It's refreshing to find a new blogger doing interesting stuff...who knows; will this one be the next Guido or Muffled Vociferation, Ambush Predator or House of Dumb...?
IUnknown blogs at Beware Of Geeks Bearing Gifts. Take a look if you like.
The thing that got me going was this post, in which he quotes Mrs. Thatcher (pbuh), and makes some comments of his own, which I also recommend. Now, here's what he quotes her as saying:
"I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society.
And, you know, there is no such thing as society.
There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."
Hoo-rah!
Now look how this old quote - old by today's sound bite 'standards' - works as a perfect example of conservative philosophy, by going straight to the heart of human nature. I'm going to big it up as I go, pointing out how right I think it is.
I call this process 'ksifing.'
And, you know, there is no such thing as society. Okay Maggie, basic anthropology here. Nnobody here on Earth but us dumb apes; naked and clawless with a taste for carrion. Any political arrangements are going to have to deal with what we are; which is where we come from.There are individual men and women,.. "solitary mean, nasty brutish and short" (okay so that's Hobbes' State of nature but that was us, too: on the savannah and crossing the Nile into Asia and Europe and so she's off to a great start conservative philosophy-wise with the way our species actually lived for scores of millennia. Human nature is deep) ...and there are families. And sex! Babies come from somewhere, and we are instinctually predisposed to small family groups; not harems of Heinlein cluster marriages but families! And no government can do anything except through people, - not only does that recognise there is no numinous will of nation or species or class or race but she's reduced government down to the essential ingredients - and people must look to themselves first. The survival mechanism Daddy-O; live to love another day and pass on those selfish genes! First instinct; rooted deep in our nature, and impossible to overcome in healthy adults. ''Emotions are social constructs', my arse. It's our duty - deep down duty - at the chromosomal level - to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. The others after: not first; nor instead of ourselves; nor equally with ourselves, but after. It's getting to be a bit Life of Brian here, but, well, we ARE all individuals. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. See almost all Right-wing blogs passim. There’s no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."
Rights and duties: duties and rights. And duty is created first. Out of custom and agreement and probably originally out of parental love and small-family survival – that would be the first duties imaginable to pass from one generation to another.
So there you have it.
She draws her conclusions about what is wrong (which she typically leads with the plan; the Line; the policy which must follow) from things that are so simple and so mind-blowingly old and insights so valuable that they can scarcely be repeated too often.
Plus I didn’t have to work too hard to publish something positive from conservatism; not just what’s wrong but also what we need to look at and deal with: family, duty, and good government recognizing the two and treating them both right.
But don’t worry; faint–hearted liberal reader.
All will be well when she’s gone, and New Labour come to save the day. Because they care…
3 comments:
Geeks is good.
"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."
-Ronald Reagan
"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."
-Ronald Reagan.
Welcome back, Bob, and thanks for your comment.
Yep: it's hard to gainsay the Gipper even after all these years isn't it?
As a British Conservative, I must admit to approval of some, civilian services being in government hands, British 'libertarians' being about the middle of the Republican Right 50%, I think, but I believe that what Maggie and President Reagan had in common was understanding of our species. Which was how their domestic policies worked, and how they won the Cold War. Let families care for families, produce an industrial and food surplus and then you can gang up on the predators.
Savannah morality.
All those other bums; the commies and the liberals have no clue, which was why they always feed us to the predators.
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