Selfish Psychology: Revealing the Lie of Liberals’ Apparent Moral High Ground

The left consistently takes the moral high ground, and the right is left grasping at air. In order to prevent this happening, conservatives need to be secure in the values they stand for, but they also need to understand the twisted psychology behind the left’s celebration of victimhood.

Romney has been roundly beaten up over his now infamous 47% comment regarding the culture of entitlement that afflicts our country. He was then beaten up again for his comments about the Obama administration in effect bribing sections of the voting community with ‘extraordinary gifts’. Never mind that both comments were patently true - both left and right wing queued up to condemn Romney’s apparent moral failings – such, sadly, is the level of debate in our country.

However it would be a mistake to confuse the left wing censure with that of the right. Grindrich, Jindal and Walker’s comments were simply those of pragmatic politicians positioning themselves so that they didn’t disaffect the 47%, and those sections of the community that were in fact the recipient of extraordinary gifts.

The outrage from the left is another matter. What is concerning is that the left – those “elite, smart people” that Rick Santorum identified (he would be better served if he labeled them ‘intellectual’), actually believe their rhetoric – which is that a huge proportion of the population needs the State to look after them.

These patrons of the culture of entitlement become shrill with anger if it is pointed out that there is even such a thing as a culture of entitlement, not to mention that trying to support over 100 million people on welfare is a recipe for ruin. Equally unacceptable to them is the notion that sections of the population are cynically fleecing the system of all the welfare they can get – this doesn’t fit with their image of the helpless victim.

The irrational and aggressive reaction of these elite liberal to what are obvious truths is evidence of what in psychological parlance it is called a psychosis. It is apparent, that for deep psychological reasons liberal intellectuals need to feel that they are looking after people, and they resist with a vengeance any truth that shows the real motivation for their position.

There is a crisis of compassion in the US brought on by government subsistence benefits. These programs - food stamps, welfare, medicaid, etc - severely limit the need for private sector generosity. Compassion is thereby reduced and the culture is hardened against those in need.
Far from being acts of caring government benefits create a dependency class unable to overcome the restrictions placed on recipients by virtue of maintaining eligibility. A permanent poverty class is created by government subsistence benefits.

Now that we know the roots of progressivism are in the human sin of selfishness, I think the true example of Christ is the answer.

2 Timothy 3

New International Version (NIV)

3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—
5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,
7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.
9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,
11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Liberalism is immaturity, cloaked with the pretense of moral and intellectual superiority. Very few liberals do anything for the poor personally. They may run a half marathon or two to raise money for breast cancer research, but even then the donation is other people’s money.
Liberals hatred of the rich is a displacement of their own guilt for contributing nothing at all to society beyond voting for Democrats to punish the evil rich while the libs scout out the newest restaurant and keep their own money.
Emotionally liberals are incapable of dealing with the reality that socialism creates more poverty and is tantamount to slavery. Such reality ruins their nice tidy little fantasy.
My oldest daughter and her “wife” demonstrate this perfectly. While preening over their status as “elites” for being libs, they run marathons for things like breast cancer “awareness”. They never contribute a dime of their own money, and were dumbfounded when I pointed out to them there isn’t an American over the age of 10 who isn’t “aware” of breast cancer.
Their whole focus is checking out the restaurants in DC during their off hours.
She was raised the same way as her three more grown up, sensible siblings and used to have a real brain before she started hanging out with the gay crowd.

liberal intellectuals need to feel that they are looking after people

That's about it. They just "need to feel" they are doing something, not that they actually want to do anything themselves, not even with their own money but rather with other people's taxes.

When a conservative wants to help someone, they just do it themselves. I have a heart for children without a fathers so I've been a foster parent, Big Brother and I support Angel Tree (children of prisoners). I've also been a volunteer outdoor adventure guide for people with severe disabilities. These are all more effective ways to directly and really help people but it requires that you give something of yourself and liberals aren't so much into that.

Where Rossiter breaks new ground is that he connects this obsession with deep childhood fears. He describes it is an extension of their need to control others, which is: “rooted in fears of separation, abandonment loss or abuse – the residual effects of early attachment gone wrong.”

Finally, the biologist Jeremy Griffith goes further again in his explanation about the human condition drawing a connection between an increasingly dysfunctional society, the subsequent emotional damage (or fears) inflicted on new generations, and why celebrating victimhood then becomes such an irresistible attraction.

Intelligence is best defined as the ability to see reality for what it is. An intelligent person can put aside his predudices and his biases and analyze a situation. I have finally come to the conclusion that anyone who honestly believes liberal ideology cannot, therefore be intelligent.

Despite education, wittiness, good speech-making skills, or a facility with ideas, someone who cannot predict the inevitable outcomes of modern, American liberal policies is not an intelligent person.

Now, that is not to say that all conservatives are intelligent -- I've encountered all too many who are unthinking in their conservatism and who cling to too many philosophical contradictions to deserve the adjective. But intelligence can, in some cases, be taught; and, so, they do have a head start.

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