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| Al Gore's Insolent Assault on Reason |
| 2007-05-23 |
| This is the American left's version of what strongmen like Vladimir Putin and Pervez Musharraf call "managed democracy." The "marketplace of ideas" can be trusted to work--so long as everyone agrees with them. But if the public obstinately persists in disagreeing with the left, then the marketplace of ideas must have been "broken" by meddling troublemakers like Rush Limbaugh and Rupert Murdoch and Karl Rove--and we know how to "fix" those guys, don't we? More broadly, this is what the left has traditionally meant by "reason." For decades, the left has dominated the intelligentsia: the media, the universities, and the other institutions that provide credentials for "experts"--another term Al Gore has been harping on. This leads the left to act as if the latest consensus among its favored experts--whether it be the superiority of socialized medicine or the imminent threat of global warming--must be what every "rational" and well-informed person thinks, because it is the consensus of the elite. Thus "reason," as Al Gore uses the term, refers to the ability of the leftist elite to impose its conventional dogmas on the national debate, without the need to persuade or convince others. In reality, a genuine respect for reason starts with an absolute respect for the mind and judgment of the individual. A respect for reason requires the subordination of coercion to persuasion through the strict limitation of government power. A respect for reason requires a commitment to liberty above all else. Al Gore stands for the exact opposite. His environmentalist crusade is dedicated to the suppression of the material products of the human mind--our advanced industry and technology. And now, in his new book, he is promoting a rationalization for the suppression of free political debate. To do this while billing himself as a defender of reason is an act of supreme insolence. |
| Posted by:SR-71 |
| #2 "To do this while billing himself as a defender of reason is an act of supreme insolence." Hell, AlBore's very existence is an act of supreme insolence. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-05-23 14:02 |
| #1 Sorry, clicked too soon. Meant to put this in opinion. |
| Posted by: SR-71 2007-05-23 11:15 |