For some time now I’ve been saying that a recession is a learning experience for leftists. Hardship turns liberals into conservatives because a liberal philosophy (what we call liberal in the states) cannot withstand much contact with reality. The tantrum we’re watching in Europe right now is what happens when those perpetually immature leftists are finally forced to learn.
My conversational catch phrase since last week has been that the politically pragmatic thing to do is let Greece fail. If the ECB can hold things together in the markets long enough for Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and the German opposition to see what happens after Greece demands a ‘restructuring’, it will greatly smooth out the politics for all the rest. Think of amputating a limb to save the body. If the socialists get their way in Greece…frankly … who cares? But if they get their way in Spain then the Euro is finished.
Let Greece fall back into Zimbabwean levels of growth and stability, and it will hurt the Greeks but help everyone else. But I do admit… there is a hole in this logic that I as an American might not have a handle on. The question is, are the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian leftists capable of learning from other people’s suffering without requiring some pain of their own. It’s in the nature of socialists to believe that the same old thing will somehow be ‘different this time’. I may be wrong but it seems to me that if the consequences are dire enough (as they surely would be) then even a socialist can accept a little reality without having to have it shoved down their throats.
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Well, I don’t think the socialists in Ireland will ever learn anything about Greece or our own Irish situation. They’re blaming capitalism, the free market and right wing policies for Ireland’s economic mess.
Yet, they fail to see that it was government interference with the property market, the entry of Ireland into the eurozone, which I warned about at the time and was branded a bigoted xenophobe racist and government expansion of the public sector nbrs and pay. And of course we have the generous social welfare programmes that the government had introduced as well.
So no, I won’t hold out on the socialists learning anytime soon.
OK fair enough... you probably know things about the Irish situation that I couldn't begin to understand in spite of my tribal affinity.
But what socialists say and what socialist actually understand are often two different things. Here in the states they have a long history of denying reality in public, and acknowledging it in private.
And to be fair, things haven't gotten nearly bad enough in Ireland (or Greece for that matter) to teach a socialist anything. Their entire political philosophy is usually based on self congratulation and that is based on personal insecurity. That sort of thing doesn’t fade away on its own; it has to be pushed out by other incentives.
One way or the other though, the modern social welfare state is collapsing. Even if things go well it will be as bad in most of Western Europe as it was in Russia during the fall of the soviets.
So as unusual as this is for me to say, I think we should give the socialists a break for the time being. We should wait until their dreams of a command and control utopia is really in Ashes.
I'd put that at about 4 years from now.
"For some time now I’ve been saying that a recession is a learning experience for leftists"
Yeah, I think you're a bit off on that one. A depression might teach them a lesson. But I wouldn't count on that either. There are a few die-hard leftists where I work, and nothing going on is shaking their belief that there needs to be even more regulation and even more taxes to fix all of this.
Yeah... it seems to me that for about 30% of all leftists, just getting that first paycheck and seeing how much in taxes is taken out is enough to change their minds. A few more years of seeing how labor unions, self aggrandizing bureaucrats, and pointless regulation screw things up converts another 20%. General improvement in maturity and experience probably gets another 10%.
But that still leaves 40% of everyone who was liberal at 17. These are the most insecure and therefore the most self congratulatory. And while everyone else was coming to understand how the world really works and adapting their world view accordingly, that 40% was descending deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. Eventually they end up in a world where everyone sounds like Nancy Pelosi. Where regulation and taxes are the only way to create economic growth, success in business is proof of corruption, and only the intent of a policy matters – not its inevitable effect.
Those people are so insecure and have vested so much effort and energy in the pretzel like logic that lets them maintain their self congratulatory worldview that nothing can save them. That’s why they get so viciously angry whenever their view is challenged and why everyone who disagrees with them is immediately compared to Hitler. They are so terrified of the real world and their own flaws and imperfections that they don’t dare face any of it.
There is no amount of suffering that will change the minds of people like that. But a recession might convert a few at the margins. And all those college kids who were taught that the best way to a good life is through passing laws which make it a ‘right’, are all learning right now. Just wait until they see what’s up in Europe over the next 12 months. Just wait until notoriously thin skinned Obama is actually called on some of his BS, and they have to spend a few months trying to defend it.
Facts are stubborn things… even more stubborn than insecure leftists.
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