I have to thank vocal left leaning proponents of progressivism for what I perceive as an irrational support of the usurpation of individual and States rights, as it has forced me to extend my research to depths that I haven’t felt necessary before. I find it fascinating that individuals can hold such views thus my quest for how they might have come to their positions.
I have begun an extensive project of research with my methodology initially focusing on one of the leading financial benefactors of the modern progressive movement, George Soros, who has directly contributed in excess of 5 billion dollars towards such organizations. This is where I began my exploration. It is an extensive list populated by a plethora of rabidly anti-American organizations. There are also numerous instances of the more mundane; labor unions, environmental organizations like the Apollo Alliance which is a project of the Tides Foundation which lists its mission as strategic planning for a spider web of philanthropic organization. In addition there is the Center for American Progress, an organization that was founded by Hillary Clinton and George Soros.
There is a massive amount of information to sift through. Much of it is very innocuous and on the surface could be seen as noble in purpose. But every now and then some real gems come to light. Concentrating on mission statements and past accomplishment of the organizations as well the bios of founders and executive officers tends to reveal more than the very carefully chosen words found on the website pages the general public would tend to visit.
On the Center for American Progress’ website, under the CEO, John Podesta’s bio page the following accomplishment was touted:
“Most recently, Podesta served as co-chair of President Obama’s transition, where he coordinated the priorities of the incoming administration’s agenda, oversaw the development of its policies, and spearheaded its appointments of major cabinet secretaries and political appointees.“
On the CAP’s “About Page” under the heading “What we believe” the following excerpt is found:
“We believe an open and effective government can champion the common good over narrow self-interest,…”
Found on the CAP’s website http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/10/aspen_video.html is an article written by John Podesta entitled Progressivism’s Role in the Economy, Health Care, Education, and the Cimate he writes:
“What’s the difference between liberalism and progressivism? According to John Podesta, it is the “fire of social justice” that is often born from faith or a belief in a communitarian approach to the common good—as opposed to an individualistic approach.
This was a preface to a video where Podesta goes into much more detail, unfortunately there are many of these videos and for someone to do intensive research they must watch the video or rely on meta-tags for an inkling of the contents. Let me tell you, I can read much faster than they can speak but I did take time to watch the video where he outlined why the term progressivism over liberalism is used. The jist of his speech in regards to this topic was; liberalism has developed many negative connotations and is often used by conservatives as a pejorative whereas progressivism has much greater appeal to the masses as it embodies the idea of progressing towards a stronger society and economy.
It all sounds rather benign, however, I kept coming back to the preface of the video and the word “communitarian” and an advocacy of such a principle over the “individualistic approach”, which took me back to the “What we believe” page’s use of the phrase “common good over narrow self-interest”.
I figured I had the definition of “narrow self-interest” pretty well under control. You can’t get any narrower than an individual’s own self interest. Common good seems pretty straight forward too, the common good as used in the phrase, is more important than an individual’s rights.
But this word “communitarian”, I had to look it up. It wasn’t a word with which I was familiar, it looked a lot like communism on the surface so I did some more research.
Central to the communitarian philosophy is the concept of positive rights, which are rights or guarantees to certain things. These may include state subsidized education, state subsidized housing, a safe and clean environment, universal health care, and even the right to a job with the concomitant obligation of the government or individuals to provide one. To this end, communitarians generally support social security programs, public works programs, and laws limiting such things as pollution.
A common objection is that by providing such rights, communitarians violate the negative rights of the citizens; rights to not have something done for you. Progressives, aka communitarians assert;individuals would not have any rights in the absence of societies. Conservatives view this as a negation of natural rights.
Progressives aka communitarians believe that negative rights may be violated by a government action, but argue that it is justifiable if the positive rights outweigh the negative rights lost. They further argue that negative rights are irrelevant in the absence of positive rights.
How do the communists define communitarian?
The Socialist Alliance programme is the foundation upon which everything else is built, including in time our exact organizational forms and constantly shifting tactics. The programme links our continuous and what should be all-encompassing agitational work with our ultimate aim of a communitarian, or communist, system. Our programme thus establishes the basis for agreed action and is the lodestar, the point of reference, around which the voluntary unity of the Socialist Alliance is built and concretised. Put another way, the programme represents the dialectical unity between theory and practice.” — Weekly Worker 368, Janury 25 2001. See also: 5. The transition to the communitarian system in the same issue of Great Britain Communist Party’s Weekly Worker.
The Ism Book – A dictionary of philosophies from Peter Saint-André, editor of the Monadnock Review defines communitarianism as:
Communitarianism (Idea and Movement in politics) – “With the demise of true socialism as a viable intellectual force, communitarianism is now the most active philosophical opposition to libertarianism. Communitarianism is usually presented in vague terms, but it is probably best understood as a mild form of collectivism or “democratic socialism.”
I’ve heard many times in recent months from individuals posting on various blogs that “communism is dead”, buried under the debris of the Berlin wall. I contend that it is dead only in name and it’s core beliefs have been resurrected under the guise of “progressivism/communitarianism” A belief that the State knows better how to run your life than you do. That individual liberties have no place in modern society and that without society you would have no rights at all.
As I stated in the beginning, this is an extensive research project and I am far from done but I thought I’d post this as the first installment with more to come. Next we’ll look at how the Tides Foundation provides overarching coordination of progressivism/communitarianism’s strategy of implementing their philosophy through the activities of a myriad of non-profit organizations and how the Apollo Alliance, a project of the Tides Foundation, was a major player in writing the text of the stimulus bill to further move the USA towards a communitarian society. (it’s okay if you want to read that as “communist”, I do)
Director of Operation – Global Poker Federation
Served seven years in the US Army with one tour in SE Asia and a three year tour in Karlsruhe Germany.
Graduated from Utah Technical College with a degree in Business Management
Previously worked with Boeing as a Computer Applications Analyst / Industrial Engineer – Provided top level management within the Military and Missile Systems Division with performance metrics and analysis.
Doh… If I’d just take the time to visit dictionary.com I could have gotten the definition of communitarian much faster and in a more succinct fashion.
PS Sorry about the bold in the latter part of the original article… the Submit a Post editing window is extremely small and I missed an end bold tag.
Communitarianism is indeed where we are and is the culmination of public, private and social sectors merged based upon global standards. Here is much more from a Christian website that provides much research in this area and connects many dots:
Sliding Down the Communitarian Slope
http://crossroad.to/articles2/010/cry.htm
Excellent link Hoads! A must read.
Don, great material, you are providing even more evidence to what was once considered a wild and irresponsible assertion; that the Progressive Leadership of the Democrat Party is a Marxist Front intent on a peaceful Communist Revolution within the United States, that is so covert and subtle that the US becomes a Socialist Dystopia before our citizens are aware of the change.
I am anxious to read more, well done, well done indeed!
@hoads: Great link, thank you, it is so reassuring to know there are others who see this ever growing threat to our way of life, to our very existence.
It explains much–the global financial crisis, the UN global warming agenda, amnesty, US socialized healthcare, internet neutrality, card check, etc. We are being taken out at the knees in order to conform to a globalist agenda run by global corporations, financeers and complicit international governments. Here’s more related to how the “green agenda” fits in:
http://www.green-agenda.com/index.html
Conspiracy is the way of the world. To deny it is a choice.
“I contend that [communism] is dead only in name and it’s core beliefs have been resurrected under the guise of progressivism/communitarianism”
One of the hallmarks of an ideology built on lies is that it keeps inventing new names for itself, in an endless effort to deceive.
Hoads: Conspiracy is the way of the world. To deny it is a choice.
Do you mean to deny the conspiracies as if to refuse to admit that they exist or do you mean to deny them as in rejecting their premises.
People deny that there are conspiracies; but there are. All of us are plotting all the time to improve our leverage on the world and usually enlisting the help of others, technically it is a conspiracy. However, most of us have some moral restraint and ideas of reciprocity. It’s the ruthless conspiracies lacking them that tend to be rejected in disbelief. Such conspiracies are, like our administration, working overtime to denigrate everyone who disagrees with them, paint them as kooks or antisocial, or otherwise prevent the anti-conspirators from having any authority. 95% of people will automatically follow the judgments of a very few people they consider authorities–like the TV. Because SOME conspiracies really are the products of paranoid imagination, it is easy to tar all conspiracies with the same brush.
And to think… I’m not really paranoid, they are out to get me. Death Panels will be the death of me; they’ll pull my name, google it, read this article, find out I’m a rabble rouser and I won’t get my heart bypass surgery!
Be afraid America… very very afraid.
Pat makes a good point: “Because SOME conspiracies really are the products of paranoid imagination, it is easy to tar all conspiracies with the same brush.”
This is not lost on those seeking to push an agenda or garner power. It’s the reason Ahmadinejab (sp?), Bin Ladin, Chavez, Castro and their ilk like to implicate the US in trumped up conspiracies about 9/11, Israel, Haiti, etc. They seek to exploit and inflame the passions of “conspiracy kooks” in an effort to undermine the opposition but, mostly, to distract from their own diabolical plans.
Hoades: Thank you again! this is a great link if you want to realize what kind of moral degenerates have been espousing this Global Warming Nonsense. With their sanctimonious and oh so pious claims of concern for the earth in the mean time they want to cripple the US and establish International Socialism: bye the way, they will set themselves up as the Elites with all the power and money, if that is all right, after all they are the ones putting the earth on the true path to Socialism/Communism.
http://www.green-agenda.com/index.html
Donald Bly
I think that’s why they’ve gotten so far. Normal people trust their “authorities.” If that “authority” is a rock-star candidate, all the better, his charisma only has to last long enough to get into office and then he can put into place a plan that was, I’m getting sure, thought of many years ago and carried out by fanatics as devoted to their cause as Al Queda. And just as no one believed a bunch of cave dwellers would fly into buildings and cause all the trouble they did, no one believed that this bunch was more than a collection of slightly more adept Chicago crooks, with the usual venal motives. But they do want to change America. This doesn’t compute, to normal people. It’s like the story that psych workers hear over and over, “I knew he was a little odd, but I didn’t think it was a problem… until he got out the knife…”
In reply to Skookum “Do you mean to deny the conspiracies as if to refuse to admit that they exist or do you mean to deny them as in rejecting their premises.”
I mean the evidence is undeniable once the facts are exposed. Until more people are willing to endure the slander and name calling of “tin-foil hattery”, then those engaged in real conspiracies will continue to wreak havoc and have their way. People have to be armed with the facts and unafraid to call it out.
Don, eat well, drink a glass of red wine every night, and stay active. I’d suggest not to stress over the cards, but something tells me you don’t have a problem there.
And other than that, I’ve heard there are some good clinics setting up in Costa Rica, to Hell with the Socialists and their Death Panels.
@Skookum… Well I don’t need bypass sugery but if I did, and had to face a “death panel” I’m sure I’d wouldn’t be on the list for treatment. I will have that glass of red wine… on second thought…. just bring me the whole box. Can you tell I’m not too picky about what I drink?
For those that missed Mike’s America post entitled “Obama’s Dr Mengele Admits Health Care “Reform” will Kill More Old People”, read story here and note that nasty “communiatrian philosophy” being used as justification for denying old people care.
These people indict themselves with their own words.
Don, it is reassuring to know we have a connoisseur of our more humble wines; there is a homeless man who hangs out at our local 7/11, where I stop for my second cup of coffee, who claims to have a proficiency with boxed wines.
I take him at his word, for sometimes it is best just to acknowledge someone’s experience and acumen.
@Skookum… It’s not so much that the wine tastes better out of a box, it just doesn’t break, like bottles, when you fall face first into the gutter. It’s my small part in the conservation effort. However, I did have a box of something that got misplaced in a cupboard for 4 years, when I discovered it, I was pleasantly suprised at how good it was. Having been stationed in Germany for three years with the Rhine and Mosel valleys as constant haunts, I can honestly say; that aged box of wine rivaled some of the best I was priviledged to taste in Europe.
PAT what IF A LEADER HAS A PARANOID IMAGINATION and meet with other of the same mental state that is what we are reading but their money give them the tool to make it real to their country..i never trust UN or those big ones because their heads are spinning dangerously,bye
Don, I had no idea you were so deeply involved with the Green Movement.
Actually, packing in with horses requires judicious shopping for boxed wine with those plastic liners, it is disheartening to watch a pack horse break a $30.00 bottle because he walked too close to a tree. It is usually considered a good idea to put the alcohol on your best pack horse, to lessen the chances of having a catastrophe: boxed wine also comes with the added benefit of greater volume per container. Every advantage needs to be considered when packing in the mountains.
Bees, their eyes are spinning like a slot machine, a fool’s game to be sure; but they don’t care, they are playing with our money until they hit the jackpot.
What a coincidence–David Brooks calls for more “communitarianism” today
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/opinion/19brooks.html
they want to create a world of zombies
hoads..you know if a new commer read this,he will think he hsa a communist post,bye
Precisely Bees, those who can produce nothing, those who can only usurp our freedom with lies and deceit, seek to shackle us and make us ignorant of anything outside the Party Line and its propaganda; they want us to be serfs and slaves to their Communist Vision while they revel in the wealth that we who work and create have amassed. They want to take the wealth of the US and disperse it around the word until we become nothing more than a ‘second rate, Third World Country”. Of course, if they skim a percentage off the top like Al Gore, the thieving lying bast*rd that he is, that is no more than they deserve, in their eyes, for having the vision to bring the world to a stand still. While they live and dance the role of the Marie Antoinettes of the modern age.
Bees,
Hitler and Saddam Hussein were very paranoid, rightfully so because any number of people would have been glad to kill them. A little vestige of conscience left maybe, but interpreted not as a need to get themselves straight, instead as a need to wipe out opponents. Maybe we’re lucky that a lot of really crazy people never get the means to inflict themselves on others.
Don.
Out freakin standing.
It’s been turned into a mandatory lesson for the kids. Reports expanding on the thesis are due Monday AM.
You can find out how communitarianism is being implemented in Britain here: http://www.stopcp.com/
Etzioni: “no philosophy that better describes Obama’s position than communitarianism”
Amitai Etzioni, the high priest of communitarianism, was in Israel recently and was interviewed by the Jerusalem Post.
Here’s a short, but revealing excerpt:
Communism?
Want to know what Obama’s reading? “The Post-American World” by Communitarian Fareed Zakaria – Obama with book in hand in 2008 See Picture Here
I guess when Obama said he was going to fundamentally change America he wasn’t kidding…. who knew then that it was gonna be to a new flavor of communism!
The ABC’s of Communitarianism by Fareed Zakaria
The article appearing on Slate.com is a must read to get an understanding that it isn’t just misguided Democrats that are embracing the communitarian philosophy but died in the wool conservative Republicans… how can this be?
DON It always amazed me how Coserv.”intellectual firebrand” William Bennett could lose millions at the gaming tables of Vegas,spend hours on the buffet lines and still find the time and audacity to pen his “Book of Virtuues”.A true hypocrite.
@Rich
At least it was HIS money. You fascist bastards want to gamble with not only my money, but my children’s, and future grandchildren, on a game with worse odds than anything in Vegas.
Are buffet lines the next thing to be controlled by you and your ilk as well?
It must be easy for people with no limits or self control to pass judgment on someone who sets a level of behavior for themselves but sometimes misses.
Which is proven by your “OUTRAGE!!11!!” over Bennett’s personal lapse, but silent about the lies and sneaky bullshit that come out of Obama on a regular basis that affect all of us.
Bennett had no self control over his gambling or eating and he’s going to lecture my family on virtues.Bullshit to him and his ilk. I’ve got more self control than that clown could ever hope to have. Semper Fi
if you know a bit about ART..it has nothing to do with personal life, you can appreciate the skill of one writer but you don’t need to juge his personal life that is 2 diffrent subjects
@Patvan
BTW I consider myself a moderate Dem. I believe in Civil Rights,Human Rights.Religious and Political freedom I laugh at you calling me a “facist bastard”.Facists are the far right of the political spectrum.They are anti-Jewish,anti-Black,anti gay rights,three groups that stongly support the Dem. Party.If anyone’s a facist it’s you though I won’t comment on your parents relationship.
So in other words, you will discount and ignore the positive virtues he has espoused, because he harmed himself by falling off the wagon he himself hitched up to. Weird.
Because of your political hate, you can’t even acknowledge that what he’s wrote are things that are good! Do you demand such perfection from everyone, or only from those who agree with you politically?
Or do you only seek out those with the lowest moral-bar, because they are the easiest to emulate?
Now if I had said that “Obama is a lying fascist, POS, so I hereby discount his lecture espousing the virtues of Black men staying with their children, you would think (and be correct) that I am an idiot.
Which is exactly how I now see you.
So the next time you see a cop cruising by you at 80mph without his lights on, be sure to speed past the next cop you see at 80, at the next possible opportunity. You can get out of the speeding ticket by simply stating that the week before you saw a cop doing the same thing, and that it would be hypocritical for this particular officer to cite you..
And always remember:
Bennett’s words of virtuous living are to be vilified, including his (un-necessary) public apology because he is a Republican. (In fact, you chose to actually show anger about his message!)
BUT! Because these guys have no moral virtues in any way shape or form, and are leftist’s, you will ignore and in-fact support, what they say and do.
And you wonder why we Conservatives think you NeoFasicts are not only stupid, but dangerous as well.
Patvann Your last post is the most ridiculous if read in the 6 months I’ ve visited F.A. Absolutely BIZARRE.Congrats.to the Dems and Obama on a hard fought victory.
Celebrating a little early, aren’t you rich wheeler?
*IF* and I do mean *if* they pass this, their battle has only just begun. The court dockets are set to be full. Or, in your case, that may be spelled “fool”.
Actually Fascists are NOT far right… they are statists, just like communists. The NAZI party wasn’t called “National Socialists” for nothing. Far right is a misnomer.
Tim O’Flaherty writes on the What’s Wrong with America thread.
you know their ways are so subtle that they can foole the highly intelligent people,some british king to be was sympatetic to hitler’s propaganda and the whole country of AUSTRIA fell in that smooth talk until they realyse it was to late and the war started to finish the destructive job.
I think that Patvann and Rich are missing the point about Bennett… he’s espousing “communitarian philosophy”… and the legislation of any morality is a violation of natural rights or liberty.
The reason I posted that excerpt about Bennett in the first place is to point out how communitarian philosophy has so permeated our culture that we don’t even recognize it as an assault on our liberties because it speaks to the desires of both the left and the right.
@Don
I realize my comments to Rich about Bennett seem to defend Bennett, I assure you that my only defense of him, is in the individual cases where he is highlighting problems with society…I sure don’t accept Mr. Bennett’s supposed “cures” for anything
My beef with Rich (and here’s where I apologize for the thread-hijack) is that he discounts what a man (who is opposite his preferred political bend) might say, based on what that man does…Thus my comment about Obama within one of my comments.
An analogy might be the fact that Hitler at least made the trains run on time.
I agree 100% with you and your observations about “communitarianism”. It’s simply a new book-cover for yet another failed attempt at socialism/nazism/communism, even if Bennett himself isn’t aware of it.
But like a stopped watch being right twice a day, Bennett and Obama (and Hitler) have said things I can heartily agree with, and I am objective enough to be able to separate those things from the person who said it…unlike Rich.
If Bennett was a Dem, Rich would be defending everything the man ever did or said, and would find reasons to excuse his gambling.
@Patvann.. I fully concur with your analysis of Rich’s antagonism.
I’ve been writing a novel about a group that bands together in an effort to circumvent government interference in their lives. Once I started delving into this whole “communitarian” aspect, I felt I was up against a paradox. If people band together for thejr common good, in the face of a tyrannical threat, are they any better off? Any group membership typically requires some trade-off of unfettered personal liberty.
I think I’m okay with a trade-off so long as the individual has the ability to opt out. I once held the belief that society owes me or you nothing, but as I have had to deal with the realities of the world where something as natural as taking a crap in the woods is a violation of biohazard waste disposal laws, I had to wonder if such restrictions didn’t mean that society does owe me something.
I’m still trying to come to grips with it all. I put off writing further on my book till this whole Obamacare thing pans out in order to see where I need to take my plot line. I personally wish that the idea of the book wasn’t even something that might be necessary but the last 20 years have so drastically changed the American landscape that some kind of resistance/circumvention will become an inevitable neccessity.
@Don
The perfect historical example of your thesis is what happened to the Pilgrims during their first few years…
The first two, they tried “communitarianism”, and half of them died, because not enough pulled their weight. The third year, they went “individualistic”, and they had more than they needed, and so had a party with the locals.
-A basal form of the story, but proof none the less.
DONALD BLY you said it,what is going on affect you and everyone in a very negative way,it brings up the worse on many people and disrupt many lives and familys against familys,that is the worse part of a government to do to the country,
M.H. I figured that would draw your ire. Looks to me like you and yours will be leading the loyal opposition in the good fight for at least the next decade We’ll see who the fools are.Enjoy
Don Blye Patvan(sic) calls me an idiot and a “socialist bastard” without verifying his parentage and I’m “antagonistic”.How so?
rich wheeler, the courts will not be taking a decade to address 10th Amendment challenges and, or anyone who takes the route of 14th Amendment. They cannot table things for political will. Or perhaps you find those rights to a speedy recourse somewhat pesky?
Any challenge can result in an injunction, halting any implementation of some or all portions of the bill until resolved. whoa… won’t that be a hiccup in your idyllic world.
Other than that, glad you have a pair of rose colored glasses. At least everything looks pretty in your Alice in Wonderland back yard. Your schoolyard taunt, rooted in “hope” and nothing that resembles facts, simply makes me laugh. Me? I always “enjoy” watching our separation of powers in action. It is as it should be. I guess you’ll be finding reality a bit frustrating, tho.
Great Post!
I have been witnessing the growth of Communitarianism in Corporate America as well as certain government entities. Just recently, figured out what it was called and who was pushing it.
Folks this disease has infected left, right and everyone in between. Chances are you and your children’s opinions have been moved toward communitarian thought through corporate training, schooling, church, and the media. It is imperative to learn what it is, what the goals are, in order to protect yourself and others from the insidious methods of infection of this disease of the mind.
After the collapse of the economies of the world, this will be the system that will be welcomed by a confused, scared population.