Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, winner of the 2007 National Humanities Medal and the 2008 Bradley Prize, advanced, in the National Review, "Beneath the Hope," this explanation for Obama's Neo-Marxist polit-speak:
"That he [Obama] gave this speech in liberal, upscale San Fransisco only added to the aura of condescension - especially the standard liberal trope of false consciousness: The ignorant working classes turn toward extraneous palliatives rather than follow the advice of Harvard intellectuals to agitate for economic redistribution that would better solve their mostly material problems."Religion is the opiate of the masses! (Where have we heard that before?) Sedative, pain reliever, bromide, calmative - it's Socialism! Old hat, central planning, welfare state, forcible redistribution of wealth.
I live among people who give each month a sizeable amount of their wealth to feed and clothe the poor. Mny voluntarily give more than 10% of their income to alleviate poverty, and contribute significant amounts to endow my inner-city students with means to move towards college. I don't need any forcible redistribution of wealth.
And I don't need arrogant elites arguing that they know better how to spend my money. Americans voluntarily give upwards of 60 billion to charity each year, according to my sources. FDR New Deal socialism did not pull us out of the Depression, but rather prolonged the Market Crash, as it was adjusting to the excesses of the 20s. Moving towards more Leftist FDR policies will not make this world a better place.
Barak's policies will further subjugate a free people, making them more like Cuba, Venezuela and Iran. Fidel's rice pressure cookers for every household were mere drops in the bucket compared with the iPods, MP3 players, laptops, PSPs, and various foods distributed on every corner of every major city in the U.S. As David Mamet argued in his recent turn from Leftist politics, corporations have supplied him and the rest of the world with all the things that make life easier, more comfortable - all the things he loves, that have made his life good.
Senator Obama doesn't trust the American people to make free-market decisions. He wants to be the elitist demagogue herding us toward his Neo-marxist vision of economic and political Utopia. He wants to be at the head of that Central Committee that makes decisions which Frederick Hayek and other economists have proved are too complex for men and women to make at the federal level. They believe they are smart enough to make those decisions that are best left to the local level in open markets of free-flowing ideas. These decisions should be made by individuals who are intimately acquainted with the factors of each person's needs, and the supplies available to meet those demands.
The "unseen hand" that govens such markets will be handcuffed and restrained by Barak's bungling intrusions. Man cannot handle all the intricacies of so many variables. But these are people who believe Man to be Supreme.
The problem with these elitists and socialists is that they want to effectuate change now. They do not want to wait, nor be patient, nor advance gradually. they hit the streets running - demonstrating, yelling, pushing and shoving for change. They believe religion dulls the senses.
However, in the liturgy of my Church, the ancient prophet Alma calls for his fellow-followers in Christ to "awake and arouse [their] faculties, even unto an experiment upon my words." That doesn't sound like a passive process to me! In fact, it is quite rigorous. To awake and arouse one's faculties - intellectual and spiritual; to experiment upon the word. Now here's a prophet I can follow.
He continues: "And now, how do ye suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold I have prayed and fasted many days that I might know of these things. And now I tell ye that I do know of myself that they are true." No fatsy-patsy process that!
[More on this, later.]
