We don't really need more heroes
I forgot where I found this, but Erik at Lawyers, Guns and Money explains with a patience I no longer possess, why progressive purism is in the first place based on a false mythology and in the second, is counterproductive to achieving our goals.
It surely should be read in full, but here's the heart of it:
In other words, yes some stuff sucks. For instance drone strikes that kill hundreds of innocent people. But what sucks more is ground wars that kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. How that happens is clear. If you're not willing to make pragmatic compromises to ensure the better outcome, then their blood is on your hands too.
[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]
It surely should be read in full, but here's the heart of it:
I understand the psychic need we have as people to craft historical narratives to fit our desires for the present. Stories about individual people creating change have a beautiful simplicity to them. But that doesn’t mean they are true. As we see in the present, change doesn’t happen in a beautifully simple and inspiring way. It’s a bloodbath full of power plays, infighting, and knife fights.Sometimes it seems to me the left's mythology is no more realistic than the conservative's alternative reality.
And I think if we understood this about the people and movements we revere in the past, we’d do a better job understanding how to organize and what to expect from our leaders in the present.
In other words, yes some stuff sucks. For instance drone strikes that kill hundreds of innocent people. But what sucks more is ground wars that kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. How that happens is clear. If you're not willing to make pragmatic compromises to ensure the better outcome, then their blood is on your hands too.
[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]
posted by Libby Spencer at 12:25 AM
2 Comments:
You are right . . . the left's mythology is no more realistic than the conservative's alternative fantasies. That's why both ideologies failed and will continue to fail. Unfortunately, after some years of watching and listening to people dealing with and doing politics, I reluctantly conclude that the human brain is just hard wired for fantasy in politics just as it is hard wired for religion. Unspun reality and cold logic just don't seem to cut it for most people. Cold pragmatism doesn't seem to have much of a chance of dislodging hot emotion. Hot emotion is what sustains two-party grip on power and the status quo.
I disagree that the liberal ideology has failed. It's improved society in many ways. But it's under attack and in danger of being destroyed.
But you are right that there's too much emo reaction everywhere that gets in the way of having a reasonable discussion on policy.
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