Nine months out from the most important general election, certainly in my lifetime, and there is still no clear-cut republican nominee at this point. Quite honestly, I am much less concerned about that than I am the blatantly obnoxious attempt of the left-wing media, and by extension, the Obama administration, to determine who our guy is going to be come November. For anyone of even meager intellect to suggest that this is not occurring is laughable. Unfortunately for us all, there are no shortages of those who would doggedly insist there is no "cabal" as such. That's to be expected, I suppose, when the warped and failed ideology that idealistic liberals embrace is apparently more important than the bleak realities that such liberal philosophy presents when taken to its logical conclusion.
Please do not cite the liberal philosopher-king Rousseau to me unless you are ready to see the writings of your progressive champion trashed in his own words. You've read Rousseau? Good for you, I have as well. I have a few words for the blissfully ignorant young communists in this country also. Before one begins touting the virtues of a Leviathanic government as proposed by the delusional Thomas Hobbes, one really should take the time to actually read the words of Hobbes, as well as those of Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto, co-written with Friedrich Engels, is infamous, incredibly enlightening and, simultaneously very deeply disturbing.
The thing that makes Rousseau particularly annoying to myself and other advocates of Lockean thought, is that in places, Rousseau parrots Locke while espousing the virtues of individual liberty, and then touts the "general will," and ultimately advocates something of a collective philosophy that is much more in line with Marx than Locke. Surely, a man of Rousseau's unsurpassed intelligence understood the inevitable conclusions that result from any form of Statism (be it communism, Marxism, socialism, fascism, etc.). That is the stifling of initiative and incentive, the complete eradication of a "free press," which used to fill the indispensable role of the watch dog of the government in the interest of "the people;" furthermore, statism is a self-defeating prophesy that ends in the utter bankruptcy of entire civilizations both financially and morally.
Rousseau confirms all of this in his own works. To his credit, the philosopher-king of the Left also rightly espoused that indeed, freedom is a tenuous thing that can be gained; however, once lost, freedom is rarely ever regained. These are all basic truths of Rousseauian thought that most of his die-hard fans never seem to cite.
Please do not cite the liberal philosopher-king Rousseau to me unless you are ready to see the writings of your progressive champion trashed in his own words. You've read Rousseau? Good for you, I have as well. I have a few words for the blissfully ignorant young communists in this country also. Before one begins touting the virtues of a Leviathanic government as proposed by the delusional Thomas Hobbes, one really should take the time to actually read the words of Hobbes, as well as those of Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto, co-written with Friedrich Engels, is infamous, incredibly enlightening and, simultaneously very deeply disturbing.
The thing that makes Rousseau particularly annoying to myself and other advocates of Lockean thought, is that in places, Rousseau parrots Locke while espousing the virtues of individual liberty, and then touts the "general will," and ultimately advocates something of a collective philosophy that is much more in line with Marx than Locke. Surely, a man of Rousseau's unsurpassed intelligence understood the inevitable conclusions that result from any form of Statism (be it communism, Marxism, socialism, fascism, etc.). That is the stifling of initiative and incentive, the complete eradication of a "free press," which used to fill the indispensable role of the watch dog of the government in the interest of "the people;" furthermore, statism is a self-defeating prophesy that ends in the utter bankruptcy of entire civilizations both financially and morally.
Rousseau confirms all of this in his own works. To his credit, the philosopher-king of the Left also rightly espoused that indeed, freedom is a tenuous thing that can be gained; however, once lost, freedom is rarely ever regained. These are all basic truths of Rousseauian thought that most of his die-hard fans never seem to cite.