Enjoying the view from Limbo
As I have written on numerous occasions, socialism (aka “democratic socialism”) is, at its core, beyond all the rhetoric about equality, caring for the weak, people before profits, and so on, a political ideology — not a theory or hypothesis, but an ideology in the Marxist sense — based on one simple notion: the individual human being is property of the State. Allow...
What is Progressivism? / World Politics
by Daren Jonescu · Published February 7, 2018 · Last modified February 10, 2018
The essential mechanism of democratic socialism, which Tocqueville explained perfectly with his warning about the threat of soft despotism, is the nanny state’s inviting web of progressive “help,” which gradually lulls well-meaning but compromised citizens into the immobility of moral paralysis, until they are ready to be devoured by a government with an endless appetite for human blood. Take the case of the...
Well, my calendar says it’s 2018, but anyone taking a quick glance at today’s world scene and its sorry cast of characters could be forgiven for imagining it was 1918. After all, we humans pride ourselves on learning from our mistakes, and surely no era would be more inclined to indulge in this pride than one that calls itself “progressive.” And yet… One...
A point of clarification or emphasis: I’ve noticed that in commenting on my American Thinker article concerning Bernie Sanders’ moral judgment on Donald Trump, a lot of readers are bringing up Bernie’s old essay which mentions women fantasizing about being raped. Others, meanwhile, draw attention to his wife’s financial embroilments. Way beside the point, I would say, and extremely small potatoes compared to...
Bernie Sanders is calling on President Trump to “think about resigning,” citing past allegations of sexual misconduct against him, along with his infamous Access Hollywood vulgarity. Anyone familiar with my writing knows I am not a Trump defender, but for the media to trumpet Sanders, of all people, as a moral judge — of Donald Trump or anyone else — indicates the measure...
When George Washington’s memory has been deemed “unacceptable” to Americans, will America still exist? In the fundamental transformation of any nation, there will be a moment that stands as the symbolic termination of that nation as anything recognizable, and the beginning of a completely new nation unrelated to the old except in name. For example, you will know England is over when Shakespeare...
Liberty's Labors Lost / Socialized Medicine / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published July 26, 2017 · Last modified February 1, 2018
Charlie Gard’s parents, stonewalled by their government and the Euro-socialist high command for five months, their child effectively kidnapped by the State, have finally been forced to accept that it is now too late to hope that their baby might be saved. They have therefore withdrawn their application to take him to an American hospital for experimental treatment. He will soon die. There...
On Tuesday, May 9, the Republic of Korea will elect a new president. All signs indicate that the next president will be a socialist, after a decade of governance by the country’s relatively conservative party — a party which, in a desperate attempt to save itself from being tarred with President Park Geun-hye’s recent impeachment, has tellingly rebranded itself as Liberal Korea. Given...
The recent controversy stirred by Pope Francis’ criticism of the free market has had one beneficial side effect: it indirectly demonstrates the extent to which Barack Obama’s American apologists have more in common with a faithful flock than with independent, free citizens. As I am all too aware that this topic is a minefield, both among the Pope’s Catholic defenders and among supporters...
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