Posted on

THE LUXURY OF MORAL SUPERIORITY

A recent obituary by Philip Terzian in the Washington Examiner [February 12, 2019] looked at the life of Morton Sobell who died in 2018 after once serving a 30-year sentence for espionage. Sobell, an engineer and expert in military technology, betrayed his country by turning over American industrial and military information to the Soviet Union. His actions and those of Alger Hiss, as well as the executed Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosen Rosenberg set the cold war tone for the country. A sympathetic Left at the time denied the existence of a spy problem and dismissed it as conservative hysteria. The truth of the matter is that the secrets stolen by Sobell and passed to the Soviets, led to American combat deaths in Korea. Other stolen classified information by Klaus Fuchs during WWII led to the Soviet development of the atom bomb.

What allows a person of the Left to betray a democratic country? Before a 2008 admission to the New York Times Sobell had never confirmed that he was a spy. Terzian writes, “Neither he [Sobell] nor the Rosenbergs had ever been spies, he insisted, and their sympathy for the Soviet Union was based on admiration for its socialist ideals and the wartime alliance with Moscow in the fight against fascism.” The Soviet era during the long domination by Joseph Stalin was a time of starvation, war, and persecution that cost the lives of 50 million people. The mythology of the Marxist ideal was tied up with the phantasy view of the perfectibility of man. The Marxist utopia wasn’t even possible in a police state where as a Soviet citizen your life was always hanging on the thin thread attached to the party line.

Ideals are normal for most people—even desirable, but the argument falls apart after the person with the ideals seeks to enforce them on someone else. It starts as a simple verbal nudge and ends in a police state when the lack of humility predominates and transforms into moral certainty.

When individuals form groups with the same morally certain principles, it becomes a movement. Some movements die out as too narrow such as Williams Jennings Bryan advocacy for silver coinage and his anti-evolution stands. Others, such as the democracy of the early United States as embodied by the Constitution have lasted. What these different stands have in common is a religious fervor that moves masses of people at the politically correct moment in time.

Morality based causes are notably religious in nature. The religious quality of the cause grants the moralist permission for extreme actions. The extremist relies on martyrs, saints and symbols to support and represent in simplified form the cause they advocate. For Christianity it is the cross; for Bryan it was the cross of gold; for peace groups in the 60’s, it was the peace symbol; for Nazi’s it was the swastika; for the #metoo movement it is the #metoo hashtag representing an organization identifying female victims without justice, and on and on. The use of symbols is a source of self-identification and a unifying factor among members of a group. It is a shorthand method of identifying members with the same political, social, or religious identity.

If a cause is religious in nature the individual is thinking of a higher power than the self. A religious nature allows martyrs to die for a cause. Christ dies, the martyrs die, men and women die in battle, the flesh is gone, but the cause remains. The cause is related to the future. The cause lives on at the sacrifice of the individual. If a person is arrested, the cause goes on. If true believers suffer harm for the cause, the cause goes on. Until it evaporates in history. No one today advocates for a cross of gold.

Following martyrdom comes sainthood. Saints become the focal point of the moralist’s view as a paradigm for the younger generation. Focusing on a human being allows the follower to relate to the cause, especially if the saint and the follower perceive themselves as victims. Thinking in terms of a religion allows the fanatic to commit murders, fight just wars (the union side of the civil war), fight unjust wars (the Confederate side of the Civil War) cut off the heads of enemies, and say anything no matter how untrue because the cause is at stake That brings us to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

She is a young woman of self-proclaimed superior morality focused on tarring money hoarders among the 500 billionaires of America. As a 29-year-old Democrat Party barista turned Representative of the people of New York’s 14th congressional district, Ocasio-Cortez has made national news upstaging with ease wily veteran politicians trying with great difficulty to distinguish themselves during the current presidential mad dash toward the nomination of their party. All this for the privilege of unseating President Trump in 2020. She is too young according to the Constitution to run for the officer herself, but find the right 9th circuit court judge, and all things become possible.

Opinions are inflated currency these days, but she represents a paragon of the spoiled, entitled class of youthful true believers[1] who lack any sense of embarrassment when confronted with their own ignorance. The four Pinocchio’s she received from the otherwise friendly Washington Post did not stop her. The reason she does not feel pain the way most politicians do is simple: she tells us she has a higher morality. From whence comes this gift? Religious true believers find the source in a deity who is willing to share. Her gift seems to be self-generated as if sprung from a demi-god enjoying a promotion. We know this from an interview with Anderson Cooper on television’s 60 Minutes during which she announced her superior morality.

If that is all it takes, the Democrats should definitely hold her in position to assume the presidency at the next opportunity. If the 9th Circuit Court idea doesn’t work, try a new amendment to the Constitution on her behalf for an earlier presidential run. Let’s not wait. Due to the current conflict in America, the woman of superior morality should be our leader. Unless . . . there is another person out there who can trump her bid for highest moral standing on the planet. If that is you, speak up. Please.

[1] See The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer

Posted on

PARKS AND RECREATION ON THE FRITZ

The following article appeared in The Oregonian on March 28, 2018:

 

“A man who describes himself as a “light-skinned Hispanic male” has filed a lawsuit against the city of Portland, claiming Parks and Recreation denied him job opportunities because his skin isn’t dark enough.

Frank Higuera says in the suit that he worked as a seasonal parks ranger for several years before the city eliminated his job during budget cuts. The suit claims he wasn’t rehired for several other parks jobs despite meeting the qualifications “because his skin color was too light.” Higuera claims “applicants of darker skin color were selected . . . because of the color of their skin and not because of their qualification.”

Parks managers told him they wanted to hire him but learned they couldn’t because he was the “wrong color,” according to the lawsuit, filed last Friday. A parks and Recreation manager also told him that he would need to get a suntan to land a full-time city job, the suit says.

Higuera filed a complaint with the city human resources office and was told it would be investigated, but he never heard back, he says in the lawsuit.

Human resources officials declined to confirm that Higuera worked for the city and his filing of a discrimination complaint. A spokesman for Amanda Fritz, the city commissioner in charge of Parks and Recreation, said Fritz doesn’t comment on personnel matters or pending lawsuits. Higuera plans to ask a jury to award him $530,000 for lost wages and emotional distress.

 

Sophisticated bureaucrats have discovered the Fitzpatrick Scale, described by Wikipedia, as follows:

 

Fitzpatrick scale:

The following list shows the six categories of the Fitzpatrick scale in relation to the 36 categories of the older von Luschan scale:[87][88]

Type Also called Sunburning Tanning behavior Von Luschan’s chromatic scale
I Light, pale white Always Never 0–6
II White, fair Usually Minimally 7–13
III Medium, white to light brown Sometimes Uniformly 14–20
IV Olive, moderate brown Rarely Easily 21–27
V Brown, dark brown Very rarely Very easily 28–34
VI Very dark brown to black Never Never 35–36

 

As might be expected, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Frank Higuera deserved better notice of the conditions of service when applying to Parks and Recreation. Conseratismbittersweet recommends that Portland job applicants be issued a color wheel at the time of time their applications are submitted. As an efficiency move, doing so reduces the cities paperwork and prevents both sides from wasting their time. The color wheel should come with instructions. For example:

 

“Place your color wheel against the back of your forearm and match your skin tone to that of the appropriate Fitzpatrick color. Your skin tone must match the designated Fitzpatrick tone as shown in the upper righthand corner of the application. If your skin tone does not match, you are not eligible for the job for which you are applying.” The color wheel should, of course, be reusable and recyclable, as any city proffered materials must be.

 

Of course, the root of these procedural requirements is the desire for City of Portland equity, and it is obvious that an efficiently operating government is a fair government. Although Mr. Higuera was applying for outdoor employment, similar operational efficiencies are achievable for office work. Conservatismbittersweet recommends that office cubicles be arranged from light to dark in order to facilitate manager confirmation of the accurate Fitzpatrick scale number.

 

Under the circumstances, it is recommended that the city take care of its employees responsibly and supply an appropriate quantity of sunscreen to prevent workers from putting themselves out of work unnecessarily. Clearly the compassionate city must support the people.

 

Had Mr Higuera been aware of the true requirements of the job, he would have saved the city money in his application and heartache for himself.

 

And here is one more suggestion. Every employment office window should have the following sign as appropriate to the job:

 

Applicants for Fitzpatrick skin tone number I-V need not apply.