Sarah Hoyt has a magnificent rant about buying a washer, dealing with a 'greenie' PC salesperson, and what it implies. It's great reading, as are the well over 400 comments so far on that post.
Go read it, and enjoy! It drives home, yet again, the truth of C. S. Lewis' famous quotation:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.
Peter
Okay, THAT is a home run! :-)
ReplyDeleteI have been commenting for many years that the ruling class is afflicted with magical thinking. That is, saying the right words with the right attitude will bring the desired results. If not, some evil wizard must be to blame.
ReplyDeleteThey are, for the most part, innumerate, illogical, ignorant of science or of the scientific method, and yet suffer from entirely undeserved high esteem. (They have the trophies to prove it!)
They exist on feelings instead of facts, and are more than willing to fudge facts to conform to their feelings.