Marxism and the denial of human nature

Could also be called liberalism and the denial of human nature

Contrary to what many might assume after reading my commentary here, I do very frequently read or see left wing ideas. It’s just that they are nearly always the opposite of compelling. I’ve noted before how easily various statements and claims from the left can be refuted, and in most cases VERY easily.

Some years ago I was reading an article in Newsweek, and I was surprised at just how many false claims were there. Literally every paragraph. I was thinking I would do a breakdown of them as an example to show the massive left wing media bias, but I never got around to it as it was just too much work to be worth it. (Plus I was not writing on Substack back then.) One thing that stuck out in my mind though, was a claim in the first paragraph. “Most Americans think everybody should be reasonably successful” or words to that effect.

Of course this goes to the left wing ideal/goal of “equity”. And of course it gels nicely with Marx’s “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. For those with any common sense, any feel good sentiment about Marx’s well known phrase starts to go away within about 30 seconds as they think about incentive.

Ponder it for just a few minutes, and even if you have not seen it failing miserably in action, you realize that it will fail miserably. The lazy and/or unskilled will have no incentive to work or to gain skills, while the productive will quickly lose incentive at the fact that the fruits of their labors are being taken from them. Left wing “philosophers” never account for this obvious huge problem.

And getting back to the claim in the article, I have to wonder where the author has been hiding all of his or her life. I think most people, at some point way back in elementary school, maybe 3rd or 4th grade, looked around their classrooms and noticed that there were all different types of people with respect to learning. On one extreme were people that were both very smart and who studied hard, and on the other extreme were people not so bright who also did not care and thus did not try to learn very much. In between were people who fit along that scale, with the majority probably close to the middle. Some smarts and some level of effort.

So even as a young kid, I never expected everyone to have equal outcomes. I was not big on effort and instead relied on brains, and at no time did I expect that my grade would be increased artificially at the expense of someone else. Later in life I also blamed myself for poor decisions. I was not looking around at wealthy people with my hand out demanding that the government take some of what they had and give it to me. When I saw the claim in the Newsweek article I immediately thought “Hell NO, that’s NOT what most Americans think unless they’ve been oblivious to all the different types of people around them all their life”.

But that’s exactly what Marxists/leftists in this country seem to think ALL THE TIME. They expect all kinds of government programs to ensure “equity” even though the vast majority surely realized that the people around them at school were all very different. It’s just basic human nature and human genetics.

And NO, no one should be punished for “winning the genetic lottery” either, nor are the “genetic lottery losers” entitled to any free rides off of others. In almost all cases, people are the product of their decisions in life. Even the mentally slow can succeed to various extents in the right jobs and with a reasonable level of effort. By the same token, you can be very smart and yet still have little or no useful skills and certainly have no initiative or work ethic, and thus end up in a poor situation.

But you’ll notice that left wing “news” media NEVER goes out and asks people in poor financial shape about their life decisions. Some simple questions like:

• Did you finish high school?

• If not, why not? Were you more interesting in getting drunk or getting high than in your schoolwork?

• What about your employment history? Have you been a reliable employee and stayed with jobs for years? Or do you hop around between jobs and/or you’ve been let go because of poor job performance?

• Have you been saving any money when you did have jobs?

• Have you been careful with your money, or do you tend to splurge such that you have nothing in reserve?

• Have you committed any crimes?

• Do you or did you use drugs or excessive alcohol?

What kind of answers do you think you would get from most people in really bad financial shape? Don’t you expect that a real news media would want to be taking surveys like this at least every couple years?

Of course “equity” is not the same as “equality” under the law. All men are created equal, but hell no, all men are not going to end up in the same life situations financially or otherwise. Equality of opportunity GUARANTEES inequality of outcomes, because not everyone is the same. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

P.S. I’m not suggesting that there are not evil rich in this world who enrich themselves unjustly at the expense of others, but that’s maybe a topic for another day.