Dealing with Progressives and Children

One of my favorite sayings is: "Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional." In our "Peter Pane" society many of those who have aged over the years, show little sign of maturity. I see immature argument constantly being given serious weight or no rebuttal. The fact that I see "adults" saying saying things that sound like a 8 year old child makes me understand why our society may be doomed.

Some of the signs that I see of immaturity from the Progressives:

Everyone else has universal healthcare: During the debate on "Healthcare Reform" one statement seem to always fall onto a common statement. "We are the only industrialized nation in the world without government/universal/state healthcare." Many parroted that statement without considering the deeper meaning. they never discussed the controls that come with it and the freedoms lost. No one ever asked this talking heads the simple question: Just because everyone else is doing it, does that make it better or even right? But no they made this statement without challenge and many Americans were lead to believe that the rest of the world was better than the US.

Threats are OK as long as from the left, since they are "correct." The arrogance of youth is dangerous. When you are young you usually are not dealing with all the facts. You also are easily swayed by others. This type of behavior is showing up across the nation in the Main Stream Media. They ignore the threats made to Republicans and Democrats when they opposed a left wing agenda item. When there are harsh words directed toward the left, they become victims and cry foul. In their minds since they are correct in their thinking and all opposed are evil, then they can do anything. This is the ultimate end to "the ends justifying the means."

Name calling: Whenever many on the left are challenged, they fall back on name calling. The most common today is race baiting. Even when the item has nothing to do with race, you will hear someone on the left say that a person is against it because we have a black president. I know that there is racism in the world, but many of those on the left are only using race to try and win the argument and shutdown debate. Without honest debate you will never have agreement.

Change the subject: This is similar to name calling. In this case you start talking about something or ask a question that makes them think about alternatives and they will point out something totally unrelated to the subject. You ask about spending and they reply with: "Where were you when Bush..." This causes a lot of people to go on the defensive and forget about the original topic. Their inability to examine or deny the premise does not allow for rational debate.

Force of will. It is common for youth to think that if they could just talk to a person, they could change their mind. In their own self-importance they believe that everyone else is just stupid and that they can say the magic words that will make everything better. This is obvious with the way the President jumped into the Middle East problems and thought that through his force of will only, he could bring peace to that troubled region. Now we see that all of his efforts have failed and in some cases more dangerous then ever. He discounted the work done before he came and just thought that his presence would save the day.

Denial of History: It is easy when you don't know history to hear an idea and think that it has to be the answer. Even when you hear that everyone who has tried it has failed, you still think that you are smarter and will not make any mistakes. This can be seen with the latest love of Socialism. Time and time again the Socialist system has been tried across the globe. It is very seductive in its promise of everyone working together for the common good. But each time it is tried it leads to unintended consequences. Such as lose of freedom; you can have a bunch of people running around doing their own thing. (It just doesn't feed the system.) It has lead to the most repressive modern governments. The only way you can control a socialist society is to have total control. Total power leads to total corruption. Sorry that is just a lesson of history.

Everyone will love it after we force them to take it. The idea that just because you like it then everyone else will is a huge mistake. The government leaders that passed heathcare reform keep telling us this. They don't seem to understand the objection that many feel. Obama just thinks that he has not explained it well enough. (back to the force of will) He believes that if he tells us how good it is, we will all just love it. But looking at the bill it is plan that we have been mislead by both the right and the left. For me it is about the content and the process in which it was passed.

Discounting anything that does not fit your beliefs: A sign of maturity is the ability to rationally look at the facts and make hard decisions. You can not base your world view on what you think is the truth and deny anything that is contrary to them. I see this in the climate change/global warming crowd. Even with the constant revelation about how data was manipulated, altered, or simply made up many in this group will not reevaluate their assumptions. Many of the so called "deniers" are only asking for an honest review of the data. That to many of the true believers makes us heretics. Their cult-like faith is a danger to us all.

Much of this goes to the lack of critical thinking on the part of many. Without the ability to listen to all of the facts and consider the positions both good and bad we find ourselves at odds with each other. The adults must be in charge. Without maturity and the ability to make rational decisions we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. The United States of America was a beacon of freedom and liberty for the world. As we slip into a dictatorial state the world will lose that guidance. Our lose comes from our lack of maturity in our leadership and our type of government may never be seen again.

©2010 Pedro Sykes - Some Rights Reserved