The Problems with Liberalism, Part 4

4. A liberal believes that being able to move up in the world is a basic human right.

• Actually, this is freedom or liberty. Who could not agree with this?
• As typical of propagandists, however, this is only half the story. A person should also be able to move down in the world. That is what life is all about. Making choices, some good, others bad. No person is too small to succeed nor too big to fail. It is the chutes and ladders that makes a society strong by responding to the invisible hand that moves people of ability and passion. The only problem is when the hand is the heavy one of government, lifting the undeserving or pulling down the able.
• DocBrain finds it interesting that the ability to move up and down freely was severely limited in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. And yet, liberals poured out vitriole against Bush and the war. Was he not helping people achieve a basic human right? Just as we want each child to reach her full potential as a human and the members of each race to reach their full potential, could this not also apply to an entire country deprived of the ability to move up in the world? In discussion with liberals, the premise of social stagnation was said to be neither necessary nor sufficient to justify a war, the sacrifice of blood and treasure.
• How does one define a core principle? Is it one worthy of sacrifice or just something nice to say? A purpose or a platitude? Something to be bragged about when you have it and shrugged off when your neighbor does not?

In summary, this is actually a worthy core value. DocBrain thinks liberals look at this as a platitude and as a way of defending the use of the heavy hand of government to move people according to an agenda rather than ability.

End of Part 4