…ground down by your false consciousness (many up here think similarly about Canadian society)–from the estimable George Will:
…
Many members of the liberal intelligentsia, that herd of independent minds, agree that other Americans comprise a malleable, hence vulnerable, herd whose “false consciousness” is imposed by corporate America. Therefore the herd needs kindly, paternal supervision by a cohort of protective herders. This means subordination of the bovine many to a regulatory government staffed by people drawn from the clever minority not manipulated into false consciousness.
Because such tutelary government must presume the public’s incompetence, it owes minimal deference to people’s preferences. These preferences are not really “theirs,” because the preferences derive from false, meaning imposed, consciousness. This convenient theory licenses the enlightened vanguard, the political class, to exercise maximum discretion in wielding the powers of the regulatory state…
Is there a word in the English language which is used to describe someone who considers every possible way to convey a thought and then chooses the one that is most difficult to understand?
If so, it should be applied to estimable George Will
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.” Elizebeth Warren
…it would be naive to assume then also that no one got poor on their own. If the state is partly responsible for wealth than it is also partly responsible for the lack of it.
Seems pretty clear to me…
In Lizzie-World all that is mine is hers and all that is hers is hers.
I recall in my tender youth, that the biggest insult my school mates could deliver was “You think yer better than everybody else.”
Before I attained puberty, I realized that these individuals had a great deal to be humble for…but that didn’t seem to stop them…
They still seem convinced that the plural of “you” is “you’se”….and spell it that way…..
Rural Ontario’s version of “you-all”……..
Very hypocritical, and the epitome of “newspeak” for political partisans to accuse others of having “false consciousness”. Particular when the sum effort of Liberal social engineering elites is to manufacture an alternative reality to gain power and continuity of power.
Since the Liberal-left have dominated politics and media the past few decades, they have produced generations of Canadians who are unconscious of a Canada before PET and outside the metropolitan bastions of Liberal socialism. One of the alternative realities indoctrinated into the Canadian public has been that Americans, not Canadians, live in a “false consciousness”.
Orwell would be amazed at the efficiency of our political elite at creating preceved reality.
A clear and well written piece. They are all around us.
Will is always precise and to the point. It’s the inherent snobbery that galls – this false consciousness never affects some people, just people who tend to be conservative
“Therefore the herd needs kindly, paternal supervision by a cohort of protective herders.”
I already have parents and because they did their job, I’m an adult capable of managing my own life.
We can’t get “I’m from the government and here to help” back to a punchline fast enough.
E, Lizabeth is wrong …. the roads and infrastructure were built with the corporate tax money (there isn’t any other source of government money) to allow all the little bovines and their perhaps their unions a way to get to work so they could get their share of the loot.
The only catch in my theory is that the looters need to work for the loot, not just plunder it until it is very quickly gone from the country.
Sort of like the story of the “Little Red Hen” ….. if you don’t help make it, you don’t get any.
Will’s part about liberals and academics, “A particular liberalism, partly incubated at Harvard, intimates the impossibility, for most people, of self-government — of the ability to govern one’s self. This liberalism postulates that, in the modern social context, only a special few people can literally make up their own minds.”, is true. When you hear these people talk the condescension and arrogance oozes out of every pore. They never let pesky facts about government corruption, cronyism and policy/regulatory failure get in the way of their faith in Wise-men. Yet, the most dysfunctional parts of society are the ones in which government has a monopoly or is directly responsible for – healthcare, education, welfare, public employees unions (The book Declaration of Independents has many more US examples).
Liberal academics make fact-based decision? No, not at all. There was a good quote by a commenter in a PJM article about Einstein and the scientific process that describes academics to a T:
“One can judge from experiment, or one can blindly accept authority. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all important and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything and facts are junked when they do not fit theory laid down by authority.”
-Robert Heinlein in his short story ‘Life-Line’ (1939)
No requirement for me to write letters to the editor when the likes of G. Will, G. Jonas, Babs Kay, D. Pipes and others articulate my position(s) so admirably.
My goodness is he talking about Canada? CBC, CWB, CRTC, Voting Tax, c-68, Canada’s appointed Democracy? A PM, whose power and position is not mentioned once in the Constitution Act 1982 making all democratic choices for 33M citizens? Appointing thousands of judges both high and low, appointing 50% of the government the Senate, appointing all 11 Heads of State, GG and Lt. Gov’s. Appointing the heads of hundreds of Crown Corps, appointing all of the 4th Order of Gov. the ancient Privy Council. etc etc..
I think the classic example of this is the whole “anti-urban sprawl” activists. Seriously one day if you’re bored read up on this movement. I really had no idea what they stood for. They’ve invaded all the civic governments around where I live.
People hear them say “we want to stop sprawl” and everyone nods and then goes back to their suburban homes. Anyway check it out sometime they basically want to change our entire lifestyle through social engineering.
If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of finer clay than the rest of mankind?
– Frederic Bastiat, 1848
I’ll use a word that the estimable Mr. will would and has likely never used to describe his point:
BINGO
Yet “they” always want your money.
Keep working, and keep paying ever increasing tax’s so that we can use them to regulate your lives even more “for your own safety and wellbeing”.
“Our Mission:
Open the borders to the Third World, to introduce millions of unskilled labourers to drive down wages, increase violent crime, return once eradicated infectious diseases, and put millions of extra people on welfare dependency.
Introduce countless foreign cultures and encourage them to keep all of their bigotries and hatreds in micro communities. Insure that Islam has an equal standing in cultural rights and eventually law to those of our own.
Insure that there is equality within our global society, by “dumbing down” everyone to the level of a Serengeti goat herder, save for us the Liberal Progressive intelligence’ who will control the illiterate masses from our palatial country homes and black stretch limos.”
“Therefore the herd needs kindly, paternal supervision by a cohort of protective herders.”
They must be insane to view themselves as “kindly” and “protective” while herding the masses through false crisis mongering such as the H1N1 pandemic hoax and the AGW scam.
Who would hire a babysitter to mind their children if they knew the sitter was terrorising their children while they went off to dinner and a movie?
Many members of the liberal intelligentsia, that herd of independent minds, agree that other Americans comprise a malleable, hence vulnerable, herd whose “false consciousness” is imposed by corporate America. Therefore the herd needs kindly, paternal supervision by a cohort of protective herders. This means subordination of the bovine many to a regulatory government staffed by people drawn from the clever minority not manipulated into false consciousness.
and
“…(many up here think similarly about Canadian society)…”
I’m afraid that after today’s provincial election in Ontario, the ‘enlightened vanguard’ may have some justification to think thusly……
Will describes well the “sophisticated” rational for the historically dominant human condition of tyranny. Whether its from the Fuhrer, the Chief, the Parliament, the Throne, etc, the individual is considered subordinate to the state. Liberty for most folks has been surrendered for the fleeting perception of security and comfort.
I think Lizzie would be surprised to see how long (or short) a time her vaunted infrastructure would last if private entrepreneurs started to invest their wealth and enterprise in some other part of the world than the US or Canada.
George Will reads the Phantom Soapbox and/or SDA.
“People are stupid. They must be controlled.”
“Because such tutelary government must presume the public’s incompetence, it owes minimal deference to people’s preferences.”
That paragraph is sheer poetry,to me.
So many people will run down believers in a religion,yet will buy into a particular belief that is convenient to them. The sophistry inherent in their acceptance of that belief is,imho, why they’re so bloody outraged when any of us non-believers object.
To poster #1. I had no trouble understanding it with my meager grade 12 edjumacation. However, for your sake, we could patent such a word. How about a sydbee. 😉
So what keeps the paternalistic shepherds honest and accountable to the interests of the herd? It seems that they will act in their own self-interest in order to preserve their own position of power and influence. Where do you find such selfless incorruptible people who willingly ignore the temptation dole out special favors to those who support their interests? Liberalism seems to ignore the fundamental flaws of human nature.
That false consciousness comes from public education.
Kill the corporations. We can all eat government cheese and drive Chevy Volts.