Thomas Sowell has a great article about the “superior” intellect of the average leftie intellectual.
Left-wingers presume to have superior knowledge
Radically different conclusions about a range of issues have been common for centuries. Many have tried to explain these differences by differences in conflicting economic interests. Others, like John Maynard Keynes, have argued that ideas — even intellectually discredited ideas that political leaders still believe in — trump economic interests.
If you start from a belief that the most knowledgeable person on earth does not have even 1 percent of the total knowledge on earth, that shoots down social engineering, economic central planning, judicial activism and innumerable other ambitious notions favored by the political left.
If no one has even 1 percent of the knowledge available, not counting the vast amounts of knowledge yet to be discovered, the imposition from the top of the notions favored by elites convinced of their own superior knowledge and virtue is a formula for disaster.
Sometimes it is economic disaster, which central planning turned out to be in so many countries around the world that even most governments run by socialists and communists began freeing up their markets by the end of the 20th century.
That is when the economies of China and India, for example, began having rapidly increasing growth rates.
But economic disasters, important as they are, have not been the worst consequences of people with less than one percent of the world’s knowledge superimposing the ideas prevailing in elite circles on those subject to their power — that is, on the people who together have the other 99 percent of knowledge.
But economic disasters, important as they are, have not been the worst consequences of people with less than one percent of the world’s knowledge superimposing the ideas prevailing in elite circles on those subject to their power — that is, on the people who together have the other 99 percent of knowledge.
Millions of human beings died of starvation and diseases related to severe malnutrition, when the economic ideas of Josef Stalin in the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong in China were inflicted on the population living — and dying — under their iron rule.
In both cases, the deaths exceeded the deaths caused by Hitler’s genocide, which was also a consequence of ignorant presumptions by those with totalitarian power.
Many on the left may protest that they do not believe in the ideas or the political systems that prevailed under Adolf Hitler, Stalin or Mao. No doubt that is true.
Yet what the political left, even in democratic countries, share is the notion that knowledgeable and virtuous people like themselves have both a right and a duty to use the power of government to impose their superior knowledge and virtue on others.
If no one has even 1 percent of all the knowledge in a society, then it is crucial that the other 99 percent of knowledge — scattered in tiny and individually unimpressive amounts among the population at large — be allowed the freedom to be used in working out mutual accommodations among the people themselves.
These innumerable mutual interactions are what bring the other 99 percent of knowledge into play — and generate new knowledge.
That is why free markets, judicial restraint, and reliance on decisions and traditions growing out of the experiences of the many — rather than the groupthink of the elite few — are so important.
That is why free markets, judicial restraint, and reliance on decisions and traditions growing out of the experiences of the many — rather than the groupthink of the elite few — are so important.
Elites are all too prone to over-estimate the importance of the fact that they average more knowledge per person than the rest of the population — and under-estimate the fact that their total knowledge is so much less than that of the rest of the population.
Central planning, judicial activism, and the nanny state all presume vastly more knowledge than any elite have ever possessed.
The ignorance of people with Ph.D.s is still ignorance, the prejudices of educated elites are still prejudices, and for those with one percent of a society’s knowledge to be dictating to those with the other 99 percent is still an absurdity.
Heh, I think I went a little beyond “fair use”.
Too many good points to leave any out.
I agree with everything that Mr. Sowell points out in this article, but it brings up an obvious question. How does this play into the mentality of the average modern moonbat? The poor minions of the left who have been spoon fed this pablum since their first day in our superior public edumacational system.
They number in the millions — angry, disaffected, BDS infected, pseudo intellectual moonbots.
Moonbots — the preprogrammed, vicious little attack weasels of the left. They follow the new religion of the Goracle and spew the mantra of those described in the article above. What they lack though, is the intellect to parse any of the ideas or philosophies put forth by their gods of all that is morally superior.
Hate screed, Bush derangement, Godwinesque behavior and frothing at the mouth have become the defacto modus operandi of the new age leftie.
It’s not just limited to the left wing echo chambers anymore, unhinged behavior is sneaking out into our everyday world. In a time where we have so much to rejoice, or at the very least, be as content with life at a level that has been unsurpassed in recent history — near full employment, a strong stock market, a driving economy — the moonbat is miserable.
Why?
It can’t all be cognitive dissonance. Or the war in Iraq. Or, even — George W. Bush.
What are these little buggers so upset about?
I have a few ideas, but what I think it really boils down to is — us. The rest of us. The other ninety percent of the population, and yes I’m lumping in a bunch of liberals — the blue dogs, classic liberals, moderates and just about everyone on the right are leading productive and happy lives no matter what Noam Chomsky spews out to his minions.
It drives them nuts to see us happy. What right do we have to enjoy life when puppies are being forced into slave labor in Palestine?
Well?
The only solution for them is to blindly follow the mantra created for them by their intellectual superiors — their security blanket of stupid. To boldy follow no matter how bizarre an idea may be. Actually, the crazier the better — you’ve got to create a little distance to really crank up the Absolute Moral Authority.
They are a noisy little bunch. And, after years of crushing defeats, they’ve had a few victories of late. But, are they happy now? Of course not, they’ve just refocused their hatred on their own for not being as dangerously out of touch with reality as they are. It’s touching, really. To see them hold so true to course.
I’ve come to the necessary conclusion that the best method of dealing with the hapless moonbat is to not deal with them at all. They’ll fade away all on their own. Just as nature has it’s cyclical creatures like the cicada who live for years undergound and out of sight before coming out en masse to live their last few moments of life in blazing sunlight in a breeding frenzy without compare, the moonbats will dissapate — eventually. A few will assimilate themselves into normal society. Many, the left over 60′s, original moonbats, will simply die. About 10% will start playing World of Warcraft and never be heard from again. The rest will fade back into the quiet, dark corners of the world that they used to inhabit. Or, they’ll get tenure.
I’ve come to accept that we need the moonbat.
Just not so damned many of them. It’s all the AlGor’s fault for inventing the Intertubes and letting them find each other.
It all makes sense now. The AlGor invented the Internet so he could recruit his acolytes into his new religion of global warminess.
Get along little moonbat.
Update: I found a perfect example of Moonbat Smart here: The Moron Magnet.
This post is Moosetracked at the Bullwinkle Blog
