“It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so” (Ronald Reagan)
In Part 1, I mentioned the ideological values that the West is trying to enforce upon the world: multiculturalism, same-sex marriages and no difference between men and women. The Western liberalism links these phenomena with “freedom,” “equality” and “justice” (everything started in 1789 in France. Then, in response to liberalism, originated conservatism).
Before looking at the aspiration for “freedom” and “equality” in practice, let’s try to find out what is the fundamental difference between the ideologies of liberals and conservatives.
Liberals are idealists, who think that a human being is born clean, while the society, institutions and traditions spoil him.
Conservatives believe that a human being is imperfect inherently and the task of the society is to motivate him, encourage good behavior and, if possible, defuse bad behavior.
A liberal assesses a policy depending on its intentions, while a conservative assesses the consequences, first. If a conservative is not sure that the method suggested by a liberal will work, a liberal blames him for unwillingness to do good things for the people.
A liberal is sure that every problem is solvable. A conservative thinks every solution has its price and that in most cases, there are only compromises. A liberal is a dreamer, while a conservative is a realist.
For a liberal, traditions and culture is a prison for the free man. A conservative believes that traditions and culture have been developed for centuries through numerous tests and mistakes.
A liberal believes in revolution. He thinks that fighting against the existing system is always in favor of the public. A conservative knows historically that revolutions always lead to chaos, many victims, and affect the living standards of the population. Therefore, a conservative prefers evolution, a gradual system of changes.
A liberal can be clever, but he does not understand that a wit without wisdom is salt without meat. A conservative values high the wisdom accumulated over centuries and does not think that he is more clever than his predecessors just because he was born after them.
A liberal rejects reality if its runs contrary to his desires. “Liberty” is what he cares about and opposes any restrictions of liberties like society, history, culture, biology, laws of nature. Postmodernism rejects the existence of objective reality – reality is a social framework. Consequently, everyone can build the world he wants.
Therefore, multiculturalism is an instrument to fight one’s own culture that restricts the freedom of a liberal, for whom his own culture is nothing but creation of the ignorant forefathers.
Same-sex marriages actually undermine the shattered institution of traditional marriage. There was a time when marriage was the major decision of people’s lives. A mature young man married, kept his family and was responsible for it. Legalization of same-sex marriages was a statement of the fact that marriage is method to register deals on real estate or tourist visas for vacations.
Why do they blur the distinction between men and women? This is because a liberal can bear the idea that his choice in life depends on biology and social roles determined by the society. Why should we meet any standards? Wouldn’t it be more sensible to eliminate any standards and consider everyone as a “unique star”?
It is very hard to deny the attractiveness of such arguments. Is there any married man who does not dream of being single from time to time? Is there anyone who does not want to feel himself of importance without doing anything? Many conservatives would prefer to live in the liberal utopia. Perhaps, this is why liberalism is so popular.
The trouble is that liberalism lacks any strong agenda, except the fight against the existing system. It is easy to use the people’s aspirations for freedom and justice by pointing at various restrictions and wrongfully offended people. However, they offer no reasonable alternative.
Therefore, everything comes down to rejection of everything that is associated with traditions and conservatism. Bolsheviks undermined religious institutions, public relations and traditional family, particularly, by facilitating the divorce procedures and legalizing abortions. However, they offered no real alternative and fell victim to another wave of liberals that ruined the traditions that were somehow formed under the Soviet authorities. They did it without any long-term development plans, with a naïve hope that adoption of the external features of the Western society will help to improve the living standards. Communism will come soon, just wait.
It is paradoxical, but the American liberals little differ from the Marxists of the post- revolution Russia of 1917. What make them different are the present-day technologies and the national currency status that gives them more opportunities to fund utopia.
American culture is losing the idea of personal responsibility. After all, if the emphasis is laid on personal freedom without any responsibility, if the society is blamed for the problems of an individual, the society is being split into groups of the oppression “victims.” Politicians, in turn, to gain votes, cultivate, and when possible, exaggerate, and if there is nothing to exaggerate, invent conflicts between the white and the black, between men and women, between natives and immigrants, between homosexuals and all the others.
By the way, during the last two decades, American schools have nearly stopped giving marks to students not to compare the successful students and the less successful ones. They award medals for participation, not for victory. If two teams play, the players regularly change their teams, so that there could be neither winners nor losers. Pupils regularly write essays entitled “I am a star” and make presentations where the key topic is their personality.
Of course, people live under the oppression of the guilt, but it is common guilt for the colonial past. That is why, Western Europe is obsessed with receiving as many refugees as possible despite any consequences. At the same time, they do not think that it was wrong to support a series of revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and the forced change of power in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dictators were overthrown, which is ideologically right. The consequences are of no importance.
In 2010, Thilo Sarrazin, a renowned German central banker, published a book entitled “Germany Abolishes Itself” wherein he tells that political correctness is silencing many processes in the German public. In 2011, Patrick J. Buchanan published his book “Suicide of a Superpower” telling about the American society. It is noteworthy that Thilo Sarrazin had to leave his post at the Board of Directors of the German Federal Bank after harsh criticism of the outraged liberal society. The Western world has greatly progressed over the last five years in what they call political correctness.
Today’s liberal policy is not discussed. Everyone who voices an idea that does not meet the current liberal agenda faces harassment, may lose his job or privileges. One may face such problems even without voicing any ideas. For instance, Brendan Eich, the founder of Mozilla (Firefox web-browser), was appointed as CEO of his own company (previously he was the technical director). However, he remained in office for only nine days, as his past donations ($1000 in 2008) to the fund supporting traditional marriages prompted boycotts and protests among the local LGBT society (information about his donations was “accidentally” leaked from the tax inspectorate). By the way, in 2008, Barack Obama said he is a Christian and believes that marriage is possible only between a man and a woman. When he took the office, he changed his views sharply.
At American universities, there is atmosphere of full intolerance towards any display of conservatism. Inherently, high schools in the United States have turned into an institute of indoctrination of the young generation, which gave birth to what is called social justice warrior – SWJ. This is a movement of people who are ready to get offended for any reason. Even the phrase “this post will go to the most qualified candidate” is a blatant display of racism for them. The inflammatory actions of these internet-fighters of hashtags and tumblr are terrifying, with the level of self-censorship in the American society boggling imagination. However, judging by the promotion message in Hollywood movies, it is a country where freedom of speech and self-expression are allegedly the main values, like the opportunity to build your success. I am afraid, all this no longer corresponds to reality.
Liberal perception of the world has no foundation. The people obsessed with the idea of liberalism are doomed to permanent undermining of the establishing systems, which cannot but face a collapse. One cannot live in the world of nice but unreal ideas for long.
Today, not everyone in the United States and Europe is happy with America’s Cultural Revolution, first of all, because their countries risk turning into Third World countries. A question arises: what is the limit for the society and will it become crucial for it, when the instinct of self-preservation starts to work.
Yevgeny Rublev, specially for EADaily
Yevgeny Rublev: United States or Global Cultural Revolution. Breakdown of Traditions, Part 1
