In the tradition of secularist intellectuals since the 1750s, Obama’s actions suggest that he regards himself as part of a socialistic, intellectual elite whose superior understanding of the putative laws of sociology entitles him to regulate our individual activities from top to bottom.
In that, he is not unique. Ivy League graduates since the 1960s have been steeped in doctrine of the American, liberal-progressive sect of the religion of secular socialism. An essential aspect of that doctrine is the belief that material circumstances, not spiritual values, individual consciences or individual experience, are the factors that determine human social behavior. In the Marxian version of that doctrine, human nature can be remolded by government regulations that inflict pain or give pleasure, in order to channel our behavior. Hence the heavy emphasis of liberal-progressivism upon central planning and social engineering.
Such is Obamacare, which inflicts the pain of huge increases in taxes, fees, and ultimate costs of service, along with rationing of medical care. President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, are confident in their supposed superior understanding of history and sociology. Their confidence leads them to declare that Obamacare, detested by the majority of the nation’s population, will be welcomed once we non-intellectuals understand all the benefits conferred by their socialization of the nation’s healthcare system.
Bottom line: they know, better than you or I, what is best for us.
Thomas Sowell sheds further light on the left-wing pretension to omniscience.
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