PART III in an American Millennial Series by Octavia Ratiu
AUSTIN, Texas (Texas Insider Report) — During this year's 2020 Election, the Progressive-Liberal Left has been trying to force American Voters into defining what constitutes being "comfortable" in this nation as if its a question of "morality." Its being done under the guise of "goodness" – at the expense of all else.
For almost all Americans, one of the greatest goods in life is comfort. And while there are different forms of, and different opponents of comfort, achieving the American Dream of "Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness" has somehow been warped or manipulated into an entitlement of life filled with a maximum amount of pleasure and comfort.This manifests in both political directions. Two monoliths – the Right and the Left alike – try to control thought and dictate narrative on the subject. And this spectrum is more accurately pictured as a circle rather than a line. The left and right hand of post-modernity are shaking each other and making deals in the backrooms of Washington, squeezing money from the American taxpayers so they can serve power and corruption, and whatever lobbies they are beholden to.
Those who profit from that manipulation – corporate interests, Wall Street greed, and those in power in Washington, D.C. – do so by gobbling up those in the middle... namely the honest, hardworking,middle class American citizens who do whatever they can to earn their crust and raise their children to be useful, happy members of society.
This imbroglio stems from the American creeds of hyper-individualism and consumerism. These form the pillars of our society.
But because we are moral beings, we still have moral compasses. In other words, we aren’t psychopaths. We want to be comfortable – and we will readily construct whatever morality necessary to tell ourselves that our comfort is right and just.
In today's political environment, however, the universal goal of comfort is and has been framed through an appeal to our "moral" nature, under the old political guise of "goodness."
- This goodness has now been corrupted, while remaining our highest calling to become ideal citizens.
- And all the "Virtue Signaling" – being "woke," "progressive," and "on the right side of history" – attempts to coerce Americans into embracing the Far Left's definition of what it means to be moral beings in today's political community.
And as Americans, we don't want to be cast as cheating the system or skirting the responsibilities of civic duty. Yet in the current culture, we are told that we can to maximize comfort by avoiding pain and increasing pleasure.
The most absolutely impactful success of today's Liberal-Left movement – and it is the most grossly over-looked as well – is that they have co-opted the national dialogue for virtually every important issue by framing it as a political discussion over the "morality" or "goodness" of the American people.They have co-opted and imposed on the American Voter, with hand-in-glove assistance from the sock-puppet media, an unspoken mandate for a bipolar spirit of "Moralism" and government – as if "moralism" can be legislated or solved by a government.
History is nothing but replete with such fallacy.
Today's Liberal-Progressive Far Left is attempting to impose a moral-political "theology" to determine our national (and individual) highest good. (i.e., higher taxes make me feel good whether they are actually effectual, or not.)
The facts (and by the way, history) clearly illustrate that the mutual needs or differences in individual aptitudes will stratify every and any society into economic classes. What the left has so successfully forced upon the nation is an ever-constant discussion that only a more "moral" government can, or somehow will be able to, solve such human conditions – requiring that only government "moralism" can sovlve such questions of wisdom, courage, and-or moderation.
In the United States of America, thank goodness, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights have long ago set the structure for such "moralism" – and our nation's success.
After all, the 2nd paragraph of the United States Declaration of Independence starts as follows:
In the United States of America, thank goodness, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights have long ago set the structure for such "moralism" – and our nation's success.
After all, the 2nd paragraph of the United States Declaration of Independence starts as follows:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are Created Equal, that they are Endowed by their Creator with certain Unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
And so we come to 2020, when our postmodern and leftist-imposed discussion of "morality" has no foundation other than the misguided and distorted utilitarian maxim to avoid pain, increase pleasure, and use government to solve the nation's problems.
Its the Enlightenment's ultimate bastardization of reason, casting the removal of God from the state. It may also mean that we killed the God whom our Founding Fathers referred to as the "Creator," endowing us "with certain Unalienable Rights. Today's Liberal-Progressive Far Left political elite would have us replace him with a nihilistic abyss of pleasure-seeking, meddling nation states.Enter Donald Trump, the furthest figure from a philosopher king as it gets. (Joe Biden is no better, a sad clown in his own right, yet with decades of political experience.) He replaced Statesmanship & Civic Virtue with panem et circenses – bread & circus.
Yet we can recover from this morass of hedonism with Beauty. Revive beauty, give space for culture, give our citizens time to pursue leisure, and philosophy and logic return. We can restore ourselves to political sanity in the vein of Stephen Colbert & Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" in 2010. Poetry, art, music, architecture are visual forms of the ideals which every society is built on. Whether we gaze upon Notre Dame Cathedral or Guggenheim's MoMa and Ground Zero, we see the instantiation of our human desire for beauty, structure, honor and reverence.
We can again strive for an unfamiliar heaven as moral, mortal creatures, while remaining firmly planted on earth amid our familiar human hells. Our disenchanted world can become enchanted again – all it takes is a little beauty to pivot us as a nation from comfort and the all to prevelant "moral" meddling of today's political parties and-or governments.
The contempt prior to investigation by some in the today's political class, however, clearly threatens to bar us from knowledge of our nation's Individual Good, Truth and Beauty – from to the less-traveled road of honor, justice, love and peace.
As Americans, we are built for more. We will always persist and press on beyond the average human's capability to strive for the greatest good. Replace modern contempt with American curiosity and wonder, and perhaps – one day in the not too distant future – we can save ourselves.
The stakes have never been more urgent. This is not a fiction.
Make your voice be heard. Go vote.
- PART II in an American Millennial Series: This Is Not a Fiction – The Stakes Have Never Been More Urgent
- PART I in an American Millennial Series: What Danger, or Glory, Awaits Us on the Other Side of Election 2020?
Octavia Ratiu surveys the Political & Cultural Landscape for Texas Insider via the lens of a 2nd-Generation Millennial American. A grateful patriot of a Democratic Republic allegedly in crisis, her views – neither Conservative nor Liberal – are shaped by an experience of freedom as a gift.
