Why Americans Should Hate Liberalism #3
The following is a direct quote from Dr. Michael G. Martin’s book: Liberalism: The Demise of America .
Not only will it be well worth your time to read and think about these two paragraphs: It is your patriotic duty to do so.
America’s future hangs in the balance of a general understanding of the following perceptions of reality.
Quote:
Liberals want to change society so that there are no longer losers, malcontents, or the irresponsible. It is strange that the policies they tout involve perverse incentives, so these bad behaviors are actually promoted and incentivized. This applies to drug addiction, hard work, sexual responsibility, and the like. Liberals think compassion will change everything. They believe people are malleable and plastic, susceptible to change—but even if this were true, it must be accomplished though the proper incentives and social and economic context. They appear to be behaviorists, but yet they are employing perverse incentives to get change. This is a puzzle that defies comprehension.
It’s interesting that liberals believe they can change society and the nature of individuals when they don’t believe in individual responsibility or accountability for individuals. They see the life of the individual as being largely deterministic. That is to say, their behavior is shaped by social and environmental forces beyond their control. If an individual can’t affect his own life, how can liberals argue that they can change the nature of society and individuals? On the scale of the collective, then, they are basically acknowledging that they escape the thrall of determinism.
Perhaps the explanation is that they believe the common man is too stupid to affect his life, but that the elite—the smart people—can basically re-engineer not only themselves, the society, and the very nature of human beings themselves. Liberals are saying in effect, then, that the common man—really the stupid people—is totally malleable. He can be made into anything the liberal elite want, good or bad. There are strong assumptions here about not only human nature, but the influence of other unseen and not-understood forces that shape human behavior, as well as the ability of the liberal elite to engineer the wrenching change that they desire.
Kindle pages 261 and 262.
End Quote:
I am a behavioral psychologist and a great admirer of B. F. Skinner, perhaps the greatest psychologist of the 20th century.
Skinner and other behaviorists rightfully ascribe great power to the environment to shape the behavior patterns of humans and other animals. Furthermore, Skinner, as well as many behaviorists acknowledge the strength of genetic determinants upon human psychological adaptations as they interact and are influenced, in very complex ways, by a plethora of environmental influences.
It is important for Americans to understand that is no “free will”, in the sense that humans are totally free from genetic and environmental influences.
No population can escape the influences of their genetics, social and physical environments. The best that can be done, in my judgment, is to educate citizens about the scientific principles of these influences and also teach them to come under the control of the imperatives of survival for their own society, their own loved ones who will outlive them and their loved-ones who are yet to be born.
This bright future will require that Americans relearn the advantages of forsaking immediate gratifications in favor of highly beneficial long-term outcomes. It will also require that we again venerate and teach the compliance with rules of living and conduct that insure such future benefits.
My reading of American and World History has led me to conclude that the “Wisdom of the Ages” resides in the Judeo/Christian precepts and values for personal conduct that once helped make America great. The same can be said of other compatible religions of the world.
The teaching of, and compliance to, these precious guides for life are powerfully augmented when a society encourages the belief in a Higher Power than that of the self-destructive philosophy of secular humanism forms the basis of liberalism, progressivism, socialism and communism.
Only then we can we hope that our Constitutional Republic might endure thorough our representative democratic political process and citizen voter counter-controls on governmental actions.
V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 2/19/16
Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Indiana University South Bend
Cultural Survival Skills 