Reading some Murray Rothbard. And I wanted to share an excerpt from one of his essays because I found it not just to be incredibly insightful, but incredibly eerie. Specifically, the book he cites and how the book, though intended to be fiction when written, is sadly too close to being a reality today.
Older egalitarianism stressed making income or wealth equal; but, as
Helmut Schoeck brilliantly realized, the logic of their argument was to
stamp out in the name of "fairness," all instances of human diversity
and therefore implicit or explicit superiority of some persons over
others. In short, envy of the superiority of others is to be
institutionalized, and all possible sources of such envy eradicated.
In his book on Envy Helmut Schoeck analyzed a chilling dystopian novel by the British writer, L.P. Hartley. In his work, Facial Justice,
published in 1960, Hartley, extrapolating from the attitudes he saw in
British life after World War II, opens by noting that after the Third
World War, "Justice had made great strides." Economic Justice, Social Justice and other forms of justice had been achieved, but there were still areas of life to conquer. In particular, Facial Justice had not yet been attained, since pretty girls had an unfair advantage over ugly ones. Hence, under the direction of the Ministry of Face Equality, all Alpha (pretty) girls and all Gamma (ugly) girls were forced to undergo operations at the "Equalization (Faces) Centre" so as all to attain Beta (pleasantly average) faces.
What it goes to show you (which is the whole point of Rothbard's essay) is how liberals, leftism and socialism are not just for the equal redistribution of wealth, but the equality of EVERYTHING. Status, power, looks, etc. Nobody can be better or worse than anybody else in any regard. And the only way to achieve that is to kill the individual and replace it with not just economic communism, but social, psychological and personal communism. Nobody is unique, everybody is the same.
Rush Limbaugh and his "Uglo-Americans" was not a bit. It was great insight.
6 comments:
I used to laugh my heart out at Limbaughs "Caller abortions" which were followed by the sound of a vacuum cleaner. I loved it most when his fans would call in and ask for a "Caller Abortion" just for amusement. I'll bet the FCC made him stop doing that.
Liberal wusses!
Just like Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. In his short story the role of the minister was filled by the Handicapper General.
http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html
"...liberals, leftism and socialism are not just for the equal redistribution of wealth, but the equality of EVERYTHING. Status, power, looks, etc..."
They are only in favor of equality for other people. For themselves, they still believe in having distinct advantages.
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/women-still-paid-less-for-having-nice-tits-and-a-great-arse-201010113154
I don't think that every equality concept is doomed to end in mediocrity. If all women can be transformed into beauty queens by pushing a single button, who would object such a high level form of equality?
C.S. Lewis says it best. "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
It's truly is amazing what the warped, self-righteous busybodies are capable of dredging up from the shallow gray matter microcircuits between their ears.
Post a Comment