Have you noticed the word 'compassion', or derivatives of it, cropping up increasingly of late?
It's a word that the left loves. But it needs a new definition. Spending other people's money to make oneself feel righteous, perhaps; The state supposedly fixing problems but actually making them worse, perhaps.
The Greens have launched an entire project entitled "A compassionate economy".
By definition if you aren't a Green you aren't compassionate. You are hardhearted, cruel, uncaring.
But do you notice that the Green's form of compassion entails even greater use of force against individuals? Is it compassionate to force people to take responsibility for problems not of their own making? Is it compassionate to prevent people from freely pursuing life, liberty and happiness because others don't understand or care about those things?
Someone called Deborah Russell (a taxation lecturer from Massey) recently wrote a column in the Dominion Post calling for the welfare state to be compassionate. She said she was happy to pay her tax for it to be so.
She said specifically that the welfare system should err on the side of compassion. Rules for eligibility should not be toughened up as recommended by the Welfare Working Group.
NZ has been erring on the side of compassion since the 1972 Royal Commission on Social Policy urged as much. Then around 8,000 sole parents were receiving an emergency benefit and it was considered caring and inclusive to create a statutory benefit that guaranteed welfare to any single parent regardless of the reason for their single parenthood.
Now there are 113,000 people receiving that benefit, along with nearly twice as many children who are often characterised as living in poverty and without the input of fathers.
If that is the result of 'compassion' then perhaps it is time for a little less. The welfare system is in dire need of reform; not the continued application of thoughtless emoting.
No monopoly on stupid
19 minutes ago
14 comments:
Lindsay, it reminds me of the Yes Minister episode, 'The Compassionate Society', in which a union activist is vociferously defending the 'rights' of his constituents: 500 hospital administrators in a hospital with no patients!!
The fact that woman is teaching taxation loaded with this type of brainwashing to students is frightening, and explains a lot about the sad state of our social democracies.
I'm really sorry to cross post myself yet again - I'll stop doing it if you want - but this has been my bugbear for some considerable time, per the last two paragraphs of this post about the compassionless welfare state.
Don't mind links to sound stuff. I have added both of you to my blog roll.
Oh. Cheers :)
You are right, Lindsay, it is not compassion or altruism to force people through the threat of violence from the state (i.e. arrest and imprisonment) to give up their hard-earned income for others, no matter how worthy the need of those the money is going to.
It is 50 years this month since the Berlin Wall was erected. This was the ultimate expression of left-wing "compassion" - the imprisonment of an entire country and the shooting of those who tried to break out.
"Spending other people's money to make oneself feel righteous, perhaps"
Precisely. The Left purchase themselves warm fuzzy feelings with other people's money. It astounds me that they can convince themselves that this makes them better, more compassionate people. You would think the fact that 50 years of social welfare haven't improved anything would persuade them otherwise. I suppose they are able to blame that failure on the nasty right wing governments that take power every now and again and don't expand welfare enough.
Thank you, Lindsay.
"Spending other people's money to make oneself feel righteous, perhaps"
Is correct
But more than that.
Noticed how so many of these Lefties are wealthy in private?
Hiding behind trusts, putting on a phony accent and claiming to be working class.
The product of Epsom Girls. A relative of Max Bradford, the progency of a wealthy farmer. The heiress to the 'jandal millions. The list goes on.
Trustafarians all!
The State is an impersonal entity, it cannot be compassionate, only human beings can be. Compassion requires personal involvement, and getting the state to act on your behalf so that you are not directly involved in someone else's misery directly negates the whole idea of compassion. So, the whole idea is of a compassionate state is oxymoronic.
Mark Styen has recently written a book called "After America" which I do recommend. In it he parodies the UK Government's desire to create a public holiday on the 5th of July to celebrate the formation of their NHS, their National health system.
He suggested they call it "dependence day".
This is a society where one child in five is raised in a 'family' where no one is employed.
One child in three is raised by a mother with no father on the scene.
Here in NZ one child in four is raised with no father on the scene.
If something is not sustainable it means that one day, it will no longer exist, compassionate State funded lecturers or not.
"Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." - George Orwell
National Govts usually good for rural NZ towns. Compassion is lacking at the moment. Some places are buckling under the recession. RSA clubs really feeling the squeeze. Palmerston North RSA building up for sale. Horowhenua Community Trust closed down as three of the pubs that run it,s gaming being liquidated and $amillion lost to volunteer groups in gaming funds. Many other economic signs show rural NZ being squeezed.Unions used to get blamed for freezing works closing. Well, news for you, freezing works are still closing and unions can,t be blamed but the result is the same-jobs lost.So if there is a surprise swing against National, Act and the other self serving political parties you,ll know rural NZ has cast against them. Election day will show the pollsters in a bad light.
People no longer spending money on alcohol and gambling is a sign of lack of Governmental compassion?
Compassion is a voluntary act by the individual. Taxation is not voluntary, and therefore is not compassionate.
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