I finally got to see Avatar today. The parallel to the experience of native Americans in the 1800’s in America was obvious. Someone wanted what the Na’vi (planet Pandora natives) had and rationalized their right to take it. To make it easier to justify taking the Na’vi’s land they demonized them as savages, then forced them from their homes in an ugly display of aggression.
It got me thinking of the many examples of some people taking the property of others for their own justified reasons and I came to an interesting conclusion. What is the difference between greedy capitalists stealing from Native Americans in the 1800’s and today’s liberals taking from some in the form of taxation and giving it to others? I suppose you could say the capitalists are doing so out of greed, and liberals do so for their version of the greater good. But who contributes more to the greater good? The Capitalists must be delivering a relevant product to succeed. Take an oil company for example. They employ thousands, pay dividends to shareholders, many who are retirees living off the income, and deliver an essential product to millions. That is certainly the greater good.
The liberals for their version of the greater good need no such relevant product. They need the force of government behind them. They simply find a group of people they decide are underserved, decide that said group “deserves” more, take it from those who have it (earned it), and give it away. Either way one person or group of persons self rationalizes that they have a right to some other person or group of person’s property for some reason.
The liberals demonize those they take from as “wealthy” as though it is a bad thing. Those damn rich people deserve to have their property taken, after all they can afford it. Accumulation of wealth is an American ideal is it not? Well it used to be.
This is really interesting. If you asked about say Wounded Knee or some other really awful example of native Americans being exploited during the migration to the American west, liberals would probably be the first to grab the moral high ground. Yet liberals exhibit willingness to take from some for their version of greater good more than conservatives.
So liberals are continuing the same behavior as witnessed in Avatar, or the American west, where some are demonized to justify taking their property by others.
Is this the America we want?
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