A take on philanthropy

Well stated matthew Hanley:

The essential problem with capitalism is not inequality; the problem with capitalism is MTV. Problems with capitalism proliferate in proportion to its detachment from moral values. In one sense, capitalism even has something in common with communism: its ideology of materialism. Not that capitalism is morally equivalent to the bloody inhumanity of its erstwhile rival, but it does corrode moral and cultural values. -

....Philanthropy anyone? Such consciously “big business” behavior is considerably worse than what T.S. Eliot had in mind when he wrote:“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm — but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”

It seems to me that the philanthropist (the lover of man) should, as a prerequisite, be finely attuned to the human condition – and, like Eliot, on guard as to how he may compound rather than alleviate problems. -
In places, Buffet seems to want to go there. Ultimately, however, what he calls a “crisis of imagination” in the philanthropic industry is, in essence, really better classified as a crisis of values, which is to say a deep conflict of perspectives about the dignity of man. The biggest problem we face, then, is that parting with one’s money is easier than parting with one’s ideology. The utopian notion that the right combination of financing, technology, and ingenuity – critical components as they each are – can compensate for neglect of the underlying moral dimensions at the root of our crises must be resisted. Apprehending this moral dimension can only be the byproduct, as Pascal argued, of our efforts to think well. Inheriting bad ideas, even along with a fortune, only ensures that authentic human development will remain elusive – even if the “non-profit” world thrives. - See more at:

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/big_philanthropy_a_crisis_of_values#sthash.xDuLZDzv.dpuf

Tolerantly intolerant

Daryll McCann:

For more than four decades, our “new class” has marginalised anybody with the temerity to challenge PC dogma, and yet its members continue to define themselves as “open minded” folk whose bottom line is tolerance – unless, of course, you are a “Denier”. The Culture Cult was published long before the CAGW theory transmutated into the CAGW hoax, and yet its anti-bourgeois bohemian thesis tells us why Warministas won’t let go of the thing. Roger Sandall, were he alive today, might raise a wry smile at a junior high school history textbook used to teach Labor’s new national curriculum, especially when the author speaks of global warming as proof positive that industrial modernity is not superior to nomadic existence. Chalk that up as one for cultural relativism.
 

The excerpt is amusing in that the bohemian-laborites are determinedly hypocritical, but it is also disturbing in that these loons have control of the education system...another reason why I am homeschooling (until it becomes banned as a subversive activity like in Europe, after which I shall willingly become a conscientious objector). 

'Ne'er the Twain shall meet'

Thomas Sowell is a social essayist whose work I solemnly and avidly advocate for. His insights into America and the black-white polarisation which affects social, political and familial relationships are remarkable as well as perspicacious.
The following excerpt provides a powerful perspective into the post modern reductionism that is sweeping the globe; namely a dualism of worldviews which increasingly reduces most of politicised mankind into two diametrically opposed camps with seemingly no hope that the Twain shall meet.

US political commentator Thomas Sowell has written much on all this. In his incisive 1987 volume, A Conflict of Visions, he contrasts the constrained vision with the unconstrained. The former sees mankind as limited morally, intellectually and socially, and eschews the push for radical change, either in man or in society. The latter sees man and society as unbounded in potential, and seeks for radical change to bring in utopia now.

The former follows the Judeo-Christian view of the fallenness of man, and the impossibility of changing human nature and society without outside help. The latter sees human nature and society being capable of being moulded into a new man and a perfect society. Says Sowell:

“The great evils of the world – war, poverty, and crime, for example – are seen in completely different terms by those with the constrained and the unconstrained visions. If human options are not inherently constrained, then the presence of such repugnant and disastrous phenomenon virtually cries out for explanations – and for solutions. But if the limitations and passions of man himself are at the heart of these painful phenomena, then what requires explanation are the ways in which they have been avoided or minimized. While believers in the unconstrained vision seek the special causes of war, poverty and crime, believers in the constrained vision seek the special causes of peace, wealth, or a law-abiding society.”

The differing outcomes of these philosophies are becoming increasingly apparent. Detroit is a city which reflects emphatically on the one; let us hope and pray Austrlia does not suffer the same fate.
The full transcript is available @ http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2013/08/07/on-revolution-and-competing-worldviews/

Sowell for president

This is the African-American who should be leading America not Alinsky's acolyte.

Whole books could be filled with the unequal behavior or performances of people, or the unequal geographic settings in which whole races, nations, and civilizations have developed. Yet the preconceptions of the political Left march on undaunted, loudly proclaiming sinister reasons why outcomes are not equal within nations or between nations.

All this moral melodrama has served as a background for the political agenda of the Left, which has claimed to be able to lift the poor out of poverty, and in general make the world a better place. This claim has been made for centuries and in countries around the world. And it has failed for centuries in countries around the world.

Some of the most sweeping and spectacular rhetoric of the Left occurred in 18th-century France, where the very concept of the Left originated in the fact that people with certain views sat on the left side of the National Assembly.

The French Revolution was their chance to show what they could do when they got the power they sought. In contrast to what they promised — “liberty, equality, fraternity” — what they actually produced were food shortages, mob violence, and dictatorial powers that included arbitrary executions, extending even to their own leaders, such as Robespierre, who died under the guillotine.

In the 20th century, the most sweeping vision of the Left — Communism — spread over vast regions of the world and encompassed well over a billion human beings. Of these, millions died of starvation in the Soviet Union under Stalin and tens of millions in China under Mao.

Milder versions of socialism, with central planning of national economies, took root in India and in various European democracies.

If the preconceptions of the Left were correct, central planning by educated elites who had vast amounts of statistical data at their fingertips and expertise readily available, and were backed by the power of government, should have been more successful than market economies where millions of individuals pursued their own individual interests willy-nilly.
 

Read the blog in full @  http://www.nationalreview.com/article/352704/lefts-central-delusion-thomas-sowell

Harbinger of doom?

Is the sad tale of Detroit the harbinger of things to come in the 'progressive' West?

Tim Blair –, Wednesday, August, 07, 2013, (1:26pm)

“In the city of Detroit, 47 percent of adults are functionally illiterate,” reports Katie Pavlich. “Students in Detroit’s public school system have a higher chance of going to prison than they do of graduating high school.” The doomed city’s problems start at the top:

Just a few years ago, now former president of the school board Otis Mathis, fondled himself during a public meeting. Naturally, his inappropriate behavior was defended by a school board colleague who argued Mathis, 55-years-old at the time, was simply a “naive young man” about appropriate behavior.

 There’s also the small matter of Mathis’s own functional illiteracy. Following is an email from the former president of Detroit’s school board:

 If you saw Sunday’s Free Press that shown Robert Bobb the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, move Mark Twain to Boynton which have three times the number seats then students and was one of the reason’s he gave for closing school to many empty seats.

 

Narcissus and the modern elite

Ha Ha, sad but unfortunately all too true:

For many young people, especially those who’ve been exposed to the arse-end of academia for longer than is wise, whininess is now regarded as a virtue. It’s how some people hope to make themselves interesting, if only to other idiots. Apparently stoicism is terribly old hat. Whingeing is what the sexy and enlightened people are doing now. And so by some accounts, nothing is too small or banal to be unjust or oppressive, or emotionally crushing, from hairstyles that are racist to the traumatic names of nail polish colours. Apparently these things are “microaggressions” that are “extremely triggering” and making the intellectuals of tomorrow weep into their pillows.

And as I’ve said before, this farcical unrealism is being taught and cultivated.

Back to feudalism

I know I am showing my conservative colours by quoting Bolt, but the truth is that he make accurate observations:

I’m generalising about the Left. But that’s the romance that often marks them off from conservatives - the rule of mates over the rule of law; the tribe over principle.

Think of building union protesters ignoring court orders, shouting “touch one, touch all”.

Think of the pagan anti-McDonald’s protesters stopping the sanctioned construction of an outlet at Tecoma, or the mates rates that has now crippled NSW Labor.

Add also the multiculturalism push which has tribes negotiating not for equal treatment but favors.
 

Tribalism is a return to feudalism and the problem with that is that feudalism breeds a hierarchical elitism that is, in essence; totalitarian. This of course fits the goal of the 'intellectual' radicals because they actually believe that they are the ones who should be in charge, having all that outward compassion and important knowledge, you know; nous, the concern about population explosions, the illegal immigration, the plight of endangered lady bugs, the rape of Gaia etc.

The only problem being that when these morons have ultimately succeeded in bringing the Judeo-Christian civilisation to its knees, the ones who take charge will not be the sensitive, seaweed nourished metro-sexual but the barbarians who know only violence and the will to power...can you imagine a shrimp shouldered, green leaning, limp wristed, effete, 'scholalry', tofu eating, inner-city, wimpy lawyer Eloi coming up against some of these steroid driven, pumped up, suicidal Morlock's aimed at them by a psychopathic group of ruthless controllers. Think Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, Ceausescu et al

If it were not so devastating to the vast majority of 'ordinary'folk it would be amusing.