Why the Progressive theology is based on Hubris and Cannot Succeed?

-Ziad K Abdelnour
The American Heritage Dictionary defines hubris as overbearing pride or arrogance. The Hudson Institute is a nonpartisan policy research organization dedicated to innovative research and analysis that promotes global security, prosperity, and freedom. In 2002, Herbert I. London, the president emeritus of the Hudson Institute, published an essay in American Outlook magazine entitled The Dangers of Hubris. He warned about the historical evidence showing that pride is indeed a prescient indicator of implosion, collapse, complete and utter failure, and defeat. He wrote: It should also be noted that the administration of Lyndon Johnson was built on the hubristic notion that, given sufficient political support and adequate resources, the government possessed the know-how to eradicate perennial social problems. Remember the War on Poverty? After the expenditure of trillions of dollars beginning in the 1960s, the problems persist todayas does, nonetheless, many peoples exaggerated confidence in the manipulative power of experts who in many instances have failed to digest the lessons of history. Good government requires recognition of the limits of public policy, which in turn allows recognition of the corrosive effects of hubris. It is important, of course, not to confuse hubris with confidence. Faith in ones proven ability is perfectly reasonable, healthy, and often rewarding; it is arrogance and pride that do in successful people, institutions, and nations. Detroit, Michigan, was one of the Model Cities in LBJs utopian Great Society. Michigan congressmen John Dingell and John Conyers were around when that comprehensive government makeover was shoved through Congress by veto-proof majorities in the 89th Congress. The program was a noble reinforcing action in the War on Poverty and a colossal failure by any objective standard. This Progressive scheme was not just going to rebuild the minority dominated neighborhoods of the inner city, it was going to rehabilitate the residents, deliver a smorgasbord of social services, and organize the community into citizen participation groups. The proof that Progressivism is a cult like religion is in the fact that these are the two longest continuously seated representatives in the House. The people of the Michigan 14th and 15th congressional districts just keep sending these two old bagmen back to D.C., and they keep sending federal dollars back to Detroit for more programs and community organizations. Even in the face of the blighted despair all around them, constituents of these two lifetime politicians still appear on local television news reports proclaiming their absolute conviction that its all going to be all right because Mr. Obama is going to send them some of his money. I suppose, of course, that is what their community organizers told them. The current resident of the Oval Office was once one of those community organizers, albeit in Chicago. He is still a true believer in the omnipotence and benevolent potential of a central command-and control government as preached by Saul Alinsky. In his campaign to get elected president, Barack Obama promised a transparent and responsive government, one that would change the way business was done in the nations capital. He offered a government in which the people could put their hope, their energy, and their ideas. Once in power, he took off his mask and revealed his true identity. He installed other Alinsky disciples in his administration; they picked up and resumed the same tired, worn-out, and discredited statist policies

and overreaching programs that have been force-fed to the American people, from Hamilton through Lincoln, and made over by Wilson and FDR. Obama called his leftist advisers czars and has endeavored to change the United States into a European-style bureaucratic Utopia where everyone is, in one way or another, a worker of the state. Like some alien sleeper cell that was given the signal to activate and pursue their nefarious agenda, the Progressives in the 111th Congress tried every way they could to turn this nation into a central command-and-control economy with the government involved in every aspect of public and private life. Their mantra seemed to be that famous line that Ronald Reagan described as the scariest phrase in America: Were from the government and were here to help you. Adherents to the Progressive dogma are usually well educated; after all, the Progressive movement started out as a scientific, objective approach to social administration of government and education. It was a counter to the Victorian influences of the Gilded Age and sought to eliminate subjective influences like religion, morality, and tradition. Over time, the elimination of spiritual values has produced a humanistic ideology that is emotionally oriented, reactionary, and relentless. It doesnt matter that the Progressive dogma cannot stand up to any objective critical analysis; logic, reason, and critical thought are no longer undergraduate prerequisites at most of our universities. Progressives have become a corrosive, corrupting influence on our societys framework. They have thoroughly infiltrated our academic institutions, infecting our youth with disdain for concepts like individual sovereignty, capitalism, and moral imperatives. They have compromised our political processes, pushing their government-is-god agenda and weakening our republic, devoid of even the smallest amount of common sense or reason. Let me make it very clear that I am in no way espousing that America should become a theocracy. History has made it very clear that a government built on religion eventually becomes tyrannical in its zealousness for strict adherence to the dogma for which it stands. At the same time, you cannot go to the extreme in the opposite direction, either. There is something metaphysical if not spiritual about man, and the most successful forms of human government have been the ones that acknowledged that fact. I believe this nations founding documents are replete with references to a higher power to which man should aspire. Progressivism, in substituting man as the highest and potentially purest prime mover, shows itself for the egomaniacal cult that it really is. The fundamental principles under which the American people have been subjugated for the past century have proven themselves irreparably flawed and unsustainable. The brightest and the best have become the dazed and confused, and the only global unity that the Progressive agenda can deliver is one of misery, suffering, and lowered expectations. They have become addicted to the power and the control, declaring war on our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is a war that we must and shall win with better ideas and proven performance. The odds appear to be stacked against us, but that is just an illusion by the popular media, which now functions openly as the Progressive propaganda machine. Major television networks that used to pride themselves in getting the story behind the news and educating the American viewer about what their government was really doing now serve as perpetual spin doctors for the administration. Practically every nightly network news anchor reads almost verbatim from the same lead talking points. Do they think we are really that stupid? Yes. They do.

Frankly, it doesnt matter how many of the talking heads say the same thing; that doesnt make it true. It isnt true that you cannot succeed without government assistance. It isnt moral for you to be forced to share part of what you have produced and earned with those who choose less than freedom and liberty. Life is not fair. People are different. Everyone does have an opportunity. There are winners and there are losers. The fact is that you do not have to allow them to manipulate you with fear. The fact that they control the bulk of the media outlets does not mean they have total control of the message. The advance of technology has made their standard operating procedure of plausible deniability inoperative. It is impossible now to say one thing, do another, and get away cleanly. It is almost impossible to plant rumor and innuendo to marginalize your opposition without somebodys blowing the whistle on the Internet. You can no longer pretend that you are benevolent and humanitarian when your policies undercut potential and entrap generations in financial serfdom. Thats why they are trotting out legislative proposals like the Fairness Doctrine and the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act. They want to shut you up. For years, Progressives have convinced everyone that they were nicer, smarter, and cooler than anyone else. We have discovered that is not even close to the reality. You may be a well-read movie star, but if you are a high school dropout, there is no way your opinion on international finance and geopolitics is more valid than mine. I believe in a world where everyone has the same opportunity and the government serves and protects the people instead of punishing and abusing them. They are the Progressives, and they are the enemy. They can be left or right, red or blue, east or west, rich or poor, Democrat or Republican; it is their ideology that has become a threat to our existence. You may claim through organizations like MoveOn.org that more people really do believe in the validity of socialist principles and that free market capitalism is dead, but we know it just isnt true. And there are more of us than you.

Thanks, Ziad Abdelnour