Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Yes, progressives have written that they hate America.

They just don't use that language, because they believe their vision is better and not harmful. Problem is, in their writings they have gone too far in regards to spilling the beans. Around the time of the 2008 election, Michelle Obama was caught on video stating: "We're going to have to change our traditions, our history; we're going to have to move into a different place as a nation".

This is nothing new; however, what she did not do was explain what she meant. Other progressives have explained what they meant using virtually identical language. In 1909, in the book "The Promise of American Life", Herbert Croly, who wrote one of the most influential books of the Progressive Era, wrote: (This is all from chapter 1, starting on page 21)

The redemption of the national Promise has become a cause for which the good American must fight, and the cause for which a man fights is a cause which he more than ever values. The American idea is no longer to be propagated merely by multiplying the children of the West and by granting ignorant aliens permission to vote. Like all sacred causes, it must be propagated by the Word and by that right arm of the Word, which is the Sword.

The more enlightened reformers are conscious of the additional dignity and value which the popularity of reform has bestowed upon the American idea, but they still fail to realize the deeper implications of their own programme. In abandoning the older conception of an automatic fulfillment of our national destiny, they have abandoned more of the traditional American point of view than they are aware. The traditional American optimistic fatalism was not of accidental origin, and it cannot be abandoned without involving in its fall some other important ingredients in the accepted American tradition. Not only was it dependent on economic conditions which prevailed until comparatively recent times, but it has been associated with certain erroneous but highly cherished political theories. It has been wrought into the fabric of our popular economic and political ideas to such an extent that its overthrow necessitates a partial revision of some of the most important articles in the traditional American creed.

The extent and the character of this revision may be inferred from a brief consideration of the effect upon the substance of our national Promise of an alteration in its proposed method of fulfillment. The substance of our national Promise has consisted, as we have seen, of an improving popular economic condition, guaranteed by democratic political institutions, and resulting in moral and social amelioration. These manifold benefits were to be obtained merely by liberating the enlightened self-interest of the American people. The beneficent result followed inevitably from the action of wholly selfish motives—provided, of course, the democratic political system of equal rights was maintained in its integrity. The fulfillment of the American Promise was considered inevitable because it was based upon a combination of self-interest and the natural goodness of human nature. On the other hand, if the fulfillment of our national Promise can no longer be considered inevitable, if it must be considered as equivalent to a conscious national purpose instead of an inexorable national destiny, the implication necessarily is that the trust reposed in individual self-interest has been in some measure betrayed. No preëstablished harmony can then exist between the free and abundant satisfaction of private needs and the accomplishment of a morally and socially desirable result. The Promise of American life is to be fulfilled—not merely by a maximum amount of economic freedom, but by a certain measure of discipline; not merely by the abundant satisfaction of individual desires, but by a large measure of individual subordination and self-denial. And this necessity of subordinating the satisfaction of individual desires to the fulfillment of a national purpose is attached particularly to the absorbing occupation of the American people,—the occupation, viz.: of accumulating wealth. The automatic fulfillment of the American national Promise is to be abandoned, if at all, precisely because the traditional American confidence in individual freedom has resulted in a morally and socially undesirable distribution of wealth.

Notice the key words: "abandoned", "overthrow", "revision". That he is harping and carping about the mal-distribution of wealth is the least educating thing of this section. But, he doesn't stop here. He makes it clear that he wants to put an end to American individualism. He continued:

The consequences, then, of converting our American national destiny into a national purpose are beginning to be revolutionary. When the Promise of American life is conceived as a national ideal, whose fulfillment is a matter of artful and laborious work, the effect thereof is substantially to identify the national purpose with the social problem. What the American people of the present and the future have really been promised by our patriotic prophecies is an attempt to solve that problem. They have been promised on American soil comfort, prosperity, and the opportunity for self-improvement; and the lesson of the existing crisis is that such a Promise can never be redeemed by an indiscriminate individual scramble for wealth. The individual competition, even when it starts under fair conditions and rules, results, not only, as it should, in the triumph of the strongest, but in the attempt to perpetuate the victory; and it is this attempt which must be recognized and forestalled in the interest of the American national purpose. The way to realize a purpose is, not to leave it to chance, but to keep it loyally in mind, and adopt means proper to the importance and the difficulty of the task. No voluntary association of individuals, resourceful and disinterested though they be, is competent to assume the responsibility. The problem belongs to the American national democracy, and its solution must be attempted chiefly by means of official national action.

You see that? Individualism is the problem, and collectivism is the solution. And just as Omama said, Croly believes we need to get rid of our history. In Croly's view, we need government, and we need more of it. We need it everywhere. He says "official national action", but he is not mincing words here. He specifically and directly means bigger and bigger government at the expense of early American beliefs and at the expense of individuals.

You see, this is why progressives don't really believe they hate America, because they think government is the best thing for you. You need government more than you need food, more than you need water, more than you need blood, more than you need air. And that's anathema to what America means. America was founded as a rejection of big total government, because in 1776 the representative of all-powerful all-knowing government was King George III. See the Declaration of Independence for more details. Loving America is synonymous with small, limited constitutional government. Croly closed out the last bit of chapter 1 this way:

I am fully aware, as already intimated, that the forgoing interpretation of the Promise of American life will seem fantastic and obnoxious to the great majority of Americans, and I am far from claiming that any reasons as yet alleged afford a sufficient justification for such a radical transformation of the traditional national policy and democratic creed.

Thanks Herbert. I appreciate that.

https://tinyurl.com/y7lf8q4m

1 comment:

  1. We hate the US government, because of the wars and all the corruption. That's not the same has hating 'America'.

    ReplyDelete