"Are you saying society should just let him die?" - Granite Grok

“Are you saying society should just let him die?”

There have been a few take away moments that the Left has gone crazy over in the Republican Presidential debates.  One in this last one was when Wolf Blitzer decided to do a "gotcha" question of Congressman Ron Paul on healthcare that was to show, primarily how cold hearted and uncaring Conservatives are in comparison to Liberals (who care far more about people despite what this research showed). 

Wolf Blitzer’s hypothetical was that a thirty year old who decided to go "naked" by not purchasing healthcare insurance.  Then he becomes seriously ill and requires massive amounts of care because of a resulting coma.  The question: "Who pays for that"?

Frankly, Ron Paul’s first curt answer pretty much summed it up well:

In a society that you accept welfarism and socialism, he expects that government will take care of him.

And Wolf realizes that he was caught – the LAST thing that a Lib wants is to have their worldview exposed as socialism.  But what did he want – his example all but cries out "Free rider!" – the exact same type of person they decry as one taking advantage of the rest of us.  In his example, this dude has a good job, and good income, could pay for it, but decides to not buy it.  What Wolf did not want to bring up was the question "Shouldn’t he be self-responsible?" (which is part of Mitt’s assertion in defending ObamneyCare – people who could afford it but decide not to.  The Eldest did exactly that – he decided that he was immortal and decided to spend his hard earned cash on other toys.  And then wants to use that to "make an example" by making this dude a "victim".

Which exposes the problem:

how logical is it to make someone a victim – of himself?  Even emotionally, this doesn’t work!

Now, when pressed by Wolf, Ron says exactly what the dude should have done: buy his own insurance…and then brings up the best line of the night:

That’s what freedom is all about; taking your own risk.

And then Wolf, ever so subtly, inserts one of the most dangerous memes of Progress thought with the question: 

"Are you saying society should just let him die?"

Now, the Left is all over this for the "YEAH!" that came screaming out from the crowd.  Frankly, that was, and still is, a red herring.  My belief is that this arose from the phrase "taking your own risk" but I’ll come back to this, but suffice it to say that Wolf was not going to let Obamacare or the notion of socialized healthcare be attacked.

I have now said for years that Progressives / Socialists by their programs present the moral hazard of reducing the mal-effects of bad decisions and the resulting consequences.  In this case, the cavalier attitude of being self-responsible and purchasing healthcare and the resulting consequence of needing something neglected.  In effect, a reverse anthropomorphism of the old And and Grasshopper tale.  Here, we see Wolf advocating for the Grasshopper – don’t penalize him for his sloth!  And indeed, that is the message: devil may care attitudes are no problem, because we will force all others to pay for your foolishness.

And you note that Wolf NEVER brings up the more fundamental premise that a Conservative or a Libertarian would:

Why isn’t that person, who is fully able, being excoriated for being selfish?  And yes, he is, as Wolf expects him to be taken care of by the State

The answer is that SHAME has been removed from the common lexicon unless a person violates Political Correctness – a protocol controlled by the Left and assisted by useful idiots on the Right.  As long as the Left can portray someone as a victim, they are blameless of shame – after all, a victim can never be at fault?  And in this case, the "victim" is portrayed as a victim of circumstances and of things out of control even as Ron Paul rightly points out that it WAS his own fault – but that would spoil the narrative.

Back to what Wolf said: "Are you saying society should just let him die?".  The most pernicious and dangerous thought was thrown out there, simply hiding in plain site.  Consider: what did Wolf mean by "society"?  As soon as he uttered that question, I knew exactly what equivalence that Wolf was trying to make:

Government = Society.  Society is nothing without Government

I’ve run into this argument before: government for and by the people.  We make up our government, we select and vote for our government.  Thus Government is us.  It is we.

And if it is we, should not Government do what is best for….we? Nonsense.  In my debate with Jim Splaine, his oft spoke phrase along this line was "Well, we ARE the government", as if that was a balm that gave government leave to do almost anything and insert itself into any area of life it wanted to – or into which Progressives desired. Democrat Socialists want you to think that way, that it is the natural way of things.  They want you to think and believe in your soul that you can outsource anything, including responsibility of yourself to the muscular, active, brainery side of society – Government.  They never, however, want you to think of the results of that; by doing so, you have given control of your sovereign self to another.  You have stopped being an individual and have become as a child.  You, in essence, have handed over the reins of your life, psychological or philosophically, or as with the welfare class, literally.  You reduce yourself to what others deign to give you.  And it never is enough…

And it is a Society that demands, selfishly, more and more from those that still think of themselves as free men.

No, society is NOT the Government, and our Founders NEVER believed that to be true.  Society is not Government but it IS individuals – all of us with government off to the side.  In this, Ron Paul is right – it is WE, acting as people who voluntarily join together to help our fellow man.  Yes, Wolf, it SHOULD be up to us to reach out and take care of our friends, our families, and our neighbors.  

However, the pernicious fallacy that he so subtly al pushes is that to help requires professionals – a mode of thought that has grown larger and larger since the time of FDR as government took on more and more of what used to be private efforts.  Liberals just cannot wrap their heads around that "simple citizens" cannot just do for themselves and for those around them (ahem!) – only Government can get the job done.

Here were my tweets at the time:

  • Wolf to Ron. 30yr doesn’t buy insurance. Ron says freedom means assuming consequence.
  • Ron – churches, charity used to assume this responsibility instead of Govt. Expensive due to dumping on gov
  • here’s the conundrum-Libs forced govt to pick up free healthcare with 1986 EMTLA law.
  • Now the libs complain about the "free riders" they created
  • RT @keder: Dear media, not supporting government-run health care is NOT the same as wanting to see people die on the streets. Morons. #Grok

And here is a rebuttal that I wrote back in 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

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