Right Pulse

Avid readers may remember my earlier post about conservatism and happiness, linked here. The basic story, as pioneered by Arthur Brooks, is that conservatives demonstrate many of the charitable characteristics that their small l liberal friends don’t; Charity leads to happiness, so the more liberal you are the unhappier you are. Well a similar study has just been released that confirms the same story, entitled Makers and Takers by Peter Schweizer. He writes:

Those surveyed were asked: ‘Is it your obligation to care for a seriously injured/ill spouse or parent, or should you give care only if you really want to?’ Of those describing themselves as ‘conservative’, 71 per cent said it was. Only 46 per cent of those on the Left agreed. To the question: ‘Do you get happiness by putting someone else’s happiness ahead of your own?’, 55 per cent of those who said they were ‘very conservative’ said Yes, compared with 20 per cent of those who were ‘very liberal’.

So liberals are less likely to be concerned about the welfare of others, including children, because they see it as the states responsibility. That’s one explanation. Others include the socialistic preoccupation with class envy, victim hood and resentment. Relativism may also have something to do with it - honesty becomes subjective. Schweizer outlines his thesis in this video.

In the Sixties, we saw the beginning of a narcissism and self-absorption that gripped the Left and has not let go. The full-scale embrace of the importance of self-awareness, self-discovery and being ‘true’ to oneself, along with the idea that the State should care for the less fortunate, has created a swathe of Left-wing people who want to outsource their obligations to others…

Billionaire Ted Turner, a self-described socialist, publicly regrets that he had five children. ‘If I was doing it over again, I wouldn’t have had that many,’ he says. ‘But I can’t shoot them now they’re here.’ All of this should not come as a surprise to anyone watching the drift of progressive thinking over the past 40 years.

Starting with British anthropologist Edmund Leach, who said: ‘Far from being the basis of a good society, the family, with its narrow privacy and tawdry secrets, is the source of all its discontents’, feminists, progressives and others have seen the family as an oppressive force. Feminist Gloria Steinem says on behalf of women: ‘The truth is, finding ourselves brings more excitement and wellbeing than anything romance can offer.’

Scary. I recently browsed through a great site called Kevin Rudd Lies. And he does lie like a great leftie should:

“It’s critical that when we say to the Australian people that we want to construct an alternative vision for Australia, that they know the values for which we stand. Socialism isn’t one of them…I am not a socialist. I have never been a socialist and I never will be a socialist.” - Kevin Rudd, The Age, December 14, 2006. “I am an old-fashioned Christian socialist.” - Kevin Rudd, Australian Financial Review, February 2003.

Yes, a little embarrassing. Rudd also once harped on about the golden socialist ideals of “equity, solidarity and sustainability” during an October 2006 article in The Australian. So who is kidding who?