Don't let the "chicken littles" get you down

As a result of the negotiations over the so-called "fiscal cliff," the silence of the poutragers on the left during the presidential campaign has turned into howls of rage once again. Just as I was needing some perspective on all that, I ran across a diary that I wrote almost a year ago that reminded me...thus has it always been. It included this quote from Arthur Schlesinger from 1949.

The weakness of impotence is related to a fear of responsibility – a fear, that is, of making concrete decisions and being held to account for concrete consequences. Problems are much simpler when viewed from the office of a liberal weekly than when viewed in terms of what will actually happen when certain ideologically attractive steps are taken.

Too often the Doughface really does not want power or responsibility. For him the more subtle sensations of the perfect syllogism, the lost cause, the permanent minority, where lie can be safe from the exacting job of trying to work out wise policies in an imperfect world...

Having renounced power, the Doughface seeks compensation in emotion. The pretext for progressive rhetoric is, of course, the idea that man, the creature of reason and benevolence, has only to understand the truth in order to act upon it.

But the function of progressive rhetoric is another matter; it is, in Dwight MacDonald’s phrase, to accomplish “in fantasy what cannot be accomplished in reality.” Because politics is for the Doughface a means of accommodating himself to a world he does not like but does not really want to change, he can find ample gratification in words. They appease his twinges of guilt without committing him to very drastic action...

Progressive dreams are tinged with a brave purity, a rich sentiment and a noble defiance. But, like most dreams, they are notable for the distortion of facts by desire.

It is amazing how perfectly this description fits what we see/hear from so many on the left right now.

I think it was back during the 2008 election that Al Giordano started calling progressives who act this way "chicken littles" because the sky was perpetually falling for them and they never seemed to figure out what to do about that.

Only in America do a significant number of people equate expressions of outrage and indignation du jour as somehow being akin to the hard work of political activism or participation. And I hate to say it, but this delusion is worse, much worse, on the left side of the dial where reaction is the standard operating procedure in place of authentic action. I speak, therefore I act is the great American illusion of politics. Sorry, but no. Only when our speech effectively causes others to act does it rise to the level of poetry...

And so the chicken littles are in a constant state of outrage forecasting doom and gloom. As only Molly Ivins could do - she points out the comfort in that.

Things are not getting worse; things have always been this bad. Nothing is more consoling than the long perspective of history. It will perk you up no end to go back and read the works of progressives past. You will learn therein that things back then were also terrible, and what's more, they were always getting worse. This is most inspiriting.

So Happy Holidays everyone! Don't let the chicken littles get to you. Despite all their doom and gloom, they haven't been able to bring us all down yet!