Saturday, June 01, 2013

Worth repeating

Gerhard Niemeyer's review of Burnham:

Liberals feel guilty at the thought of any condition of
wretchedness, anywhere. For this kind of guilt
there can, of course, be no forgiveness. The Liberal
seeks relief by trying to “do something
about any and every social problem,” a feverish
and interminable compulsive activity in which
not the correctness of the program but rather
“good intentions” are counted. The Liberal’s twisted
and irrational sense of guilt has a fatal political
effect: It disarms him morally before those
whom he regards as less well off than himself.
This vulnerability, and his peculiar sense of guilt,
so often breeds in the Liberal a generalized
hatred of Western civilization and his own country.

Written in 1964.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The religious overtones of liberalism are undeniable, especially to somebody raised in a Christian tradition that emphasizes inherent guilt.

G.K. Chesterton's famous quip springs to mind: conservatives leave problems alone for fear of making them worse or making new problems, and liberals make new problems trying to solve current problems. But whereas a conservative can look at the "problems" of the world and say "That's how it is," the thought that this is the way the world is eats at liberals. Watching a liberal try to put God on trial when they get to heaven could be a very interesting.

-Sean

OreamnosAmericanus said...

Well put.

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