tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5133176631661920943.post3897520228090100316..comments2023-12-18T11:53:50.508+00:00Comments on A Free Left Blog: Liberalism isn't the problem, progressivism isBen Cobleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12663573050880771244noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5133176631661920943.post-47694335238036666132016-12-30T20:36:43.413+00:002016-12-30T20:36:43.413+00:00Thanks, that sums up my way of thinking. I still c...Thanks, that sums up my way of thinking. I still count myself as liberal left but I'm repelled by the frightening certainties that I hear from people who think themselves liberal. C S Lewis put it very well: I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber barron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.<br /><br />And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be. A metaphysic held by the rulers with the force of a religion, is a bad sign. It forbids them, like the inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents, it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be actuated. In a word, it forbids wholesome doubt. A political programme can never in reality be more than probably right. We never know all the facts about the present and we can only guess the future. To attach to a party programme — whose highest claim is to reasonable prudence — the sort of assent which we should reserve for demonstrable theorems, is a kind of intoxicationAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5133176631661920943.post-76328647432737229582016-11-18T16:55:21.699+00:002016-11-18T16:55:21.699+00:00A very helpful piece,like so much on this blog, wh...A very helpful piece,like so much on this blog, which I've only just discovered. Keep up the good work, Ben. The intolerance and oversimplification of events displayed by many "progressives" in the wake of the Brexit vote and Trump's victory is breathtaking. So that thoughtful people have to be continually on their guard about saying the wrong thing in polite company. The point about HOW we hold our opinions is vital and a great antidote to groupthnk. As is the Vaughan Williams. Thanks again.Michael Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05949228863994086365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5133176631661920943.post-63086524048239501302016-11-15T18:46:12.815+00:002016-11-15T18:46:12.815+00:00Excellent post. There's a very funny meditatio...Excellent post. There's a very funny meditation in Orwell's 'A Clergyman's Daughter' where Dorothy is disturbed by a couple who's Christian faith is, she decides, too strong. I have increasingly felt that way about large sections of the left, the certainty that they are right is very alarming and the levels of intolerance frightening. The key phrase which sets alarm bells ringing is 'The right side of history'. It translates as 'The means justifies the end' and we all know where that gets you. As to what genuine liberal leftists do now, I have no idea, I just know I feel politically homeless Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5133176631661920943.post-31672939606588815712016-11-10T23:15:27.371+00:002016-11-10T23:15:27.371+00:00Perhaps slightly tangentially, holding your belief...Perhaps slightly tangentially, holding your beliefs "tentatively", as Russell put it, can be better for your well-being. Psychologist James Oliver recently put it like this, "But what's going to solve it [your bad mood] is truly grasping you're making a big mistake in having really believed that you know what's best" <br /><br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37921356MrJonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05983038264416165024noreply@blogger.com