FREEDOM'S LEFTIST ENEMIES
By Nelson Hultberg
January 16, 2017
NewsWithViews.com
One of the tragic ironies of history is that the very moment freedom was given birth in America in 1787 with enactment of our Constitution in the wake of the Declaration of Independence, the concept of freedom itself came under direct assault from the philosophical thinkers of Europe, which laid the groundwork for the massive statisms of the modern day. This is because ideology moves history. Mankind's societies are shaped by the prevailing ideas that have gained prominence among the great minds of any given era. Thus freedom as a philosophical concept is in dreadful retreat today throughout the world, even in America.
This
modern move away from freedom began in earnest in France in the early
19th century as a result of the philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau’s
influence on the thinkers of the day. It slithered over most of Europe
by 1900 under the guidance of Auguste Comte and Karl Marx and exploded
into the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. It then proceeded to
England and America, and it has been very subtly consuming Western civilization
for the past 80 years.
I say “modern move” because the rejection of individual freedom
is not new. It’s been going on in some form or another at various
stages of history since the beginning of human civilization. One sees
such a rejection in the terrorist atrocities of the Jacobins during the
French Revolution in 1789. One sees it in the religious inquisitions of
the 14th and 15th centuries, in the stagnancy and superstition of the
Dark Ages, in the fall of Rome and the Greek democracies, in the vast
Byzantine states of the Pharaohs, and in the countless efforts on the
part of the people of Old Testament Israel to appoint a mighty king to
rule their lives for them.
The Collectivist Craving
The inclination to revolt against a life constructed around personal freedom is deeply ingrained in that eternal collectivist craving of men for a material security that exceeds their self-reliance and an intel¬lectual security that relieves them of the necessity of applying thought to their lives. Every time civilization flowers, it has basically done so to the degree that men were left free in matters of the mind and the economics of living. Every time civilization declines, it has basically done so to the degree that the collectivist mentality in man is set loose and allowed to utilize state coercion to dictate truth and redistribute productivity, so as to get something for nothing by expropriating the creative effort of others.
Freedom haters will always be with us. This is why Jefferson and the great 18th century thinkers told us that "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance." There is something born into men and women that makes them naturally seek freedom enthusiastically or hate freedom disgracefully. It's part of their particular DNA. Sure, we are to a great extent a product of the ideas instilled into us from our family, schooling and culture; but these factors make up only one part of what kind of man or woman we become. The other part is born into us. We are programed not just by "nurture," but also by "nature." Unfortunately this way of thinking is scorned by modern day intellectuals. In the minds of today's scholars, our life paths are formed by the "environment" of our formative years, with the "genetic make-up" we are born with of little importance.
Nature's Programming
It is my contention, however, that modernity has got it grievously wrong and has built a warped picture of human personality upon a false view of genetics, physiology, ideology, philosophy, and life itself. As the famous physician, Henry G. Bieler, M.D., put it, "Your carcass is a clue to your character." Human physiology, endocrinology and genetic heritage are powerful determinants of what we strive for, achieve and become in our lives. We as humans are forged 50% from nature and 50% from nurture. Consequently the political convictions we end up adopting and pursuing throughout our lives do not stem just from what we are taught in the schools.
There are large numbers of humans who simply are automatically programed by nature to prefer a life of less freedom than more freedom. They come in two fundamental types – those who wish to rule and those who wish to be ruled. They enter this world naturally predisposed toward an existence of government domination. Freedom, laissez-faire and self-reliance are distasteful to them and always will be. Even if they are taught the benefits and moral propriety of freedom throughout their youth, they reject such truths subconsciously and will always seek justifications for their pursuit of power over others, or their subservience to others. They are haters of freedom by nature.
These humans are driven continuously throughout their lives to further a society of collectivism. They, of course, don't think of what they are fashioning as "enslavement." They tell themselves that the monster state they are so assiduously working for is "necessary for justice," that "freedom no longer works in the modern age," that "capitalism is antediluvian." The powerful physiological forces that drive them from within toward the obliteration of freedom are not recognized in their conscious minds. But they are there from the beginning. Jefferson and the Founders tried to prepare us.
These "freedom haters" prevail throughout our society today like germs permeate the wounds of war. Most patriots agree that the worst of these germs over the past 25 years have been Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. However as virulent and treasonous as they have been, they are only two of a whole host of pathogens that now plague us.
Here are ten of the most dangerous of these pathogens eagerly proselytizing for more and more collectivism in America:
Paul
Krugman – Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center
of the City University of New York, and a columnist for The New York Times,
Krugman, 63 yrs. old, is the premier liberal columnist in America today.
He has held professorial positions at MIT, Yale, Princeton, and other
schools and is the quintessential example of what is wrong with the Keynesian
concept of economics and its endorsement of relentless statism. Orwell
didn't know it, but he was writing about future men like Krugman when
he penned his famous novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four – masters of sophistry
and false ideology who wish to rule over their fellowman with monstrous,
arbitrary governmentalism.
Chuck
Schumer – Liberal United States senator from New York for
the past 18 years after serving for 19 years in the House. Has never had
a real job in the marketplace in his life having been elected to the New
York State Assembly fresh out of college at the age of 25. His worldview
is the modern manifestation of Mussolini's corporatism, i.e., economic
fascism. To this brainy zealot, big government is the salvation of not
only America, but the human race itself. Has capitulated totally to the
Wall Street banks and moguls who bankroll him every election. And they,
in turn, love his corporatism. A slimy Machiavellian who has mastered
the rationale of mega-statism like "Il Duce" mastered the display
of goose-stepping.
Nancy
Pelosi – California congresswoman and Minority leader of
the House, this relentless purveyor of legislative poison for the Republic
is one of the most powerful females in American history and for all the
wrong reasons. Never met a government program she didn't salivate over.
Comes from a political family and was in love with politics from childhood.
Elected to Congress in 1987 from the hotbed of liberal lunacy, San Francisco.
Known for her non-stop energy, she scorns vacations to concentrate on
her obsessive mission to transform America into a collectivist utopia.
Supported the ominous Patriot Act, has constantly pushed to outlaw guns,
and proudly dumped Obamacare upon struggling Americans. Patriots count
the days until this 76 year old shrewish power luster will have to retire.
Ben
Bernanke – Chairman of the Federal Reserve, 2006-2014.
Educated at Harvard and MIT and captured by J.M. Keynes' 1936 assertion
that "capitalism had reached its mature stage" and required
an omnipresent state with a central bank orchestrating generous supplies
of fiat currency to prime the engines of inflation, without which the
marketplace would collapse into primitivism. This is why Bernanke pumped
trillions of dollars in QE into the market in 2008 rather than let the
economy purge its debt overload and malinvestment. The ideological fallacies
of Keynes dominate Bernanke and today's statist establishment. America's
present economic peril cannot be solved until Keynesian acolytes such
as Bernanke are relegated to the intellectual graveyard of history where
"bloodletters" and "flat earth society" proponents
reside.
Rachel
Maddow – Nightly television host of the Rachel Maddow Show
on MSNBC and adamantly opposed to America's limited Constitutional government.
Smug and intensely partisan, she is testament to the fact that Mainstream
Media in America is most definitely corrupted by the leftist worldview.
It is said that movies mirror the health or deterioration of society.
The same can be said about the media. Its personalities, and the ideologies
that pulsate from their programs, are a reflection of what kind of society
we are forging. MSNBC, CNN, and the major networks are rife with the germs
of leftism. Rachel Maddow is one of the more lethal of those germs.
Cass
Sunstein – A close advisor to President Barack Obama heading
up his Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Taught law at the
University of Chicago for three decades. A prolific author of sophisticated
anti-freedom books, such as The Second Bill of Rights: FDR's Unfinished
Revolution and Why We Need It More than Ever, he has throughout his prestigious
career opted for imposing "social justice" upon Americans via
more and more imperious government. Has repeatedly voiced support for
government infiltration of private citizens' affairs, groups and businesses.
Presents himself as a defender of human liberty, but in the best Orwellian
manner, he thinks fundamentally that men, women and the marketplace must
be controlled by "wise elites" in charge of an all-pervasive
Nanny State.
Arianna
Huffington – Glamorous, multi-talented Greek-American writer,
businesswoman, and founder of the influential Huffington Post. Born in
Greece in 1950, she immigrated to America in 1980 and adhered to a traditional
Republican view of politics and economics in her youth marrying the millionaire
elitist, Michael Huffington, a one term GOP Congressman (1993-95). But
her Republicanism didn't last. By 2000, Arianna was pouring out liberal
thought on all issues. She serves as the perfect example of shrewd media
savvy devoid of a core philosophical undergirding, which explains why
it was so easy for her to shift into rabid leftism after being a conservative.
Intellectual opinion in her mind is almost surely motivated by "popularity"
rather than "principle."
Bill
de Blasio – Mayor of New York City and strident promoter
of liberal causes, from rent control, to expansionist welfare, sanctuary
for illegals, gay marriage, and progressive tax rates to soak the rich.
Educated at New York University and Columbia, his first big cause after
graduation was to go to Nicaragua and pledge support for the socialist
Sandinistas. Leftism was born into the man like predation is stamped into
a vulture. Multicultural New York's teeming ethnic factions have found
their champion for more and more government confiscation conveyed to them.
And he undoubtedly wants to use his mayoral office as a launching pad
for a presidential run in 2020.
John
Podesta – Former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton,
special counselor to President Barack Obama, and chairman of the 2016
Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. The ultimate "political operative"
on the left. Presently heads up the Center for American Progress, a liberal
think tank in Washington, and the Podesta Group, a powerful lobbying firm
that represents mega-corporations such as Wall-Mart, British Petroleum
and Lockheed Martin. Talks the language of freedom, but it is cerebral
charlatanry rather than ideas the Founders would respect. His mind is
racked with the strategic jargon of big government gradualism, i.e., Fabianism.
Maureen
Dowd – The journalistic Princess of Statism in America,
an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, she is one of the most subtle
of collectivists, and therefore one of the most sinister. Smart enough
to skewer political figures on both sides of the aisle. But for those
who understand how ideology undergirds one's worldview, Dowd is indubitably
a leftist sympathizer ruling from her perch at the Times. Hugely successful,
a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1999, voted Woman of the Year by Glamour magazine
in 1996, she artfully articulates vivid pictures of American politics,
economics and culture for her loyal readers. Skilled prose stylist, which
gives her the power to bamboozle the literati and shield her latent leftism.
Purging Freedom's Enemies
All of our troubles today stem from the Marxist-Keynesian worldview that capitalism is not only evil, but in Keynes' words, "reached it's mature stage" in 1929 and must be replaced with a benevolent, all-powerful state to guide the economic forces of life. The above ten personalities are vehement supporters of this tragically flawed concept of political history and economics.
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Such a view is patently absurd. There is no such thing as a "mature stage" for capitalism. Capitalism will go on forever if men and women are simply left alone to innovate, dream and build. To speak and think as the left does is to say that freedom is a value that grows old and can be discarded if we so desire. This is hideous; it is the same as saying music, love, and heroism can be phased out of our lives. Life cannot be lived without eternal verities. Freedom is one of the verities. But the above ten men and women are haters of freedom. They believe it is old and outdated. The salvation of our way of life rests on purging our country of these traitors to freedom and all the others out there like them.
© 2017 Nelson Hultberg - All Rights Reserved
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This ArticleNelson Hultberg is a freelance writer in Dallas, Texas and the Director of Americans for a Free Republic. A graduate of Beloit College in Wisconsin, his articles have appeared over the past 25 years in such publications as The American Conservative, Insight, Liberty, The Freeman, The Dallas Morning News, and the San Antonio Express-News, as well as on numerous Internet sites such as Capitol Hill Outsider, The Intellectual Conservative, Popular Liberty, and The Daily Bell. He is the author of The Golden Mean: Libertarian Politics, Conservative Values.
Email: NelsonHultberg@afr.org
Website: www.afr.org
