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July 2, 2011
"Gore is a living example of what you get when a worldview outlives its time. He presses the old buttons and turns the old cranks, but the machine isn’t running any more. "
Gore’s errors are exemplary: by studying where he goes wrong we can see how a substantial section of our ruling elite has lost its way. Al Gore is steeped in the Blue Social Model that I’ve been posting about; his social imagination has been so molded by modern American progressivism and the liberalism of the late 20th century that he literally cannot conceive of solutions in any terms the conventional center-left wisdom doesn’t make room for.
The serial rise and fall of these vacuous civil society movements and the peculiar grip they exercise over the minds of some otherwise intelligent people is an important subject: why do so many people who want to help solve global problems waste so much time and money and, sometimes, do so much harm? Is there some way to harness that energy and idealism to causes and strategies that might do more good? What does the repeated rise and fall of clueless but well educated and well placed enthusiasts teach us about the state of our civilization and the human condition? Are there ways we could nip these Malthusian panics and idealistic feeding frenzies in the bud? Is there some way we could teach future generations to be a little smarter about politics and power so that the 21st century, which is going to have plenty of serious problems, might spend less time chasing mares' nests?
Posted by Vanderleun at July 2, 2011 9:06 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
Mead -- once again -- makes the mistake of giving the Left the benefit of the doubt. It's been over a hundred years, now, we've suffered the outrages of their misbegotten programs. Can we bring ourselves to finally agree that they start out from ill intent, operate in bad faith, and lie about their motives and goals? It would simplify matters greatly.
M
Posted by: Mark Alger at July 2, 2011 10:30 AM
Let us also posit that Al Gore simply isn't that smart. Mead avoids stating the obvious, but I suppose that allows him to point out that even smart people have sunk into the tarpit, which is certainly true. It's just that Gore isn't one of them.
Posted by: chuck at July 2, 2011 9:46 PM
The True Believer is ineducable, because nothing in his background has prepared him to consider the possibility that what he's been taught may be wrong -- further compounded by his (usually) self-assigned conviction that he is both intellectually and emotionally superior to anyone holding opposing views.
Introducing facts into a debate with a Lefty invariably results in his getting stuck in a Talking-Point Loop, delivered at the top of his lungs.
Posted by: BillT at July 3, 2011 6:22 AM
"The serial rise and fall..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h05YfP_8UsU
Posted by: Talnik at July 4, 2011 6:52 AM
Thanks Talnik. I needed that.
Posted by: vanderleun at July 4, 2011 8:21 AM