Just before Christmas (or Winter Break in NuSpeak) I was listening to a Bay Area conservative Talk Radio station when the host entertained a prominent Libertarian. The interview was a friendly one as it transpired that the host has long entertained Libertarian ideas. The interviewee laid out the Libertarian ‘philosophy/ideology’ with great enthusiasm and confidence, rather like a young salesman who has just emerged from a week’s training for a new product and cannot imagine why it might not take the world by storm.
When he had finished, he and the host spent some time celebrating this wonderful and uncomplicated formula for a rejuvenated and socially unified America. The Libertarian made no bones about his hostility to the ‘morality’ wing of the Republican Party and seemed to be of the view that if only the Republicans could find their courage to get up to date with modern thinking by dropping those who want to get into other people’s bedrooms, the Party would have a bright future. In the meantime, the Party was being dragged down by those who would interfere with people’s chosen lifestyles.
The Libertarian sounded ‘young’, though he might have been a man of many years. He certainly sounded as though he was speaking for the young and at first I wondered why I had this impression. On reflection, having lived in Silicon Valley for many years I am certain that his amoral recipe for society, unlike a Conservative viewpoint, would, if expressed, have few critics in any ‘techy’ gathering here. Silicon Valley is still a place for the young and for people who are pre-occupied with advances in technology. They have little time for history before Microsoft. Life is all about the future here and one where technology and its bright young innovators will solve all problems. The techies I meet get their history, psychology and emotional experiences from Hollywood movies and Rock concerts. Their knowledge of the past goes little further than a nod in the direction of the Nazi holocaust, a similar nod in the direction of McCarthyism and a belief that national boundaries and national and racial traditions are a quaint and obsolete remnant of the past. They have little knowledge or interest in America’s Founding and its Constitution; only sketchy knowledge of its civil war; know nothing of Europe’s divisions before the World Wars; are only vaguely aware of the Cold War and have no knowledge of Stalin’s long and murderous reign or the death toll of Socialism’s totalitarianism around the world. In short they are ignorant about their own/chosen country and Western achievements. They accept guilt about racism based on little knowledge.
If this sounds like a mild contempt for Silicon Valley tech workers and trail-blazers (and it is), I must hasten to add that they work hard and the fruits of their labors have on the whole been very beneficial to mankind. They do not intend harm. Their successes have brought much wealth to America and they have inadvertently bestowed economic benefits on much of the world.
But lurking in the sub-conscious of many techies is the belief that medical advances powered by computer technology will be able not only to cure disease but eliminate or reshape human behavior. In this, the techies experience the same confidence about remaking mankind that Socialists have long held. Techies see themselves not as Americans but as citizens of the world. Indeed, a casual look at them seems to confirm this, for their workforce is composed of White Americans, Jews, Chinese, Indians, Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Romanians, Germans, Polish, Brits and even a few Irish. And the people who efficiently clean their houses and clothes, tend their yards and the neighboring farm fields, build their homes, service their cars and deliver their mail are Latinos, Filipinos, Koreans, Indonesians, Vietnamese, Cambodians and other Asians. Techies, like Socialists, prefer not to take note of the workforce absentees, for to do so would bring them face to face with the natural disparities of energy and ability that exist in the real world. It would also bring them face to face with the burgeoning and violent American racial divide that is being cultivated by Obama, Holder et al. By avoiding realities in the wider world of America, we can see why Silicon Valley workers lean Leftwards and why many of its billionaires are comfortable with the Democrat Party agenda and Big Government.
This Silicon Valley confidence in technology and its workforce’s recent immunity to America’s economic malaise have also produced a strain of superficial political thinking, just as Socialist ideas once spawned a rival on the Left. Anarchism was (I use the past tense because Anarchism is no longer a potent force) Socialism without Government and a belief that, left to their own devices, Men would come together in voluntary co-operation and there would be no need for a Government structure enforcing collective rules of behavior. It was a political ideology rooted in ‘primitivism’ that Man’s natural impulses are benign.
Libertarianism is a growing ideological rival to Conservatism yet in reality can best be compared to far-Left Anarchism. It is easy to see why Libertarianism is beginning to appeal to those young techies who, unlike their Silicon Valley billionaire bosses, are uncomfortable with Government and unlike their industry’s leaders cannot find a way of avoiding the heavy taxation that prevents them from accumulating wealth. Like their bosses they do not see the need for national boundaries since multi-culturalism works well enough in their cloistered environment. They see no harm in a Libertarianism that advocates an America without borders. Libertarians argue that if financially oppressive government was removed along with all welfare benefits, open borders would not attract the world’s envious masses other than those intelligent and industrious enough to find gainful employment.
The political ideas of the spokesman I listened to on Talk Radio boiled down to – and I paraphrase only slightly – we Libertarians want to keep the government out of people’s pockets and out of people’s bedrooms. Ruthlessly minimal government and government services, and the resulting minimal taxation he was touting, combined with a toleration of sexual deviancy, are attractive to many on the Right and within the Republican Party. They offer common cause with the dangerous but well-financed Log Cabin Republicans who nestle in the Republican Party’s Washington bureaucracy and seek to drive Christians from its ranks. Keeping what we earn, or receive from saving and investment, is appealing when we think of the waste in government and the redistributionist policies of the Left that reward the feckless and punish the prudent. Also appealing is a social policy that will placate the Media Class. But Conservatives should beware the appeal of simplistic policies, especially when they have not the slightest chance of winning wide support in the real America.
Apart from the many voters who at all times feel economically and physically vulnerable, whether from age, lack of skills or poor health, there are those who believe in a responsibility to one’s fellow citizens. And there are those who care about the environment – and I don’t refer to those hypocrites in the Environmental Movement whose real goal is Socialism – but all those urban and suburban dwellers who wish to live and raise families in healthy neighborhoods, pleasant cities and have access to countryside that has been protected from wanton exploitation and degradation. The Libertarians (and some ‘modern’ Conservatives who lean their way) would have no restriction on how a person uses his land. If your neighbor wishes to use his home for trade or commerce, wishes to build 3 more stories on his house, burn smoky log fires, play loud Rock music with the windows open wide, have a pack of barking dogs running free – then according to these apostles of freedom he should be able to do what he likes without interference. Real Conservatives should not be seduced by this nonsense!
Neither should they fall for the idea that government has no interest in providing medical care. Are we to allow people, whether because of reckless past choices or simple bad luck, die of TB or AIDS on our streets? Conservatives will recognize that relying solely on voluntary and charitable organizations to care for the sick and destitute in an urbanized and heavily populated America is nonsense. In any case, the social policies of Libertarianism would hasten the demise of the Christian Churches which now largely provide charitable care.
Libertarians are isolationists when it comes to defense and foreign policy. Conservatives should be cautious about supporting neo-con military interference across the world, but a large and powerful Nation cannot be isolationist. A Conservative America must, guided by history, forge sensible alliances and protect its vulnerable friends. And it must pursue those who reside abroad but attack its people. Conservatives must oppose and reject reckless American military adventurism motivated by domestic political calculation, like the recent interventions in Libya and Syria which were half-hearted and opportunist. But the Islamic Imperialist advances around the world ultimately will have to be confronted militarily. Economic sanctions are almost always window-dressing, symbolic and lack substance.
In all these areas the Libertarian ideas can sound uncontroversial, simple and rational amidst the chatter of Happy Hour or at the workplace water cooler where the young and those ignorant of history gather. But Conservatives have a responsibility to stand for real world policies, enriched by knowledge of history and human experience.
It is however in the field of social/moral policy where Libertarianism is at its most dangerous and facile. Their caveat when advocating revolutionary non-judgmental hedonism is “as long as it does not interfere with other people’s rights”. This guileless caveat sounds so ‘modern’, ‘harmless’, ‘tolerant’ and ‘inclusive’ and it takes little or no courage to spout this around the water-cooler. After all, who can be offended?
The reality is that it has rarely been possible to undertake any human activity without interfering with others. This is particularly true in an urban setting. When we drive to work we create noise and fumes along the way. If we walk to work or catch public transport we still interfere with others. If we smoke a cigarette in a restaurant or at the workplace we interfere with others. If we BBQ in the yard we interfere with our neighbors and if enough of us BBQ we affect the wider environment. And now, if we sing Christmas Carols in the mall or in a veterans’ hospital, it seems we are interfering with others. The list of ‘innocent’ activities that interfere with others is endless, and short of masturbation whilst locked in a bedroom at home, with the blinds drawn, it isn’t hard to think of one!
The Libertarian’s non-judgmental ‘moral’ policies are really an attempt to appease our Ruling Class and its Mainstream Media. We all know that Libertarians are referring to, and attempting to curry favor with – but not specifically mentioning – the powerful homosexual activists whose agenda is now pre-eminent in the political struggle of our times. I suppose we might also include on the list of those to be appeased, the abortionists, the Feminists, the libertines of our Ruling Class, those who practice bestiality, sado-masochism and all the emerging behaviors that are evidence of a Nation that is fast becoming terminally decadent.
As we constantly claim on this website (and have long done so) the issue of same-sex marriage is really not about marriage at all, for marriage has long ceased to mean anything except to a shrinking minority of Christians. SSM is really another stepping stone to a revolutionary new America where morality, like sexuality, is whatever one chooses, or in Putin’s apt words “genderless and infertile”. Never mind keeping the Government out of people’s bedrooms, what if I want to keep sodomy out of my child’s classroom? What if I want to keep carnivals of disgusting naked men wearing only chains and dog collars while they masturbate – or worse – from confronting my family and children on the streets of our city? Libertarians, avoiding these manifestations of revolutionary times, reveal themselves to be merely slick and shallow.
Conservatism, like traditional Biblical Christianity, is about resisting change in the fundamentals. It is about studying history carefully and learning its lessons. It is about resisting slick prescriptions. It is about recognizing, harnessing and sometimes suppressing Man’s appetites for the overall good. At the same time Conservatism and Christianity are about recognizing Man’s individuality and rejecting the ant hill of Socialism where all become enslaved and dispensable at the whim of the State. Conservatism is about conserving the environment and conserving the genuine market-place where people exchange goods and services, thus retaining their economic freedom. Conservatism is about balancing freedom, individuality and the common good. Conservatives must resist the attempts of Libertarians (and their allies, the misleadingly-named Log Cabin Republicans) to prise the Republican Party away from its moral base. The counter-revolutionaries of Conservatism must, with a knowledge and respect for history and human nature, combine individual freedom and civilized and restricted government.
On this website we constantly warn visitors about the cunning and insidious agenda of the Mainstream Media (MSM), for it is designed to brain wash the people. For many months it has been possible, by visiting websites such as Free Republic and ours, to be aware of a dangerous violent new young African American ‘sport’ known as ‘knock-out’. This ‘sport’ consists of groups of young Blacks spotting and stalking vulnerable White and Asian citizens and then brutally attacking them. It is not only young Black males who are responsible but females too. Despite the proliferation of such attacks all across America’s big cities, the MSM has predictably avoided reporting them if possible. When forced to report them in local Media, the key racial component has been in all cases omitted. Sometimes, suppressing reports of such crimes must be extremely frustrating to the MSM but it has been doing a sterling job. Now, however, relief has arrived in the person of Conrad Barrett, aged 27 and White. Barrett, despite coming late to the game, has become the poster boy of knock-out and the AP’s Michael Graczyk has been able to report in big headlines (26th December) that “A White Houston Area Man” has been charged with a federal hate crime. Just so that no-one misses the whiteness of Barrett there is a prominent picture of him. Barrett is about to get the George Zimmerman Media treatment.
Barrett’s alleged victim was a 79 year old Black man, and if the charges against Barrett are proven, we on this website hope he gets a very long prison sentence, for random street violence is a crime against us all. Two things are hugely significant to the perceptive news watcher. One is, that while this sport has been sweeping America’s cities, this must be the first time that a White person has played it. We know this without any academic investigations because if there had been a previous incident, the MSM would have been all over it. No Asians have yet taken it up! The second significant fact is that this time, because it is White on Black, this common crime is finally a ‘Federal Hate Crime’. All those Black on White/ Asian knock-outs have been classed as random acts of violence! Meanwhile, if you visit Free Republic you will learn that violent Black on White attacks and on property are all continuing at a fast lick.
The MSM recently made much of the public confession of Chiara de Blasio, who, it now emerges, has been indulging in drugs and excessive alcohol for quite some time. Chiara is the 19 year old daughter of Bill de Blasio, Far Left Democrat Mayor-elect of New York. Bill de Blasio is White and his wife, an ex lesbian, is Black. In his election campaign Bill made much of his interracial marriage which no doubt earned him brownie points in multi racial, multi cultural New York. Chiara and her brother were also much touted during the campaign, though it seems that Chiara’s addictions were not touted and the MSM kept it quiet.
Now de Blasio has released a video of his daughter baring her soul and her struggles to the world. Needless to say, the MSM has not admitted suppressing news that might have damaged his campaign but have orchestrated a campaign to frame her confessions as courageous and a great help to other addicts. Chiara’s very serious problems have been known to her parents for at least two years yet it has not interfered with, or interrupted, their political campaigning. Surely caring parents would have devoted their time to their daughter but it seems she was sent away to San Jose and college as a cure. Not many parents would view a modern day college as a place for kicking addictions. One has to be somewhat sympathetic to Chiara, who has an ex-lesbian mother and a father whose political career trumps family responsibilities. Perhaps I am being cynical!
The economies of both the UK and USA are bewildering. Mr. Radical reports a UK where the ordinary working people, unemployed Whites and the indigenous retirees are sinking further and further into poverty. Our Starcross contact reports that at times like Christmas the same people seem to be spending ever more in the supermarkets on food, alcohol and electronic games and DVD’s. How can the two reports be reconciled? I am no economist but I think the answer might be that people no longer save. In my younger days I, and many like me, put our surplus money into Building Society Accounts and Bank Savings accounts. The money earned enough interest to be worthwhile – barring inflation. It was our way of saving for the future. Now, no sensible person saves in this way, for interest rates are laughable. Those indigenous people now spend all they get, and on consumable goods. Past savings have been stolen by Government printing money. In the USA, a realtor friend tells me that houses are selling quickly, and all paid for by ‘cash’- he means without a mortgage. Are these facts telling us that Government is undermining the people’s financial morality?
Weather Report – Here in middle California the days are mostly warm but the nights are very cold. Frost at night has now been the reality for over two months without a break. The lack of rain is serious but historically normal. In the Antarctic a ship is ice-bound and satellite pictures of the Arctic reveal growing ice. In the UK it is rain and more rain. This all sounds like normal weather.
Music Choice – Traditional Carols perfectly sung and played by the Fountainview Academy Orchestra and Choir which is a Christian Academy in British Columbia, Canada. Their DVD entitled “O Come All Ye Faithful” can be obtained from the Fountainview Store 1. Enjoy a sample on Youtube 2.
With little confidence in the future of Obama’s USA and Cameron’s UK, we wish our visitors a Happy 2014.