tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post1789854886738568094..comments2024-03-25T19:48:24.624+11:00Comments on Oz Conservative: Striking a blow for personal impulse!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-64038280138738833112009-10-21T07:15:46.550+11:002009-10-21T07:15:46.550+11:00If all the Leftists wanted was freedom, I'd be...If all the Leftists wanted was freedom, I'd be on their side. But their brand of freedom seems to require that I be enslaved.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-20489161257004389242009-10-11T15:05:28.660+11:002009-10-11T15:05:28.660+11:00I was going to post this on the Etham thread but I...I was going to post this on the Etham thread but I think it fits here. This is from "The Heidenmaur" by Fenimore Cooper:<br /><br />"However pure may be a social system, or a religion, in the commencement of its power, the possession of an undisputed ascendency lures all alike into excesses fatal to consistency, to justice, and to truth. This is a consequence of the independent exercise of human volition, that seems nearly inseparable from human frailty. We gradually come to substitute inclination and interest for right, until the moral foundations of the mind are sapped by indulgence, and what was once regarded with the aversion that wrong excites in the innocent, gets to be not only familiar, but justifiable by expediency and use. There is no more certain symptom of the decay of the principles requisite to maintain even our imperfect standard of virtue, than when the plea of necessity is urged in vindication of any departure from its mandate, since it is calling in the aid of ingenuity to assist the passion, a coalition that rarely fails to lay prostrate the feeble defences of a tottering morality." <br /><br />I think even the left would agree that we can't have personal impulse in a vacuum. <br /><br />(Sorry I mistakenly posted as Amy. I was on someone else's computer and didn't change the blog identity.)Jesse_7https://www.blogger.com/profile/08732509086253241748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-17019594338170309312009-10-11T08:24:57.716+11:002009-10-11T08:24:57.716+11:00I agree Amy, and I would add that we are also like...I agree Amy, and I would add that we are also likely to feel very frustrated when our personal desires/impulses change. <br /><br />This ideology boils down to making permanent, life decisions on the basis of fleeting, momentary feelings ("desires").Bartholomewnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-80390541247635897362009-10-11T08:20:06.579+11:002009-10-11T08:20:06.579+11:00Anonymous wrote,
Actually, there's nothing il...Anonymous wrote,<br /><br /><b>Actually, there's nothing illogical about it that I can see. When you analyze Liberalism...we see that we object to it only because it is potentially destructive, or that each of us personally wouldn't find living this way appealing. But we can't argue against it on any other grounds that I can see.</b><br /><br />You're saying that we can only argue <i>against</i> Liberalism if we use the same argument Liberals make <i>for</i> Liberalism: desire. They desire it, and we don't; the debate is just a contest of wills.<br /><br />You say "we" implying you count yourself among Richardson, Auster, Kalb et al, but surely you know that they do not base their argument on mere desire. They fight liberalism not on the basis of "want" but on the basis of "ought". <br /><br />It isn't just that we do not want to live like this, but that we <b>ought</b> to live better and nobler lives.Bartholomewnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-50663745997946948072009-10-10T09:55:08.667+11:002009-10-10T09:55:08.667+11:00Also if life is about satisfying personal impulses...Also if life is about satisfying personal impulses we tend to feel very frustrated if for whatever reason we can't or are prevented from satisfying them. This leads to societal petulance.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08825500578240926210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-59615179987069169112009-10-10T02:55:38.376+11:002009-10-10T02:55:38.376+11:00authenticity, the acknowledgement of desire as the...<i>authenticity, the acknowledgement of desire as the organizing principle of our life, the coherence of desire with action ..., that is, to live without principles that are external, imposed, limiting, alien to our own needs or to our own personal truth ... The moral of the left involves to take risks, to dare, to follow the personal impulses</i><br /><br />This could have come from the mouth of any Nazi or fascist or white supremacist. They too wanted (or want) all the things she describes! Their "personal impulses" are directed at somewhat different targets from her, but the principle is the same.<br /><br />Linking feeling to action is the mantra of irrational extremism of any stripe.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-53839962970686802672009-10-10T02:15:23.451+11:002009-10-10T02:15:23.451+11:00Actually, there's nothing illogical about it t...Actually, there's nothing illogical about it that I can see. When you analyze Liberalism (and you are the best I've found at this, although Lawrence Auster and Jim Kalb are good), we see that we object to it only because it is potentially destructive, or that each of us personally wouldn't find living this way appealing. But we can't argue against it on any other grounds that I can see.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-73677269539428093552009-10-09T15:26:29.225+11:002009-10-09T15:26:29.225+11:00The Nihlistic leanings of the modern day left are ...The Nihlistic leanings of the modern day left are frightening, perhaps a little too frightening, surely they cannot believe the rot that comes out of their mouths can they?Westieboynoreply@blogger.com