By a happy coincidence, a liberal and I happened to be driving along the Allegheny River when we saw a sign that pointed out Rachael Carson’s house.
“She’s one of my heroes.” the very liberal woman said.
“Around a million people die every year from malaria because Rachael Carson worked to hard to outlaw DDT. Millions more people, mostly children, are made so weak that their lives are ruined.”
“She’s still one of my heroes.”
“How many million more people have to die of malaria before she’s no longer one of your heroes?”
The conversation ended. Later, the very nice, very liberal woman mentioned that she had contracted malaria during a post-DDT Peace Corps tour of duty in Africa. “Hoist with your own petard.” is a phrase that has rarely had a more appropriate time to be used.
A few minutes later, the conversation changed to the need for funding. “Our school doesn’t have money for textbooks, so I got a bunch of high school kids to do some tree-planting for me.”, I was informed. “They donated the money they made to the district so they could afford new books.”
“But, if the teachers’ salaries, benefits, and pensions were reduced a tiny bit, there’d be plenty of money for textbooks. And, there’s really no need for new texts. The old ones are better.”
The conversation ended.
In thinking about our exchanges, I realized that liberals were not motivated by the joys to be found in consistency and solving problems efficiently. It is not that they do not believe in God, but that many believe in no-god. Their deity, ultimately vanity, does not encourage them to use their minds in what many consider to be a rational, problem-solving approach that provides real solutions to real problems.
Instead, the problems they identify, and they are many, are exalted, even worshipped. Their problems provide excuses for funding, and must be maintained and unsolved. It’s been that way since Babylonians tried to solve their problems by building, among other things, ziggurats.
