Tuesday, December 27, 2011

"... leftism is a form of moral poison"

Dennis Prager:
... [leftismcauses otherwise decent and kind people ... to say and/or do cruel and sometimes evil things.
...a major new scholarly book, "Pathological Altruism" (Oxford University Press), explores this phenomenon of people wanting to do good things yet ending up doing bad. It applies to The New York Times ... columnist Thomas L. Friedman, who has a deep altruistic urge to bring peace to the Middle East. But because he sees the world through the liberal/left prism, he says morally reprehensible things ...
... Leftism poisons everything it influences -- from journalism to the arts to universities to religion to government to male-female relations. And ultimately leftism poisons character. This does not mean that everyone with left-wing views becomes a bad person [or] that everyone with conservative views is a good person....
... But it does mean that leftism leads to pathologic altruism, ...  Just as Mahatma Gandhi's hatred of violence led him to tell the Jews of Europe not to resist Hitler, so too has leftism led decent people who would weep at Israel's destruction to mouth the very same lies about Israel as those who seek its annihilation.
Ok, that sort of fits with the idea that much, if not most, of what passes for "altruism" is narcissistic do-goodism, mainly a trait of the left. Perhaps that (plus the malign sentiments and consequences) is what makes it "pathological" (and leftist).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is not news. Friedrich von Hayek wrote about how socialism inevitably leads to totalitarianism in "The Road to Serfdom."

JR said...

It all fits together, but I don't think Hayek dealt with this specific issue.

Anonymous said...

I just happened to read through a Canadian version of the GED study guide to prep for the 7 hours of testing. While in that book store I was shocked to see a really twisted version of canada's History that demonized all White people and reduces all non-whites to victims still under some form of tyranny in the Social structure.
As for WW2 , it will not portray the Nazi's and Japanese as bad people bent on Global Domination and mass-slaughters as the real History proves.
But one area of Science had a question about Global warming and asserted it as fact for the Chart
you had to pick as the answer and it was the CO2 rise with Global Warming that got you 1 Point as correct.

The book is dated as 2008, the Earth has been cooling since 1998.
Are today's kids in High School forced to learn the Leftist/marxisit/anti-USA crap from the Teachers and Unions in order to pass grade 12 ???

The Provincal GED Certificate is approved by McGuinty's Government and yet the Global-Warming fascists asre being exposed as frauds because NASA now proves the Sun is a major factor among the 98% of the non-CO2 influences for temps.
Science is NOT about Consensus because that what used to work for thinking the Earth was Flat , how can Suzuki claim to take the moral high ground on consensus when the Government now forces people to drink the Kool-Ade in school and then support the Consensus later on because their Teacher said it was so and the CBC reports the Earth getting hotter???

Mars has gotten hotter in the last 10 years, but there are no SUV's there, Ice-Cord sample going back 200'000 debunk the myth and prove that the temp go up first and then centuries later the lag causes CO2 rises.
The Sun Charts on its Flares shows a 8 year lag for earths changes by the solar winds , then the next cycle follows the last 8 year lag.

Pretty said that McGuinty and the Teachers Union force people to lie to get their Diploma because the GED exam expect a Theory from a fraud to doctor DATA is now the basis for a PHD in Science.
Global waring started when cell phone became popular....thus, cell phone caused AGW, right???

Effect and Cause , no more Science to see a cause and then prove the effect from evidence.


Check out the book at any store, it's the Barron's GED prep book Canadian version Copy right 2008 edition.
There is another book in the Science?? section about Global warming and "Canada In 2050".

Alain said...

Regarding the information provided by Anonymous, it is no wonder that so many are ignorant of facts. This is not education but indoctrination. Where is the revolt and backlash?

johndoe124 said...

Sounds like "Pathological Altruism" is synonymous with the Nanny State. In the latter case it leads to a complete loss of individual rights and freedom of choice which, I would argue, is morally reprehensible.

In other words, living under a Nanny State is living under Pathological Altruism. I think a case can be made that Dalton McGuinty and the provincial Liberals are psychopaths.

JR said...

Anon certainly provides good examples of leftist moral poison. And here in BC a recently introduced high school course in "Social Justice" is another.

Alain is right. It is all leftist indoctrination which spreads and perpetuates the poison.

And as johndoe suggests the Nanny State is a logical consequence of leftist indoctrination in "pathological altruism".