Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

A Greece Fire

Money, Love, Desire - Foundations of Mercy
Written by Douglas Wilson
Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The difference between secular conservatives and secular progressives is that the conservatives talk sense without a foundation, and the progressives talk nonsense without one. Take the truism that you cannot indefinitely spend money you don't have.

The secular conservatives believe that reality is not optional, but cannot give a thorough or consistent account of that reality. The secular progressives can give an account of their reality, but couple this with a firm belief that all such realities are optional, and can be altered by the will of the people.

This is the end result of believing that the State is the incarnation of their Deity, which is Demos, the people. Vox populi vox Dei. The voice of the people is the voice of God.
Unfortunately, they have taken this impudence back to the very beginning. Instead of using the voice of the people as a means of deciding whether to go right or left, or to follow this leader or that one (all choices that are working with a preexistent reality), they have gone back to the very start and are messing around with some ex nihilo experimentation. As the Latin (and one wag) have it, the true God declared "Fiat lux," let there be light. Our liberals draw themselves up to their full height, full of compassion for the downtrodden, and determine to eliminate all poverty by saying, "Fiat bux," let there be dollars. Dollars for everyone, world without end. And affordable housing, that too. And free health care, who could be against that?

Progressives think that if we get a big enough mob outside Isaac Newton's house chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, gravitation's got to go," that we can get our way with him, which will then enable everybody in the mob to float home, and why didn't we think of this before?

I saw some interviews yesterday with some of the protesters in Athens. They looked like grown-ups, but they talked like children -- and by children I mean an eighteen-month-old in a high chair who can't get his mind around the concept that the cookies are "all gone."

Greece has gotten to a point of insolvency that even the upper echelon European pinkos can see, and so austerity measures must be imposed. The mob is furious -- all a god has to do is say "fiat chocolate milk" and there will continue to be enough for everybody. Right? And if their parliament convenes and they refuse to say "fiat fat pensions," then this clearly is the result of their obtuse hard heartedness, which a few smashed police cars should be able to fix.

If you can make the necessary adjustments, this tells you everything you need to know about America's pending insolvency. Obama and his fellow inmates in the halls of privilege and power are the same kind of people who created the Greece fire -- and in Athens it is not very much grease. Just wait until our fat is in the fire.