Then there is also the category of cynical renegades, who will bail out of Leftism as soon as it becomes contrary to their own interests and ambitions. Like the former noted Socialist activist Benito Mussolini.
Or the former associate of the Jacobins, Napoleon Bonaparte. Josef Stalin also was clearly heading towards more and more reactionary "Thermidorian" direction as he grew older, re-criminalizing abortion and homosexuality for example.
@V - Strictly - I am just talking about the past 50 years - but Mussolini and Stalin fall into the category of "Sometimes they become a different (more bitter, cynical) type of Leftist - but almost never do they abandon the ideology that has scapegoated them." - Fascism is merely the anti-communist/ pro-nationalist form of Leftism.
This post reminded of Sozhenitsyn's descriptions of true-believing party members who were incapable of abandoning communist ideology even after they had spent twenty-five years in the gulag.
Solzhenitsyn noted these true believers held on to communist ideology so tenaciously because it was all they had left (no pun intended). It seems many contemporary Leftists are in a similar position.
Another thought - would you agree that some spiritual awakenings are more about being shocked into Christianity rather than merely being shocked out of Leftism? This seems to offer a solution to the dilemma noted above.
@Francis - Yes. It seems that this sudden conversion does happen, especially among evangelicals; but it can strike all sorts of people. But it doesn't happen as often as it used to (up to the 1960s).
When a small group of Mormon missionaries first came to the North West of England in the middle 1800s, they used to average three conversions per *day* - a majority of whom then moved to live in Salt Lake City are surroundings! (Of course, many of these would already have been Christians of other denominations.)
Nowadays, my understanding is that many missionaries only convert one person in two years - in places like the US, Britain and Europe (and the converts are often not natives).
As I have often said, the standard anti-Christian assumptions are so many and mutually reinforcing nowadays in The West, that several assumptions must be broken almost-simultaneously for a conversion to occur.
22 February 2019 at 15:16
Epimetheus said...
A man's religion is the deepest thing in him. Nothing shallow can touch it.
23 February 2019 at 15:07
The answer seems to be no.
No matter what shocking things happen to people as a result of the excesses and evils of the Left - they do Not respond by reassessing the fundamental assumptions that led them to be Leftists in the first place.
Sometimes they become a different (more bitter, cynical) type of Leftist - but almost never do they abandon the ideology that has scapegoated them.
I say this based on personal knowledge of a pretty large number of the people (friends and colleagues) who have experienced high profile Politically Correct witch-hunts over the past few decades.
(So many - because I have been both an evolutionary psychologist and an intelligence researcher, and these are the most-often Left-persecuted groups of people over the past half century.)
This lack of learning should give pause to those who suppose that 'if things get bad enough' the masses will 'come-to-their senses', and 'see-through the lies of Leftism'.
Chances are, though, nothing that could happen will ever make a difference; because Western people are incapable of learning.
...Unless or until after they have experienced a spiritual awakening and become Christians.
And not necessarily then - because Leftism is so deeply, multigenerationallyingrained (perhaps especially in the UK and France - who invented this plague).
Plus, they are addicted to the delusory hope of The Sexual RevolutionTM, and the idea of surrendering their personal day-dream is intolerable...
So - if people are ever to abandon that which will destroy them (body and soul); they need to do it For Themselves; it will not be done To them; it must come From Within.
"Can people be shocked out of Leftism?"
6 Comments -
Then there is also the category of cynical renegades, who will bail out of Leftism as soon as it becomes contrary to their own interests and ambitions. Like the former noted Socialist activist Benito Mussolini.
22 February 2019 at 12:27
Or the former associate of the Jacobins, Napoleon Bonaparte. Josef Stalin also was clearly heading towards more and more reactionary "Thermidorian" direction as he grew older, re-criminalizing abortion and homosexuality for example.
22 February 2019 at 12:30
@V - Strictly - I am just talking about the past 50 years - but Mussolini and Stalin fall into the category of "Sometimes they become a different (more bitter, cynical) type of Leftist - but almost never do they abandon the ideology that has scapegoated them." - Fascism is merely the anti-communist/ pro-nationalist form of Leftism.
22 February 2019 at 14:04
This post reminded of Sozhenitsyn's descriptions of true-believing party members who were incapable of abandoning communist ideology even after they had spent twenty-five years in the gulag.
Solzhenitsyn noted these true believers held on to communist ideology so tenaciously because it was all they had left (no pun intended). It seems many contemporary Leftists are in a similar position.
Another thought - would you agree that some spiritual awakenings are more about being shocked into Christianity rather than merely being shocked out of Leftism? This seems to offer a solution to the dilemma noted above.
22 February 2019 at 14:35
@Francis - Yes. It seems that this sudden conversion does happen, especially among evangelicals; but it can strike all sorts of people. But it doesn't happen as often as it used to (up to the 1960s).
When a small group of Mormon missionaries first came to the North West of England in the middle 1800s, they used to average three conversions per *day* - a majority of whom then moved to live in Salt Lake City are surroundings! (Of course, many of these would already have been Christians of other denominations.)
Nowadays, my understanding is that many missionaries only convert one person in two years - in places like the US, Britain and Europe (and the converts are often not natives).
As I have often said, the standard anti-Christian assumptions are so many and mutually reinforcing nowadays in The West, that several assumptions must be broken almost-simultaneously for a conversion to occur.
22 February 2019 at 15:16
A man's religion is the deepest thing in him. Nothing shallow can touch it.
23 February 2019 at 15:07