Neoconservatives Make a Comeback

by Donald Douglas | October 3, 2009 2:08 pm

Brett Stephens had a great essay last week, “The Neocons Make a Comeback[1].” But check out Dr. Sanity, “NEOCONSERVATIVE REALISM[2]“:

Neoconservatism has been pronounced dead by its opponents many times in the decades since its ideas were first formulated. The reasons tha these rumors of its death are constantly exaggerated is due to the fact that the philosophy underlying neoconservative policies is extremely threatening to today’s postmodern political left.

Today’s left is a nothing more than the hallow shell of what was once known as “liberalism”; and it is held together by the empty and meaningless rhetoric of postmodern intellectual nonsense, otherwise known as political correctness and multiculturalism (or, cultural relativity).

Neoconservatism as an intellectual theory actually arose from the observation in the 1960’s that classical liberalism had been hijacked by the left and its essence literally reconstructed to suit the needs of dead-end socialists and communists, finally beginning to realize that the jig was up for them.

All over the world it was becoming more and more obvious that political and social collectivism was an abject failure. Wherever these ideologies were implemented, their policies led to intractable poverty and economic misery; and inevitably the economic policies were accompanied by oppression, tyranny, and the crushing of the human spirit.

I have discussed elsewhere how the recent revival of socialism and its collectivist/totalitarian agenda in the late 20th and early 21st century was made possible by the adoption of postmodern epistemology, rhetoric and politics by western intellectual elites:

The rise of neoconservatism in the latter part of the 20th century represents the only modern intellectual counter and the only known antidote to the infection of postmodernism and its resultant toxic effects on philosophy, politics and rehtoric.

In order to succeed in undoing and undermining the clear and unambiguous evidence of socialism’s and communism’s utter human toxicity, the totalitarians of the political left had to undermine nothing less than reality, reason, and truth.

Furthermore, they had to deconstruct and invalidate human consciousness, making sure that the everyone understood that the only apparatus available to humans for perceiving reality–the mind–was completely unreliable, and that the evidence of the senses must therefore be discounted. This intellectual strategy has resulted in a pervasive moral and cultural relativism; and an intellectual nihilism that has permeated all aspects of society and intellectual thought.

Words and language are redefined to mean whatever is wanted/needed in the moment to persuade; history is deconstructed–ostensibly to expose it’s lies, but really to render it meaningless and irrelevant to the present; and the ideas and values that are the foundation of Western Civilization are mocked and shown by postmodern “logic” to be no better than any other random ideas.

For the left, freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose–and not much different from slavery anyway; democracy is just as much a fraud as tyranny; that which was always considered the good, is really just as evil as evil; and so on. Twentieth century postmodernists thus set themselves up as culturally and morally superior to all other humans in history, and with the postmodern relativistic advantage, they could pass judgement on everyone and everything. Thus from the superior postmodern perspective, there was nothing of value to learn from a slave-holding–and clearly imperfect– Thomas Jefferson; there is no moral superiority in a system that strives toward increasing individual human freedom and dignity compared to a system that doesn’t even recognize the rights of the individual. There is no difference between right and wrong; good and evil–all are suspect, all are hypcritical, all are imperfect; and thus all such concepts are rendered irrelevant.

By disgarding reason and reality; by abandoning the past and embracing moral and cultural relativism, the left has brought us to this place where we are morally and physically paralyzed. We place greater value on beautiful words and rhetoric than on behavior; what is said, instead of what is done; we seem unable to distinguish between the deliberate targeting and killing of innocents and the accidental and unavoidable killing of innocents despite herculean efforts to avoid it; between waging war to give people a chance at freedom and democracy; and waging war for domination and imperialism; between standing up for what is right and accepting the consequences, and abandoning one’s values and surrendering with “honor” to the scum of the earth.

Do our current leaders have the moral will to actually win the war in Afghanistan now that the morally bankrupt left is calling the shots? I sincerely doubt it. Even as I write this, our Dear Leader is heading off to lobby for the Chicago Olympics and can’t be bothered to meet or discuss strategy with the General he appointed to oversee the war [3]. This more than anything highlights the ridiculous priorities and broken moral compass of the political left.Yet, these are the same political ideologues who have established themselves as the arbiters of moral behavior by enabling and encouraging amoral and immoral behavior[4]; of being “reality-based” without the necessity of having to acknowledge reality; of speaking “truth” to power, without being capable of recognizing truth (isn’t all truth relative, after all?).

I put the palecon-libertarians in there along with Dr. Sanity’s discussion of the radical left. They’ve made common[5] cause[6] with our enemies[7] as well.

Cross-posted from American Power[8].

Endnotes:
  1. The Neocons Make a Comeback: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574438831789972954.html
  2. NEOCONSERVATIVE REALISM: http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2009/09/neoconservative-realism.html
  3. can’t be bothered to meet or discuss strategy with the General he appointed to oversee the war : http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/28/mcchrystal-says-hes-met-obama-taking-afghanistan-command/
  4. amoral and immoral behavior: http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2009/09/29/polanski-althouse-dares-to-ask/
  5. common: http://conservativetimes.org/?p=3768
  6. cause: http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2009/10/01/who-are-they-kidding/
  7. with our enemies: http://www.ordinary-gentlemen.com/2009/09/in-which-i-cheerlead-for-michael-moore/
  8. American Power: http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/neoconservatives-make-comeback.html

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