Friday, August 24, 2012

Conservative analysis of the Liberal Mind

I have been looking for an article to show the conservative analysis of the Liberal mind and found this one this morning from the WSJ http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10000872396390444812704577607463243209208-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwMzAyODM3Wj.html?mod=wsj_valetbottom_email James Taranto presents his argument that basically liberals are utopians - a charge that is as mundane as it is profane. But there is, of course, a grain of truth in this. There is an idealism that leads one to believe that accumulation of facts based in science will eventually lead to greater understanding of the world, leading to a better understanding of how to function in the world. For Taranto there appears to be something wrong with that - the notion that Gnostic idealism = Machiavelli = fascism. My reading of the article is that, in the typical polemical way that media people and political hacks exaggerate a small point to make a big point, Taranto lumps any notion of social justice/charity/empathy, etc... with notions of Utopianism. From my point of view it is important to aspire to an ideal while always knowing that it is really not obtainable - this duality escapes these kinds of author's analysis - (And I fall into the trap of writing things like - "this duality escapes the conservative mind" but I'm not really sure this is so as I don't want to fall into my own contradictions).

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