Spoiled Sniveling Brats

“At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child – miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill disciplined, despotic, and useless. Liberalism is the philosophy of sniveling brats.” – P.J. O’Rourke

P.J. O'Rourke is often referred to as the most quoted man on the planet. From the above quote, I am sure you can see why. He appears to have a keen insight into the human condition and then pronounces it quite eloquently. His definition of the liberal condition is quite profound. It dissects the pathology of the thinking of the progressive liberal and lays it bare for our edification.

I have spent nearly 30 years of my life trying to describe the "end game" of liberalism to people who refuse to see it. About 15 years ago I just gave up and decided to leave them to their fate. It was then that I coined the phrase, "You can lead a man to knowledge but you can't make him think."

In the book Atlas Shrugged, the heroine, Dagny Taggart, is rushing out to Utah to keep a scientist she has hired to find the secrets of an engine she has found from being taken by the person she refers to as "The Destroyer". On this trip, on her train rail, in her private car, she befriends a train tramp who was about to be thrown off the train by a conductor. She invites him in to her private car and orders a meal for him. In this scene he tells the tale of his past experience at the plant where she found the engine.

Dagny listens to the hobo as he describes a company taken over by heirs who are liberal and try to make the motor company a collective. The situation he describes is chilling because Ayn Rand lays bare the end results of liberalism. Dagny had seen what was left of the plant and the company town, and is sickened, as she had wondered how a once strong, well-reputed company became a ghost. As she listens to the tramp she still doesn't see the end clearly.

As the tramp explains how one heir in particular, Ivy Starnes, was in charge of allotting "rewards" to the workers. He tells Dagny how this woman wanted you on your knees before her, begging for just the bare minimum to survive. I've often pondered that I always imagined Ivy Starnes looking exactly like Nancy Pelosi. Even before Nancy Pelosi was even known outside The People's Republic of California.

When Dagny is in Galt's Gulch and she asks John Galt how Ivy Starnes expected people to live like that and Galt's reply stunned me the first time I read it,

"What makes you think Ivy Starnes goal is life?"

Indeed. The progressive liberal agenda is not to win. No, winning is achievement and they won't have any truck with achievers! Like all sniveling brats, they don't care if they win, just as long as everyone loses. They are like a two year old at the candy aisle of the grocery store, kicking and screaming until their parents buy their desired treat. It comes from the inadequacy they feel within their own souls, the innate inferiority of knowing that they are not fit to live, so nobody else is.

It is why they don't want scores at games, no playing tag or dodge ball. No winners so everyone is a loser. If everyone is special then nobody is.

The only way to stamp them out is to never, ever give in to them. Not one iota. Give them nothing, no attention, no money, no hand-outs, nothing. Handle them as you would a bratty child. Ignore them, tune them out, turn your back on them. Do not feed into their tantrum. Then, as soon as they quiet down, slap them as they deserve. Slap them down hard until they stop. It's the only way a brat learns that their behavior is not acceptable. Then, take their lollipop and give it to their most hated enemy, just for shits and giggles.