Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Communitarianism is a freedom-hating totalitarian philosophy like any other, by James Delingpole

Here's a nice piece by another Englishman who "gets it."

http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/columnists/all/7045153/communitarianism-is-a-freedomhating-totalitarian-philosophy-like-any-other.thtml


UPDATE on 2020/TACM: We're finishing it up now.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny that Niki...

I instinctively know something is badly wrong... I always thought that it was fascism at work...

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”

Then I read your conversation with yourself, as flagged by Delingpole...

And presto, the glove fits perfectly.

Now how does this go beyond a few bloggers and their readers/commenters.

Anonymous said...

Yeppers and it is far worse than we can imagine. Recall that this whole shebang is based upon social responsibility to maintain sustainability. After all, we are all in this together.

Hence the underlying principle behind the need for the populace to pick up the tab for sovereign debt and bank bail-outs. The insidious part of this is that it falls most heavily on the least wealthy. Inflation is just a tax that affects the middle and lower classes who have no financial cushion.

Lacking the depth of financial resources, the middle and lower classes are forced to turn to gov't for assistance. Assistance becomes dependence and he who holds the gold makes the rules. Hence 99 weeks of unemployment checks, quest food card, etc.

It does raise my hackles when the author equates pseudo-intellectualism with true intellectualism. The difference is the true intellectual knows the subject well enough to effectively argue either side. The communitarian can't and won't argue against their stance.

Admittedly my frame of reference is local, but I note that the local communitarians had no children. I contend this is a matter of the communitarians having no chips in the game. Their onerous actions are supposedly for the future generations, but they have no children to gamble on.

At least Alaska no longer has a Coastal Management system in place. The reason for it was to give local communities more say over development in their region. One of the major problems was the Coastal Management system included areas up to hundreds of miles upstream from the coast and slowed permitting. Now the already poverty stricken communities lose the easiness of stopping development that just might increase local wages. Oops, this would force the people to seek work rather than ride the gov't gravy train.

Niki Raapana said...

thanks to both of you! I don't know how the truth about communitarianism goes from a few bloggers and their readers to a massive public awareness. The problem is the divide between right and left is so strong neither side will look at their common enemy. The socialists aren't any happier with the communitarian solution than the capitalists are, yet both sides ignore the synthesis. I've become willing to speak publically about my research and depending on how it goes in Cali next month I may be doing some cross country traveling. We all have to come to our own decision regarding what we want/choose/can do to "help." I still believe in the "healthy instinct of the plain man" and won't totally give up hoping they prevail until there's no avenue for it. Although I have often "quit" the ACL, and this blog holds records of my complaints... I'm still here, plugging away in spite of all the good reasons I have to stop caring and go my own way. I guess I just wasn't programmed to become a quitter.

Anonymous said...

One of the most important ways to get people's attention is to focus on how we got where we are. The introduction to "2020: Our Common Destiny" starts out by doing that but stops way too soon.

Where has the individual been throughout the years? Hasn't it only been groups, groups, and groups, "let's work together," "you're fired if you don't go along," "you're evil because you don't believe what everybody else believes!," "I don't like you," "I'm too afraid to speak up," the whole time?

Isn't that why people don't talk to each other anymore, don't know their neighbors, don't even dare to look at each other, and don't really care about anything except well being and the rich and famous?

angry cheese said...

Crikey Niki! Do you realise how incredibly influencial and established The Spectator is? TO GET A MENTION IN THIS MAG.IS TO BE RECOGNISED.