Logic Times

Badges of the Simpleminded

Posted by Aslan, 07/04/05, 10:51am.  Comments (0)

 

The political Left in this country gets too much credit for being intellectual. The stereotype is familiar: academic, socially responsible, erudite political liberals on one hand opposed by greedy, warmongering, Bible-thumping political conservatives on the other.  But the description favored by the Left, the label that coats their irrational views with a sort of Teflon resistance to challenge by brutish conservatives is the term "Intellectual."

 

Yet intellectual dishonesty is their coin-of-the-realm.  With the Iraq War, for example, one sees intellectual dishonesty on display every day:

  • After 9/11, criticism of Bush for not listening to key aides and not anticipating disaster.
  • After the Iraq War, criticism of Bush for listening to key aides and anticipating disaster.
  • Before the war, total agreement on the WMD threat posed by Saddam Hussein and the need for intervention.
  • After the war, anger that the WMDs were not found, criticism of the Bush administration for asserting there were WMDs in the first place, and criticism of Bush for intervening.
  • Before the war, no extraordinary concern for the thousands of Iraqi civilians murdered per month by Saddam Hussein.
  • After the invasion, frantic concern for hundreds of Iraqi civilians killed per month as a result of collateral damage during a conflict to secure their freedom.
  • Before the war, no interest in the systematic torture of innocent Iraqis by Saddam Hussein.
  • After the invasion, obsession with the isolated and mild mistreatment of Iraqi criminals at Abu Ghraib.

While dangerous and morally reprehensible, one can at least admire the convoluted logic of the Left and the brashness with which it is waved under the noses of disbelieving Americans.  But has anyone considered that many on the Left are just…not very bright?

 

Consider the following bumper stickers, proudly displayed by allegedly intellectual Lefties:

 

 

Seems hard to criticize such a noble sentiment, but it is not just a sentiment, it is a political statement and an extraordinarily mindless one at that.  The point of such a political statement is to stake out a position opposed by another group.  For example, a Pro-Life bumper sticker expresses a sentiment, yes, but also stakes out ground opposed by the Pro-Abortion crowd.  A John Kerry bumper sticker endorses a political candidate opposed by supporters of George W. Bush.

 

A

 

 

bumper sticker makes a critical assumption: that there is a faction of people who dislike PEACE, who support a war not because it has the ultimate objective of eliminating savage enemies and bringing about peace, but because they like or enjoy the actual process of war.  And this in not just semantics.  A

 

 

bumper sticker, for example, makes the further assumption that the "other side" thinks killing is a good thing, that there is no distinction between killing the hijacker pilot on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania and killing a secretary on floor 105 of the World Trade Center, that there is no difference between defending life from unprovoked attack and premeditated murder.  A

 

 

bumper sticker offers a further assumption: that America is the only catalyst for war.  Think about that!  The American military industrial complex, frustrated by inactivity for some period of time, initiates a war for the purposes of staying sharp and developing capacity.  The foe is irrelevant and could be selected at random.  With regards to the War on Terror, no provocation was involved.

 

A

 

 

bumper sticker angles off in a different direction asserting that war never actually deflects hostility or defends innocents, but instead is strictly an inferior blunt tool never worth using, like a brutish boy on the block who solves every problem – jealousy over a neighbor’s new bike, taunting from a little sister, the need for help with homework – with direct and primitive violence.  

 

Finally, we finish with

 

 

which makes the horrific assumption that there is a group of people who actually love war.  This must not be confused with those who love and admire the military or those who love the camaraderie of their brothers in arms, who excel at what they do and are proud of their skill. Even these hardened warriors hate war, for they intimately know the bitterest cost of war – the death of their brothers.

 

In the end, these bumper stickers are a badge of simple-minded shallowness that is pathetic and embarrassing.  For a human being to form a value system that finds its expression in statements like:

 

 

is frightening.  

 

The historical ignorance that can allow a citizen of this country to squat down behind a car and affix these stickers to the bumper

 

 

is a criminal indictment of our educational system.

 

Personally, I find myself compelled to look into these cars with a fascination of rube on the midway of the carnival freak show who expects to see a tentacled horror behind the wheel.  Alas, it is only simplemindedness on display.

 

Copyright ©  2005 Dan Hallagan. All Rights Reserved.