Black-Hearted Conservatism

9:00 AM: Charles Darwin's famous "Origin Of The Species" written in the mid-nineteenth century, posited the theory of evolution. As a part of his theory, Darwin noted that nature has a built in mechanism to insure the survival of a species. Only the strong survive, said Darwin, and the survival of the fittest guaranteed that a species would not die out. Darwin was talking about natural mechanisms as applied to animal species over tens of thousands of years, and not about the living conditions of current day living people.

However, it didn't take greedy, heartless nineteenth century rich and powerful types long to latch on to Darwin's work, twist it, and use it for their own purposes. How can so few amass such wealth in the face of the poverty of the many? It was simply a matter of survival of the fittest. Poor people are the weak of the species. Better that they die off. The species will be all the stronger for it. Thus, the theory of "Social Darwinism" came into being, to serve the wealthy and powerful as a defense of outrageous inequality, stifling poverty, tenements, child labor, horrible working conditions, disease, and the starvation of the poor.

While this hateful theory was roundly condemned by people of conscience, it has managed to raise its ugly head time and time again. Modern day conservatives, with their blame the victim mentality are nothing less than Social Darwinists. The poor are responsible for their own condition, they believe. That's why conservatives hate social programs like Welfare, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. That's why they want to cut or eliminate programs designed to address poverty. They have theirs, let the poor get their own or die off. That is the theoretical underpinning of conservatism and, once again, it's not pretty.

Photo: Trumpet Fish, St. Croix

Jim

How Politically Left Or Right Are You?

Click on the above title link and take the quiz to find out. (Thanks for the link, Kirk!) Are you on the left end of the political spectrum with the likes of Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson, or are you over there on the right with Reagan? I scored a 4, which puts me pretty far over on the left. I wonder what I answered wrong? I wanted a perfect score on the left. Take the quiz and you'll see what I mean.

This time of the year I love to visit Fire Island, where we have a second home. In the Spring I buy lots of bird seed and keep the feeder full when I can be there. I took this photo of a female Cardinal a couple of weeks ago.

Here are a few random thoughts for today. John McCain says that we don't need additional gun control measures because the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to own a gun. He's wrong on both counts. That's not what the Constitution says, and we do need measures designed to prevent unbalanced individuals from obtaining guns. Maybe we ought to require a psychological checkup before selling someone a handgun. We require vision tests before issuing driver's licenses, so why not? Why does a 23 year old student need a powerful handgun? Shouldn't someone ask him? We don't sell alcohol to intoxicated individuals, so why do we sell guns to unbalanced people?

I read that the Democrats are likely to extend most or all of Bush's tax cuts, which heavily favor the rich. That's not great. We finally get a Democratic congress, and they're going to lay down in the face of the obscene inequities of Bush's economic policy. No matter that we continue to incur debt that will saddle future generations. I'd like to return to the pre-Reagan tax rates, which were truly progressive. If we did that we could probably solve the Social Security and Medicare funding challenges, and begin to reverse the ever growing inequality between the rich and the poor in this country. Republican economic policy has Social Darwinist underpinnings: "Let them eat cake." Their newest "rising star," Fred Thompson, is a "supply-side economics" advocate. Wasn't that debunked? Here we go further back into the dark ages.

Jim