Dehumanizing Ideological Blindness

Those on the left suffer from a dehumanizing ideological blindness. They are a victim of their inability to see humans as individual, unique creations of God, but instead see only groups of people. Their ideology is built on the fallacy that human nature is on an upward climb. They believe that people, at least certain people, are steadily evolving into a kinder, more tolerant life form. Instead of seeing themselves as in the same pot of stew as every other man or woman ever born, broken and sinful, they see themselves at having achieved a higher vision, and a higher level of goodness.

Accordingly, they seek to create a top-down society governed benignly by “enlightened” leaders that will make things better for everyone. Because they are intellectually and morally better than everyone else they will be able to create a heaven on earth. Every liberal/progressive believes that they can create a more perfect, more fair, more just, more equal society if only everyone else of lesser moral and intellectual standards would just get out of their way. Like a disease, it affects some liberals more than others, but the perfect or nearly perfect society is their faulty and dangerous dream.

Sadly, it was the very same dream as Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Denis Diderot, the ideological founders of the French Revolution. They were “enlightened” beyond everyone else and saw themselves as capable of not only replacing the crown, but creating a nearly perfect society based on “fraternity, equality, and liberty”—the cry of the French Revolution. The French Revolution was based on an entirely different premise than the American Revolution. While the American Founders clearly understood the fallen state of man and endeavored to limit the power of men in and through government, the French Revolution elevated men to absolute power, creating a government of “enlightened” men, rather than a government of laws that restrains men. The French Revolution was a bloody reign of terror.

Some Americans and Englishmen praised the French Revolution, especially Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, even after it was evident that it was a murderous régime. Perfection was the dream as Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot. Mass murders one and all, they began their march toward power promising a “workers’ paradise” such as the world had never seen before. Even though he was fully aware of the mass starvation in Ukraine by Stalin, liberal New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief, Walter Duranty continued to praise Stalin because he was in love with the Soviet Revolution.

When Adolph Hitler first came to power, his most prominent champion in the US was liberal columnist, Walter Lippman. Not to be outdone by Duranty, Walter Lippman repeatedly praised Adolph Hitler for the great new socialist society he was creating in Germany. Long after others like Churchill warned of the danger of Hitler’s rise, Lippman finally fell silent in his praise for Hitler.

Just as Lenin and Stalin talked of the new “Soviet Man” who would be better and kinder and more generous and intelligent than anyone who had come before him, today’s liberals think of themselves as morally and intellectually better than others. These are the same people who continually downplayed the Soviet menace and often praised Soviet leaders because frankly, they were and are sympathetic to the socialist ideology. They found much to like in the socialist policies of Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot because they share the same blind belief in that unsustainable economic concept. They are angry at these tyrants, not because of their attempt to implement socialism, but because they failed to do it right. If only Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot had not been corrupt, they could have succeeded in creating a socialist Nirvana, so goes the thinking of today’s liberals.

Tyrants like Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Zedong are all cut from the same cloth. They didn’t start out as tyrants. Hitler was said to be charming at a cocktail party. Stalin was an altar boy. Fidel was known for his charisma. Frankly, they were all accomplished politicians, great orators, magnetic leaders, spellbinding speakers. That’s the problem. They were true believers in socialism as the key to a perfect society.

Socialism is like opium. It’s about gaining unbelievable power over others. It’s about being smarter and better than others. It’s a drug that controls emotions and ideas. Socialists think of people as groups, not as individuals. The poor are a group. Women are a group. The elderly are a group. Union members are a group. The young are a group. There are good groups and bad groups. The bad groups include the rich, business owners, gun owners, conservatives, and white males. Of course, there is crossover between groups, but it’s all about groups, not about individuals.

That’s why when the woman questioned President Obama about her vigorous elderly mother getting a hip transplant under Obamacare, he coldly dismissed that as unrealistic and suggested instead that she take an aspirin for the discomfort. The old lady wasn’t in the right group as determined by liberal intellectuals. Young people are good for society, but older people who are not productive don’t deserve the same medical care. And who makes such determinations? Liberal rulers, of course, are smarter and more enlightened than free people making those decisions. This is the dehumanizing ideological blindness of today’s liberals.

Administration officials who have been instrumental in the creation of Obamacare believe that the government should intervene and terminate Down syndrome children in the womb, for their own good, of course. As a state senator, our President voted for an Illinois abortion bill that sounds as if it were written by NAZI Dr. Josef Mengele. If an abortion is “botched” and the baby is alive outside the womb, another doctor is to be called in to kill the baby. That’s the essence of the bill State Senator Obama voted for.

In Oregon a law was enacted that allows for euthanasia. When the quality of life (as determined by another family member or by some government health worker) is no longer good enough to justify continued existence, it’s time to simply snuff out the life of that individual. No longer is it God’s decision when life will end. It is now the decision of someone who has put himself in the place of God.

The liberals fought tooth and nail against the elimination of partial birth abortion, a horrendous procedure that stabs the baby in the head to kill it as it is leaving the birth canal. Why, because for a liberal it’s a choice, not a child. If the birth of a child is inconvenient for the mother, kill it.

It’s all for the good of society they tell us. Liberals bleed for the masses and for groups, but they don’t care much for real individuals. They don’t see each human as an amazing creation of God. In fact, liberals don’t have much use for God at all. They don’t like His Ten Commandments. Honor God? No thanks. Respect your parents? Not if they are retrograde nationalistic Neanderthals. Don’t lie? Go ahead and lie if it will advance the cause. Don’t covet? It’s OK to be envious of those who are successful. Don’t kill? It’s a fetus, not a life. Don’t commit adultery? It depends on the situation. All morals and ethics are relative for liberals. There are no absolutes.

Treating people as members of groups instead as precious creations of God is a dehumanizing ideological blindness that leads to the rationalization of terrible crimes against individuals. This blindness justifies ignoring the needs of an old lady who has the means and the vigor to get a knee replacement. It justifies confiscatory taxation to punish the rich. It justifies the killing of undesirable babies who will not “benefit” society. It justifies ignoring the law if you know “what is better” for society.

Liberals aren’t better people; they are the same as you and me. As Lord Acton said, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It doesn’t matter who it is—you, me, the man next door, down the street or across the nation—we are all susceptible to corruption, because there is evil in all of us. As James Madison famously wrote in Federalist Paper 51, “If men were angels no government would be necessary.” But of course, as Madison and the other Founders understood, men are not angels. Each and every woman is flawed and corrupt.

As King David said, “Indeed, I was born guilty. I was a sinner when my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:1). Isaiah wrote, “We’ve all become unclean, and all our righteous acts are like permanently stained rags.” (64:6) Saint Paul wrote, “Because all people have sinned, they have fallen short of God’s glory.” (Romans 3:23) The misunderstanding of human nature is the fatal flaw of liberalism. It’s what separates the wisdom of the Founders from today’s liberals. Attempts to create the “right” socialism are doomed to ignominious failure just as were the socialist dreams of Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro and Chavez. The only question is, how much will humans have to suffer before their failed scheme collapses?

Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

Tyranny and dictatorship sneak up on nations and individuals. Tyrants don’t announce their plans, instead they lull people to sleep with promises they can’t keep and with intoxicating entitlement programs. They give away money to preferred groups, money that they must first take from the people. They create nothing but promises and when they give away something the cost is individual freedom. As the father of our country, George Washington said, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.”

We stand on the precipice. By spending money we don’t have we have mortgaged the future of our children and grandchildren. Legions of bureaucrats and regulators spread across our land killing jobs, strangling energy production, crippling our economy. Immorality has become the norm, and traditional values are mocked. Corruption, the inevitable consequence of more government, stains our land.

Have we passed the point of no return? We can be comforted with the knowledge that we are more than a remnant. Our lives and the future of our children depend on God’s mercy and grace. It is as the Psalmist said, “God rules the nations. He sits upon his holy throne.” (Psalm 47:8) With our prayers, our actions, our dollars, and our votes we must continue on with the hope of the Pilgrims that God will preserve us.