Self-Hatred Isn't Virtuous

Maybe you remember from junior high or high school, the girl (maybe it was you) who believed all kinds of negative things about herself: her thighs were fat; her tummy bulged, her hair was stringy (or too curly or frizzy); she had a gap between her teeth that she thought everyone was aware of; she wasn’t smart enough; her clothes never fit right, or looked cool enough. The list goes on. But you looked at her and wondered where this was coming from, because what you saw was a girl who was pretty enough, maybe even very pretty. And she was friendly and sweet and thoughtful of others. And you had to wonder where all that anti-self negativity was coming from.

It's not uncommon among early teens, girls especially. There may be attached to it an erroneous belief that it’s not right to like yourself; that means you’re conceited and narcissistic. So putting yourself down is only proper. But you, looking from the outside, can see she’s not only wrong; she’s harming herself and limiting the good she could do in the world, if only she stopped worrying about her flaws and started growing herself and sharing her potential with the world.

Even this cute girl (our daughter, Social Sphere)
had a few brief moments of not realizing
how beautiful she was, but we got her over
that using some reality.

The cure seems to be growing up, gaining confidence, and getting a clearer picture of self. And maybe cutting out the comparisons of only her personal flaws with only the admirable qualities of her peers.

In other words, she’s wrong, and she needs to come to learn that. Because tearing herself down is just making herself miserable with no good purpose.

If you’re any kind of friend, or even a decent person, you do what you can to get her to see herself more accurately and to stop tearing herself down.

So, how does this relate to the Spherical Model and what we talk about here?

Take a look at this quote of yesterday from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: “We're not going to make America great again. It was never that great." 

And can we forget that former first lady Michelle Obama who, in 2008, said, “For the first time in my adult life, I’m proud of my country”? That was, of course, related to her husband’s election to fundamentally transform the most free and prosperous country in human history into—something else. 

It’s symptomatic of a rather large segment of our society that looks at the United States and doesn’t see what Reagan metaphorically called the “shining city on a hill.” Instead they see a dung heap. A garbage dump. A deteriorating ghetto. We should be more like Sweden. Or Finland. Or Denmark. Or almost anywhere else.

Are they right? I believe they’re like that middle school girl, thinking it’s virtuous somehow to denigrate their own country—seeing only bad here, while seeing good everywhere else but missing their bad. So, no, they’re not accurate. And they’re not more virtuous for being “open-minded” enough to “see” their country as flawed.

Of course there are flaws. But they aren’t the flaws these people claim. And their blindness to the astounding good in "this greatest nation on God’s green earth,” as Michael Medved says on his show every day, is so dense as to be willful.

In the spirit of teenage girl magazines, maybe it’s time for a self-assessment quiz, to determine whether you (or a friend or frenemy you’re assessing while reading this) are suffering from this self-disparagement syndrome.

1.       T of F: The Founding Fathers were a bunch of racist old slaveholders, so that means the country they founded is fatally flawed to begin with.

2.       T or F: The phrase in the Constitution about slaves being counted as 3/5ths of a person was to institutionalize and endorse racist slavery.

3.       T or F: The imperialist United States stole most of the Southwest from Mexico.

4.       T or F: The rights in the Constitution are granted by government, and they can be taken away by government if a majority decides they’re not good to have—like freedom of religion if it’s offensive, or freedom of speech if it’s offensive.

5.       T or F: Racism is every bit as bad today as it was during slavery or the Jim Crow eras.

6.       Which Superman slogan do you prefer?

a.  The original classic, from comic books, television series, and older movies: “truth, justice, and the American way.”

b. The updated version (from the movie Superman Returns): “truth, justice, and all that stuff.”

7.       Agree or Disagree: A country that doesn’t provide free health care and free education through college is out of step with the rest of the world and should step up.

8.       Agree or Disagree: America should never have gotten involved in the war in Iraq—or, for that matter, Vietnam, or any other war since WWII.

9.       Agree or Disagree: America should intervene with food supplies and anything else to rescue people in failing economies such as Venezuela.

10.   Agree or Disagree: America is unfair because it doesn’t just open its borders and let anyone in who wants to come in.

11.   Agree or Disagree: Businesses should be forced to pay their people enough to live on (housing, food, clothing, transportation) for even an entry-level job.

12.   Agree or Disagree: Inequality is the worst thing about America; money should be taken from the rich and redistributed to the poor.

13.   Agree or Disagree: People who don’t do as well as others are being oppressed.

Scoring

The T or F questions are all False. So count one point for each T you answered. (See discussion of answers below.)

If you answered B on 6, count one point. For question 7-13, count one point for each statement you Agree with.

If you got 0-3 points, pretty good (but if you don’t have 0, you need to do some soul searching).

If you got 4-7 points, you’re probably suffering from some bad information in schools and media, and you need to get some better sources. (See suggestions below.)

If you got 8+ points, you’re an America hater for no good reason. In fact, your reasons aren’t just random opinions; you have chosen to buy in to the America hating rhetoric of false history teachings, much of it based on the history/propaganda of Howard Zinn that has made its way into our education system. You need to do some de-programming to get yourself in touch with reality before you harm yourself and others—and your country.

Discussion of Answers

Question 1: While there were slaveholders among the Founders, they all agreed it was an evil that needed to be done away—something that was a new idea in world history, since slavery was the norm throughout history up until the Founders started this nation based on an idea, rather than on a geography or tribalism. The idea: that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, related to life, liberty, and property.

Question 2: The purpose of the 3/5 phrase in the Constitution was to prevent the perpetuation of slavery. The slaveholding states wanted to count their slaves in order to boost their population and give them more representation, thus ensuring the continuation of slavery. But the Founders, including those from southern states who were representing their states’ interests but were also looking for ways to end the practice, used this compromise to reduce the power of slaveholding states. PragerU has a good discussion: “Why the 3/5ths Compromise Was Anti-Slavery.” 

Historian Carol Swain,
screenshot from this PragerU video

Question 3: The Tejanos who fought with the Texians (that is, the Hispanic people living in current Texas along with the Americans who immigrated to what was then part of Mexico) fought long and hard for independence from the tyrannical dictator who had taken over Mexico and deprived them of their rights. And further, the later war that led to New Mexico, Arizona, and California becoming parts of the United States—Mexico was the aggressor, lost, and in fact lost most of what is current Mexico today, but that was given back, unfortunately for them, because they’d have been better off joining America. Dinesh D’Souza has a good discussion of this in America: Imagine a World without Her, pp. 107-119.

Question 4: “Being endowed by their Creator” means being given by God, and “unalienable,” or “inalienable,” depending on who’s spelling it today, means that it can’t be taken. Government doesn’t grant those rights; government is tasked with protecting those rights. The Bill of Rights, which consists of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, weren’t originally included, because they were considered so obvious and so well understood, that they went without saying. But then several states worried that later generations might not find them so obvious, so they spelled them out and included them in the Constitution before it was ratified.

Question 5: Another PragerU video is helpful here: “Is America Racist?” 

The remaining questions are opinions, but there’s good information on these as well. I’ll offer just a few.

About foreign wars, there are a number of helpful PragerU videos:

·         “Why America Invaded Iraq” and “How Iraq Was Won and Lost”   

·         “The Truth about the Vietnam War”  and “Why Did America Fight the Vietnam War”

·         “Why Did America Fight the Korean War” 

·         “What Was the Cold War?” 

There are PragerU videos on a great many other topics as well, including some economic ones. For other sources with a more America loving presentation of reality, you might finish Dinesh D’Souza’s book America: Imagine a World without Her, and also Mark Steyn’s America Alone, Glenn Beck’s The Real America, and W. Cleon Skousen’s The Five Thousand Year Leap.

For education, try the free online Hillsdale College courses. Start with Constitution 101 and 201.

For daily information doses, try podcasts of Ben Shapiro and Andrew Klavan, and maybe even Michael Knowles.

For some economic truth, you might try anything by Thomas Sowell. Start with Basic Economics. Or, if you need to battle some of that social justice dogma, you might try Discrimination and Disparities or Wealth, Poverty and Politics.

At the very least be skeptical of self-hatred. What’s behind it? Do you really think it’s virtuous to be desperately ashamed of a nation with so many positives that people around the world want to become Americans? Or is it a dysfunctional delusion? 

Just like the 13-year-old girl who responds to your compliment with, “Really? But my shoes are awful, don’t you think?” maybe someone needs to stand her in front of a full-length mirror and let her see how beautiful she is. Take a look at America; she’s beautiful!

Fears Realized So Far

Back in 2008, well before I had this blog, I wrote down the fears I had following the election of our current president. I used Facebook Notes, so I could look back at them later. 

The purpose here today is not to praise my prognostication skills; we have plenty of evidence of how limited those skills are. Rather, if there are things I knew easily in 2008, then there’s no reason to be surprised about them as they happen. 

Another day we’ll tackle the things that went beyond what I imagined.

Bold type means I was proven right, by 5 ½ years into the administration. Plain type means maybe I was wrong, or at least we don’t have obvious evidence yet; some of these were on my mind at the time, but haven’t kept my attention, so I might not know enough. Comments added today are in brackets and italicized. 

 

Fears in Wake of Election

November 6, 2008 

• Troops will be quickly removed from Iraq, leaving that country vulnerable to invasion by Iran or other forces—breaking the word of the US and ruining our chances of being trusted in a coalition in the future.
• Using troops for actions where there is no threat to US interests, nor request from US allies, such as Darfur. And, further, that US troops will be placed under the control of the UN, negating our sovereignty. [Syria could be an example. There are numerous examples of trying to subject us to the UN. But it hasn’t been as in-your-face military submission as I feared.]
• Borders will not be enforced; “illegal alien” will cease to have meaning, since anyone here will be given citizenship rights, including welfare, draining the treasury and endangering the populous. [Granting of actual citizenship with voting hasn’t yet been accomplished—in part because of citizen outrage in 2010 or so.]
• Porous borders will enable terrorists to enter the US, as well as drug trafficking and other illegal trade. [And human trafficking and sex trade, which I didn’t foresee.]
• A major terrorist attack on US soil will soon happen. [Boston bombing is one; many have been thwarted, fortunately.] Efforts to protect the US, such as listening in on conversations between terrorists, will be prohibited. [No, I was wrong on this; what I didn’t foresee was the extent to which this administration would target citizens and claim they’re protecting us from terrorists. I should have known that, if something is a power, this administration will take it and run way beyond the limits.] Perpetrators will be prosecuted as citizens through the judicial system, rather than as wartime enemies. [Yes, often against military council, but sometimes prevented because the court system requires revealing our intelligence gathering methods to the enemy combatant and his legal team. Which is why GITMO exists, and hasn’t yet been closed down.]
• Funding will be cut for the military, making it less able to defend us in the world. [Military generals suggest we can no longer sustain two war fronts, if called upon to do so.]
• Equal funding will be spent on some nebulous “civilian force,” as Obama suggested, with equal funding and power as the military, to be used purportedly for natural disasters, but in reality to be used as enforcement against US citizens. [I don’t know if the funding is equivalent to military. But the recent BLM example is one; the BLM is made up of geologists, mineralogists, mapmakers, bureaucrats—and now also apparently its own SWAT teams. FEMA and Homeland Security also strike fear in the heart of innocent citizens.]
• “Fairness Doctrine” will be enacted, removing free speech from Americans with opposing (conservative) points of view, starting with talk radio, but eventually will not be limited there (fear for internet). [This has been attempted, again recently, but has been unsuccessful because of constant vigilance.]
• People speaking out against the president or his policies may be attacked and speared (as were Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin). [The IRS scandal, showing targeting of non-profits the administration dislikes is well beyond what I envisioned; it’s closer to totalitarian regimes.]
• Repeal of 1996 US DOMA law, and eventual enforcement of “same-sex marriage” in states that have laws and constitutions against it—ignoring the sovereignty of states to make these laws. This will lead to prosecution for differing views, loss of freedom of religion, loss of freedom for parents to decide on education of their children, loss of business freedom to refuse service when it goes against personal beliefs. [Yes. Some questions of state sovereignty are going through the courts, which is a tenuous thread for civilization to depend on. Note that I wrote this when the president was declaring he supported traditional marriage—because it was politically advantageous for him to say so at that time, but I knew better than to believe him.]
• Taxes will increase on anyone considered rich (possibly as low as $42,000/year), as is certain to happen when Bush tax cuts expire in 2010, but taxes are likely to be raised on most taxpaying Americans in addition to that.
• Taxes will increase for small businesses, causing less entrepreneurism, fewer jobs.
• Taxes will be increased on corporations, leading to businesses leaving the US to locate in more favorable countries—which will mean less wealth created in US, and lower employment.
• Tax will increase on capital gains, reducing incentive for investment, causing stock market drop. [Truthfully, I haven’t paid enough attention to capital gains rules to know how much effect this has had on the economic malaise, which has so many presidential-policy causes.]
• Social Security taxes will be levied on income above $102,000, instantly raising rates for these earners by 7%, without any compensating benefit. [This was being discussed in 2008, including by John McCain. It hasn’t been accomplished. The upper limit continues to rise a bit annually, and is $117,000 for 2014. Social Security as a program, however, continues toward an inevitable fiscal cliff.]
• Restrictions aimed at particular energy-related industries, reducing our ability to provide energy from our own resources, and possibly bankrupting major companies or entire industries: coal and oil in particular. [Solyndra, etc. Blocking XL Pipeline. Refusal to allow any new drilling on public lands, or new refineries. Nevertheless, drilling on private land has boomed, mainly in North Dakota and Texas, lowering our dependence on foreign oil. Yay! Obama took credit for this, despite his continuing efforts to thwart fracking and other techniques, in a recent state-of-the-union speech.]
• Restrictions on energy use on individual Americans, which will hinder business and travel and lower standard of living for most Americans. [Attempted, but not accomplished, for the most part. But smart meters are in place for future purposes.]
• Making unlimited abortion the national law, negating state laws across the nation—just one evidence of ignoring state sovereignty. [Attempted, not accomplished thus far. Supreme Court cases related to forcing corporations to pay for abortifacients of employees, regardless of the corporation’s religious beliefs, should see rulings any day.]
• Replacing up to three Supreme Court justices with liberal judges who fail to acknowledge the supreme law of the Constitution, who willingly favor poor, minorities, and other special interest groups that currently have liberal approval. Justice no longer even attempts to be blind. In addition, other levels of judges will be filled with similarly activist judges, leaving a legacy of judicial activism for at least a generation. [Two so far. And, oddly, conservatives are in the position of hoping Ruth Bader Ginsburg holds on until a different president has the opportunity to appoint her replacement.]
• Economic problems will return to the challenges of the Carter administration: double-digit inflation, high unemployment, double-digit interest rates, stock market recession or depression, and skyrocketing federal debt. [Yes, with the exception of double-digit inflation, which has been kept artificially low by low interest rates and printing money, which is a more invisible form of inflation. The rest is beyond the intensity and length of the Carter malaise. They refer to this as a slow but steady recovery.]
• Socializing banking, energy production, and other parts of the economy that have thrived in a free market. [General Motors. Some other attempts, but mostly not fully accomplished.]
• Socializing of medicine, leading to severely lowered services and service providers, and inevitable decisions to devalue statistically high medical risks: children born with genetic disorders, elderly, people with chronic illnesses, people whose lifestyle habits don’t coincide with the government’s requirements for diet, exercise, and other practices. [Obamacare passed in March 2010, in dark of night, with nefarious manipulations, and the failures on every level continue, beyond our fears. Actual death panels cannot be fully implemented until Obamacare succeeds. Incompetence on their part gives us hope there may still be repeal. Evidence of likely outcomes of Obamacare are before our eyes in the VA scandal.]
• Revelation that the philosophies of this new president’s friends are actually his philosophies, and that is why he sought such alliances: terrorist methods for remaking America into Marxist country (Ayers and others), African racist supremacy over America and rest of the world (Wright, Pfleger and others), pro-radical Islam and anti-semitic (particularly anti-Israel) and anti-Christian policies (Kahlidi and others), organized crime and Chicago thuggery (Rezco and others). His cabinet and staff will be made up of people who, in normal times, could not be given security clearance needed to do their jobs. The president himself, under normal circumstances, could not be given security clearance. [I wrote all of this years before I read Stanley Kurtz‘s book Radical in Chief, which lays out the evidence. Dinesh D’Souza’s film 2016: Obama’s America was also informative in explaining the anti-American behavior we see in this president.]
• Without the checks and balances of an opposite view in the legislature, judiciary, or media, he will lead as one would expect of one with the most liberal record in the Senate. [We at least got the brakes put on with a Republican House in 2010. Media has stuck by him, but is showing signs lately of cracking in the face of the onslaught of lies, which they have so long been expected to repeat.]
• America will cease to be a superpower, or even leader among nations. The first step (after withdrawal from Iraq and negative consequences of that move) will be to destroy missile defense and nuclear weaponry, leaving the US vulnerable to attack from both rogue terrorist entities and rival world powers (such as China and Russia). [That’s what we’re seeing, and feel vulnerable to. And we can sense the president smiling about it off-camera.]

Using the Spherical Model, what we can be sure of is that Obama will not move us out of the southern hemisphere toward freedom, free enterprise, and civilization—because he prefers tyranny, controlled economy, and savagery.