Andrew Thomas Asks: Do Liberals Crave A Master?

Umm, yes. But here is what Andrew Thomas had to say over at American Thinker this morning (You know the drill my comments in red):

Everybody's looking for something...
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused
Sweet dreams are made of these
Who am I to disagree? - Eurythmics


Contemporary liberals, having abandoned the belief in God-given inalienable rights, masochistically crave a worldly master. This master is a sadistic god-substitute who will provide the stern discipline needed to force economic equality and "fairness" by requiring painful sacrifices and bestowing government-created rights onto obedient and acquiescent groups of left-leaning masochists. (Flashback--yesterday's press-conference (although I'm not sure you could call it that since Pres. Obama didn't field any questions) where he tells us we will be required to "sacrifice".)

Of course, I am not referring to the sexual variety of masochism, but rather the recognized psychosis of moral masochism. Large segments of the population, and even entire nations can suffer from this illness as described in Daniel Rancour-Laferriere's book, "The Slave Soul of Russia: Moral Masochism and the Cult of Suffering". (Yes, black folks have begun to display framed pictures of the Obama's on the wall of their foyers. Just like the old folks used to display pictures of MLK, JFK and Jesus)

First, some re-definitions: In the same derogatory fashion liberals refer to contemporary Conservatives as "neocons", I will label this group as "neolibs" going forward. I feel this is appropriate, as the Liberal movement has taken a decidedly leftward leap and become more radicalized in their outward behavior in the last few years, and is therefore a new phenomenon.

In most conservative writing (Thomas Sowell, Ayn Rand, and more recently Mark Levin) the common theme is the sanctity of individual freedom and liberty. The conservative is an individualist and an independent thinker, as opposed to those who primarily identify themselves as members of a group. The term "conservative" is a misnomer for this philosophy, as it connotes a preservation of the status quo, or even a "regressive" yin to the "Progressive" yang. This is why I believe a more appropriate label for conservative philosophy is "individualist", and I will refer to it in this manner for the remainder of this article. (Somehow being an individualist and looking out for the concerns of yourself and your family has fallen out of vogue. It's more noble somehow to gleefully accept the Federal Government's extractions of your money in order to care for the needs of the collective.)

Next, a pop-psychology primer: individualists gravitate toward existential thinking, or a view of the world where individuals have complete freedom of choice and take full responsibility for the results of those choices. This mandates that choices must be made with a logical evaluation to determine the potential consequences. The impartial evaluation of phenomena to determine the truth is an offshoot of existentialism known as phenomenology. The phenomenologist is rational and emotionally detached from the subject of analysis, eliminating judgment and perception. Once the perceptions of reality are stripped away as much as possible, the phenomenologist then attempts to perform an insightful analysis of the object to determine what is real or "true". I believe that many individualists tend to be effective phenomenologists due to their ability to separate themselves from group-think and emotional judgment. Therefore, let's use the phenomenological process to analyze the "Neolib as masochist" theory. (Fancy that, a new word to describe conservative thought -- phenomenology. Henceforth I shall refer to myself as an phenomenologist.)

In our first analysis, we will impartially examine Neolib behavior. Objectively listen to Janeane Garofalo in the Youtube video linked to her name. In listening to neolibs such as Janeane speak, it is evident that they appear to be driven predominantly by emotion rather than logic. Just reviewing an alphabetical list of emotions, as extracted from a list in Wikipedia, lends itself to describing neolib behavior:

Anger,
Angst,
Anxiety,
Compassion,
Contempt,
Despair,
Disgust,
Empathy,
Envy,
Guilt,
Hatred,
Hope,
Hostility,
Hysteria,
Rage,
Shame,
Suffering,
Worry.

(Wow, I'm wondering if Mr. Thomas has been reading my blog comments and using UptownSteve, etal as the prototype for the Neolib)

Anyone who views the world through these emotions would naturally feel threatened when interpreting individualists' behavior. The neolib typically projects hatred, bigotry, selfishness, and greed onto the individualist when there is no physical evidence to support the interpretation. The strong passions exhibited by neolibs, coupled with delusions of persecution, foster these masochistic tendencies. (Delusions of persecution? Well, slavery wasn't an illusion but some are choosing to be "persecuted" by it in 2009 and taking the term "never forget" to a whole different dimension)

Now let's objectively review the initiatives in the neolib agenda: Environmentalism, global passivism, overpopulation, socialized healthcare, and promoting government intervention into all aspects of life. All of these priorities require individuals to sacrifice their lifestyles, their income, and/or their basic comforts. (I'm thinking that Obama supporters just don't see it that way....although I'm not sure how they rationalize it because the discourse never seems to advance beyond racism and the presumed "buck dancing" of the black conservative...ahem, I mean the black phenomenologist)

This past week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi exhorted, "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory..." in order to sacrifice ourselves to the gods of global warming. As presidential candidate Obama said, "We can't drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times..." He seems to indicate that he wants us to starve and freeze. (Well 72 degrees is hardly freezing but when it's 13 degrees outside I should be free to turn my thermostat to 82 degrees if I want to and as long as I'm paying the utility bill. It's very sad and rather astounding how many really smart people have bought into this global warming scam. I guess all it takes to convince the masses is a movie.)

Most of these initiatives involve the inflicting of pain and misery. Tom Daschle, in his book "Critical: What We Can Do About The Health Care Crisis" says health-care reform "will not be pain free" and that seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of having them treated. In other words, you will suffer a slow agonizing death under government mandate. (I think it's fascinating that the black quasi-socialist fundamentalist progressive racism chasers aren't all over this. I guess they think that as long as we have a black POTUS that black senior citizens will get preferential treatment under ObamaCare)

As a final phenomenological exercise, impassively observe the level of neolib support for this agenda. It has not appeared to wane. In fact, neolib fervor continues to increase as the promised level of suffering increases. (I fully expect Neolibs to lie about the level of suffering they either have or will experience. Over the Memorial day weekend I was in conversation with Neolib, racism chasing friends who declared that the quality of life was better for them under the Clinton administration than the Bush administration. Because I was in mixed company I fought with every fiber of my being not to call them liars but they were lying through their teeth! These fools purchased cars,boats, furs, Rolexes and more as the pulled equity out of their homes and lived LARGE. Now that the loans have reset and the mortgage payments have increased they are blaming George Bush. I guess these well educated black professionals of PG county were duped. It's couldn't be they made bad decisions based on greed or a desire to keep up with the Joneses or in their cases the "Washington's" - lol)

According to Rancour-Laferriere, increasing Russian masochism coincided with the rise of the Soviet Union and Communism, although it was pervasive in the soul of Russia prior to that. The conclusion to this analysis is that as neolib moral masochism increases, so does the emotional need for an all-powerful master to govern them. As the governing master becomes more dominant and disciplinarian, the masochism is reinforced and the spiral continues.
(Well, I know nothing about Russians but I do know that as long as those who identify as Christians adopt the basic tenets of liberalism and fail to confront and openly admonish behaviors that lead to failure over behaviors that lead to success in the name of "tolerance" then we will continue to "need" government assistance. So that there is no confusion I'll just say what I mean -- as long as we accept our daughter dressing up like little (or big) harlots; and accept and sometimes encourage our sons to have several girlfriends; as long as we allow our sons to impregnate women without marrying them; or as long as we take our daughter's to get birth control pills instead of instilling in them as early as possible to abstain until marriage; as long as we allow our sons to turn a buck by any means necessary rather than study and excel in school in order to go to college or the military then all manner socially undesirable manifestations will ensue which ultimately lead to dependence of the government either in the form of welfare or the prison system.)

Is there a cure? Self-destructive behavior is very difficult to overcome. Many years ago in an Abnormal Psychology class, I studied the case of a group of young adults who would continually pound their heads against a wall until they became bloody pulps. Psychologists found that the only thing that would interrupt their behavior was a 9,000 volt shock from a cattle prod. (I hope my little space in the blogosphere can serve as a ideological cattle prod)

This is probably an impractical solution. Since 45% of the nation thinks we are going in the right direction, there are too many neolibs and too few cattle prods.