Paradise people...

Paradise people...  This is one of those days when we can't help but think we're actually living in paradise...

First, this morning I was out moving some irrigation pipes (a routine thing out here).  My neighbor Tim D. put-putted up on his ATV, hops off, and starts helping me move the pipes.  He'd spotted me from his place, a half mile away, and decided that I needed help.  I could easily have done it myself (and did so quite a few times last year), but the job was much more pleasant with a friend helping out.

Second, Michelle H. came today to clean our house.  She's been coming every two weeks since January, and we've come to think of her as a friend.  Always cheerful, her daughter Lizzie often helping, and the house looks great when she's done.  Our dogs love her (an important measure for us :).  This morning when she drove in, I warned her that Debbie had fallen and hurt herself, and talked with her about what we needed done.  An hour or so later, Lizzie rang the doorbell – and she had a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Debbie in her hands.  I got her a vase and she fixed them all up; now they're at Debbie's bedside.

When we were looking at houses up here, we were looking at the properties and the homes to evaluate them.  I did go interview all the neighbors to make sure we weren't going to move next to some raving lunatic, but we weren't consciously using the quality of our neighbors as a selection criterion.  Now that we're here, we think we screwed up: we should have found these Paradise people first, then moved into whatever hovel would allow us to be near them.  Instead we accidentally bought a nice property right in the middle of a whole bunch of the nicest people we've ever met.  The “provincial Mormons”, as one of my friends called them (a Mormon himself!).  He was gently poking a little fun at them, but I think they should wear that label as a badge of honor...

The crazy things progressives believe...

The crazy things progressives believe...  I heard this on NPR (I listen so you don't have to) while on the road to get some tractor parts.  I needed hydraulic couplers for my new log splitter, and I listened to the Diane Rehm show on the way up.

I wasn't on long enough to catch the name of her guest, but I did hear him expound on a notion I'd not heard before.  From Ms. Rehm's responses, I could tell this was something she thought of as obviously true.  The notion: that competition and altruism were in direct opposition.  In other words, that one could not behave in an altruistic manner and still succeed in a competitive environment.

I'd never heard this notion stated baldly like this before.  The ultimate altruistic society would be socialist (or Communist), in the theoretical sense – not how any socialist or Communist state as actually been implemented.  In such states, there would be no competition.  All that is old hat, standard progressive fare.  What's new to me here is the assertion that competition must be eliminated in order to have altruistic behavior.

Ms. Rehm's guest expounded on this at some length.  He believes, for example, that children should be shielded from competitive pressures – and then they would “naturally” grow up to exhibit altruistic behavior.  In other words, perfect little socialists.

This notion is also a wonderful way to demonize capitalists.  If you're a capitalist, you are by definition competitive – and therefore you're a selfish oaf and the enemy of the perfect altruistic state.

These sorts of things leave me speechless.  I cannot imagine the profound naivete and self-ignorance required to actually believe such utter balderdash. 

And these people vote.  And they'll likely vote for either Hillary or Bernie.  And these thoughts make me feel the doom is approaching...