Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Addendum to Saddam Hussein Post
Opposing Views is a website with a similar goal as FOX: It's designed to bring Americans both sides of every issue so people can decide for themselves what they think. My blogs are sometimes posted on their site, and the last one they posted was the one about Saddam Hussein. The post wasn't very long, although it easily could have been, as the subject matter is complex. It was about a liberal's view of human nature vs. a conservative's. Here are two comments from OV readers:
"Suzanne Venker has clearly never met a liberal. She's too busy listening to the absurd parodies of other conservatives pundits who have never had any sort of intellectual conversation with anyone who self-identifies themselves as "liberal."
"How the whole liberal/conservative issue came about in this article was a stretch. No one is inherently good or evil but rather always capable of both. The concept of whether a person is inherently good or evil is somewhat irrelevant. We are inherently both."
The folks on OV are a lively bunch and often get their feathers ruffled. Rather than debate the issue constructively, they tend to throw daggers. Or worse, they completely misrepresent what I said.
Of course no one's inherently good or evil and we're all capable of both. My reason for discussing the concept of evil as a conservative/liberal issue wasn't to say one group is evil and the other isn't; that would be ridiculous. My point was to delineate between how a conservative and liberal each reacts to evil.
And since I can never top Dinesh D'Souza's analysis of this issue, I'll simply point to it instead:
"At root, conservatives and liberals see the world so differently because they have two different conceptions of human nature. Liberals tend to believe in Rousseau's proposition that human nature is intrinsically good. Therefore, they believe that people who fail or do bad things are not acting out of laziness or wickedness; rather, society put them in this unfortunate position. The liberal's high opinion of human nature leads to the view that if you give people autonomy they will use their freedom well.
Conservatives know better. Conservatives recognize that there are two principles in human nature -- good and evil -- and these are in constant conflict. Given the warped timber of humanity, conservatives seek a social structure that helps bring out the best in human nature and suppress man's lower or base impulses."
To offer a great example, consider the Fort Hood killings. Dr. Phil -- your typical PC psychologist -- is one of the many liberal-minded Americans who suggests we don't rush to judgment about Major Hasan's "motives" for his killing spree. In response, Dorothy Rabinowitz writes the following in today's Wall Street Journal.
"To kill your fellow Americans -- as many as possible, unarmed and in the most helpless of circumstances, while shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great), requires, of course, only murderous hatred -- the sort of mindset that regularly eludes the Dr. Phils of our world as the motive for mass murder of this kind.
"With a bit of stretching, adherents of Maj. Hasan-as-war-victim theme found a substitute of sorts. The thesis: Maj. Hasan's mental stress, provoked by the suffering of Americans who had been in combat, caused him to go out and butcher as many of these soldiers as he could."
This is a perfect example of the difference between the conservative and liberal mindset.
TOMORROW: Judge the Person, Not the Resume
"Suzanne Venker has clearly never met a liberal. She's too busy listening to the absurd parodies of other conservatives pundits who have never had any sort of intellectual conversation with anyone who self-identifies themselves as "liberal."
"How the whole liberal/conservative issue came about in this article was a stretch. No one is inherently good or evil but rather always capable of both. The concept of whether a person is inherently good or evil is somewhat irrelevant. We are inherently both."
The folks on OV are a lively bunch and often get their feathers ruffled. Rather than debate the issue constructively, they tend to throw daggers. Or worse, they completely misrepresent what I said.
Of course no one's inherently good or evil and we're all capable of both. My reason for discussing the concept of evil as a conservative/liberal issue wasn't to say one group is evil and the other isn't; that would be ridiculous. My point was to delineate between how a conservative and liberal each reacts to evil.
And since I can never top Dinesh D'Souza's analysis of this issue, I'll simply point to it instead:
"At root, conservatives and liberals see the world so differently because they have two different conceptions of human nature. Liberals tend to believe in Rousseau's proposition that human nature is intrinsically good. Therefore, they believe that people who fail or do bad things are not acting out of laziness or wickedness; rather, society put them in this unfortunate position. The liberal's high opinion of human nature leads to the view that if you give people autonomy they will use their freedom well.
Conservatives know better. Conservatives recognize that there are two principles in human nature -- good and evil -- and these are in constant conflict. Given the warped timber of humanity, conservatives seek a social structure that helps bring out the best in human nature and suppress man's lower or base impulses."
To offer a great example, consider the Fort Hood killings. Dr. Phil -- your typical PC psychologist -- is one of the many liberal-minded Americans who suggests we don't rush to judgment about Major Hasan's "motives" for his killing spree. In response, Dorothy Rabinowitz writes the following in today's Wall Street Journal.
"To kill your fellow Americans -- as many as possible, unarmed and in the most helpless of circumstances, while shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great), requires, of course, only murderous hatred -- the sort of mindset that regularly eludes the Dr. Phils of our world as the motive for mass murder of this kind.
"With a bit of stretching, adherents of Maj. Hasan-as-war-victim theme found a substitute of sorts. The thesis: Maj. Hasan's mental stress, provoked by the suffering of Americans who had been in combat, caused him to go out and butcher as many of these soldiers as he could."
This is a perfect example of the difference between the conservative and liberal mindset.
TOMORROW: Judge the Person, Not the Resume
Monday, November 9, 2009
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"The charge that (Nidal Malik Hasan, of the Fort Hood massacre) was harassed and he broke – Good, God… He’s been a trouble maker and a sad sack for a long time but because he was part of a protected species, a protected minority, the Army let him slide. Just re-assign him… It’s time to get rid of the P.C. culture in the Army, in society and the media.”. -- Col. Ralph Peters
Strong Women
I love strong women. Indeed, I come from a long line of strong women.
Unfortunately, people tend to associate strong women with power in the stereotypical sense: wealth, prestige, exposure. In other words, in order for a woman to be "strong" or taken seriously, she must be in the marketplace. The idea that women hold tremendous power at home is considered a religious or conservative idea. Take a look at this piece:
Unfortunately, people tend to associate strong women with power in the stereotypical sense: wealth, prestige, exposure. In other words, in order for a woman to be "strong" or taken seriously, she must be in the marketplace. The idea that women hold tremendous power at home is considered a religious or conservative idea. Take a look at this piece:
"Republican Women Are Stay-at-Home Moms While Female Democrats Run for Congress"
May 11, 2009 02:40 PM ET
May 11, 2009 02:40 PM ET
By Bonnie Erbe
I would like to chime in on my colleague Mary Kate Cary's observations on Democratic women outnumbering Republican women in Congress. Hasn't it always been thus? Democratic women in Congress have certainly outnumbered Republican women by margins similar to the one Mary Kate cites since I covered Congress for the now-defunct UPI Radio Network in the late 1980s.
Republican women have achieved some notable political firsts. Maine Republican Margaret Chase Smith spent 24 years in the Senate, starting in 1948, and became the first woman elected to both chambers of Congress.
I think the main reason [Democratic women outnumber Republican women] is that Republican women are generally more traditional than Democratic women, who tend to be more progressive. Therefore, GOP women are more likely to be fulltime homemakers or to work part-time and not to pursue all-consuming careers such as politics. Republican women like former Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) have even agreed with me in conversation that this is the case.
This does not mean all Democratic women want to run for office or be CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, or that all GOP women want to be homemakers. Certainly not. But the majority fall into those stereotypes and that is the main reason I believe the numbers are skewed in Democrats' favor.
It is true that conservative women -- since they do tend to care for their children themselves and not rely on day care -- do not have as much of an opportunity to be "in the limelight" the way liberal women do. Liberal women who outsource the care of their children to hired help on a full-time basis will obviously have ample time to make a lot of waves in the marketplace. In other words, liberal women trade their power at home for power outside the home.
The truth is, being a strong woman has nothing to do with proving oneself outside the home. To feminists it does, naturally -- but that's because feminists are an inherently insecure bunch. Real strength lies in not having to prove yourself. Real strength lies in the ability to be your own person regardless of what the people around you are doing -- or what they say you should do. Real strong women know themselves well and don't look to the government to be their Sugar Daddy. Real strong women speak their minds and get what they want -- without giving up their femininity.
Gee, sounds a lot like real strong women are conservative.
TOMORROW: Addendum to Saddam Hussein post
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