Progressives are Children in an Adult World

By Tom Rhodes, 2/28/2012

Leftists, Progressives, Liberals, or whatever those pseudo-intellectual children call themselves today, love to think of themselves as intellectual and nuanced. The sad truth is leftist thinking is incredibly unsophisticated, simple, and childlike. Leftist thinking is simply a toddler's emotions applied to grown-up issues. Virtually every issue boils down to an emotional appeal of either being nice or mean, and wanting everything to be OK. This makes left leaning individuals intellectually unable to deal with multifarious subjects.

The reality is that left thinking people are worse than children. How can an adult not understand what children can clearly grasp? Leftist seem incapable of comprehending what children easily grasp.

Even a 5 year old knows that life isn't fair. They even understand that what is fair depends on who is in charge and who is getting mistreated. It's not fair that one kid gets picked last when choosing teams to play some sport every time. Some people are more athletic than others, some are smarter than others, not everybody is physically, intellectually, and emotionally identical. Because we are all different we all have different skills and faults. This is a simple fact that will result in different outcomes. Every child gets this, not everybody will make the team.

Life being fair is a utopian fairytale that leftists continually try to insist is possible. Left thinking people, ignore the difference in the habits and morals and actions of individuals which result in different outcomes for all individuals. Their childish utopian beliefs that in a "fair" society, nobody would suffer, does not consider the actions of individuals. They ignore the character differences between people, and try to falsely claim that all societies deserve respect and all cultures are equally valued.

This is not based on any adult analysis using reason and logic. The objective truth is that the habits, culture, and actions of free people, and without a national shared set of cultural values and recognition that some values produce superior results is a childlike want of some condition that has never existed.

The habits of a free people -- for stability, thrift, obedience to law, respect for others' rights, personal responsibility, etc. - are the seminal essentials in culture's character. Not having the shared values of freedom you won't have much that that resembles freedom. Without valuing individual liberty, a society will not have much of anything else, look at Cuba, Zimbabwe and the other nations that have substituted statist control for individual freedom. You will certainly not have an economy that produces jobs and prosperity on any long-term.

Leftists, Progressives, Liberals, or whatever those intellectual midgets call themselves today, don't understand that you can't have everything you want. Most children learn this at a very early age. Left thinking people seem to think that if something is a good idea, then it should be instituted, regardless of what it costs, regardless of whether it's worth the money. They start with some utopian idea, and believe because they want the world to be some way that anybody who opposes that idea is mean, or greedy, or evil, or hateful, etc.

Leftists want nobody to suffer, and everybody to have the best health services and product available; No consideration as to what it costs, no consideration as to where to fund their wants. To achieve this goal they are more than willing to trounce the basic rights of everybody. Dictate what you must purchase, and feel that they should be allowed to redistribute the property of others as they see fit. Taking money (which is accumulated property) from some people and giving it to others for something the left wants, is based on some utopian idea that people should all share their private property equally, and that nobody will change their behavior if what they managed to acquire is re-distributed to those who don't share the same habits, skills, ability, etc. People who think like that have a total disregard for the private property of others. Much the same as a child has no respect for and will take the toys of others just because the child wants them. This is moral bankruptcy. Moral relativism and disrespect for any accountability to any moral standard is a common trait we see in children whose parents don't attempt to instill in them clear moral objectives. Most adults call these children spoiled brats, these children take no responsibility for their own actions, are self-centered, selfish, and take from others with no regard.

Left thinking generally undercuts morality, specifically Christianity every chance it gets, this type of thinking sneers at goodness and virtue. People with leftist thinking actually think that it is bad to enforce or hold people to moral standards. They think that judging people for bad behavior is mean or hateful. They think that being nice, tolerant, non-judgmental, and permissive is a replacement for traditional virtue, decency, and moral character. They don't believe in any objective moral code, and since to be a genuinely good person requires a moral code they hate and ridicule genuinely good people. Look at how the liberal press treated Tim Tebow. Anybody who draws a clear line between right and wrong, and has the audacity and courage to stand up for what's right, is what we would traditionally call a hero. Left thinking people cannot tolerate good people to be examples, or be publicly accepted and praised. This is because good people with moral character demonstrate how unfair, unprincipled, and ugly the character and actions are of the parasites who leech off the efforts of others. Left thinking people tend to hold good and moral people in absolute and utter contempt.

Leftist thinking people, like children, don't want anybody to be a loser and always want to be a winner. It is childlike want and desire to be liked and loved that leads to wanting to give everybody a ribbon or trophy just for competing. They think nobody should feel bad, and everybody ought to be recognized as an achieving person, regardless of whether they actually perform well, much less actually win. Look at the ending of giving valedictorian honors to the person who earned the highest grades over their entire high school career, because this makes some kids or their parents feel bad large numbers of school districts no-longer award valedictorian. This child like thinking has lead to some twisted belief that competition is bad. This is thinking that regardless of effort, ability, character, actions, and even some luck, all people should end up with the same results. Even the title of the clearly leftist and childish program to ensure that everybody has the same results, "No Child Left Behind," indicates a fundamental childish thinking. The actual result of "No Child Left Behind" is that "No Child Gets Ahead." The only way to ensure that no child get's left behind is to lower the standard so that regardless of ability and effort no child can fail. The resources and money spent assuring that every child meet some minimum standard routinely take away the resources used to offer more challenging and rigorous opportunities for the most advanced, smartest, hardest working students.

We all compete for everything. From getting a mate, to finding a job -- life is completion. P.J. O'Rourke summed it up saying, "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." Everyone cannot be at the same level. Only a very few people have the athletic ability perform at the professional level. Michal Jordon was paid vast sums of money because on an even playing field, with fair rules, equally enforced, he consistently won and outperformed the competition. Some people are prettier, more athletic, smarter, grew up in a loving home, etc. Get over it, life isn't fair.

It is only child like utopian thinking that wants something different from reality and would think that it's fair and just to take the rewards of using the gifts, talents, abilities, and character of winners and give those rewards to losers. Left thinking people cannot accept that some people won't win life's lottery, and further doesn't accept that people should suffer the consequences of poor decisions. They would prefer that everybody be equally poor than anybody have more than another. They clearly believe the failed Marxist idea that resources should be created by each according to their ability and distributed to each according to their needs. They may voice other that they don't think that, but the actions of leftist thinkers clearly indicate that that is what they believe. As adults they should realize that the reality of implementing their childlike desires has historically resulted in privation and tyranny. Rational adults push for equality of opportunity, rule of law, equality under the law, and let everyone rise to his own level, while childish thinkers try to tear people down and turn everyone into losers to insure equality of results.

The child like thinking of the left seems to believe that by virtue of being born, other people owe you a living. Sorry, this is a grown up world, nobody owes you diddly squat. Nobody should have their access to an education denied, in fact with the internet, anybody can learn just about anything they want to learn, it's up to them to put in the time and effort, but neither should they force others to pay for it. Nobody should be denied the ability to purchase whatever medical care they want, but that does not imply a right to force others to pay for it. Nobody should be denied a retirement without financial worries, but that doesn't mean that if you don't save, invest, and take actions to supply yourself with that kind of retirement others should have to pick up your bills in old age.

What you are owed for being born is "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness." This means that you as an adult are responsible for maintaining yourself. As an adult you are responsible for the consequences of your actions, even to the point of being responsible to raise your own kids (you have kids because of actions you choose to take). When you become an Adult, most parents expect you to move out and take care of yourself. You should not expect that government to become your parent when you get kicked out of the house. This is not to say that Americans are not generous, and don't want to and expect to help those who have temporarily fallen on hard times. But the people of this country have no obligation to provide generations of others with food, shelter, entertainment, and a standard of living most of the world envies. The wholesale abuse of our welfare system is indicative of children who think that they should be taken care of for life, and if their mommy and daddy won't or can't than it's the government's job.

I'm sorry if you don't like hearing it, but that is childish thinking. Adults are responsible for taking care of themselves. If you want to be successful and not live in poverty, then grow up and be an adult. This means that you are expected to take on the character and actions of an adult. Emulate and do what adults who are successful do, this includes: finishing school and putting your best effort into your education; living below your means and saving some money; getting married before you have kids; respecting and honoring the rights, including property rights, of others; taking ownership and responsibility for your actions, meaning that you are willing to accept the consequences of your decisions and quit blaming others for your poor life choices; and finally you should also include going to a church of some kind and being active in your community. This will provide you with both a local and private community based support system if you fall on hard times, and although there are exceptions, going to church is a common trait among the most successful people regardless of their political ideology.

If you choose not to take on the character and do what successful adults do, then at least have the decency not to be a cry-baby and expect those of us who choose to grow up and be adults to take your childish whining seriously. That's what most progressive, socialists, leftist, liberals ideas are; the childish whining of children who don't want to grow up and live in an adult world.