Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to The collective, conservative you really believes that.

Like others, you keep retreating to that delusion.
TB — (archived)

As long as you can paint me as some uninformed boob who gets all his information from only a few limited sources, and doesn't socialize with "real" people, you can justify your opinions of my views. Anyone who's read my links would know that's ridiculous.

Frankly, that's kind of an odd accusation from you. I could probably count the sources of all your links on one hand. Pull MSNBC and the BBC out of there, and you don't have much left.

Be that as it may...

The myth that there are large numbers of people who "don't have a chance" fits quite neatly into the worldview I described in the last part of the previous post. You see, the second part of that phrase is "don't have a chance without being taken under the wing of the almighty State."

The myth spits in the eye of every person who's ever risen from difficult circumstances to success--and there are plenty of them. Of course the statist view is that such self-starters were only "lucky," or "not authentic," or even "corrupt." Under no circumstances can such things be attributed to self-reliance, initiative, hard work, or any of the other things that are anathema to the statist.

"I don't have a chance" is a comforting escape route for people who can justify their own shortcomings by somehow blaming their circumstances. It's a lot easier than looking in the mirror and realizing it was just them the whole damn time.

There are some people who really don't have a chance on their own. The mentally ill, or seriously handicapped, or those thrown into the direst of emergency situations. Such people need help, either private or public. But these are far outnumbered by the healthy sullen types who hang around on street corners or in university taprooms waiting for the world to hand them what they think they deserve.

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