| | This article portrays another example of the self delusion typical of statist liberals. Truman Capote finally grasps that murderers are vicious, but only after a 40 year career of denial.
The Left embraces delusion because it must in order to sustain an unreasoning faith in socialism, and to identify "careers" in "public service" or support of Correct Causes with virtue.
Left-wing delusion fed the outraged discussion among eastern liberals following the 2004 election about the need for the northeastern Blue states along the Atlantic--New York, New Jersey, etc.--to seceed from the USA. As one angry eastern statist liberal was quoted: "What difference would secession make to the Northeast? After all, nearly all the important activities necessary to running the country take place in the Northeastern Corridor!"
Another example of socialist self-delusion is their fervent embrace of environmentalism and the junk science of global warming; like imbeciles they imagine that production "just happens", regardless of the regulations, restrictions and taxes they pile on business enterprises. One liberal whom I know well--an orthodox supporter of global warming and the Kyoto Treaty--commented that he was relieved that Canada had abundant supplies of natural gas; yet that very day the Wall Street Journal reported that Canadian producers were concerned that provisions of the Kyoto Treaty (to which Canada is a signator) would make new gas exploration and production uneconomic!
Left-wingers delude themselves that private productive work is morally tainted; so that, for example, the virtuous ought to boycott the products of Microsoft. These people believe that physical labor in private production is positively demeaning and benighted. It actually does not occur to them that private enterprise--from dirty productive work to creative and inspired entrepreneurship--supplies them with warm homes, sleek cars, great food and wine, and all the other luxuries of life they take for granted. Meanwhile, these political mandarins imagine themselves to be moral exemplars and far-seeing wise men, as they "manage" cities and public utilities, run museums and airports, and administer failed tax-supported state programs for which they are paid fat salaries and perks.
Authoritarians of every stripe--Left or Right--resort to self delusion and lies to defend their ideological doctrines, because authoritarianism is unnatural. That is, authoritarian doctrines invariably fail to produce their promised results--in social welfare schemes, in government enterprises, and in war-making.
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