I was raised in a conservative republican household.
I grew up supporting Ronald Reagan in class debates. I saw liberals as well meaning fools who advocated "feel good" policies that always had the opposite result of their intentions.
It wasn't until I was 19 and in college that I began to question the underlying premises of conservatism and realize they were built on one huge intellectually weak trigger mechanism: Whatever the majority believes, the opposite is actually true.
Let me repeat this one more time, because it is the entire crux of republican pseudo-intellectual narcissism:
Whatever the majority believes, the opposite is actually true.
This premise is everything at work within republican pathology in a nut-shell. It comes from the origin of all of conservative ideology, which states that the "masses are asses" and only the educated elite know how the world really functions, aka the "market system" forces that the masses can't understand versus the "collective good" that always fails.
Conservatives believe that the great unwashed hordes will charge towards any shiny glittery promise offered by craven politicians. Democrats are the politicians who promise "feel good" policies that convince the unwashed ignorant masses of minorities (black people, Mexicans, the poor) that they will help them, only to actually make things worse. Conservatives argue that what appears to be an "easy fix" often has damaging repercussions.
As with any ideology, there is a glimmer of truth to the premise.
Often those actions that appear beneficial in the short-term have long term negative ramifications. Certainly the 1960s "if it feels good, do it" ethos that aging neo-cons are still raging against today, did actually have negative long term consequences (drug use, STDs, high divorce rates, etc.). Certainly government attempts to "throw money" at problems often cause great waste and massive inefficiency.
But something broke along the way for conservative ideology. An elitism crept into the thinking that contrarianism itself is a virtue. That if the masses support something, by definition, it's destructive.
This is also why what was once an intellectual movement, the conservatives of the 1960s, has become so intellectually lazy and vacuous as to support the enormously destructive policies of the last 40 years.
Because the ideology of contrarianism itself now trumps critical thinking, facts, science and real world actuality in the mind of the conservative.
Contarianism itself demonstrates fealty to the class system of the educated minority white elite heterosexual Sober Serious male (of which you, if you buy-in, are now a part of), and the unwashed hordes of ignoramuses.
To join the elite, you must oppose the masses.
This is what drives the entire republican party. A sense of tribal elitism. A sense of superiority to the great Unwashed.
That Sober Serious intellectuals will always understand that the truth is what the masses don't and can't grasp. That lies, like WMDs in Iraq or today's nonsense about Iran, are necessary evils to dupe the ignorant masses to do what they otherwise can't understand.
This brings us to the intellectually bankrupt and vacuous Michael Medved.
Like most of the conservative clan of pseudo-intellectuals, Medved demonstrates his fealty to "the cause" through the narcissistic self branding of contrarianism. This is far more important than the specificities of the issues themselves. Being wrong on the war in Iraq, one of the great monumental strategic blunders in our history, for over five years in a row? Irrelevant. What is important is that Medved always understands what the masses do not -- that contarianism in and of itself demonstrates "Sober Serious" credentials.
Medved does not accept what is generally understood as the truth by all of us living in the real world. Therefore even if he's drastically wrong on the issues, he's still contrarian, and therefore not part of the masses, and therefore part of the intellectual elite, and therefore right.
This is why Bush vetoes a functioning child healthcare policy.
Because if the masses believe it works, it must not be working.
Because the masses are asses.
Because only democrats try to placate the masses.
True conservative intellectuals understand that what's good for the few is good for the many, and what's good for the many, can't be good at all.
I bring up Michael Medved, because in his increasing desperation for relevancy, he penned a piece today about how Slavery, yes America's owning and trading of human beings as property, really wasn't that bad once it's put into proper perspective.
It's covered at Crooks and liars here:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
Glenn Greenwald also comments on it here:
http://www.salon.com/...
I think this is a terribly illustrative example of the intellectual incoherence and bankruptcy of the conservative philosophy in its most obvious and distilled manifestation.
Here we find how contrarianism itself becomes the pseudo-intellectual self justification of Sober Serious credibility.
It matters not to Medved that he is offering up a de-facto defense of one of the greatest human rights crimes in this Nation's, or any other Nation's, history.
All that matters is that Medved is once again demonstrating fealty to the overriding intellectual trope that defines the cult he participates in:
Contrarianism, in and of itself, demonstrates Sober, Serious, intellectual depth.
I think this is a vital point for the majority of us still living in the real world to understand as we attempt to get to the root causes of republican pathology.
I can attest to it because I once thought like this.
To conservatives, language itself is almost meaningless. Arguing issues with "liberals" is interesting only in how angry and/or pissed off you can make that liberal to show that he's a hypocrite, emotional or too passionate to be as Sober and Serious as you, by demonstrating your fealty to contrarianism, clearly are.
As with any cult movement, the product conservatism sells is one of importance, superiority and heightened self worth.
Issues? Irrelevant.
Once you join the Conservative Cult, anything you say and do must be Good, and you will always be attacked by the unwashed masses who cannot grasp what it is that you understand -- that they can't see what's really good for them. Only you can.
Only the chosen few can.
This is how frauds like Medved end up defending the indefensible.
Because the issues don't matter.
All that matters is showing "intellectual Seriousness" by demonstrating the ability to offer contrarian viewpoints to accepted orthodoxy.
This is why conservatism is intellectually bankrupt and so horribly destructive to all of us. Because it isn't functioning as critical thought. It's using the veneer of critical thought, the framework of complex thinking, simply to allow the individual to self-congratulate himself, to self-promote himself to the "elite," and outside the contemptable majority culture of ignoramuses who vote for the democrats and liberals always promising to help them.
Chickenhawk tendencies, those war dodgers and cowards talking tough and always advocating war, are simply another extension of mythic recasting of themselves as "elite." They are the few, the Chosen, who can see the "big picture" of the world by virtue of their powers of contrarian thinking.
As such, they are Special, and we are simply the lower class of masses. We are ignorant and lazy black folk who swear when we order iced tea. We are criminal Mexicans. We are delusional white people who condescendingly want to help others without critically thinking about the results of our actions.
They are the keepers of the intellectual flame.
And this seperation, this dividing line that exists in their head (and the head of any cult member) must constantly be reinforced through "Othering". Through saying "you, the masses" think one way, therefore "I, the elite" think the other.
So what is Michael Medved really arguing?
He's arguing he's part of the elite.
He's reinforcing the separation between mass group-think (which must be socialist because, well, there's a lot of people over there thinking that way), and true Sober, Serious intellectual elitism (which only the few are privy to).
Just as with the fiasco going on in Iraq, facts, critical thinking, reality, are simply not relevant to the demarcation process.
What is important is demonstrating the Otherness of mass thought, and the special uniqueness of Medved's ability to see contrarian "truth" about slavery where no one else can.
This need to reject majority thought is why conservatives are such relentlessly destructive failures in real world policy. It also explains why they never second guess, or even accept, their failures and disasters.
Because simply by being contrarian, they are right. Even when they're wrong.