Libya 1: Gadhafi, Me, and My Fellow Liberals

This is the first of two related postings …

I have, like everyone else, been watching with bated breath while Libya fights its civil war. I, like most people, am of course rooting for the revolution. I hope that Gadhafi is gone before too much longer. (Although, alas, it is possible that he will endure for quite a while yet, hanging on, like a disease that cannot quite be cured, or a wound that will not heal.)

Yet, I must confess, Libya’s war has forced me to rethink some of my ideas. It has forced me to confront a few of my own failings…

Specifically, I have been watching while populist despots around the world—Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez—have stepped up to the plate to defend their friend and contemporary, Gadhafi, that hero of the revolution, who blew up airplanes and machine gunned his own people.

Castro, Chavez, etc. have said they will not abandon him in his hour of need. When pressed, they trot out the old creaking clichés about American and Western imperialism. (Perhaps only Gadhafi’s delusion that his people “love” him, and that the revolt is fueled by drugs and Osama Bin Laden, exceeds the sheer lunacy Castro’s proclamation that the crisis was an American invention meant to prepare the way for a NATO invasion of the Middle East.)

Which means that they are, indeed, birds of a feather. Which means, in turn, that those of us who are or were liberals… like me…have to wonder a bit about our support for such figures. And let us face it. We did support them. In our heart of hearts we admired the man on the white horse who came in the name of The People and turned out all the rascals.

But what if the man on the horse himself proves a rascal? Or, worse, a monster? And The People hate him more than words can say? Are we not somewhat guilty of supporting evil?

I am, thus, made uncomfortable. I am, thus, humbled.

On China

Note to Liberals and the Left

I've been reading a number of articles lately about the growth of anti-immigrant sentiment …not just in the USA, but around the world. From Switzerland to Japan, there are calls for "them" to be sent back where they came from. All too often there's a touch of racism (or a truckload of it) in the appeals.

Note, this is all happening when the economy is down. And here's the dirty secret of human nature: Times are good, we are open and accepting. Times are bad: the recruiting office of the Waffen-SS is around the corner.

So, note to Liberals and Others who'd like to make the world a better place. Want people to be less bigoted? Enrich them.

The task of the Left, everywhere, and, indeed of everyone of good will, is to create jobs, reduce prices, and give people a sense of purpose, dignity, and wellbeing.

From that, all else will follow.