Evil. It exists in the real world and many of us can recognize it. However, in the ever-increasing political polarization here in America, there certainly is one set of folks that truly believes that evil actually exists. No, for these people it is not that commit heinous crimes. It is not those that advocate killing others for the sake of their religio-political ideology. Instead, of someone says “we should have less government”, they are deemed EVIL. If someone says “we should have less taxes”, they are deemed evil. If someone says “Government should be operating within Constitutional boundaries”, they are deemed evil. Yes, Democrats hate the TEA Party, Constitutionalists, and traditional value (and here in NH, the Free State Project) folks simply because they just want to be left alone instead of having a bossy Government. But it goes beyond hate, we are seen as existentially EVIL – and if you have watched any of the mid-term election ads lately, you can see plainly.
Here is probably the best explanation of how Socialists / Progressives / Democrats see us from Bearing Arms (emphasis mine, reformatted):
It is now time to consider a second, related question: DOES EVIL EXIST?
The answer to this question represents a fundamental dividing line between conservatives and socialists (for that is what the contemporary Democratic Party has sadly become). Socialists believe that human beings are inherently racist, sexist, and a variety of other “ists,” but are perfectible. This Utopian perfection can be reached if only there is sufficient (absolute or near absolute) governmental power and the right kinds of taxes, redistribution of wealth, laws and regulations to make people behave in appropriate ways, to perfect them for their own good, a good they are unable to recognize or seek unaided. These laws and regulations will be created and enforced by a small class of elite “progressives” (the term they generally prefer; who, after all, could be against progress?) who are, by virtue of their education, sophistication, beliefs and highly attuned sense of social justice (generally best understood as whichever social and economic policies elite socialists prefer at the moment), already perfected.
In other words, you are too stupid to be good. But THEY, these self-righteous Nuvo-Aristocracy / Royalty believe that they, and only they, have the right answers – and you must
do as they say. Surely you must be of the mind set to “be made right” by these folks, yes? Give up your outmoded ways of thinking, your failed moral beliefs, and be led by nose and the Progress will make you Free! No, not really, but they have seized the ramparts of culture which is changing the mindset – and now, our politics (and the Stupid Party Republicans still only think they need to talk “fiscally” as the rug is pulled out from underneath them). Here is the complete condensation of what these new Plantation Owners desire you to understand:
Therefore, for the socialist, the only true evil is resistance to the evolved social consciousness of the elite socialist.
That’s it; that is the definition of Evil for them. One item is all that counts – DO NOT DEFY ME! Alternate thinking is not allowed. Alternative behavior is verboten. Freedom is only that which they allow within the steel bars of laws and regulation that they put into place. They believe only in external governance – the idea that someone has an internal absolute moral compass is simply crazy talk (e.g., why they hate organized religion that teaches that EXACTLY and why it must be eliminated at best and subjugated at worst).
One might quibble about labels, and might be more comfortable with the labels “progressive” or “statist,” but I trust you understand that I am not engaging in gratuitous name-calling, but merely trying to clearly explain defining contemporary philosophical and political trains of thought. I trust that if you apply them to the policies and stated beliefs of our current “leaders”–if “leading from behind” can actually be called leadership–you’ll find these descriptions to fit rather well.
For the Socialist/Progressive/Statist, unalienable rights do not exist; indeed they cannot exist. The only rights are those allowed at any given moment by the state. In this polity, rights are reduced to the reality and force of mere privileges. Religion, with its quaint, superstitious adherence to the doctrine of an eternal battle between good and evil, is just that, quaint and superstitious. It may be, from time to time, politically useful, particularly when the votes of believers might be won through stealth or outright subterfuge, or when a denomination takes up the banner of preferred leftist social causes, advancing it before—or instead of—religious doctrine, but religion is always dangerous and to be feared and suppressed because of its inherent general resistance to progressive socialist enlightenment, which is always ongoing and evolving because it can never be falsified.
Another bone of contention which is brought to light – absolute versus “it is what I say it is” at the moment. And what might be needed for whatever political reason is needed. It also means that having a relativist outlook means that one can never be held to a standard (and therefore, accountable). We have seen that for decades in the performance of Government programs – only intent matters and never the actual results. And if that latter item comes close to being absolutely dismal and a failure, well, change the goalposts and invoke the primary rule: “the only true evil is resistance to the evolved social consciousness of the elite socialist“; you are, by definition, a H8TER and must be demonized and marginalized.
This is another fundamental conflict between the religious and the socialist. Religion relies upon certain God-given, unchanging truths and principles. Socialism constantly evolves as ever more intelligent, elite scientific socialists perfect it and labor to perfect the ungrateful masses against their will. The only unchanging truth and principle of socialism is that socialism represents the only hope of man—despite millennia of failure–and may never be falsified.
Their god is the god of Big (and Bigger Government) – any diminishment is literally heresy and the “sinners” must undergo the “Inquisition” or as the Soviets, Chinese, Norks, et al, be “re-educated” (re: those Christian entrepreneurs like bakers, photographers, and the like that must go to “Diversity” re-education) in proper group-think”.
If glorious socialist perfection has not been reached, it is only because the unenlightened resist and because insufficient socialism has been applied. Because man is always in the necessary process of being perfected by his betters, neither unalienable rights nor adherence to a moldy, faded, yellowing document written by privileged white men in the late 1700’s can be allowed to stand in the way of the brave, inevitable march of socialist progress. The greatest weakness of socialist thought and policy is always a fundamental misunderstanding, even willful ignorance, of human nature. That, and as Margaret Thatcher said, you always run out of other people’s money.
My betters – yet, they still put their pants on the same way I do. And with their attitudes that mimic the same that our Founding Fathers fought to give the heave-ho. No, they don’t have the same royal titles of duchess, prince, arch-duke, but make no mistake, we do have our versions of political royal families as well (the Bushes, the Clintons, and the Sununus to name three quickly). But it is those that transgress our Freedom by ANY name that pose the biggest threats.
And to do so, they ignore the biggest “beam in your own eye” of all which runs directly counter to their underlying philosophy that Utopia on Earth is obtainable but only if they have enough control:
Conservatives have no doubt of the existence of evil or of its eternal work in the world. They overwhelmingly embrace Christian theology and its bedrock understanding of men as fallen sinners who can never attain perfection on Earth. Mankind cannot be perfected—he will sin; it is his very nature and for those who will see, the evidence of history is irrefutable–yet the social contract works best when he has the greatest possible freedom and autonomy. He has, above all, free will and can chose to be altruistic, kind and considerate of others. Even so, he sometimes will choose otherwise, and consequences for personal misbehavior must be made swift and certain and must be justly applied while upholding the essential dignity and worth of the individual.
Thus do Conservatives accept the necessity of the Social Contract, of the equality before the law of all men, of the rule of law, and of a supreme law of the land–-the Constitution–-which may not and should not change–-as the Founders put it–-for light and transient reasons, because the fundamental nature of human beings does not change. This is why conservatives are so alarmed and disgusted by President Obama’s lawless behavior. For conservatives, any balance of power that favors the state at the expense of the unalienable rights of the individual is illegitimate, tyrannical and must be resisted, and if necessary, overthrown by the force of arms recognized and affirmed for The People by the Second Amendment. This is its real purpose and the reason it is so hated by Progressives.
Again, these are absolutes – which stymie and act as stumbling blocks to “progress” (the ONLY absolute they values – beside that they must be in charge).
Such republican (as in our federal republican form of government) rhetoric is often decried with mock horror by Progressives who cry “anti-Americanism,” but this is merely one of the straw men Socialists—such as Mr. Obama—reflexively erect. Who can take seriously such people as former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano who claimed military veterans returning from the battlefield pose a greater danger than Islamist terrorists?
And any tactic is allowed by Progressives and one of the most valued and used one is that of redefining the language – which is why our education is so bad. Why? If people don’t understand the basic and principle meaning of words, anything is possible. Without that grounding, we get to that state where “a word means what *I* say it is” – which leads to no common foundation of what reality and truth really is (or, as they say “YOUR personal truth” which means whatever they define it to be. In a world of ever changing sand, there can be no solid foundation which is EXACTLY what they both need and want.
And it goes on – a bit different than the above but still worthwhile reading. But never forget – they hate us with a passion for our ideas and our beliefs as much (or more) than the Islamists that wish for all to either convert, pay infidel tax, or die.
Yes, they themselves are evil for another definition of evil is when someone believes they have the destiny and right to control others. Which is what the Democrats want.
