Syniks
15-02-2006, 19:58
Snipped from long article:
In the past year there has been a constant stream of articles claiming that “progressive” or “liberal” ideas have lost credibility due to the massive funding or superior stratagems of “right-wing” think tanks. But in 2001 liberal foundations spent $136 million on public policy institutes whereas conservative foundations spent only $30 million.1 The fact is that liberals desperately need to re-think their ideas. They need to return to liberalism, an intellectual tradition that has almost disappeared from contemporary academic life (and, consequently, from the agendas of many mainstream foundations who consider themselves “liberal”).
The Left has, for more than a hundred years, encouraged the belief that if one is not Left-wing, then one is Right-wing. But liberal, properly understood, is neither Left nor Right; it is Up-wing. Because the Left has long accused anyone who does not subscribe to their brand of “progressive” as being “conservative,” it is worth being clear just how un-conservative I am.
I am a secular humanist Enlightenment liberal. I believe in science, progress, and human potential. My primary motivation is to do good, with joy and fulfillment . I spent fifteen years in K-12 education creating programs and schools designed to develop students’ abilities to think for themselves. I am radically committed to intellectual freedom and personal autonomy. I am in favor of right-to-choose, death-with-dignity, marriage between consenting adults, regardless of their gender, and alternative lifestyles and family structures. I am in favor of the legalization of drugs and of all mutually-consenting sexual behavior between adults. I believe the Golden Rule obliges us to devote ourselves to helping those less fortunate than ourselves. <snip>
Liberals should regard the contemporary Leftist bias of universities and mainstream philanthropic foundations to be among the gravest threats to human well-being. Had liberalism dominated our universities, instead of the Left, many millions of people might still be alive today, and billions of people around the world would be healthier and happier.
We liberals should sharply distinguish “liberal” from “Leftist.” The latter characterized by anger, hatred, bullying, intransigence, and intellectual dishonesty. These spiritual diseases, legacies of the French Revolution and its Terror, began to infect liberalism in the early 20th century. This ugly spirit has contaminated much of academic life outside the hard sciences, economics, and business schools. As a consequence, many of the ideas and attitudes in the humanities and social sciences are profoundly, tragically misguided. <snip>
In Alcoholics Anonymous, after one has become sober, one faces an obligation to seek out those individuals whom one has harmed. Indeed, facing up to one’s failures is a key to spiritual growth in most religious and spiritual traditions. This principle of human psychology rings true even for this secular humanist.
Robert Heilbroner, a lifelong socialist, is a model of such integrity. Towards the end of his life, he acknowledged:
“Capitalism has been as unmistakable a success as socialism has been a failure. Here is the part that's hard to swallow. It has been the Friedmans, Hayeks, and von Miseses who have maintained that capitalism would flourish and that socialism would develop incurable ailments. All three have regarded capitalism as the 'natural' system of free men; all have maintained that left to its own devices capitalism would achieve material growth more successfully than any other system. From [my samplings] I draw the following discomforting generalization: The farther to the right one looks, the more prescient has been the historical foresight; the farther to the left, the less so.” 2
Heilbroner is, unfortunately, a rare exception. The primary reason why “mainstream and liberal foundations and the think tanks that they support are losing in the war ideas in American politics” is that the vast majority of intellectuals and academics have failed to make, either privately in their own hearts or publicly as a statement of record, any equivalent of the acknowledgement made by Heilbroner above.
Because a revival of Liberalism is crucial to the creation of global peace, prosperity, happiness, and well-being for people of all races and cultures, let’s hope that more prominent intellectual leaders will join Heilbroner in a forthright statement of past mistakes – at least in their hearts, if they don't have the courage to do it publicly. We can’t afford for the 21st century to be as brutal for so many as the 20th century was.
http://www.flowproject.org/Community/mp-michael-strong.html#ms1
In the past year there has been a constant stream of articles claiming that “progressive” or “liberal” ideas have lost credibility due to the massive funding or superior stratagems of “right-wing” think tanks. But in 2001 liberal foundations spent $136 million on public policy institutes whereas conservative foundations spent only $30 million.1 The fact is that liberals desperately need to re-think their ideas. They need to return to liberalism, an intellectual tradition that has almost disappeared from contemporary academic life (and, consequently, from the agendas of many mainstream foundations who consider themselves “liberal”).
The Left has, for more than a hundred years, encouraged the belief that if one is not Left-wing, then one is Right-wing. But liberal, properly understood, is neither Left nor Right; it is Up-wing. Because the Left has long accused anyone who does not subscribe to their brand of “progressive” as being “conservative,” it is worth being clear just how un-conservative I am.
I am a secular humanist Enlightenment liberal. I believe in science, progress, and human potential. My primary motivation is to do good, with joy and fulfillment . I spent fifteen years in K-12 education creating programs and schools designed to develop students’ abilities to think for themselves. I am radically committed to intellectual freedom and personal autonomy. I am in favor of right-to-choose, death-with-dignity, marriage between consenting adults, regardless of their gender, and alternative lifestyles and family structures. I am in favor of the legalization of drugs and of all mutually-consenting sexual behavior between adults. I believe the Golden Rule obliges us to devote ourselves to helping those less fortunate than ourselves. <snip>
Liberals should regard the contemporary Leftist bias of universities and mainstream philanthropic foundations to be among the gravest threats to human well-being. Had liberalism dominated our universities, instead of the Left, many millions of people might still be alive today, and billions of people around the world would be healthier and happier.
We liberals should sharply distinguish “liberal” from “Leftist.” The latter characterized by anger, hatred, bullying, intransigence, and intellectual dishonesty. These spiritual diseases, legacies of the French Revolution and its Terror, began to infect liberalism in the early 20th century. This ugly spirit has contaminated much of academic life outside the hard sciences, economics, and business schools. As a consequence, many of the ideas and attitudes in the humanities and social sciences are profoundly, tragically misguided. <snip>
In Alcoholics Anonymous, after one has become sober, one faces an obligation to seek out those individuals whom one has harmed. Indeed, facing up to one’s failures is a key to spiritual growth in most religious and spiritual traditions. This principle of human psychology rings true even for this secular humanist.
Robert Heilbroner, a lifelong socialist, is a model of such integrity. Towards the end of his life, he acknowledged:
“Capitalism has been as unmistakable a success as socialism has been a failure. Here is the part that's hard to swallow. It has been the Friedmans, Hayeks, and von Miseses who have maintained that capitalism would flourish and that socialism would develop incurable ailments. All three have regarded capitalism as the 'natural' system of free men; all have maintained that left to its own devices capitalism would achieve material growth more successfully than any other system. From [my samplings] I draw the following discomforting generalization: The farther to the right one looks, the more prescient has been the historical foresight; the farther to the left, the less so.” 2
Heilbroner is, unfortunately, a rare exception. The primary reason why “mainstream and liberal foundations and the think tanks that they support are losing in the war ideas in American politics” is that the vast majority of intellectuals and academics have failed to make, either privately in their own hearts or publicly as a statement of record, any equivalent of the acknowledgement made by Heilbroner above.
Because a revival of Liberalism is crucial to the creation of global peace, prosperity, happiness, and well-being for people of all races and cultures, let’s hope that more prominent intellectual leaders will join Heilbroner in a forthright statement of past mistakes – at least in their hearts, if they don't have the courage to do it publicly. We can’t afford for the 21st century to be as brutal for so many as the 20th century was.
http://www.flowproject.org/Community/mp-michael-strong.html#ms1