Rebuttal: Santa is Really a Conservative

I’d written a piece that in my mind demonstrates Santa Clause as being a liberal. I was curious as to why liberals were so upset with the whole program, when Santa is clearly the poster-person for the liberal cause. Hah! Then I ran across this fine article on WorldNetDaily, explaining to me the errors in my thinking.

Indeed, Reb Bradley makes a compelling case that Santa actually is a conservative.

“I know, I know – some of you conservatives may already have Santa pegged as a liberal – the only liberal, in fact, that some of you welcome into your home.

But hear me out. What do we really know of him?

Santa “knows when you are sleeping and knows when you’re awake.” Yes, sounds a little like liberal “Big Brother,” but what is he actually doing? Like any constructive authority, Santa is evaluating our performance – to determine if we should receive compensation. He is making a list and checking it twice, assessing if we have been naughty or nice – if nice, we will be rewarded with a present – if naughty, we get nothin’.”

Read entire article…

Conservatives are Not Always Republicans

It’s interesting: Over the past thirty years, more and more people seem to think that the Republican political party is the same thing as conservative ideology. It isn’t at all, but that doesn’t stop the news media from attempting to make the connection. Conservatism is a set of philosophic premises, all of which generate a set of core values. It’s a decision by politicians whether or not those values will align with the current Republican party.

Although conservatism isn’t actually a philosophy (it has no particular epistemology, ethic, metaphysics), it serves as a political and economic framework. As such, it’s a body of thought more properly called an ideology. The conservative ideology is integrated, not cobbled together out of bits and pieces. The media is fond of saying that someone is fiscally conservative but socially liberal. That’s ridiculous.

Modern language has been under attack by the deconstructionists for almost half a century. Professors and failed philosophers try to say that language means nothing absolute or objective, being instead whatever anyone wants to blurt out at any given moment. That isn’t true either. Words do not cause reality, they are a consequence of observation of reality by a human mind.

Conservative thought is just that: thought. It isn’t founded on feelings, which are different from emotions. Reason is not the same thing as logic, and conservatism is not based on pure logic. Any person can be perfectly logical in their thinking, but entirely irrational.

To be rational means to apply logic and reason in relation to an objective reality. “Reality,” or more properly “existence,” exists regardless of whether or not any living thing also exists. Reality contains humanity, not the other way around. Progressive thinking is founded on existentialism, which proposes that human thought creates and contains all of reality.

Another argument the news media tries to make, goaded on by their academic masters, is that conservatives are only logical analyzers, unfeeling and unaffected by empathy. Conservatives, they say, would rather see a portion of humanity die. Why? Because that portion stands in the way of making more and more profits, or that portion disagrees, or that portion has a different religious outlook (theology). All of that is utterly absurd and intellectually vapid.

In fact, it’s modern day liberalism (progressive thought) that brings us so-called bioethics. This is a form of utilitarianism, a consequence of pragmatism. It values a human live purely on whether or not that life is “useful.” By what measure or standard is someone useful? Nobody knows; it’s a mystery.

The closest anyone comes to even a wild guess as to usefulness is some undefined concept of “quality of life.” With no meaning applied to words, no concepts, no values, and no cohesive philosophy, even the simplest question regarding the meaning of “quality of life” shows a vacuum behind the phrase.

Conservatives hold an integrated body of reason, founded on an objective reality. Because human beings are part of that reality, any system of thought must include the existence of human beings. Human life, activity, hopes, dreams, desires, motivations, and all else that makes up the complexity of a human being must reflect actual reality.

Liberals maintain that each human being creates all of reality. That reality is formed by whatever feels right, and has nothing to do with analysis and rational logic. Everyone and their opinion is equally valid, and everyone must make room for everyone else’s opinion. No particular opinion is more or less valid, and no opinion can ever be completely accurate. Therefore, no analysis can ever be “really” correct, and no explanation of anything is “actually” true. Facts are only another form of opinion, in this framework.

The mainstream media is bothered by the so-called Palin effect, hoping that it’s decaying into a fizzle. Instead, without any understanding of the separation between conservatives and Republicans, the media simply stopped interviewing or polling actual conservatives, removing us from the mix. So too, the Republican party understands (vaguely) that there is a block of conservative voters. But the RNC has no real understanding or comprehension of what informs that demographic.

Back in the 1970s, there was a similar demographic labeled “The Silent Majority.” The same failed attempts to define that demographic took place then, as takes place today. The current label is “Conservatives.” But placing a label on something doesn’t in any way mean having an understanding of that thing.