(Editor's Note: Highlighted emphasis has been added by me. RK)
Confronting
evil takes responsibility. Not responsibility for the actions of others. Not
responsibility for offending the perpetrators, for being insensitive to their
poor childhoods and their government's World Bank debt. Responsibility means
being responsible for protecting yourself and your neighbors and the greater
families or your country and community. That does not necessarily mean physical
force, it means being responsible by fighting for the policies that will
protect them.
Liberalism has distorted responsibility into a guilt complex for the hatred that others feel for us. The tenets of liberalism say that hatred against the privileged is by definition legitimate and justified. Once liberalism has defined being privileged as being a member of any society that functions sufficiently well to provide clean drinking water for its citizens and protection against being gunned down in the street by roving gangs, it turns out that we are all privileged and therefore deserve the hatred levered against us. This is the warped philosophy behind the left's response to crime, violence, terrorism and war. But it is thoroughly wrong.
We are not responsible for their hatred. We are responsible only for protecting ourselves against it. Hatred is the responsibility of the hater. Murder is the responsibility of the murderer. When we take someone else's responsibility on ourselves, two things happen.
First by taking responsibility for something we cannot control, we waste our energies and do nothing to address or resolve the problem.
Secondly, we remove responsibility from the only person who can control it, we give him absolute freedom from his responsibilities. He becomes free to rob and kill and do as he likes, because his victims are responsible now, not him.
All totalitarian systems remove individual responsibility, replacing it with obligation. Responsibility requires informed individual judgment. Obligation simply means doing what you're told.
Nanny states treat everyone as irresponsible. Every package needs a dozen warning labels, because people can't be expected to understanding anything on their own. Every person needs to sacrifice the bulk of their earnings to the government, which will administer and use it for his benefit, because he cannot possible use it for his own benefit. Nanny states centralize authority, while decentralizing responsibility.
Instead of holding you responsible for what you do, liberalism holds you responsible for what you are, for your race, for your gender and your earning power. Like all socialist systems, it despises individuals and accepts only classes and categories. It has no place in it for a black man who successfully started his own business and earns $220,000 a year. Such a person should not exist and therefore does not. A class is in the end a caste system, manufactured by socialist rhetoric and enforced by a system of thought that in the manner of 1984, rejects even the understanding of things outside its categories.
Liberalism celebrates the irresponsible, the addict, the criminal and the terrorist and justifies him by arguing that he is not responsible for what he does. By contrast governments and police and the victims of terrorism are always responsible and for that responsibility, they are penalized for their own supposed crimes and for the crimes committed against them by the irresponsible.
The best way to oppose a system that mandates irresponsibility, is with responsibility. Firstly by helping others, not merely charitably, but in helping them become responsible for themselves. Secondly by rejecting illegitimate attempts to shift responsibility for the actions of others onto you. This false responsibility is the basis of liberal morality and it is where the line can and should be drawn to oppose and undermine this competing moral system.
We are not responsible for the actions of Muslim terrorists. We are only responsible to stop them.
We are certainly not responsible for how much "they" hate us. Whether the they are the Arab street, Europeans or the people of Papau, New Guinea. Their hatred is their choice. We are not responsible for their emotions. Their emotions are not proof of their rightness. The truth is most of the world hates most of the rest of the world. That is not our problem.
We are not responsible for the actions of muggers, murderers, child molesters, rapists. Only they are responsible for their crimes. Not us. Not some nebulous definition of society. The perpetrators are responsible.
We are not responsible for obesity, anorexia, violence in schools, a gun culture or global warming. Some of these are phony crisis' concocted by think tanks and used by the press to beat us over the head with on a daily basis and make us feel guilty and unworthy as a society. We are not responsible for them as problems, we are only responsible to the extent that we can help ourselves and others live better lives. We are not responsible for nebulous social ills or things that have been defined as social problems. We are only responsible to the extent that we can help others who need our help and raise our children and grandchildren well.
We are not responsible for the beliefs of others that we have committed offenses against them. We are not responsible for the jealousy of others because we live better than them. We are not responsible for the beliefs of others that by eating meat or driving to work, we are perpetrating horrible cruelties and destroying the planet. These people are in any case hypocrites and their beliefs are devoid of any real grounding.
This is not though about irresponsibility. It is about responsibility. It is about eliminating the things we are not responsible for, to focus on what we are responsible for.
Taking responsibility should never be an act of guilt as liberalism treats it, but an act of courage. It means participating in the building of better families, better communities and better systems. It is a creative act and a willingness to shoulder a workload, not because of some offenses committed by your ancestors in the past or because living better is itself an offense, but because it is an integral part of living life well.
Taking responsibility is not a guilt trip, but a choice. Defeating evil, defeating Islam, will take a cultural victory. Not by a culture crippled by false liberal morality and guilt, but by a truly responsible culture, standing up to an irresponsible one and for once, holding it responsible.
Liberalism has distorted responsibility into a guilt complex for the hatred that others feel for us. The tenets of liberalism say that hatred against the privileged is by definition legitimate and justified. Once liberalism has defined being privileged as being a member of any society that functions sufficiently well to provide clean drinking water for its citizens and protection against being gunned down in the street by roving gangs, it turns out that we are all privileged and therefore deserve the hatred levered against us. This is the warped philosophy behind the left's response to crime, violence, terrorism and war. But it is thoroughly wrong.
We are not responsible for their hatred. We are responsible only for protecting ourselves against it. Hatred is the responsibility of the hater. Murder is the responsibility of the murderer. When we take someone else's responsibility on ourselves, two things happen.
First by taking responsibility for something we cannot control, we waste our energies and do nothing to address or resolve the problem.
Secondly, we remove responsibility from the only person who can control it, we give him absolute freedom from his responsibilities. He becomes free to rob and kill and do as he likes, because his victims are responsible now, not him.
All totalitarian systems remove individual responsibility, replacing it with obligation. Responsibility requires informed individual judgment. Obligation simply means doing what you're told.
Nanny states treat everyone as irresponsible. Every package needs a dozen warning labels, because people can't be expected to understanding anything on their own. Every person needs to sacrifice the bulk of their earnings to the government, which will administer and use it for his benefit, because he cannot possible use it for his own benefit. Nanny states centralize authority, while decentralizing responsibility.
Instead of holding you responsible for what you do, liberalism holds you responsible for what you are, for your race, for your gender and your earning power. Like all socialist systems, it despises individuals and accepts only classes and categories. It has no place in it for a black man who successfully started his own business and earns $220,000 a year. Such a person should not exist and therefore does not. A class is in the end a caste system, manufactured by socialist rhetoric and enforced by a system of thought that in the manner of 1984, rejects even the understanding of things outside its categories.
Liberalism celebrates the irresponsible, the addict, the criminal and the terrorist and justifies him by arguing that he is not responsible for what he does. By contrast governments and police and the victims of terrorism are always responsible and for that responsibility, they are penalized for their own supposed crimes and for the crimes committed against them by the irresponsible.
The best way to oppose a system that mandates irresponsibility, is with responsibility. Firstly by helping others, not merely charitably, but in helping them become responsible for themselves. Secondly by rejecting illegitimate attempts to shift responsibility for the actions of others onto you. This false responsibility is the basis of liberal morality and it is where the line can and should be drawn to oppose and undermine this competing moral system.
We are not responsible for the actions of Muslim terrorists. We are only responsible to stop them.
We are certainly not responsible for how much "they" hate us. Whether the they are the Arab street, Europeans or the people of Papau, New Guinea. Their hatred is their choice. We are not responsible for their emotions. Their emotions are not proof of their rightness. The truth is most of the world hates most of the rest of the world. That is not our problem.
We are not responsible for the actions of muggers, murderers, child molesters, rapists. Only they are responsible for their crimes. Not us. Not some nebulous definition of society. The perpetrators are responsible.
We are not responsible for obesity, anorexia, violence in schools, a gun culture or global warming. Some of these are phony crisis' concocted by think tanks and used by the press to beat us over the head with on a daily basis and make us feel guilty and unworthy as a society. We are not responsible for them as problems, we are only responsible to the extent that we can help ourselves and others live better lives. We are not responsible for nebulous social ills or things that have been defined as social problems. We are only responsible to the extent that we can help others who need our help and raise our children and grandchildren well.
We are not responsible for the beliefs of others that we have committed offenses against them. We are not responsible for the jealousy of others because we live better than them. We are not responsible for the beliefs of others that by eating meat or driving to work, we are perpetrating horrible cruelties and destroying the planet. These people are in any case hypocrites and their beliefs are devoid of any real grounding.
This is not though about irresponsibility. It is about responsibility. It is about eliminating the things we are not responsible for, to focus on what we are responsible for.
Taking responsibility should never be an act of guilt as liberalism treats it, but an act of courage. It means participating in the building of better families, better communities and better systems. It is a creative act and a willingness to shoulder a workload, not because of some offenses committed by your ancestors in the past or because living better is itself an offense, but because it is an integral part of living life well.
Taking responsibility is not a guilt trip, but a choice. Defeating evil, defeating Islam, will take a cultural victory. Not by a culture crippled by false liberal morality and guilt, but by a truly responsible culture, standing up to an irresponsible one and for once, holding it responsible.
That will be our victory.
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