Collective nonsense... - Granite Grok

Collective nonsense…

It is clear one of the reasons why it seems that politics is so disjoint the last few years – we have two totally opposite philosophies of governance and the role of the individual vs the collective in them.  It should be rather obvious that we at the ‘Grok hold that it is, like the Founders original vision, that government was to protect the Rights, Liberty, and Freedom of the Individual.  Progressives, stemming from their Socialist roots, hold that the collective should always hold sway when talking about individuals.

Certainly, Elizabeth Warren (formerly running Obama’s "Consumer Financial Protection Agency" and now trying to oust Senator Scott Brown (R-MA)) shows her disdain for the successful individual in my post of yesterday.  Cheering for an individual who has "made it", or nodding in success that someone has achieved the American Dream?  Not so much – in the video, this pointy headed Hahvad over-bearing Progressive Professor shows the disdain she has for American capitalism and the spirit succeed.  Hold up that entrepreneur as an example to follow?  Not so much.  In her mind, one to tear down, for the lack of a better work, for the lack of gratitude to society for their success.

Well, she’s been hailed as a savior on the Left. The Right has a better response:

And add this as well:

Group of friends of Stanford football post on a board called thebootleg.com On the current events board, we have debated the Warren comments. here was my response:

“You built a factory out there? Good for you,”
“Built a factory” is a summary for a lot of work. Put up equity, designed a business, took risk to buy land, get permits, pay property taxes and use taxes and permit fees. Then, bought a bunch of equipment and had it installed …and paid sales taxes. Hired some employees and paid them a bunch of money and paid payroll taxes on top of that. Bought a bunch of raw materials from companies that paid a bunch of salaries and a bunch of taxes. Building a factory is a huge private investment that pays the public a lot of taxes for the right to be built.

“But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for.”
Between fuel taxes, license fees, tolls and various taxes on transportation related activities, the roads budget is smaller than the total tax take.

you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; No, you did not educate them. You babysat them for 12 years. Then I hired them, taught them how to be responsible and show up for work, taught them how to communicate in clear sentences, taught them that there are rights and wrongs and (unlike with your schools) wrongs have consequences in the workplace. Then paid for extended education for my employees so they could continue to improve themselves and better add value to what we do around here.

“You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.” Funny, my factory has 24/7 security guards because the last time it was broken into, the police did not even bother to take a report, they just said “call your insurance company”. As for fire? The closest fire department is 10 miles away. My insurance company requires that I have a full wet sprinkler system to qualify for insurance because there is no local fire protection.

“You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.”
Well, that is not exactly true. When the AFL-CIO tried to unionize my workforce, they staged three days of noisy protests outside my factory. The police forces just stood around and watched as the protesters intimidated my workers, vandalized their cars and destroyed my property.

You say “we” like the government and society are the same. They aren’t. My company and my community and you politicians are not “we”.

The last is a point that I have been making over and over.  In essence, Progressives deliberately conflate society at large with Government to make it appear that hey, it’s all OK.  They use it as cover to say "This is our way to do the best by all of us".  After all, who doesn’t want to be part of the "we", the "in" crowd.  Problem is, while it sound nice, it has always turned out to not be "we" but simply another instance of Animal Farm, where we are all equal, but those in power (e.g., Government) turn out to be "more equal than others".  This is the fundamental flaw of collectivism – the individual always takes it in the chops as the Collective Socialists point out – hey, he is trying to be "not we; we all must take him down".  Just as Warren sets up her straw rich factory owner (gee, how Marxist to put up the "capitalist" against "we workers".)

 

(H/T: Instapundit)

>