Forum Post: What Happens When The Self-Reliant Need A Hand?

Oh what a difference a day makes! Oh what a difference a tiny point of reference or a nuanced interpretation of an ideological potentiality can make!

Take the "Free Market" principle of Capitalism for example.

In the ideal rendition of a "Free Market" system, the government plays little or no role in such things as supply and demand or in controlling, regulating or setting prices for end products.

In the Conservatist ideal of "Free Market" Economy, all business - - - large or small - - - Mom and Pop or Multi-national Mega-Corporation - - - they are all self-regulating, working more or less on the Honor System to make sure workers are safe, products are fit for the purpose for which they are advertised, workers are treated fairly in the workplace and whatever is produced for the Consumer is safe to consume or to use.

There is no need in a Rightie "Free Market" Economy, for example, for government to get into the face of some manufacturer and insist that the end product not have a high record of causing injury to the purchaser because of defective parts or processes or something.

In my opinion, if someone is injured by a defective manufactured product in the Utopian Non-Government-Regulated World of The Right Wing Purist, the blame does not fall with the manufacturer. In such cases I believe the blame would be placed on the "Purchaser Of The Product" for either making the wrong choice of gadget or because of some defect in the way the consumer used the product. Thus, no liability to the Manufacturer and no inhibiting of Business Growth by needless Government regulation, right?

This kind of thinking goes to what I see as the traditional focus of most Conservative ideology on something called "Self-Sufficiency, Self-Reliance and Taking Responsibility For Actions and Outcomes."

In other words, "Make a wrong choice and suffer the consequences and it is all your fault and you have to bear the blame, the consequences, the expense and the suffering because of your own short sightedness or what ever else Rightie would like to burden you with so that "Business" does not suffer because of "Gubmint" sticking their nose in.

Conservatists, for the most part (In ,my opinion) do not cotton to "Welfare" programs of any kind or description. In the World of Rightie, if you happen to be needy or poor it is always because of the wrong choices you have made along the way and it is up to you and you alone to work your way out of any ditch that you might have gotten yourself into. In this cold, cruel, calculating and indifferent world of Rightist objectivity and impersonality, you are on your own! Expect nothing from government - - - nothing at all!

Regardless of what hole you have fallen into, if you live in Rightie-Tightie World you are honor bound never to take a single cent of taxpayer money from any kind of government program such as Welfare, Unemployment Compensation, Affordable Health Care, Social Security or Medicare because in the minute you do, you become a "Parasite" on the Society surrounding you. That is my opinion of how Rightie-Tightie sees you if you are not part of their super rich 1% majority elite club.

What galls my ga-boonkie sometimes is that the Right Winger will often preach this "Independence From Government" Bull Hockey religiously until such time as they get themselves into a jam and have need of some of it and then they are often the first ones in line with their hands stretched forth to receive and to piglitize themselves at the trough of Mother Government Hog.

I have found that many of them are quick to throw rocks at others but the things that some of them do in private are absolutely unmentionable in a public space such as a blog. In my opinion, nobody does "Hypocrite" better than some on the Far Right Kook Fringe of American Extreme Conservatist-style ideological mythologizing. (Unless it would be some on the exact opposite side of the fence. I have seen it on both sides, but I think Rightie does it better. That, of course is just me talking here. Others might view things differently.)

I bet I have got the Rightie Troll licking his chops on this one already, don't I?

The thing I find most disgusting about what I consider to be the unmitigated and unrepentant and unrelenting attitude of sublime selfishness on the part of some of The Righties is that when no one is looking, they are often just as guilty of the very things that they like to accuse Liberals, Dems and Progressives of being and doing.

Now if anyone wants to take a look at the new Affordable Health Care Act (Obama Care) that Righties seem to hate so much, it is not difficult (For me at least) to discern that their ideal situation would be to have people who need a lot of health care depend on their relatives to provide it in a home setting with antiquated nostrums and devices similar to those that would have been prevalent in say the early Nineteenth Century or something.

In my view, that would take Rightie's valued "Self Sufficiency" to the upper atmosphere of personal virtue. You know the drill, "Get sick at your own risk and if you do, hurry up and die and don't bother the government with your problems and for God's sake don't expect someone else to get involved because they have problems of their own."

I have seen it work. I know what it is like to look at the world through Rightie eyes.

After I had spent seven long years at what I thought was going to be the job of a lifetime and then I lost that job and went into the ranks of the unemployed and started collecting Unemployment Insurance (Which I had long since paid for with weekly paycheck deductions) Righties started looking down their noses at me and telling me - - - in the midst of the worst recession in a long time - - - something my employer had always referred to as a "Terribly Flat market" - - -In a time when a job couldn't have been bought much less given - - - My Rightie acquaintances could give nothing better than a stern admonition, "Stop stealing from honest taxpayers by cashing those unemployment checks and go out and get yourself another job."

But you know what?

I had the perverse pleasure of watching a lot of them go down the exact same path and when they got to the bottom with me, their Rightie friends were nowhere to be found.

I loved the ironic justice of it all.

Are you listening out there Occupy Wall Street?

This is why you are protesting! This is the war you are fighting on behalf of the 99%.

This is the injustice that you and your generations are charged with correcting.

John Liming - The Liming Liberal Democrat http://www.thejeffersontree.com/