
MKS commented:
It seems that leftists so frequently overlook, or choose to overlook, a basic principle: voluntary wealth redistribution is very, very good; and compulsory wealth redistribution is very, very evil.
A capitalist gains power by motivating people through excellent products and services; a socialist gains power by motivating people through clever promises and threats.
Tina commented:
God bless America ! We will defend her today! Why don’t times tell the truth instead of spitting out their hate! Look how far the goverment has and still today taking your freedom. Are we really free from the government and BIG WALL STREET BED BUGS? THIS IS OUR LAND AND THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO RIGHT TO DICTATE OUR LIVES! HEY SOCIALIST PIG TIMES! YOU AND OTHERS AS WELL AS NBC NEWS,MSNBC,CNN,ABC,CBS AND GOVERNMENT LEAVE ALL ALONE .ALL YOU DO IS DICTATE TO TURN AMERICA INTO A MARXIST COUNTRY! SCREW YOU TIMES,SCREW YOU!
Patty commented:
OT
If Mitt Romney should be elected President,
just where- and how- will he take the Oath of Office?
Should former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney- the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, as of this typing- be elected President by defeating the incumbent Democrat in the White House- President Barack Obama- he will face an historic dilemma: just where (as well as under what circumstances) will he be able to take the Oath of Office come Noon Eastern Time US [1700 GMT] next 20 January? The problem is that, in 2013, 20 January falls on a Sunday and, therefore, the public Presidential Inauguaration festivities (the Swearing-In on the steps of the West Front of the United States Capitol followed by the…
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/PCom/?20120704-0
I am not worried, just so long as he defeats the socialist in Chief.
reliapundit commented:
NYTIMES OP-ED CONFLATES INDIVIDUALISM WITH SELFISHNESS
ANDERSEN COMMITS A FALLACY HERE: “The Downside of Liberty”
HE WRITES: “… sometimes we have gone overboard indulging our propensities to self-gratification…” AS IF THERE CAN BE TOO MUCH LIBERTY.
HE IS WRONG.
THE PROBLEM IS NOT INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY, BUT LIBERTY WITHOUT NATURAL LAW.
LIBERTY WITHOUT NATURAL LAW DEVOLVES INTO LIBERTINAGE.
WITHOUT NATURAL LAW, LIBERTY IS A SLIPPERY SLOPE THAT KNOWS NO END BUT THE ABYSS.
HE WRITES:
But then came the late 1960s, and over the next two decades American individualism was fully unleashed. A kind of tacit grand bargain was forged between the counterculture and the establishment, between the forever-young and the moneyed.
Going forward, the youthful masses of every age would be permitted as never before to indulge their self-expressive and hedonistic impulses. But capitalists in return would be unshackled as well, free to indulge their own animal spirits with fewer and fewer fetters in the forms of regulation, taxes or social opprobrium…. “Do your own thing” is not so different than “every man for himself.” If it feels good, do it… Thanks to the ’60s, we are all shamelessly selfish.
BESIDES BEING WRONG, THIS GIVES RISE TO SEVERAL QUESTIONS:
WHAT DID THEY BECOME UNSHACKLED FROM?
MERE “SELF-RESTRAINT”?
WHERE DOES SELF-RESTRAINT COME FROM?
WHAT MIGHT DEFINE ITS BOUNDS?
ARE THE LIMITS TO LIBERTY PERSONAL AND SUBJECTIVE?
IF SO, THEN IS THERE ANY BASIS FOR CRITIQUING THEM?
ARE THE BOUNDS MERELY MECHANICAL, AS IN THE OLD SAYING, “ONE MAN’S RIGHT TO SWING HIS ARM ENDS WHERE THE NET MAN’S NOSE BEGINS”?
20TH CENTURY LEFTISTS SEEKING TO DESTROY WESTERN CIVILIZATION AND TO REPLACE IT WITH A TOTALITARIAN SOCIALISTIC STATE USED MORAL RELATIVISM TO TRY TO STRIP NATURAL LAW – AND G-D – OUT OF OUR CIVILIZATION IN ORDER TO CREATE A VACUUM THEY MIGHT FILL WITH MARXISM – AND THEY’VE SUCCEEDED WITH A LARGE PART OF OUR POPULATION.
ANDERSEN’S ANALYSIS IS ESSENTIALLY RELATIVISTIC: HE EQUATES THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT AND CALLS BOTH EQUALLY SELFISH.
HE IS WRONG. LEFTISTS ARE LIBERTINES, AND RIGHT-WINGERS ARE NOT.
LEFTISTS WANTED TO DESTROY MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY (BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS OF CIVILIZATION) IN THE 1960′S AND REPLACE THEM WITH FREE LOVE AND COMMUNES.
HAVING FAILED, THEY HAVE RECENTLY TURNED TO GAY MARRIAGE AND NOW MULTIPLE PARENTING.
LEFTISTS ARE ESSENTIALLY MORALLY RELATIVIST PEOPLE WHO DO WHAT IS RIGHT IN THEIR OWN EYES AND HAVE TURNED AWAY FROM TRADITIONAL, 3000 YEAR OLD, RELIGIOUS VALUES THAT ARE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WEST.
THEY ARE EITHER ATHEISTS WHO DON’T BELIEVE IN AN ETERNAL TRANSCENDENT G-D, OR PSEUDO-RELIGIOUS FOLKS WHO THINK THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO FASHION A G-D AND A RELIGION OUT OF WHATEVER VALUES THEY HOLD AT THE MOMENT – OR WHICH APPEAR IN EDITORIALS AT THE NYTIMES.
NOT ONLY DOES THIS LEAD TO WANTONLY BAD BEHAVIOR, BUT TO INTERNATIONAL STALEMATE:
WITHOUT A TRANSCENDENTALLY BASED MORAL CODE, THE ONLY BASIS FOR INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION IS CONSENSUS.
THIS IS WHY THEY OVERVALUE THE UN, AND WHY THE UN IS A USELESS ORGANIZATION THAT HAS PERMITTED SEVERAL GENOCIDAL WARS GO UN CONTESTED – IN RWANDA AND SYRIA FOR EXAMPLE – AND ALSO PERMITS HORRIBLE ISLAMO-MISOGYNY TO GO ON AND ON AND ON AND ON.
MORALLY RELATIVISTIC MORALITY IS NOT MORALITY AT ALL.
AND MORAL RELATIVISM IS WHY SOME PEOPLE TURN THEIR INNATE LIBERTY TO BAD ENDS.
THE PROBLEM ISN’T UNBRIDLED LIBERTY OR EVEN SELFISHNESS, BUT LIBERTY AND SELF-HOOD UN-TETHERED FROM G-D AND G-D’S LAW, NATURAL LAW.
WITHOUT THE GOD OF NATURE AND NATURAL LAW PEOPLE HAVE NO TRANSCENDENT AND ETERNAL COMPASS WITH WHICH TO HARNESS THEIR OWN DESIRES AND DREAMS AND INCLINATIONS.
AND PEOPLE DO WHAT IS RIGHT IN THEIR OWN EYES, AND THIS IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF EVIL.
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Posted by Reliapundit at 12:54 PM
http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2012/07/nytimes-op-ed-conflates-individualism.html
Patty commented:
OT just keep remembering our troops this day and every day.
Hug a Warrior, Slug a Democrat – Happy 4TH Of July
http://patdollard.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/cctsrapidstrike06xqo94-600×350.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sam4lq2WHos
The eagle born to those who pledged their lives and sacred honor was smiled upon by God and freed from chains and iron collar. He is held aloft on unity and by history revered; for preserving peace through strength his wings now reach across two hundred years. But for each of those and one year more, God has smiled upon The Corps, from the Barbary Coast to the Eastern Sand, by sword, by gun, or by bare hand. So it’s been, and shall be weighed: though many are born, few are “made”. Faithful Always, they shall remain, dogs to loose when war is waged.
I am a Marine on the beach, I’m a killin’ machine, with a need to bleed you when the light goes green, best believe, I’m in a zone to be, from my Yin to my Yang to my Yang Tze. Put a grin on my chin, come to me, ‘cuz I’ll win, I’m one-of-a-kind and I’ll bring death to the place you’re about to be: another river of blood runnin’ under my feet. Forged in a fire lit long ago, stand next to me, you’ll never stand alone. I’m last to leave, but the first to go, Hard Corps is the only way I know. I feed on the fear of the devil inside of the enemy faces in my sights: aim with the hand, shoot with the mind, kill with a heart like arctic ice
I am a Devil-Dog I’m marching on, I am a warrior and this is my song [..]
http://patdollard.com/2012/07/hug-a-warrior-slug-a-democrat-happy-4th-of-july/
Flintstone F. commented:
“We are all shamelessly selfish.”
No. Liberals do not understand the distinction between self determination and greed. Greed being that thing where one advances one’s self by breaking the rules, thus disrespecting the individual liberty of others.
Jefferson was speaking to respect for the rule of law. Not that without boundaries we would just become wild violent parasites without conscience or concern for others.
There is no better example though, of where he gets his perception, than from the spoiled brainwashed idiots who protest in favor of abortion (the kids of the hippies). The liberals world of influence exhibit his claims well. They just don’t exist in a universal sense. Nice try though.
Patty commented:
OT But amazing and keep scrolling down the site.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168616/Marat-Dupri-Man-scales-worlds-tallest-buildings-capture-earth-air.html
BurmaShave commented:
No. Self-absorbed hedonism won for the person who wrote this screed. Who is this virtual carbuncle on my butt?
Patty commented:
OT
Homeland Security Report Lists ‘Liberty Lovers’ As Terrorists
Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority, reverent of individual liberty” deemed domestic threat
Americans who believe their “way of life” is under attack;
- Americans who are “fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”;
- People who consider themselves “anti-global” (presumably those who are wary of the loss of American sovereignty);
- Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority”;
- Americans who are “reverent of individual liberty”;
- People who “believe in conspiracy theories that involve grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty.”
The report also lists people opposed to abortion and “groups that seek to smite the purported enemies of God and other evildoers” as terrorists.
http://www.infowars.com/homeland-security-report-lists-liberty-lovers-as-terrorists/
Patty commented:
The report also lists people opposed to abortion and “groups that seek to smite the purported enemies of God and other evildoers” as terrorists.
As we have exhaustively documented on numerous occasions, federal authorities and particularly the Department of Homeland Security have been involved in producing a deluge of literature which portrays liberty lovers and small government advocates as terrorists.
The most flagrant example was the infamous 2009 MIAC report, published by the Missouri Information Analysis Center and first revealed by Infowars, which framed Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who display bumper stickers, people who own gold, or even people who fly a U.S. flag, as potential terrorists.[...]
http://www.infowars.com/homeland-security-report-lists-liberty-lovers-as-terrorists/
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