The greatest weapon in the arsenal of respectable conservatism is the word “Simplistic.”
When you point out that they are legitimizing liberals whose every proposal has always been disastrous, liberals who have lied regularly, by taking them seriously, The William Buckleys of the world will telll you you are being “simplistic.”
Respectable cosnervatives use the word “simplistic” in exactly the same way that a magic act uses the saying, “Things are not as they appear.”
There is plenty of disagreement between creationist and evolutionists. But on one item they are agree:
If most things were not as they appear, neither God nor evolution would have given us two eyes.
When I think of Communism I do not think of the endless theological criticisms that National Review dedicated to the deep errors in Communist thought.
When I think of Communism I see the Berlin Wall, I see the thousands of miles borders I crossed into Communist territory, every one of which had guards with orders to shoot anyone trying to get out and mine fields.
This was evil. This was wrong. And I did not need to quote Papal Encyclicals or the Old Testament to explain WHY this was wrong. I told NR staff many times that they should have a cover with another part of the walls of the Communist prison and the word “Why?” and nothing else, on most of their covers.
Guess what their reply was?
This would be Simplistic.
The errors that made the twentieth century such a disaster were none of them complicated. When Lenin was up there shouting that he and his fellow “intellectuals, none of whom had ever earned a living in the real world, should take over the whole world’s economy, they were not saying soomething that involved some sort of subtle theoretical error.
The very idea is infantile. But it took over a hundred million lives to overcome it.
When World War I ended up being a two-year slaughter in immovable trenches, the Allies declared that they were in The War to End All Wars. They also announced that they were fighting The War to Save Civilization.
There is no way to approach that sort of thing reasonably.
You either say, “That’s a load of crap!” or you wipe out a whole generation of young men.
There is such a thing as being wrong because you are too simplistic. But you are at least equally wrong when you say that something that is simple is actually complex.
Complexism killed hundreds of millions of people in the twentieth century. Making a simple point complex is a fundamental and classic error.
In fact, Western science is based on exactly that rule.
It is called Occam’s Razor.
#1 by joe rorke on 01/13/2006 - 9:47 pm
I noticed this “it’s too simplistic” line quite a few years ago. It is part of a confidence game. It is a way to refuse to hear the truth. I saw a television program last night that well illustrates the attitude you have described. A certain unwashed savage had murdered at least 13 White Women in the Texas and Michigan jurisdictions. His crimes were particularly vicious. Speculation suggested that the true number of victims of this excuse for a man were perhaps as many as 100. Neither Texas nor Michigan saw fit to execute this murderer. They decided that this would be too simplistic. We needed to “understand” all the circumstances surrounding the murderer’s life and the full depth of his psychology, etc., etc. To merely dust this savage would be too simplistic. I thought it would make all the sense in the world. Those who say “it’s too simplistic” almost always have an ulterior motive for making this statement. The answers to most qustions in life are, in my opinion, quite simple. To paraphrase, Jesus said, “their hearts are hardened, they won’t hear me. Therefore, I will not speak to them.” It’s in the Book. Jesus had the wisdom to know that they wouldn’t hear Him. His disciples couldn’t figure out why He wouldn’t talk to them. But He knew the answer was simple.
#2 by Mark on 01/13/2006 - 11:37 pm
My uncle is a Korean War Veteran and I explained to him in detail why the Jews were behind much of the mischief of the 20th. century and one of the main driving forces in the destruction of the white race, our constitution, and our freedoms in general. Like a good member of the greatest generation he said exactly what you said: “That’s too simplistic an explanation.” And then he began to tell me how, during wartime — like we are supposedly in now — you have to curtail freedoms in a free society. It was the identical cardboard cut out personality you keep describing, Bob.
Sometimes your uncanny ability to call em as they are scares the hell outa me…