Friday, June 11, 2010

What Does Personal Responsibility Have To Do With It?

If you're a Republican, or otherwise a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy, absolutely nothing, as this recent column by S.E. Cupp in the New York Daily News proves.  In defending GOP Congressman Mark Souder from the charge of hypocrisy for preaching abstinence while practicing adultery, it doesn't seem to occur to her that, in modern politics, the messenger is supposed to be his or her own best message.  And, in any event, democracy allows, and even demands, that people expect a single standard of conduct for everyone, especially when it comes to an aspect of life as universal, and as personally challenging, as sex.

This reflects the curse of Ayn Rand on modern conservatism--the belief that there is an "elect" that can do whatever they want, at the expense of everyone else, because their accumulation of wealth allows them to be considered "productive," while everyone who is systematically denied access to that wealth is labeled a "consumer"--or worse, a locust.  This believe leads directly not only to Souder's hypocrisy, but also to Cupp's defense of it.  Both stem from the same rotten Rand ideology that selfishness is the solution to our problems, rather than being our biggest problem itself.

The "consumers" are the real Atlas.  Sadly, in our time and in this nation, they have seemingly forgotten how to shrug.  One day, I pray that they will remember.

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