Why so Frightened?
A reader with the novel yet binary name of the New Number Two asks:
“Now a question, why is the left afraid of, and why will they not allow, free and equal discussion?”
The answer is one I have pondered and examined before. My apologies to those weary of the topic, but some things bear repeating.
The whole realm of human philosophy can be divided into nine areas: Epistemology, Logic, Ontology, Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics, Economics, Metaphysics, Theology.
In each area, the Left is not merely wrong, but loyal to the exact opposite of truth, and has no argument to make which does not instantly refute itself. Hence, a free and open discussion threatens all they hold dear, and promises no advantage whatever should such discussion be allowed.
Epistemology is the study of how to distinguish true from false. The Left is nihilist, that is, believes all alleged truths are narratives meant only to oppress the poor. This excuses the Left from any debate on the merits, so their rampant hypocrisy need never be questioned.
Logic is the study of the formal coherence of statements. The Left is relativist, that is, believes hidden or open class loyalty, racial bigotry and sexual bias influences all allegedly logical thinking to render all conclusions unreliable. My logic is not the same as your logic; the logic of the upper and lower classes has no common ground; no one outside of your identity group can understand you, and hence no one outside your identity group can portray you, write about you, or use the products of your culture. There is no common ground. Therefore only the degree of passion and the identity of the speaker gives conclusions any authority: no reasoning ever need be examined. This excuses the Left from any debate on the merits, so their rampant hypocrisy need never be questioned.
Ontology is the study of what is or is not real. The Left is solipsistic, that is, they say reality is a matter of personal preference. This excuses the Left from any debate on the merits, so their rampant hypocrisy need never be questioned.
Ethics is the study of right and wrong action. From Marx to Freud to Skinner to various materialist, the Left says human action is a by product of nonhuman evolutionary, biological, chemical, or social forces, so ergo there are no such categories as right and wrong. This excuses the Left from any debate on the merits, so their rampant hypocrisy need never be questioned.
Aesthetics is the study of man’s search for beauty. The Left holds all standards of art to be arbitrary if not tools of oppression. This excuses them from any consideration of artistic merit. The sick, distorted, deranged and aberrant visual and aural products of their art studios display louder than words the soul of their movement. However, promoting radical subjectivity in art allow them to demean works of genius and to call works of mere garbage genius. This is done to insulate their tastelessness from criticism.
Politics is the study of how to constitute the state so as to minimize threats to the liberty and security of the citizens. Liberals hate and ignore the conclusions of political thinking, and preferring the accumulation of raw and untrammeled power, power for its own sake, which combines the worst aspects of anarchy and tyranny invading every cranny of life: totalitarian ism. They embrace censorship as their core of their doctrine, to immunize themselves from criticism.
Economics is the study of the invariant relationships between marketplace forces in order to assess the costs and benefits of various possible politics policies on a given area and period. It is not a predictive science. The Left hate and ignore the conclusions of economics, preferring instead to daydream about what it would be like in fairyland if wealth and dignities, fame and fortune could be extorted by force from nowhere, and at no cost. This mental illness is called Socialism. It has led to more deaths in the Twentieth Century than any other single cause in all recorded history combined. They want something for nothing.
Metaphysics is the study of universal and necessary truths: the axioms of reality. The Left holds the sole metaphysical truth is that there are no metaphysical truths, no grand narrative or coherent scheme of reality. They are radical empiricists, and hold that nothing is true but statements of physics. (This statement is, itself, of course, a not statement of physics, hence is it is a self refuting statement).
This metaphysical agnosticism allows them to ignore the existence of any higher reality or deeper truth, and to ignore the fundamental nature of man and the cosmos.
From this self-refuting blather issue all their other various errors. Most importantly, by ignoring human nature, they can make demands against human dignity (such as claiming positive rights to the goods and services provided by others) but without ever regarding human dignity as real.
This allows them to make arbitrary demands not just on their fellow man but also on the universe at large, while insulating them from criticism that would otherwise come from a correct understanding of the nature of reality, i.e., you cannot get something from nothing.
Without metaphysics, the metaphysical differences between such things as spirit and matter, subject and object, truth and imagination, reason and madness, can be put aside and ignored.
Money is treated as something that comes from nowhere for no reason, and moral standards as pliant and rubbery, to be stretched or shrunk according to local and immediate party goals.
Without metaphysics, and no division between real and unreal, one can entertain the belief that the world owes you a living, or that a baby is a mere mass of cells without rights one second before birth, but has the opposite nature one second after.
Theology is the rational study of the divine. The left dismisses divine things as superstitious figments, and pays divine honors to natural beauties, sexual transgressions, various fashionable forms of spiritualism, theosophy, and devil worship, including infanticide and sodomy, and most of all they worship themselves. Their theology is best regarded as a morbid form of atheistic narcissism, but eventually promises to break out as open satanism.
They fear free and equal discussions because they risk losing all things if their ideas are ever examined, and have nothing to gain.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
