Increasingly, I’m coming across articles on the fundamental contradictions of the liberal view. And increasingly, the root of the liberal view is that smart people are liberals, and liberals are smart people, and that smart, liberal people know better than everyone else how we all should live our lives.
The problem is, “smart” and “liberal” aren’t synonyms, and worse, far worse, “smart” doesn’t trump “local” and “personal”. A dumb man swinging a hammer on the scene very often trumps a smart man answering an email a thousand miles away, because the local guy knows intimately exactly what his situation is.
M.K. Freeberg, in The House of Eratosthenes, draws attention to yet another thread in the same hangman’s noose:
What we have here, I think, is a confusion between wisdom and irony. If you listen to these people prattle on for a good long time, you’ll notice something rather shocking: The “smart” decision, with regard to each and every question that comes up, is never, ever, ever ever ever the simple one.
Global warming is more dangerous than radical Islamic terrorism.
Queen Latifah is sexier than Beyonce Knowles.
To keep from going broke, we’ve got to spend more money.
A real man is in touch with his feelings and isn’t afraid to cry.
If there is a problem, the best thing to do is to make sure no one can ever make a profit producing a solution to it.
If innocent people could be harmed by a terrorist act, and it could be prevented by bringing physical pain to an evil man, decent people will make sure this doesn’t happen and let the innocent people go ahead and die.
If you’re a baby and you’ve crossed that Magical Vaginal Finish Line you’ve got rights to womb-to-tomb health care, a living wage whether you’re competent or not, a vote in all our elections whether you have common sense or not — but if you’re not there yet, then you don’t even exist as a person. It’s a matter of inches, and that’s just the way it is!
This is the part that scares the hell out of me. These people are not capable of recognizing or responding to the situation in which the simple, common sense answer is the right one. Right, as in — go ahead, put on a magical thinking cap and boost your IQ by a thousand points, you’ll still decide it the same way. This doesn’t work for them, because in their world you have to show off your smarts by deciding the opposite.
Therefore, when this happens they will consistently demand the choice that is made by these smart people, is the wrong one.
Read the whole thing. Freeberg is a very smart guy; he just doesn’t assume his smart is better than yours.
