Originally published at Upon Hope on 22 October, 2014. You can find Mark’s Subscribestar here.
When you look at the news or hear someone on the broad Left talking and you think to yourself “don’t they know how destructive that is?” the answer is sometimes, yes, they know and they want destruction. Within us there is a part that likes destruction, particularly if we get to do the destroying.
Sometimes, not always, but sometimes we get to see that expressed not as a physical act but as a political idea. Not an ideal, even a wrong ideal has a lofty goal, but an idea can be either good or bad, low or high. This idea can seem to be a positive and that is often how it is portrayed, but at heart its goal is to destroy. I’ll give you an example.
A few months ago someone I know put up a post on Facebook supporting homosexual marriage. I replied that I was opposed to it. The usual things came back, people should be free to love whoever they want, it’s cruel to stop two people who love each other from marrying, etc. etc. What was interesting was that they didn’t have any real arguments to my points, they simply restated their original points. I’m sure you’ve noticed this as well that they have slogans not arguments. But then a women who I have never met popped up and joined in, against me. That’s okay I’m a big boy, I can handle it. She tried the female tactic of attacking me and then trying to imply it’s all in jest. I wasn’t that interested in her, but instead concentrated on the other person, I mean I know them and I also know why they think as they do on this issue. They think they are being nice to people, having empathy for people. I pointed out the long term consequences of supporting homosexual marriage. You are not just supporting one new form of marriage, but by default all new forms of marriage because the arguments for legalizing homosexual marriage are exactly the same as those that allow you to marry your brother, a spider or a chair. It’s not the advancement of marriage, it’s the road to the death of marriage. I said “you think this is a small reform, but it’s not”. The other women then said “I know!”.
Ummm now thats interesting, she knows that she supports the end of marriage. She knows that she is destroying something precious and that is the appeal. Destroying something is the aim of a significant minority on the broad Left. They are an important part of the Left as they allow two things to occur. Firstly they are the ones who put up the wacky ideas and then they look around to see who saluted. And if the idea gets rejected, well it’s not the mainstream who supports this wacky idea, it’s others further along. Secondly they are the ones who are violent. When things need to be smashed, whether they be ideas, windows or faces, then they are ready to do violence. Sometimes all they need to do is threaten violence.
The thrill of destruction is not unique to the Left, it is shared by all people. What is different about the Left however is that whatever thought comes into their head they believe to be an ideal, when often it is nothing more than the thrill of destruction.
