Self-destruction is always lurking at the edges of Unbelief. Then, unexpectedly, it can capture the whole shooting box and what seemed so influential, so compelling slips away "not with a bang, but a whimper". Here are a couple of prosaic examples. The first is the soon-to-be-elected Mayor of New York City.
Now we all know that NY City weighs in heavily at the "progressive", left-wing end of the spectrum. What is known as the "loony left" has always found plenty of kindred spirits in that place. How else could Nanny Bloomberg have been tolerated for so long? Now he is about to be replaced by someone much more loony. Robert Wargas, writing in The Telegraph, profiles the city's next mayor.
New York voters, in all their wisdom, are on the verge of electing a Left-wing extremist named Bill de Blasio. Recent polls by the firm Penn Schoen Berland show that de Blasio maintains a commanding lead, which he’s enjoyed for quite some time. What a shame. New York City is one of the most important economies in the United States, and it will certainly suffer under this man’s vague and childish populism. . . .
What will happen then? As the city’s current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has aptly pointed out, de Blasio has no ideas beyond identity politics, whether of class or race. His entire campaign has been one long exercise in emotionalism and abstraction. His answer to every question is to harangue a vague income category known as “the rich”. The only thing a socialist hates more than poverty is affluence.
His only concrete policy ideas are tax raises on those making over $500,000 per year and universal pre-kindergarten for children. The tax raise would have to be approved by Albany, the seat of the New York State government. This is unlikely; poll respondents know this. They believe, 49 percent to 38 percent, that he won’t succeed in this initiative.
The rest of de Blasio’s platform is vagueness about making things “equal” and “affordable.” He might as well say he wants everything to be “good”. Indeed, if he'll probably fail in one of his few actual ideas, why support him? Voters don’t seem to know what they’re getting themselves into. According to Newsday, “70 percent thought it was time for a change from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s policies, even as 60 percent approved of the job he’s done”. Equally confusing is a quote from a political scientist explaining these numbers: “To some degree, they admire what Bloomberg has done, but at the same time, they’re tired of it.” In other words, no one knows anything.
Bloomberg has reflected the asinine world view of the majority of New York voters for a long time. Now he has to go. Who will replace him? Someone who is more asinine still. The alleged great promise of progressive government is going to become more laughable, more ironic, more mocked.
A second example of being given enough rope so as to hang is found here in New Zealand. The left-wing Labour Party, according to the NZ Herald, is about to introduce diversity quotas in its candidate selection: homosexuals, as well as Maori, gender (males, females, trans-sexuals), ethnic groups, people with disabilities, age and youth are all going to fill quotas, to ensure that the Party is "representative". This is madness, but entirely predictable. For decades the Left has fixated over identity politics: it has purpported that opinions and views are a conditioned product of one's identity, not one's mind or heart. So there is an alleged "woman's point of view", a "Maori view", a "homosexual view", a "youth view" and "aged view". Marx began it all, of course, with his theory that political opinions were conditioned by one's socio-economic class. But Marxism has moved on. There is gender conditioning, sexuality conditioning, racial conditioning and so forth.
To be representative the party's candidates have to mirror the diversity in the population. How infantile. But, one thing is sure. Labour Party candidates will no longer be selected on merit, but on identity criteria. Let's see now. We are short on Maori candidates. Let's put more of them in. Oh, wait on. None of the Maori candidates are very suitable, gifted, or qualified. No matter. They must have preference.
The outcomes are entirely predictable. The Labour Party will become more and more synonymous with incompetence. Meanwhile those who are competent within its rank and file will move elsewhere. One struggles to find a more sure formula for self-destructive irrelevance than this.
When one's ideology is false, one's practice will be cock-eyed. Self-destruction always lurks around the edges of Unbelief.
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