Tribalist/Conservative Watch
April 2, 2008 by Paul McKeever
As reported by Canadian Press, just the latest bit of tribalist ideology from the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario:
Critics say the McGuinty government has done little beyond giving lip service to the issue. Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory said the initiatives so far are just the “bare minimum to look like they’re acting.”
That would create thousands and thousands of jobs and produce hundreds and hundreds of millions in revenue that could be applied to a whole variety of things,” he said. “They’re doing none of that.”
That’s right folks. According to conservatives in Ontario, the purpose of a strong economy is: to raise more revenue for the government to seize and spend on “a whole variety of things”.
Tribalist/Conservative Q&A
Q. Isn’t the improvement of my own standard of living the purpose of improving my own income?
A. Don’t be silly. The purpose of improving your productivity and income is to give the government more money with which to buy your vote.
Q. Don’t I try to earn more partly to secure myself a fund for rainy days?
A. Nope. Taking care of you in bad times is the government’s job.
Q. Don’t I try to earn more so as to pursue my own happiness?
A. How can you think about your own happiness when others are in discomfort?!
All of which self-serving altruism brings to memory this excerpt from Ayn Rand’s “What is Capitalism?” (the first essay in her book Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal):
Now consider the alternative – the tribal society, where all men throw their efforts, values, ambitions, and goals into a tribal pool or common pot, then wait hungrily at its rim, while the leader of a clique of cooks stirs it with a bayonet in one hand and a blank check on all their lives in the other.
…to be continued…and continued…and continued…
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