Too Much Smug

Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons – Michael Shermer

So there's an election coming up. We're all supposed to be frightfully excited about this latest exercise in democracy, but try as I may, I just can't get too worked up about it. In fact, to me it sounds like just another case of 'same shit, different pile'. The powers that be know how to hang on to power, and I often think that they encourage the dumb masses to participate in elections as an act of misdirection. If you really think voting for candidate X is going to make a difference, you don't pay attention to what's really going on. You just pull that lever, feel like you've done your job, and continue with your life.

Despite the rumblings that the Tea Party has awakened a libertarian streak in the electorate, I'm skeptical. It's easy to talk about wanting to reduce the size, scope and power of government, but when it comes to your favorite government program, that's a different story. I find it more than a little disturbing that the alternative to the Messiah's efforts to create a European-style cradle-to-grave social welfare state in America is a collection of candidates and supporters who betray their ignorance of … well … a whole bunch of stuff. With the exception of Rand Paul in Kentucky, it still seems like the same old, tired choice between Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber: mootbats vs. wingnuts, hippies vs. christofacists.

Yet despite the fact that many of the Tea Party people aren't necessarily our brightest and best, that doesn't automatically invalidate many of their basic points. If you're at all concerned about objectivity, we really are up to our armpits in debt as a nation, we really have created an entire class of people who live on the backs of the taxpayers (both the moochers themselves and the politicians who endlessly pander to them), and the federal government really has grown and expanded beyond all control. These notions may be poorly expressed by the Tea Party crowd -- but they are not wholly wrong.

However, you'd never know it if you read the profound musings of the American Left. They're sane, they're rational, and damnit they're intelligent. If you'd just obey and let them run your life, it would all work out just fine. You know the type: they'll smugly look down their noses at the beliefs of a creationist, yet their own beliefs in the virtue of wealth redistribution and social engineering - while equally faith-based - are not even open to discussion.

Well, I for one am really getting sick of it. If Facebook is any indicator, it's time – to borrow a phrase from South Park – to issue a major Smug Alert. Break out the wine glasses and begin savoring the vapors folks, because the Smug is really flying now. Listening to everyone pine romantically about yesterday's Rally to Restore Sanity, coupled with strawman cartoons about Tea Partiers and the tendency to refuse to seriously discuss any challenge to their statist faith is remarkably similar to the flag-waving, war-loving, Jesus-hugging hyperbole that my christo-facist acquaintances insist upon filling my inbox with. But the Left brings that extra bit of smugness with their rhetoric: we're right because we're smarter than you.

Yet being smart doesn't always make you right. In fact, I agree with Michael Shermer on this one: being smart often simply means that your skill at rationalizing bullshit is superior to those with whom you disagree. You can wrap your bullshit up in a much nicer package, you can formulate more eloquent sentences, and you can spell all the words on your picket signs and banners correctly. It's well-fitting, university-tailored bullshit. But it's bullshit nonetheless.

Don't believe me?? Instead of being smugly dismissive of contrary views, take a good, long look at the actual situation found in the European Union. After all, it's that very social democratic model that the American Left and their Messiah are so enamored with. Look at what it all costs. Look at how it works. Look at how economic growth has stagnated in the past 20 years and how entrepreneurial activity is virtually impossible. Look at how the government employee unions have a stranglehold on everything. Look at how they're rapidly going broke, how their currency value is eroding, and how their multicultural and diversity efforts have allowed a very real threat to establish itself within their borders. Most importantly, look at what they're actually doing, which is the exact opposite of what all of the highly intelligent Obama/Pelosi/Reid supporters are advocating – reducing deficits, cutting budgets and trying to encourage private enterprise. They've got a long way to go, and I'd wager that they won't go nearly as far as they need to, but at least they're willing to commit thoughtcrime and challenge well-established social democratic notions of the relationship between the state and its citizenry.

And that doesn't mean I'm saying anyone should go out and vote Republican on Tuesday. In fact, PJ O'Rourke's recent book pretty much sums up my feelings: Don't Vote – It Only Encourages The Bastards. I'd really like to see all these smug, smart people start using all that amazing brainpower to think outside the box a little bit and realize that the biggest problem with the American political system is that it's fundamentally broken, and that voting for Demopublicans and Republicrats (i.e. believing that your guy can successfully rob Peter to pay Paul and ignore reality a little better than the other guy) is not the way to fix it.

After all, when you've got a boot on your throat, it doesn't really matter whether it's the left one or the right one. It's time to stop pretending that the boot isn't there. It's smug, and it's not very smart either.