Cultural reactionaries (1) claim social liberalism results in increased crime rates. "Permissiveness", feminism, "the feminization of society" are all blamed. (Note the misogyny.) At the same time they want harsher punishment for criminals, shrieking, "our jails are hotels." (2) All this is pure demagogy. When making such statements proof should be given, yet it never is. The reason? There is no proof. If social liberalism caused crime, then countries where it predominated would have higher incidents of serious criminality than countries with a more conservative bent. If this were true, our reactionaries would shout the information from the rooftops!
The evidence is clearly the opposite. Denmark and Holland have lower crime rates than the UK and USA, the two lands where the hang 'em and flog em gang have the ear of the state.
Another comparison. If liberalism is the cause of crime then social liberals as individuals should have a higher rate of serious crimes than social conservatives. Once again, this is not the case, Serial or mass killers and sex criminals come almost entirely out of a socially conservative environment. This type of criminal is well noted for obsessions about the military, police or authoritarian religions. In fact, I cannot think of a single social liberal serial killer-serial rapist.
Social reactionaries are right in claiming societal break down and the resulting nihilism as factors contributing to criminality. Trouble is, they place the blame for this condition on the wrong people. Narcissists and nihilists don't come popping out of social liberalism, but are a manifestation of social conservatism in decadence. Social conservatives faced with the stresses of contemporary society tend to go in a nihilist direction as their ideology disintegrates. Proof you ask? Once again, where do criminals come from? Are hoards of left-wing college professors and social workers being carted off to prison for white collar crime? Nope, but capitalism's true believer, blue blazer, corporate whiz kids sure are. The children of the counter-culture out pillaging, raping and murdering? Boys raised by gay couples and feminists on the street stealing purses? Nope, just the kids of the socially conservative lower classes. (3)
Social liberalism is based on social democracy, moderate Protestantism, liberal Catholicism, Reform Judaism, and Humanism. As an ideology, it has also had its share of problems. However, as radicals abandoned social liberalism, rather than jettisoning ethics, they created a new ethic, one that in many respects, grew out of the old.(4) This post-modern ethic, staunchly opposed to war, global poverty, imperialism, gender inequality, sexual repression and religious intolerance, is in fact, today's anti-nihilist force par excellence.
Nihilism is also rooted in the ideology of the social reactionaries. Their religious cults regard the world as evil and they wait anxiously for its destruction. This is nihilism at its very worst, even those arch-nihilists, the Nazis, only wanted to kill some of the people, not all of them. These reactionary cultists have committed the ultimate sin and blasphemy by splitting the divine from creation in such a radical and extreme manner. (According to the *Zohar* sin IS separation.) And what kind of divinity would wish to inflict such suffering on his creation? It's not hard to figure out who the god of the social reactionaries really is... "Pleased ta meet you, hope you guessed mah name..."
Narcissists and psychopaths lack empathy, and this is mirrored in the reactionaries lack of empathy for humanity, fetuses excepted, and the world of nature. Their lack of empathy is especially obvious toward the poor, Blacks, Native People and the environment. Empathy is reserved for white males and obedient women and children. Nature is something to exploit and pave over.
No group is more obsessed with vengeance than cultural reactionaries. These are the people eager to kill, er, pardon me, eager to have OTHER people kill, Arabs or string up Karla Homolka. Their sick lust for revenge barbarizes society, creating an environment for the crimes they get so excited about. What happens in society is best described as garbage-in, garbage-out, yet these folks aren't swift enough to understand that. Serial killers seek to revenge themselves on society or women. Now where do you think that idea came from, out of the air? Once again, the proof is there for all to see. Countries that take a less vindictive approach to justice, have a lower incidence of violent crime than the USA where revenge is the more the mode.
Central to societal breakdown is the destruction of community. Political and economic centralization, globalism, suburban sprawl, Walmart, MacDonalds, all of these help destroy community. Yet, when do reactionaries criticize any of this? Rather, they are the foremost apologists for these attacks.
Responsibility is a favorite word for these folks. The poor it seems must always be responsible, but not corporations. In order to be responsible people have to practice being responsible. How can they do that, if as the reactionaries wish, they are confined in authoritarian families and schools - the very essence of which is not to think and act for yourself, but do what you are told? People indoctrinated with an authoritarian mentality cannot show responsibility, for that you need mental freedom. Is this so hard to figure out? Then, the 8 hours a day, five days a week we are trapped in powerlessness in our work places. How can people learn to be responsible if the best hours of the day they are treated like cattle?
Family breakdown is another factor we can see eye to eye with the reactionaries. But they scapegoat feminists and our easier divorce laws. The difference between the past and the last 35 years is honesty. All marital problems were once swept under the rug and families were full of suppressed hostility and bitterness. Is having a divorce any worse than this? In reality, what causes family breakdown is complex, including decline of community and the extended family, unemployment, sexual repression, poor education, obsessive materialism, inflated housing costs, an immature concept of marriage and an infantile concept of manhood. Our reactionaries are the last folks on the planet to tackle these problems.
Reactionaries claim liberals and libertarians are wimps because they don't buy into the revenge cult and the over-exaggerated sense of individual responsibility. Reactionaries, on the other hand, are hypocrites and cowards, hiding behind demonizing verbiage, so as to ignore the major part their ideologies and practices play in fostering social break down and crime.
1. I chose the term "social reactionary" to separate out the sort of social conservatives who do look at the world in genuine ethical terms. Though a minority of right-wingers, such people share a concern about war, the loss of liberty, the increasing power of the state and corporations with the libertarian left. For example, Antiwar.com or LewRockwell.com
2. If I ever have any say in the matter, the idiots who think jails are a soft touch will spend a few years locked up in a 6 by 8 cell with a couple of four hundred pound, HIV-infected, psychopathic, homosexual bikers.
3. The typical criminal is young, male, poor, badly educated and comes from an abusive family. Their values, such as they are, tend toward social conservatism.
4. A major reason for the abandonment of liberalism was its inconsistency. Liberals were for peace, but in practice supported war. Liberals promoted democracy, yet supported centralization, the destroyer of democracy. Liberals claimed to believe in individual liberty, but urged the state to interfere in our lives. (Both drug and alcohol prohibition were largely the work of liberals.)
No comments:
Post a Comment