The Conservative Mugging of Adam Smith
In the most recent kick in the gut to the classical liberal ideals, they have been the negligent stewards of, some conservatives are once again harping about “compassionate conservatism.”
There is no reason to make the principles and values this country was founded on more “compassionate”--that is what the Enlightenment was all about—freeing the individual from the tyranny of parasitic governments, and the bondage of irrational legal and moral justifications these thieves use to justify their right to plunder and enslave the masses.
The Enlightenment was about “liberty”, which comes from the Latin word “liber” meaning “free.” And the social, political, philosophical and ideological views that arose from the Enlightenment was called liberalism. During the New Deal the word “liberal” was hijacked by “progressives” and leftists, who then proceeded to change the meaning of the word.
To distinguish the two, the original liberalism came to be called “classical liberalism”--making it sound like some old relic on a museum shelf—and that is how the ideals, at the heart of the American Revolution, were treated by the political group that, by default, became their steward, the so-called “conservatives.”
No one would be more distressed by the use to which his ideas have been put then Adam Smith, one of the greatest of the liberals of the Enlightenment. He would be appalled by the creepy spin Ayn Rand put on his philosophy and economics—and would (like Aristotle) be amused by all the Objectivists who do not realize that everything she spouted out, was misreported old news.
Likewise you would not find Adam Smith on the list of character witnesses for the Wall Street Banksters, who find justification for their gluttonous greed in his ideas.
Smith was not concerned with individual wealth generation (except when it was unjustly achieved through thievery by such means as mercantilism), but with the morals, political structure and culture that are most conducive to creating widespread prosperity in society.
Adam Smith personally led an enlightened life . Over 90% of his annual income was donated anonymously to philanthropic charities.
Ayn Rand, and the Social Darwinian elitist reptiles, who go around masquerading as classical liberals or libertarians, would be disgusted that a man of his brilliance would have wasted his life helping the weak, and undermining the market.
Unfortunately, when conservatives have not just ignored classical liberal principles, they have often been quite reptilian—in a most deceptively hypocritical way. Adam Smith would be shocked by the conservatives in congress who are so ardent in cutting back health care for children—but will not touch the massive American killing machine. Like all the classical liberals he found nationalism to be economically and morally destructive—all the costs being born by individuals—all for for the benefit of predatory politicians, governments and their partners in crime.
And then he would gag over the way these conservative politicians misuse his ideas of limited government and “free markets”,to grant favors to ,and partner the government racket with, big financial and corporate concerns.
And then to make it all better some of these conservatives propose using coercion and violence to appropriate more money from the people, and they have the gall to call this “compassion.”
Taking a page from the leftists, who stole the liberal label, these “compassionate conservatives” believe that the compassion of society is best expressed through government programs and regulation. Some of these conservatives even maintain that the compassion of the people can only be expressed through the state.
Adam Smith would try (probably fruitlessly) to explain that true compassion is only truly expressed when it is truly done voluntarily—not by government force and command. But not only that—it is more effective that way.
I don't know if John Stuart Mill was entirely accurate when he famously observed that “conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.” But they have done at least as much to kill liberalism as the stupid people who stole the liberal name.
Related Articles:
-
Reach for the sky and end up with the stars Wouldn’t it be nice as a nature or landscape... Read Full Story » -
Anyone who reads Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations or The Theory of Moral Sentiments would want... Read Full Story » -
The part of the brain we use when engaging in egalitarian behavior may also be linked to a... Read Full Story »
Adam Smith Pictures
Comments
