Why Liberalism Doesn’t Work for Me

Being on the left does not mean one has to support liberalism, especially extreme liberalism.

Me, a dozen years ago, in Olvera, Spain. It was a beautiful night, and I love beauty. I think liberalism has desended into something not nice. The video at the end explains some of it. Own photo.

Some 65 years ago, I recall my late mother going off about ‘disgusting liberals.’ I didn’t know what a liberal was, and I did wonder what was disgusting about them, but it was one of those things that faded into insignificance. I knew that I was conservative, but neither conservative nor liberal, in South African language, had anything to do with politics. It was a moral stance. If you were a liberal, you were immoral, and if you were a conservative, you were moral.

So imagine my surprise when 42 years later, when I arrived in the States, to be told I was a liberal. I denied it. I said I was a conservative. To be honest, I didn’t realize it was a political party until after I left the USA in 2014. I had no interest in American politics.

That was thanks to Google Plus.

The left part of me and the right part of me

I think the reason so many assumed I was a liberal is because, in the US liberalism is associated with certain political policies. I have always believed that taxes need to be used to fund education, medical expenses, roads, bridges, clean water, power generation, telecoms, and public transport.

Why?

Because in the modern world, those are the things that provide an equal platform for all to begin and live their lives. Without them, there is too much struggle. There is also no reason why governments shouldn’t fund these things. It’s a matter of what is important ot government — ideology or good governance.

The fact that I believe a well run country should put the lives of its citizens first, plus provide them the means to be able to flourish when they don’t have the means themselves, does not mean that I believe in single motherhood, gay marriage, or abortion.

WAIT! Homosexuality and abortion

Before you get your knickers in a knot, I have no opinion about abortion, gay marriage, or homosexuality. Quite honestly, these topics have never interested me. I was never so stupid or so irresponsible as to have sex if there was a chance of getting pregnant. Nor do I care about the sex lives of other people. Sex is one of those topics I shy away from. I have always found it an uncomfortable topic. And, no, I’m not going to discuss it further.

For me, those are topics that belong in the realm of personal morality, and I have no strong opinions about them. Yes, I remember the research that showed there was no genetic link to being gay, that it was a choice, and that’s fine with me. However, I don’t want to hear about it.

I fail to see why I have to see gay pride parades, be flooded with rainbow colored regalia, have other people’s sexuality thrown in my face all the time. I think it’s uncouth, vulgar, and to be honest, sick and perverted. No, I don’t mean the action of gay sex is sick or perverted. I wouldn’t know. What I mean is this obsession of making everybody else aware of one’s sexuality.

I don’t care, and I don’t want to know. To me, people’s sexuality has nothing to do with governing a country. In addition, I don’t think marriage has anything to do with the State either. There should be no laws governing tax with regard to marriage. It simply isn’t the State’s business.

Single parenthood

I do, however, have a very strong opinion about women who get pregnant outside a committed relationship. Without a father being there to help rear kids, kids never function well.

[embed]The Fatherhood Project | Connecting fathers and children Working to improve the health and well-being of children and families by empowering fathers to be knowledgeable…thefatherhoodproject.org

The Fatherhood Project is a non-profit fatherhood program in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston, MA. Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of children and families by empowering fathers to be knowledgeable, active, and emotionally engaged with their children. Dept of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital

Rights and entitlements

I also don’t believe in ‘rights.’ Perhaps it has been my African upbringing, my observation of animals in the wild. I don’t see them having any rights. When the lion stalks the deer, the deer doesn’t say, “Mr. Lion, you are trespassing on my rights.”

There are no rights in Mother Nature. I most certainly don’t believe that there is mystical magical clown in the sky who endowed us with some sacred status.

Rights are laws that have been passed to permit people certain protections. They have never been there to increase people’s status. And that is the issue with liberalism today. It has stepped over a line, and however it started, it has morphed, in my opinion, into something that is unwell.

Whereas human rights were once a protection for people, now they are all about ensuring that people have equal status, regardless of them not having equal ability or making an equal contribution.

Working on one’s inferiority complex

When we were kids, if we didn’t feel good about ourselves, we were told to eradicate our inferiority complex. We were never encouraged to believe it was the other guy’s fault that we felt bad about ourselves, or that it was the reason that we couldn’t achieve.

Liberalism insists that everybody is born a saint, a genius, capable of doing anything, if only they started out the same way as other achievers have. It completely passes them by that there are others who overcame the same challenges that they have. The latest excuse for rejecting this fact is that those who overcame their challenges had ‘agency.’

The unpopular fact is that we are all genetic products. Genes influence us far more than nature and environment does. Every race horse owner knows that. Every dog breeder, farmer, or zoo keeper knows that. Certainly you can train someone with the right genes to do incredible things, but any one in the business of livestock will tell you that the training only works on the right genes. That’s why some animals sell for such high prices.

Our abilities, character, looks, health, and everything else are fundamentally gained at birth. We can do the best we can with what we’ve got, but a donkey will never be race horse.

The problem with today’s liberalism is that the donkeys are intent on being race horses, and they are blaming the stable masters, saying that the only reason they aren’t doing well on the racing circuit is because the horse trainer is a racist. Or is that animalist? (I think I just make up that word!)

I think we all need to do some work on ourselves in terms of coming to accept ourselves and our situation. We need to step away from blaming others for who we are.

Humility, knowing one’s place, and pushing oneself where one is not wanted

Megan Markle has to be the prime example of someone who is talentless, vulgar, without any self-awareness, and hell bent on being someone she can never be.

Humility is the ability to accept who one is. One is not trying to be someone who one isn’t. Self-acceptance goes a long way towards not inflicting oneself into places where one does not fit. In day’s gone by, it was said that one should know one’s place. I have never had an issue with that. I have always known my place.

What is knowing one’s place. I guess it’s not overstepping one’s ability or one’s status into an area where one is not equal or competent. I would never dare to give an opinion to someone who knew ten times more than I did. Well, not unless it was asked for. Even then, I would be very careful.

We all have limits. It is not shameful to acknowledge that. I am comfortable with my limits. I acknowledge them. Liberalism, however, has led many to believe that they have no limits. So we now have idiots governing us, ignoramuses becoming professors, and artists thinking that drawing stick figures is art.

Does liberalism have any good points?

The dictionary defines liberalism in the following way.

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy centered on individual rights, liberty, consent of the governed, and equality before the law. It champions protected personal freedoms, democratic governance, free trade, and the rule of law. Google AI

I think what modern liberalism has forgotten is the rule of law, and that there will always be people for whom the law does not work. The fact that it does not work for them does not mean that the law is wrong.

In recent years I’ve heard it said that pedophilia is just another sexual style, and that it should be permitted. I’ve seen cities fall into disrepair because governors thought it was okay for some people to steal because they were hungry.

So when I look at the above definition, I want to ask which personal freedoms? The freedom to rape or murder? The freedom to walk around naked in the street? The freedom to damage Tesla cars because one doesn’t like Elon Musk? The freedom to kill the CEO of a medical insurance company because medical insurance companies are harming the hell out of people? Where does one draw a line with all these ‘freedoms?’

I certainly think that there are some good things about the original intention of liberalism. Most things have good intentions. It’s just that good intentions often get lost as various human traits abuse them.

I believe that when we lose morality, we lose the structure of our society, and I think modern liberalism has overstepped the line.

The video below is worth a listen…

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[embed]Who Are You Politically? If you’ve picked a side, you’re nobody politically at all. Let me explain why.tessaschlesinger.medium.com