The Face of Love

During this Christmas season it strikes me that many of the posts on this blog have a Grinch-like tone. Indeed, I live at odds with much that is valued in the current Zeitgeist. Thus, when I started "One Off," one of my purposes was to vent at what I consider the stupidities of the present opinion class. Thus, the "Reflections on Life, Culture, Despair, and Joy." In my eyes, reflection is lacking at the present time.

Today, however, as indicated by the title of this post, I will try to write something un-Grinch-like. Because I am Grinch-like, when I walk down the streets of Manhattan I am constantly making unreflective judgments about much that I encounter. In other words, spontaneous reactions. Quite often, these judgments are negative and pessimistic. For instance, so many fat people. So many people without any style. So many stupid conversations of adults with children. On and on it goes. And, yet, I also constantly monitor myself and my negativity. I know that I am looking at the world and the life around me via my own set of eyes. These eyes are a sensuous instrument, and other people have different eyes from mine. Regarding the same phenomena, they may not agree with what I see.

That is surely the case when one regards another person with the eyes of love. What may appear ugly or not very attractive to my eyes will manifest itself differently to a person in love with that person. Getting over our first impression of a person is the first step in moving toward the state of love. In fact, my own experience has shown that exceptionally positive initial judgments often turn out to be wrong. Love is not a matter of the eyes, but of the heart.

Photo credit: Dreaming newborn

Liberal group think

When my liberal friends talk about Donald Trump, I point out to them that, on any given day, they all make the same points about him and that they all use the same language. The following passage, which I came across yesterday in Dorris Lessing's novel Martha Quest, portrays the "intellectual" ambience in which liberals exist:

“As she turned the pages [of the New Statesman] and the lines of print came gently up through her eyes to her brain, without assault, what she gained was a feeling of warmth, or security; for here were ideas which she had been defending guiltily for years, used as the merest commonplaces. She was at home, she was one of a brotherhood. Yet when she laid down the journal she could not have said in detail what she had read, what were the facts; but she gave, unconsciously a great quivering sigh, and lay back on her bed …”

This passage portrays so beautifully why liberals don't have to think and why they all simply say the same things on any given subject: they need only soak up and repeat the phrases offered by the prominent media. Thus, the current tax proposals of Republicans will "kill." Subjecting immigrants to careful background checks is "Islamaphobic." There is no nuance among liberals.

Some people might object here and say that conservatives also depend on such an intellectual life line for their opinions. However, if you read the leading conservative publications (in particular The Weekly Standard and The National Review), you will discover quite a variety of points of view concerning the president. Some writers positively hate him, while others, even if approving, find him aesthetically revolting. The pieces that favor certain presidential policies or acts (tax reform, immigration, Jerusalem) are not the majority, by a long shot.

So, while the title of this post is "Liberal group think," in reality liberals do not think. Or, to put it more kindly, they are relieved of the burden of thinking by repeating what they are told, somewhat like children in a catechism class.