Category Archives: Individualism Vs. Collectivism

The UN Can’t Pick People Up; It Can Only Pick Their Pockets, POTUS

Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Nationhood, UN

“We have it in our power, should we so choose, to lift millions from poverty, to help our citizens realize their dreams, and to ensure that new generations of children are raised free from violence, hatred, and fear.”—President Trump in his speech to the UN (9/19/2017), presumably speaking about the UN.

WRONG! The State can’t pick people up, it can only pick their pockets. It’s up to individuals, families and communities of faith to do the heavy lifting. In other words, it is up to civil society.

See transcript of President Donald Trump’s speech to the United Nations.

UPDATE III (10/1/017): Reject Collective Guilting By The Bigoted Ta Nehisi Coates

English, History, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Intellectualism, Intelligence, Race, Racism

Ta Nehisi Coates is no intellectual; he says ‘aks’ instead of ‘ask’ and is utterly incoherent, putting forth—in a lengthy interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes (who is manifestly bright)—turgid, sweeping, logically flawed argument.

If we must segregate intellectuals, then Thomas Sowell is a thinker, as is Walter E. Williams. But not this man. Alas, Coates’ fortunes are not merit-based. Yes, how does the adulation Coates receives square with his accusations, made into a career calling, of our racism, yours and mine?

Hayes attempted diplomatically, 6:30 minutes in, to refute Coates’ put down of all whites who voted Trump, but Hayes backed down from being intellectually forceful. Besides, Coats was unable to respond to the host. Simply couldn’t.

I’ve not yet READ “The First White President: The foundation of Donald Trump’s presidency is the negation of Barack Obama’s legacy.” However, the thesis seems a little dumb, for a negation of Obama is not necessarily racial, given that such an overwhelming number of whites had voted for 44. A vote for Obama, moreover, on the part of blacks was most certainly racial. But that’s OK.

As to “America’s founding sins,” as Coats calls slavery. I was not party to that, so I reject his collective guilt. We all should.

UPDATE I: On Gab, someone point out that, “African-American vernacular is a legitimate dialect of English, no different than southern or Australian or any other dialect. That doesn’t make it inferior.”

REPLY: This cultivated African-American dialect was, I believe, absent in the 1950s through the 1960s and even the 70s. It’s a racial, not regional, dialect, adopted, it would seem, artificially for political ends.

UPDATE II: DON on Gab: Having not been alive in those decades I can’t personally refute that (ridiculous, I mean come on) claim, but have a listen to this 1956 interview with a Black American and tell me it doesn’t sound quite a bit like blacks today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvEE9zdHpcY

REPLY: The most educated of blacks once sounded like educated Americans, not like the exotic exhibits you make them out to be. Do yo think people should strive to speak great English, the language of the founders & of the founding docs? Or bastardize the language to pidgin english? Leftists are with you.

UPDATE III (10/1/017):

MTP asks Ta-Nullity Coats, aka Ta Nehisi Coates: “Are you optimistic about the future of your son in the US?” Oracle answers: “I’m optimistic about my son.” Me: “Ta-ta tembel.” (That means stupid in Hebrew.)

Transcript (thanks, MSNBC, for always transcribing): “Meet the Press – October 1, 2017.”

UPDATED (8/23): Barcelona and Beyond: How Politicians & Policy Wonks Play God With Your Life

Business, Homeland Security, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, libertarianism, Terrorism

NEW COLUMN: “Barcelona and Beyond: How Politicians & Policy Wonks Play God With Your Life.” An excerpt:

… On TV, June 1, 2017, Alex Nowrasteh, immigration expert at the libertarian Cato Institute, argued that “foreign-born terrorism is a hazard,” but a “manageable” one, “given the huge economic benefits of immigration and the small costs of terrorism.”

Spoken like a collectivist, central planner and utilitarian rolled into one.

This is the Benthamite “utilitarian calculus” at its cruelest. It requires, first, for someone to play God. Whether she sits in Downing Street, D.C., Brussels, or Barcelona; the Godhead has determined that Muslims in our midst are a must in bringing “the greatest good to the greatest number of citizens.” Along the way, a few people will die. For the greater good.

In the words of “Stalin’s apologist” Walter Duranty, ”You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.”

However, a natural-rights libertarian values the life of the innocent individual. Only by protecting each individual’s rights—life, liberty and property—can the government legitimately enhance the wealth of the collective. Only through fulfilling its nightwatchman role can government legitimately safeguard the wealth of the nation. For each individual, secure in his person and property, is then free to pursue economic prosperity, which redounds to the rest.

See, statistics are silly unless given context. If you have one foot in fire, the other in ice, can we legitimately say that, on average, you’re warm? Hardly.

Probabilities, in this case the chance that any one of us will die-by-Muslim, are statistically insignificant—unless this happens to you or to yours, to me or mine. …

… READ “Barcelona and Beyond: How Politicians & Policy Wonks Play God With Your Life” at American Thinker.

This column can generally be read on Townhall.com,  Unz Review,  Daily Caller, American Thinker, and others, where The Mercer Column usually appears. And it’s always posted, eventually, on IlanaMercer.com, under Articles. Please share.

UPDATE (8/23):
Scott Puckett • 3 days ago

“A great article. It truly explains how the political elites and their minions think. The issue President Trump alluded to when he spoke of how General Pershing treated Muslin terrorists and insurrectionists were dealt with in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century would be the way, in my opinion, to deal with these Muslin terrorists.”

UPDATED: Political Tribes & The Donald Trump Jr. Contretemps

Conservatism, Democrats, Donald Trump, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Republicans, Russia

I checked out social media before dipping the proverbial toe in the water, this morning. The Right—libertarian, conservative, Republican—is behind Trump, no matter. The Left is against him, no matter what. Tribalists all.

The reaction to Donald Trump Jr. contretemps epitomizes tribalism, if you ask me; but if you’re a tribalist, you won’t ask me.

The silver lining? Maybe we’ll finally be rid of Jared Kushner. Wife Ivanka follows him back to New York, in short order.

Fin.

AND FAT CHANCE.

The Story is Here. If you’re a member of Tribe I, you think it’s a non-story. If you’re a member of Tribe II; you’re into it. It’s your smoking gun.

UPDATE: But there is a truth here, beyond the two tribes’ positions. And the “What about when the Democrats did this or that” won’t cut it as an argument.