Friday, August 21, 2020

The core of Antifa's and BLM's problem is Marxism


Brandon Smith does a great job of putting fundamental reality into words, and summing it up concisely.  He's just done that, IMHO, for Antifa and Black Lives Matter.  Their fundamental issue isn't racism at all - it's Marxism, the ideology that informs and underpins all their efforts.

Leftists in particular have always had a problem with competition and it stems from the Marxist roots of their philosophy. There is this notion among lefties that the world is supposed to be “equal”. Now, there are different types of equality, and I think the majority of Americans agree with the idea of equal opportunity. Meaning, (at least in the West) we think every person regardless of their circumstances should be given the CHANCE to PROVE they can work hard and succeed. People should not be stopped from pursuing that chance merely because of who they are.

However, leftists and Marxists think that equality of opportunity is not enough. They think that there should also be equality of outcome.

This one delusion sits at the core of all Marxist thinking. Equality of outcome is impossible because not all people are born equal. Some people are, frankly, born superior to others. Some people are born smarter. Some people are born stronger, taller and faster. Some people are born with innate musical or artistic talent. Some people are born with innate mathematical understanding. Some people are born extroverted and are good at making friends. Some people are born introverted and are better at self reflection and awareness. Some people are born to be basketball players and some are born to be engineers.

The psychological reality of mankind is that we are not born as blank slates; we are born with inherent qualities and the seeds of unique individual talents.  Marxists suffer from a complete mental disconnect with this concept.  If they were to admit that people are born with individual qualities and advantages and are not blank slates, then the foundation of their philosophy falls apart.  They rationalize their social engineering agenda under the premise that all people need to be "molded" into equal units.  They think people must be reeducated to reject bad beliefs and bad habits they were taught as blank slate children and learn to accept that everyone starts life out exactly the same.  Therefore, the majority of people who succeed are those that were given an unfair advantage, and success should be treated with disdain and suspicion.

But if people have inherent psychological characteristics and inherent advantages, then their personalities and qualities cannot be reformed.  Those "bad beliefs and habits" might actually be completely natural and necessary.  You might be able to hold them back through force or fear, but you can't change the core of who they are.  If our biological and genetic imperatives prevail, Marxists become obsolete and useless.

The secret is to discover what your innate strengths are in life and take advantage of them to succeed. If you do not have innate talent, then you must at least have an innate ability to work hard. If you don't have the ability and drive to work hard to become good at a thing, then you don't deserve to get recognition for that thing.  You are not entitled to feel like a winner merely because you exist.  It's really as simple as that.

. . .

I think the Marxist ideal is leading these kids down a path of brutal delusion, because they are never going to achieve the Utopian society that they seek. The world will never be “fair”, and the idea that you can force such conditions upon a culture without serious consequences is childish and mentally unstable. Make no mistake, we are entering an era in which the facade propping up limp-wristed and weak people is falling away. When it comes to economic strife, crisis and survival, there is no appeal to equality.  You're in the jungle, baby, and if you have no merit, you're gonna die.

The people willing to work hard and the people who seek to self improve are going to do well. The people that want a trophy just for participating are not going to make it.

There's more at the link.

This perfectly encapsulates all the modern shibboleths foisted upon us by left-wingers and progressives.

"White privilege"?  Nope - just an attempt to explain why we don't have equality of outcomes yet, by blaming one race for it.

"Critical race theory"?  It's an attempt to explain everything in terms of race, just as other movements throughout history have attempted to explain everything in terms of money, or industry, or social class, or divine will, or divine right, or whatever.  It's just the latest facet of the same old effort to blame something outside human nature for our problems - and it fails the reality test, just as all the others did.  It's yet another product of the academic ivory tower, divorced from the real world.

"Reparations for slavery"?  Nope - just wanting something for nothing.  Show me someone who was a slave, or whose parents or grandparents were slaves, and I'll agree to compensate them for it.  If that doesn't apply, I don't see how they deserve any compensation or reparations for slavery at all.  As Candace Owens (herself black) has rightly observed:




Racism does exist - but there are a heck of a lot of Americans who've overcome that challenge, and prospered despite it.  It all boils down to our individual response.  If we're determined, have drive and ambition, and work our tails off, we'll usually make good to at least some extent, despite all obstacles in our way.  That's the lesson of human history in almost every age.  If we prefer to be sheep, and rely on our shepherds politicians and "community organizers" for everything . . . then we deserve all we (won't) get.

Well spoken, Mr. Smith.

Peter

5 comments:

  1. From each according to their ability.
    To each according to their need.
    So in their own basic principles people have different abilities, so neither start nor end equal.
    And who exactly defines need? Of course they do, the superior folks who have determined that their needs come first and their duty is to tell all the rest of us what they have decided we need.
    So none of this silly equal opportunity or outcome, what they really want is the power to decide everything for the common folk because they are ever so much smarter and capable that the rest of us. And of course because they care so very much and have taken on the burden of running our lives for us they deserve a few extra perks for their trouble.

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  2. A deeper lie within Marxism which predates Marx:

    Education will lift all mankind to equality.

    Hard truth:

    Education can lift each one toward their potential. Because each one is different in potential, neither education - nor anything else - can produce any equality of condition or outcome.

    And even for those of comparable potential and educational opportunity, individual choices will affect the condition and outcome.

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  3. What surprises me is, not that people are figuring out the Marxist connection, but that they are only figuring this out now.

    Since both groups have been shouting Marxist phrases and concepts from pert near Day 1 of their existence. And one of them (Antifa) is straight up a Marxist reboot of a Marxist organization.

    Quelle suprise... Non!

    And what will not be surprising to many out there would be the rot of Marxism has spread to Soros' paid DA monkeys and politicians. Which would explain the Marxist-Leninist move to dump huge numbers of violent criminals back into society 'for the safety of the criminals' and other M-L moves like defunding police, rotating jail doors, et al.

    And even worse, Lenin style hats are kind of back in fashion not just with the street thugs, but with college professors (have been, in fact, since before 2016. I live in a college town and you can see it's about as common as a ball cap amongst the high-level edumacators.)

    The principles of Marxism are still the best principles to use against a capitalistic system. Stir up disenchantment and anger against the 'rich' and 'middle class' (like, oh, Occupy Wall Street, so this is nothing new.) Slowly integrate Marxist politicians into the system until Marxists are in control and then tear down everything from inside (like Seattle's mayor and city council, or Portland's, or... New York City's and on and on.)

    I saw a lot of this starting back when I was in school when Marxism was starting to filter in amongst the teachers who started to filter it to their students. With little to no pushback by parents or government. That was the late 70's, by the way. I'm just surprised it's taken this long to come out into the open.

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  4. I posted about the SNHU commercial that claims the world equally distributes talent, and the only thing separating the successful from the unsuccessful is opportunity. This seemingly implies that, if you are a loser, someone must have conspired against you.

    https://street-pharmacy.blogspot.com/2020/08/equality-of-talent-versus-opportunity.html

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  5. I'll be even less kind. Marxism is simply a ploy that one group is using in an attempt to gain power and riches. Those advocating for it see themselves in charge. If there was another, easier way for them to get what they want they'd advocate for that instead.
    True believes in Marxism have as much chance of attaining actual power as water has of becoming ice in a Phoenix parking lot in July. They'll be used and, if they are lucky, shuffled aside by those who know what the real endgame is.
    The danger is that only the most cynical and ruthless people will do what it takes to attain power in this way and, once they get that power, they will be doubly ruthless to maintain it. Naturally, they will attract those like Beria or Röhm who are willing to do the actual dirty work. Both men forgot that they served even more ruthless masters. Any today, no matter how innocent, who excuse or overlook the same ruthlessness in others could easily share their fate.

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