A party man
One, — and I, especially — have always thought of himself as a party man. Indeed, while reclining on the floor the other day, trying to recite the Roman alphabet, the question of what party I belonged to came briefly to the fore. I realized that I had never found a party that would accept me, in any of my conditions. Rather, they will accept anyone so long as they send money, and do not make public statements that are too embarrassing.
But I do not send money for any political cause, and I trust that my latest stroke-like experience will be a transient condition.
The important thing is not to get medical attention. Interventions of that sort seldom turn out well; and are even less likely to work than a political intervention. Fortunately, I live in Canada, where the only medical service one can get promptly is “assistance in dying,” or an abortion.
But back to my political party. It is true I am an exponent of “Extreme Rightness,” and a practitioner, for I tend to be right on every policy subject; the opposite of a socialist, who pretty invariably exhibits “Extreme Wrongness.”
Mr Javier Milei, who is currently pulling Argentina out of the ditch, explained this perfectly:
“At one point I thought being on the left was a mental problem. The empirical evidence is so overwhelming. It never worked anywhere, but they refuse to accept it. Therefore I thought it was a kind of block that prevents them from seeing the numbers. The lefties hate numbers, the way they hate bathing. …
“However, what I discovered is that being on the left is a disease of the soul. The left is built on envy, hatred, resentment, unequal treatment before the law. Lefties are very violent, and since they have no way to answer to arguments, they go for physical violence. They immediately resort to all kinds of physical violence because they are unable to refute arguments.”
This is also what I have found, consistently, over many decades of political controversy. But “Conservative” parties tend to be almost as deluded as self-styled “Liberal” parties. Anarchism might be attractive, except it always swings left. I think Distributism is preferable, but typically disappears because it does not reward power corruptly.
Still: call me a Distributist.