tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post5543677785150284973..comments2024-03-17T00:10:44.022+00:00Comments on From Arse To Elbow: The Responsible DiasporaDavid Timoneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568348438980023320noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-70209775078687320862015-11-15T15:22:07.103+00:002015-11-15T15:22:07.103+00:00It is very tedious to read Freedland, who continua...It is very tedious to read Freedland, who continual writes articles about how the world would be much better if there were more people like him. While we all have that tendency, it would be rather more sensible, especially in a journalist, and you would have thought to a liberal, to try to understand the world as seen through other eyes, and to realise that actions have consequences.gastro georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-2062078310641066192015-11-15T12:52:46.659+00:002015-11-15T12:52:46.659+00:00Freeland's argument borders on the idea of a Z...Freeland's argument borders on the idea of a Zionist network, something I think the liberals regard as anti Semitic!<br /><br />Freeland is a very typical liberal, the West are the beacons of progress and must therefore be trusted to deliver it. This despite the fact that the West have and are royally screwing up vast parts of the world, particularly the Middle East. The other typical trait of a liberal is that being passive and subservient in the face of oppression is better than struggle and violence. I.e. only the strong are allowed to be violent and the weak must take it. So the responsible (educated and middle class) diaspora accepts the balance of power and the inevitable direction of history. The is called being rational. The irresponsible (who are most hardest hit by oppression, violence, racism etc etc) simply fail the rational test. <br /><br />There is also a firm belief in liberal ideology that progress can only come from the top down approach and anything to the contrary is not only doomed to fail but extremely dangerous. The formation of the Islamic state could be viewed as a 'bottom-up' response to the Iraq debacle (though to an extent funded by powerful forces). This experiment is not allowed to take on a life of its own or learn the lessons of its mistakes or be allowed outrages, no those privileges are the preserve of the top down formations.<br /><br />Liberals are also selectively critical, they criticise the extreme social practices of societies they have no conception of but do not devote the same energy to the incredible inequality between advanced and developed worlds. They raise the issues but do not see the problem as being with Western values but with lack of development in the developed nations. So in all the talk around inequality the values of the West are not up for discussion. The Islamists are barbaric and we are civilised and if the barbaric don't want to be civilsed then they should be treated like vermin. Nothing more to be said.<br /><br />Israel embodies all these liberal ideals, for good or for bad.<br /><br />It should be noted that because liberals pretty much follow whatever is in the interests of US imperialism, it sometimes gets them into awkward situations, where in Libya for example they champion the disintegration of a nation by empowering Islamists! Another liberal trait is to move on quickly and then re-write history to somehow blame anti imperialists for the problems.<br /><br />Finally, I remember reading Engels response to Irish bombs going off in London. Engles said that this tactic wasn't the best way to get British workers to support your cause. Of course, the Irish revolutionaries were not stupid enough to:<br /><br />a) think they would get their support anyway and<br />b) think if they had their support it would make a blind bit of difference.<br /><br />We could call Engels the first naive idiot of socialism!<br /><br />Herbie Kills Childrennoreply@blogger.com