Dear Fred,
Originally I titled this post "Waiting For Godot? Or, Waiting For Fox Conservatives To Do Something Helpful?"
When I re-read my title, I was repulsed.
The word "helpful" framed the issue so that Fox (Faux) conservatives might be conceived as "helpful."
They are not.
Politically, the little foxes have no intention of being helpful, unless we take seriously their retreat to the 19th century or, "better yet," the Scholasticism of the 13th.
"People Who Watch Only Fox News
Know Less Than People Who Watch No News"
Faux conservatives' foremost intent is to help themselves, and -- consistent with their belief in "The Invisible Hand" -- they will, by technicality, assent to "helping" others (almost always carbon copies of themselves) so long as "help" is automatic.
Here is how the "The Invisible Hand" -- like other "too-pure principles" -- plays out in practice:
"The best is not the ideal.
Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.
The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
More Merton Quotes
Dear Fred,
Originally I titled this post "Waiting For Godot? Or, Waiting For Fox Conservatives To Do Something Helpful?"
When I re-read my title, I was repulsed.
The word "helpful" framed the issue so that Fox (Faux) conservatives might be conceived as "helpful."
They are not.
Politically, the little foxes have no intention of being helpful, unless we take seriously their retreat to the 19th century or, "better yet," the Scholasticism of the 13th.
"People Who Watch Only Fox News
Know Less Than People Who Watch No News"
Faux conservatives' foremost intent is to help themselves, and -- consistent with their belief in "The Invisible Hand" -- they will, by technicality, assent to "helping" others (almost always carbon copies of themselves) so long as "help" is automatic.
Here is how the "The Invisible Hand" -- like other "too-pure principles" -- plays out in practice:
"The best is not the ideal.
Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.
The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
More Merton Quotes
"Plutocracy Triumphant"
Cartoon Compendium
"Politics And Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"
"Politics And Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"
"War, Peace And Political Manipulation: Quotations"
"War, Peace And Political Manipulation: Quotations"
"Pope Francis Links"
http://paxonbothhouses.
Except for their slavish dedication to collective military action, Faux conservatives refuse to render any collective political assistance that requires the traditional Disciplines of Virtue as conceived by Christianity, Judaism and other people of faith.
"Pope Francis Links"
http://paxonbothhouses.
Except for their slavish dedication to collective military action, Faux conservatives refuse to render any collective political assistance that requires the traditional Disciplines of Virtue as conceived by Christianity, Judaism and other people of faith.
Except for their slavish dedication to collective military action, Faux conservatives refuse to render any collective political assistance that requires the traditional Disciplines of Virtue as conceived by Christianity, Judaism and other people of faith.
Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of Ayn Rand Posts
Conservative Heroine Ayn Rand Really Hated C.S. Lewis
And Championed Child Murderer, Dismemberer, Edward Hickman
Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of Ayn Rand Posts
Conservative Heroine Ayn Rand Really Hated C.S. Lewis
And Championed Child Murderer, Dismemberer, Edward Hickman
And Championed Child Murderer, Dismemberer, Edward Hickman
Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees: "The Woe Passages"
"Do You Know What You're Doing To Me?"
Jesus of Nazareth
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Love Your Enemies. Do Good To Those Who Hate You," Luke 6: 27-42
Jesus of Nazareth
http://paxonbothhouses."Love Your Enemies. Do Good To Those Who Hate You," Luke 6: 27-42
Decades ago, I came upon a definition of "Evil" as "deliberate destruction."
With remarkable regularity Faux conservatives dedicate themselves, ISIS-like, to restoring The Original Wisdom even at the cost of apocalyptic destruction and consequent return to medieval social structures. (Be careful what you ask for! Until 1750, half of humanity died by age 8. And until 1850, humans lived half their lives with toothache. Consider George Washington's dental health: http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/colonial-dentistry-and-george.html)
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare epitomize modern political action - which, from the Faux vantage, usurps the Church's proper function as repository-and-dispenser of social goods -- making any social good rooted in The Body Politic not only an acceptable target for destruction but an obligatory target.
"Republicans For Revolution," A Study In Anarchic Apocalypticism
Thomas Jefferson On The Persistent Inclination To Vilify Virtue
Faux conservatives delight in the release of "dissociative energies," tearing The Body Politic limb-from-limb while locking people in rugged individualism, sealing them in isolationist moral codes that cannot conceive "structural/corporate evil" and when threatened by such conceptualization (a menace manifest by Pope Francis) they double down on self-serving tribalism, trashing The Common Good and contemning any Social Contract based on the premise of wealth as distributist patrimony. http://
Pax tecum
Alan
PS Last night, I watched Robert Reich's "Inequality For All."
Reich has a gift for focusing "The Big Picture," then illustrating it with pointed particulars.
He makes a persuasive case that women flooded the marketplace as reaction to growing income inequality which, starting in 1977, obligated both parents to enter the job market to make ends meet.
Follow the money!
We so easily overlook the obvious -- miss "the purloined letter" -- that I again spotlight Cowboy Capitalism's sans pareil corruption of individual morality and The Body Politic.
No other single cause has been nearly as corrosive.
"Inequality For All" features Amazon co-founder, billionaire Nick Hanauer, who formerly believed in Trickle Down Economics, "Free" Markets and "tax cuts for Job Creators."
"The Pitchforks Are Coming For Us Billionaires"
Amazon Financier, Nick Hanauer
http://paxonbothhouses.
Although I cannot locate free internet access to "Inequality For All," Netflix currently streams the movie.
If you do not have access to Netflix, I recommend Bill Moyers interview with Reich conducted just prior to the movie's release in 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-rpkZe2OEo
Decades ago, I came upon a definition of "Evil" as "deliberate destruction."
With remarkable regularity Faux conservatives dedicate themselves, ISIS-like, to restoring The Original Wisdom even at the cost of apocalyptic destruction and consequent return to medieval social structures. (Be careful what you ask for! Until 1750, half of humanity died by age 8. And until 1850, humans lived half their lives with toothache. Consider George Washington's dental health: http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/colonial-dentistry-and-george.html)
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare epitomize modern political action - which, from the Faux vantage, usurps the Church's proper function as repository-and-dispenser of social goods -- making any social good rooted in The Body Politic not only an acceptable target for destruction but an obligatory target.
"Republicans For Revolution," A Study In Anarchic Apocalypticism
Thomas Jefferson On The Persistent Inclination To Vilify Virtue
Faux conservatives delight in the release of "dissociative energies," tearing The Body Politic limb-from-limb while locking people in rugged individualism, sealing them in isolationist moral codes that cannot conceive "structural/corporate evil" and when threatened by such conceptualization (a menace manifest by Pope Francis) they double down on self-serving tribalism, trashing The Common Good and contemning any Social Contract based on the premise of wealth as distributist patrimony. http://
Pax tecum
Alan
PS Last night, I watched Robert Reich's "Inequality For All."
Reich has a gift for focusing "The Big Picture," then illustrating it with pointed particulars.
He makes a persuasive case that women flooded the marketplace as reaction to growing income inequality which, starting in 1977, obligated both parents to enter the job market to make ends meet.
Follow the money!
We so easily overlook the obvious -- miss "the purloined letter" -- that I again spotlight Cowboy Capitalism's sans pareil corruption of individual morality and The Body Politic.
No other single cause has been nearly as corrosive.
"Inequality For All" features Amazon co-founder, billionaire Nick Hanauer, who formerly believed in Trickle Down Economics, "Free" Markets and "tax cuts for Job Creators."
"The Pitchforks Are Coming For Us Billionaires"
Amazon Financier, Nick Hanauer
http://paxonbothhouses.
http://paxonbothhouses.
Although I cannot locate free internet access to "Inequality For All," Netflix currently streams the movie.
If you do not have access to Netflix, I recommend Bill Moyers interview with Reich conducted just prior to the movie's release in 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-rpkZe2OEo
***
"Are Republicans Insane?"
"Are Republicans Insane?"
"American Conservatives And Oppositional-Defiant Disorder"
"The Republican Party Is A Satanic Cult"
"Do Republicans Do Anything But Piss, Moan, Bitch, Whine?"
"Do Republicans Do Anything But Piss, Moan, Bitch, Whine?"
"The Party of Personal Responsibility" Is "The Party Of Personal Irresponsibility"
Republican Rule And Economic Catastrophe, A Lockstep Relationship
Bill Maher: The Zombie Life Cycle Of Republican Lies. They Never - Ever - Die
"Conservatives Scare More Easily Than Liberals"
"The Death of Epistemology"
"Conservatives Scare More Easily Than Liberals"
"The Death of Epistemology"
How the death of epistemology validates rhetorical vapidity:
- The Guardian: "John Oliver's Viral Video Is The Best Climate Change Debate You'll Ever See"
"The Reign of Morons Is Here," Charles P. Pierce, The Atlantic
"The Reign of Morons Is Here," Charles P. Pierce, The Atlantic
"A Southerner Explains Tea Party Radicalism: The Civil War Is Not Over"
"A Southerner Explains Tea Party Radicalism: The Civil War Is Not Over"
"People Who Watch Only Fox News
Know Less Than People Who Watch No News"
"People Who Watch Only Fox News
Know Less Than People Who Watch No News"
"Republicans For Revolution," A Study In Anarchic Apocalypticism
"Republicans For Revolution," A Study In Anarchic Apocalypticism
"Bank On It: The South Is Always Wrong"
"Red State Moocher Links"
"Why The Bible Belt Is Its Own Worst Enemy"
Republican Party Is "Full Of Racists," Colin Powell's Chief Of Staff
George McGovern: "The Case For Liberalism, A Defense Of The Future Against The Past"
George McGovern: "The Case For Liberalism, A Defense Of The Future Against The Past"
Conservative Norm Ornstein: The Media Ignore Republican Lunacy
"Let's Just Say It. The Republicans Are The Problem"
Conservative Norm Ornstein and Liberal Thomas Mann
"Just How Far Out Is The Republican Fringe?" Norm Ornstein (And Is It The Fringe?)
"It's Even Worse Than It Looks"
Conservative Norm Ornstein and Liberal Thomas Mann
"When Extremism Goes Mainstream"
Conservative Norm Ornstein
"The Real Death Panels," Conservative Norm Ornstein
"Just How Far Out Is The Republican Fringe?" Norm Ornstein (And Is It The Fringe?)
Jindal Criticizes The Stupid Party: "Simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys"
"Bush's Toxic Legacy In Iraq"
"Terrorism And The Other Religions"
Jindal Criticizes The Stupid Party: "Simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys"
"Bush's Toxic Legacy In Iraq"
"Terrorism And The Other Religions"
Major General Smedley Butler: Do Wars Really Defend America’s Freedom?
"American Theocracy," By Kevin Phillips
George Soros: On The Coming Class War In The United States
Accumulation of wealth "at the top" is an intrinsic aspiration of capitalism, leaving inadequate "spending power" for consumers to propel the economy. (Consumers account for 70% of economic growth.)
Although capitalism is an unparalleled engine for economic productivity, wealth must be redistributed intermittently or capitalism will collapse under its own dead weight.
We Have "Multiplied And Filled The Earth."
What Now For Natural Law?
"Pope Francis Links"
"American Theocracy," By Kevin Phillips
George Soros: On The Coming Class War In The United States
Accumulation of wealth "at the top" is an intrinsic aspiration of capitalism, leaving inadequate "spending power" for consumers to propel the economy. (Consumers account for 70% of economic growth.)
Although capitalism is an unparalleled engine for economic productivity, wealth must be redistributed intermittently or capitalism will collapse under its own dead weight.
We Have "Multiplied And Filled The Earth."
What Now For Natural Law?
"Pope Francis Links"
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