Saturday, October 18, 2008

Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

Rather than watching “objective” liberal news channels that compare which of the candidates has the proper “looks” for a President, people should watch this:



Yes, yes, I know, rightist propaganda. That’s right (no pun intended… well, maybe). It is the propaganda of the conservatism — conservatism in thinking. Liberals think the following way: emotions rule intellect. Conservatives say the opposite: intellect rules emotions, particularly, in making decisions. You want to help poor? Fine. Do it — in intelligent way, no in an emotional knee-jerk-reflex style.

In his Kuntres U’Maayan, Rebbe Rashab (fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe) writes that even when somebody does good only with emotions, without intellect, he is no different from an animal. What separates a human being from an animal is ability to do everything — including helping others — with intellect. One sign of helping somebody without intellect is when help is given indiscriminately, even to those unworthy of it, or those whom this help would actually hurt. This help, says the Rebbe, comes from yetzer ha’rah, evil inclination which hijacked the initial motive to do good and turned it towards evil.

This is how liberalism works — an initially good motive is hijacked into irrational, ignorant thinking, and results in more negative than positive. Conservatism urges doing good with intellect. Applying a bandage on a cancer tumor is an example of liberalism. Doing a surgery (which from the outside looks aggressive and barbaric to someone who knows nothing about modern medicine) to cut out the tumor is an example of conservatism. (Of course, in case of economics, the best way to help is not touch the free market at all. Any attempt to “make things better where possible” in the economy, as Sarkozi put it, will make things only worse.)

Now watch the video above again. Propaganda of intelligence is not a bad thing. Propaganda of lies, ignorance and irrationality (even when styled as “objective reporting”) is.

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