My new Pajamas Media column is up on the difference between how liberals and conservatives look at freedom. It’s not really a funny one; in fact, if you laugh at it, I’ll probably cry.
My new Pajamas Media column is up on the difference between how liberals and conservatives look at freedom. It’s not really a funny one; in fact, if you laugh at it, I’ll probably cry.
Worthy of Thomas Sowell, the smartest and wisest living American philosopher.
No funny in this one. Just really really good. I’ve had this arguement with the libbies many times. They invariably break down and cry.
And you were just starting to get good at being funny.
Oh well, your latest “random thoughts” is not totally unfunny, so there’s still hope.
I read Pajamas Media every day and your columns are my absolute favorite. I hate the long droughts between your longer writings. Your writing style is hilarious and witty. However, this is probably one of your best posts. Although I realized early on that it wasn’t meant to make me laugh, it certainly made me think, “Which freedom do Americans want now?” I know what our founders wanted and I know what I want, but I worry that with each passing day, more and more Americans become content with the idea of letting a European style-socialist nation take shape.
I think that a majority of Americans still want the freedom to mess up on their own, but I wonder, without extremely tough times coming to our nation (like a real war or a real depression), will the tide shift to children’s “freedom” among Americans.
Liberals are driven by guilt and envy. Feeling guilty about not earning what they have and being envious of what you have earned, they want to take what you have by force and give it to those who have not earned it. And they insist that you agree that THAT is the right thing to do. Knowing in their hearts that it isn’t, they attempt to transfer their guilt to you when you reject this ‘social philosophy.’
I think you give liberals a bit too much credit, Frank.
Great column.
Frank, I have to disagree with you this time. Liberals don’t love freedom. They are generally people who are angry, who – as you correctly point out in your column – want to be “taken care of”. They believe in things like “life’s lottery” and want to be “winners” without doing any of the work or preparation that results in winning. Their world view is not based on freedom, or reality, but instead on fantasy, and if they are ever truly successful in their attempts to change America, they will be the most disappointed among us. These are the same people who voted for “hope” and “change” without daring to ask what those words meant to their magical Messiah who was stating them. Why did they not ask? Because they didn’t want to know – it might ruin the fantasy. Instead, they wanted to believe that “hope” and “change” meant they would never have to work again, pay a bill again, be accountable for their own failures again, etc. Their ultimate fantasy of socialism is based on them being in the ruling class, overseeing the workers and making decisions for those peons, and never involves them being on the receiving end of government restrictions. And that, to liberals, is the ultimate: making others heed your demands, and do things in the way that you dictate. None of their fantasy actually involves freedom, just control of others.
Exceptional, even for the young master.
consice, cogent, very well crafted.
“we both consider the people as our children, and love them with paternal affection. But you love them as infants whom you are afraid to trust without nurses, and I as adults whom I freely leave to self-government….. there exists a right independent of force; that a right to property is founded in our natural wants,in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants,and the right to acquire by those means without violating the rights of other sensible beings; that no one has the right to obstruct another, exercising his facilities innocently for the relief of sensibilities made part of his nature; that justice is the fundamental law of society ; that the majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of a society; that action by the citizens in person, in affairs within their reach and competence, and in others by representatives , constitutes the essence of a republic”
– Thomas Jefferson, Letter to P.S. Dupont de Nemours, Poplar Forest, April 24th ,1816
Brilliant column. It did make me wonder if there may be little feet padding around the J household sometime in the not so distant future, though.